Spain Flying Labs Uses Technology And Education To Help Their Community

In Spain, an interdisciplinary group formed by the Educaires, the University Carlos III, and Aeracoop are teaming up to launch Spain Flying Labs with BCN Drone Center offering their services, expertise, and installations in partnership with the team. Each organization brings an element of expertise and passion required to start a Flying Lab:

• Educaires, an NGO that disseminates techno-science and shows good practices in the use of drones, incorporates social values into each of their projects. They teach people to not only build and design drones but to use them to address local challenges, as well. They host training and workshops that make emerging methodologies and technologies available to participants. Then they teach them how to assemble small drones, like Dronino, which helps participants internalize the concepts.
• Universidad Carlos III of Madrid (UC3M) is a university educating engineering students, and have several laboratories and research groups interested in unmanned Aerial Systems among which GIAA (Applied Artificial Intelligence), ISL (Intelligent Systems Laboratory), CAOS (Control, Learning and Optimization Group) and PLG (Planning and Learning Group).
• Aeracoop makes airspace accessible through knowledge, creativity, and open hardware and software projects for social impact.

Even before formally launching Spain Flying Labs, the team has amassed an impressive portfolio of work.

For example, this is the third year of the team's Barcelona Smart Drone Challenge (BSDC). Open to university teams around the world, BSDC provides engineering students an opportunity to improve their aerospace engineering skills by building innovative solutions to social or ethical challenges. The 2019 competition requires teams to design, build, develop, and demonstrate an autonomous unmanned aircraft (UAS) system that must complete a simulated humanitarian aid mission.

Now, the team looks to launch a new program called Dronino. Dronino offers a new vision of how to use 'Scratch' for creating applications and games but also how to use a small drone (Tello) to solve challenges. This workshop gives young people exposure to coding and drones while training them in critical thinking and problem-solving. Plus, they will get to 3D print their own drone hardware.

Ultimately, Spain Flying Labs aims to improve the world with the help of education and technology. We will share more stories from Spain Flying Labs as updates become available, so don't forget to sign-up for our monthly newsletter and email alerts.