Detroit Aerial Innovations sees the city differently

Detroit Aerial Innovations equips students interested in engineering and entrepreneurship with the ability to work with and develop drones.

Pre-med junior and vice president of DAI, Matthew Tukel, said he has always been passionate about technology.

However, it was a visit to the Las Vegas Consumer Electronic Show with his father, that inadvertently spurned Tukel’s interest in drones and the unmanned autonomous vehicle (UAV) movement.

As a sophomore, Tukel found himself disappointed that Wayne State did not have a substantive program for students interested in learning about and contributing to the progression of UAV technology.

“A lot of premier universities like Stanford and Harvard had organizations dedicated to this technology, which was clearly going to be ubiquitous,” said Tukel. “For a premier university with an engineering school to not have this, I thought it was just wrong.”

Tukel went on to from DAI with Albert Jose, a current junior electrical engineering major, and DAI president.

The two put up the money to self-fund the organization in its first year, as well as select their first class of members.

“When Matt and I started out, our goal was to teach students about up and coming drone technology,” said Jose. “We’ve already enlightened quite a few students, and some of these guys have become pretty passionate. They went from engineers just going to class, to really developing a passion for UAV technology, and it’s been pretty inspiring to see.”

Initiates began with limited knowledge, so they started out practicing with 3D printed frames, easy builds, the smallest sized drones and fairly inexpensive parts.

Tukel and Jose worked with their members to familiarize themselves with UAV components and electronics.

“I am proud to say almost all of our members can build a drone by themselves in an hour or two,” said Tukel.

DAI has worked hard to go from small Tarot 250 drones to working on programming Tarot 680 drones with obstacle and collision avoidance capabilities.

“This might take a lot longer, we switched to this project and we need everybody working on a different component because it’s a lot more coding intensive.” said Jose.

As a result of sponsorships and support from companies like the Detroit Aircraft Corp., DAI has been provided with office space, materials and funding. Jose said they are able to work, build and fly their drones at the Coleman A. Young International Airport on the weekends.

In terms of a grand purpose, DAI wants to utilize their technology to change negative social attitudes regarding drones and expand perspectives of Detroit.

"Some people see drones as something used as a weapon and spying,” said Jose. “Really it can be seen for good services like aerial photography.”

Tukel said by using drones to take aerial photos, they can truly expose the city and put Detroit in a perspective that is rarely seen.

Additionally, both Tukel and Jose are proud to be at the head of an organization that is working to extend the scope of education for engineers and develop new skills with them.

“For me, it was just a dream of mine, an idea and vision to empower other students who have a passion for technology, with education, skills and the ability to build drones, fly drones, understand technology and have an appreciation for what’s going to become one of the largest technology sectors in the near future,” said Tukel.

Jose expressed his thanks for the amount of people they have impacted, and their accomplishments thus far.

Rory Fanning, a freshman physics major, was recently introduced to DAI and now works as a lead developer.

He is currently working with the software team to program a small computer called a raspberry pi for use as a flight controller.

“The hardware team is making a hexacopter, and that’s basically what they’re working on right now,” said Fanning. “it’s a quadcopter with six blades instead of four, and this is the drone that we’re hoping to put this computer on to see if it works.”

Fanning said he was happy to come across this organization because he was involved with robotics and worked with autonomous vehicles in high school, but Wayne State did not have an aerospace program that could supplement his interests.

“What we’re in it for, is to learn about drone technology, and hopefully make new technology,” said Fanning. “We just want to make an organization at Wayne State that will be very reputable.”

Although he said the tasks they work on are difficult, Fanning said DAI’s members enjoy what they do, and as they learn, they get better at skills that will benefit them as they pursue careers in the future.

“I just think everyone on the team is very passionate, so I’m just really looking forward to working with all of them more because I am a new-ish member,” said Fanning.

For students who may be interested in joining DAI, there is an application currently open on their website: http://detroitai.org/#home-page-redo2.

Potential new members are encouraged to reach out to current DAI members to see their work in action to to gauge their commitment and interest.

A video of aerial photography captured by DAI’s drones can be found here: http://detroitai.org/new-cover-page.

For more information, contact reporter and Features Editor Aleanna Siacon at aleannasiacon.tse@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter @AleannaSiacon