Unmanned Aircraft Systems

Overview

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is one of just a few universities in the country to offer a bachelor’s degree in Unmanned Aircraft Systems . Because Embry-Riddle is the nexus of aviation education, students benefit from much more than prestige; they learn from experienced faculty who share firsthand knowledge in aviation and who are at the forefront in the developing field of unmanned aircraft. Currently, there are few UAS professionals because this field is so new. Used primarily in military, firefighting, disaster relief, and law enforcement applications, the future of this field has seemingly limitless potential.

Students study the spectrum of the industry including hazardous operations, government regulations, surveillance, data collection, and even the engineering aspects of Unmanned Aircraft Systems.

About Unmanned Aircraft Systems at the Prescott

This exciting degree, certified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as a UAS-Collegiate Training Initiative Program, has evolved into one of the most hands-on degree programs offered at Embry-Riddle and prepares graduates to enter a rapidly growing and changing industry. The FAA predicts that the fleet of commercial small UASs in the United States will approach 800,000 by the year 2024. Consequently, tens of thousands of UAS professionals will be needed who are capable of safely planning and executing UAS missions and effectively delivering the end products to their customers.

Focusing on commercial and civil applications, the Unmanned Aircraft Systems degree empowers graduates to meet current and future employment demands. The degree qualifies students from all nationalities as subject matter experts in data collection, retrieval, editing, display, and delivery. For example, refer to the video on this page which shows a three-dimensional model of the Hazy Library created using our UAS equipment and software. Models such as these are very useful for a variety of industries because they enable the calculation of important surveying parameters such as surface area, volume, height, width, coordinates, etc.