Ilocos Norte university to offer drone pilot training

MOU SIGNING. Representatives of the MMSU and an Indian company signed a memorandum of understanding on Aug. 14, 2023 for a training partnership on geospatial data application. The agreement is valid for five years. (Photo courtesy of MMSU Stratcom)

By Leilanie Adriano

LAOAG CITY – A drone pilot training course will soon be available at the state-run Mariano Marcos State University in Batac City, Ilocos Norte, in partnership with the DroneAcharya Aerial Innovations Ltd. (DAIL), an India-based company specializing in geospatial data application.

MMSU president Shirley Agrupis said on Tuesday that the latest tie-up with an Indian company is also expected to capacitate faculty and researchers in coastal engineering, disaster risk assessment and coastal flood modeling.
    “May this partnership be beneficial to students in the fields of agriculture, engineering, geoinformatics, and data science for internships and future job opportunities,” she said in a statement.
    On Aug. 14, officials of the MMSU and DAIL signed a six-page memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the training partnership at the Teatro Ilocandia.
    DAIL’s managing director Prateek Srivastava was represented by Marcia Chen, the company’s senior manager for business development and digital marketing.
    Nathaniel Alibuyog, MMSU vice president for research and extension; Mee Jay Domingo, internationalization, linkages and partnerships director; and Lawrence John Tagata, public-private partnerships director, also joined the MOU signing.

In the five-year MOU, DAIL and MMSU agreed to offer drone and geographic information system-related courses, trainings and workshops.

MMSU will provide classrooms and office spaces, and give access to hardware, software, and other tangible resources for the development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

On the other hand, the company will deliver the content and curriculum of the courses, and grant MMSU students and faculty access to drones and other applications. It will also provide at least four internships to junior and senior college students every year.

For her part, Chen expressed gratitude to the university for the collaboration, and said “the DroneAcharya will provide the best technology and services to support all projects that we will carry out together.”

The partnership is also expected to support the newly established Coastal Engineering and Management Research and Development Center of the MMSU as it ventures into modern-day methods of data-gathering and decision-making in the field of coastal engineering.

Established in 2017, DAIL is engaged in various types of application based courses related to drone and GIS technology for all age group. It aims to train the next generation to become extremely skilled in using unmanned aerial vehicles, and to become a major player in the drone industry in India. (PNA)