Public Radio International (PRI) broadcast a story yesterday about a PhD student and active air force officer Jacobson who is engaged in an effort to employ drones to provide needed relief (e.g. medical supplies) to worn torn Syrian civilians. He is not having much luck. He states, “The whole idea of using drones in conflict zones has been controversial because of their legacy as weapons,. There’s a lot of skepticism and distrust among aid organizations.”
The piece goes on to discuss the general public’s distrust of drones. One authority they speak to is Joel Lieberman, chair of UNLV’s criminal justice department, who says a major event involving drones could be a game changer.
You can think about Hurricane Katrina, or a similar situation, where a river floods and people are cut off, and they’re unable to get food and medical supplies, and the cavalry appears in the form of drones flying across that river and into the flooded areas and delivering those packages, and people seeing the good that can result from drone use. I think that really will shift public opinion.
Despite public resistance, which stems from drones as weapons and convert surveillance, there are a lot of organizations looking at flying robots as instruments of change and change for the better.
The United Arab Emirates recently announced the response received to their second “Drones for Good Award. Their web iste reports that:
UAE Drones for Good Award announced that it has received 1017 participations from 165 countries for the second edition of the Award. Majority of the nominations were received in the Humanitarian Aid category with 17.2% entries, followed by Environment with 13.2% entries as the nomination period came to a close on November 1.
The top countries submitting the maximum number of entries allowed are: The United States, the UAE, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Spain, India, Australia, Canada and South Korea. There is also participation from leading international universities such as Harvard, MIT, Oxford, London Business School, RMIT, Seoul National University, University of Toronto, Georgia Institute of Technology, Merton College as well as King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, UAE University and Khalifa University in the UAE.
The award categories include, but are not limited to environment, education, logistics, transport, construction and infrastructure, healthcare, civil defence, tourism, social services, economic development, humanitarian aid and disaster relief.
The International Competition offers US$1 million in prize money while the National Competition offers Dh1 million. The winners will be honoured at a special ceremony in February 2016 before the 4th Government Summit.
Related links:
Here is the complete PRI story
Frank Schroth is editor in chief of DroneLife, the authoritative source for news and analysis on the drone industry: it’s people, products, trends, and events.
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