Q&A: Deb Norris on how UAS has changed Sinclair

Tristan Navera Staff Reporter-Dayton Business Journal

Unmanned Aerial Systems training will put Sinclair Community College on a national stage, if Deb Norris has anything to say about it.

Norris, Sinclair’s vice president of workforce development, has helped the school set up its training programs for unmanned aerial systems — known as UAS or drones — and officials say it’s gaining traction from both manufacturers looking for expertise, to prospective pilots, and prospective end users.

But even with the region holding its breath on a coming announcement from theFederal Aviation Administration about whether Dayton will be designated a test center for the emerging industry, Norris says the school will push ahead regardless.

Q: How has Sinclair built its UAS training program?

A: We’ve been building the UAS program here for about four and a half years, and we’ve invested significantly in doing so. We had a three pronged approach to the UAS strategy, which was to build curriculum, offer simulation, and make sure we can access airspace and then integrate those things into a very compelling student experience.

We’ve made significant progress in all of those. What’s really important as a community college is that we’re aligned with the community, and when you look at the assets we have here, with Wright-Patt, advanced materials, sensors, analytics, our region is very well poised for UAS. Sinclair made the decision to invest in this market with our own resources and funding.

One of the reasons that UAS made sense to us from a curriculum perspective is that UAS is this emerging, enabling technology that touches a lot of areas across the college.

Q: How has the UAS program affected Sinclair’s relationship with industry?

A: It’s both incumbent worker training and training for students. We have been named Altavian’s OEM training partner. With manufacturers, they need to focus their resources on manufacturing, so anything that isn’t core to that, they’ll find partners. For Altavian, anyone that is buying an Altavian platform in Florida, they will send to Sinclair to get certified on that platform. That’s eight days of training to get proficient on the platform. We see opportunities there for different kinds of training in terms of the partnership model.

Agriculture is important, we’ve seen a lot of interest from the agriculture community as well.

It has always been our goal to be a national center for UAS training and education. Partnership is how we do that. Taking this model with Altavian more broadly, because there seems to be a need from a manufacturer’s perspective.

Q: How will the FAA announcement affect Sinclair?

A: If we are designated the test site, it just continues the momentum that we’ve started a long time ago. It reinforces the importance of UAS to the region. This is going to be a $94 billion dollar industry, and we are committed. We have put the infrastructure in place for this industry, and if the decision would come out that Ohio wasn’t designated, it’s our intent to continue to pursue UAS and develop the programs anyway. It’s still a huge industry. We’re in a very positive position because we have airspace today, both at Wilmington and in Springfield, so we can fly today, and that’s a huge differentiator.

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