Jerry Johnson, founder and CEO of Aglytix, an agriculture and food technology company, presented Vincent Winstead, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Technology at Minnesota State University, Mankato, with five fixed-wing drones for student training and projects. A number of years ago, Johnson provided Winstead three drones, which they are still using today and they are redesigning them with updated camera and battery technology with an open sourced system.
“They have made such great use of the drones by providing hands-on teaching of students about drone technologies including GPS, sensors, autopilots and batteries,” Johnson said.
GreenSeam and Minnesota State University, Mankato have been partnering to build the capacity of the University surrounding agriculture and food. This is a great example of how the ag industry is responding to the new program offerings the University is constructing.
“Drones will be a key technology for agriculture. Basically a drone is a flying sensor that can capture very detailed data, all across a field, whenever you want to capture it,” said Johnson.
“We hope that our partnership with Aglytix remains strong in the future and that we can deliver expertise and drone resources to other projects as well in agriculture and other aerial imaging applications,” Winstead said.
Sam Ziegler, Director of GreenSeam, applauds Aglytix for donating these drones and Professor Winstead for stepping up to the challenge of providing hands-on experiences for students with ag technology.
