Drones bring to life a world of possibilities. As applications expand — from military to agriculture to wireless communications — the need for experienced pilots and drone-powered research grows. NC State is leading that growth.

“Drones are a critical tool to support and enhance all areas of NC State’s mission,” said Vice Chancellor Marc Hoit. “They offer opportunities to improve agriculture, from crop health to localized remediation, for infrastructure assessment, emergency response and support, and more.”

Hoit, along with the vice chancellor for research and innovation, has joint oversight of the university’s unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) operations.

“We are proud to be able to equip the next generation of workforce with next generation capabilities,” said Hoit.

Aerial Experimentation and Research Platform for Advanced Wireless (AERPAW)

This year’s AERPAW Autonomous Data Mule challenge gave students hands-on experience as they prepare to enter the workforce.

AERPAW is a collaboration between the Office of Information Technology (OIT), Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Institute for Transportation Research and Education (ITRE). Funded by a $24 million grant awarded by the National Science Foundation in 2019, AERPAW is the first wireless research platform to study the connection between 5G technology and drones.

More than 20 teams competed in the student challenge by flying drones between four AERPAW base stations. The goal was to download the most data as quickly as possible. Teams first tested their experiments virtually in AERPAW’s digital twin before trying their hand in the outdoor testbed.

“If they are able to do a challenge like this, they can implement so many solutions using drones, including AI solutions,” said Magreth Mushi, AERPAW platform director. “This challenge aims to empower them to write programs that can control drones to do something tedious.”

The AERPAW team also hosted its third community workshop in May. Forty-seven student attendees gathered at Talley Student Union and Lake Wheeler Field Labs for four days of user training and networking.

The AERPAW portal itself saw widespread growth in 2024-25. With 300 new users, more than 90% were external to NC State. And of the 480 experiments started in development, 57 made it to the testbed.

Improvements were also made to the portal to add clarity about resources and streamline the user experience. Additional improvements are in the works to integrate the sandbox environment and encourage communication in the user community.

UAS Operations

The university’s UAS operations team launched a workforce development initiative this year to address the growing need for drone pilots.

The NC State Trusted Operator program, led by ITRE, provides advanced training for drone pilots beyond the Federal Aviation Administration’s minimal required certification.

The new workforce development initiative makes the Trusted Operator program more affordable for students and educators.

“We intentionally lowered our rates for these training courses to be more mindful about workforce development,” said Justine Hollingshead, assistant vice chancellor for the Division of Academic and Student Affairs and a Trusted Operator instructor.

In 2024-25, 90 Trusted Operator certificates were issued. This is a major jump from 27 certificates in the previous year. More than half of this year’s certificates were part of the workforce development initiative.

“If the number is exponentially going to increase about the need for drone pilots in the United States, you have to have people who are trained to be able to do that,” said Hollingshead.

The UAS operations team also participated in 15 outreach events. They connected with more than 500 students through collaborations with community partners, including the NC Department of Transportation’s Aviation Career Education Academies, The Science House’s Catalyst STEM program for high school students with disabilities, and the TRIO Upward Bound program.

In addition, the team processed 322 flight requests this year.