Students in 19 school districts in Trumbull County will take part in drone programs and compete on teams in 2024 as drone racing continues to gain popularity.

Ed Mackiewicz, coordinator of the Trumbull County Drone Racing League through the Trumbull County Educational Service Center, has coordinated many of the local drone programs and has trained teachers and other staff who will serve as coaches and advisers for drone teams in schools.

Mackiewicz said 19 school districts are planning to have drone programs in 2024. That number has grown significantly in the past two years as he said five districts had teams in 2022 and that number grew to eight last year.

The teams are starting to prepare their drones now so they will be ready when competitions start in late March.

Participating schools will receive 3D printers that will allow their students to make frames and parts for their drones, Mackiewicz said.

“Drones are like NASCAR,” he said. “We are all flying the same kind of thing but with a little modification made to each drone.”

Tad Douce, executive director for Drones in Schools in Marion, led a recent training at TCESC, where he introduced drone advisers to a curriculum they can use to teach students how to configure the drone, along with showing them how to fly it.

“A lot of teachers have never flown a drone before,” Douce said. “These are not camera drones, but racing drones. They take a little more practice to fly.”

Mackiewicz said some schools already have been meeting and recruiting students for the drone teams. The first local competition is March 23. Until then, students can practice in a multitude of ways.

“They can do simulated and virtual drone races,” Mackiewicz said. “Simulated races are done on the computer and involve flying a drone through a race course on a computer. They get points for how fast they can do it. Virtual races can be set up in a school gymnasium with the course laid out. They can record their times.”

Douce said following the COVID-19 pandemic, drone teams became very active in 2021.

“We now have more than 200 teams nationally,” he said.

Brookfield schools qualified for national competition in 2023 and Mackiewicz added that many teams have done very well locally.

Douce said students working with drones learn project management, 3D modeling and engineering, marketing and graphic design skills and learn how to work as a team and solve problems.

He said the teams have to produce a portfolio showing their marketing and design work, produce a team display like a science fair and create a marketing video. For the race, they have two drones flying against each other through a course while accomplishing various tasks.

“All the drones can be custom-tuned to match the pilot’s ability and flying style,” Douce said. “The team works on configuring a drone for racing. They have to design their own parts for the drone to make it work.”

The teams are made up of students in grades nine through 12.

DRONE USAGE

Douce said drones are used in many careers. One usage he highlighted was flying them through stores to take inventory quicker than a person can.

He said fire departments fly drones to an accident or a fire to provide a preview for emergency crews heading there.

“They can prepare those on the way to the accident scene of what to expect,” Douce said.

They can also be used for bridge and road inspections, flown over lakes and, in combination with sensors, can see how many spawn of fish may be in a lake and how healthy the lake is.

“Every day I hear something else about how drones are used in different career fields,” he said.

Mackiewicz said in the past two years, drone teams have been active in Southington, Brookfield, McDonald and Howland.

He said some local coaches use drones to film practices and games rather than filming them from the sideline.

The “Drones in Schools” program has provided free curriculum and materials to the participating schools.

Mackiewicz said before COVID-19 started, he was trying to get drone programs implemented locally.

The U.S. Department of Education provided a $560,000 grant to the TCESC, to be used for various educational programs and tools, including drones.

Douce said the drone program is considered an entrepreneurship program with teams creating a company, a logo and marketing skills.

Many local school boards have approved drone teams and programs for this school year.

The Trumbull Career and Technical Center plans to add drones and aviation as a new program for the 2024-25 school year.

MCDONALD HIGH SCHOOL

McDonald High School teacher Pam Ross advises the school’s drone team. She said the team began meeting in December to prepare for the school’s second year of competition.

Preston Ficeti, a sophomore, was on the McDonald drone team during the 2022-23 school year.

“I enjoyed it last year. It was a great experience,” Ficeti said. “The key to me is practicing flying the drone. There is no way to get better except by practicing. A lot of this is trial and error. We found what we liked and what worked and scrapped what didn’t work,” he said.

In 2023, Ficeti was the only team member who was not a senior.

“I learned a lot about 3D printing, piloting a drone and teamwork,” he said.

Ficeti said the teams that do well locally both online and in person can advance to the nationals as Brookfield did in 2023.

New McDonald members are Averie Latimer and Caroline Alcantar, both juniors and Ilumina Kuhley, a freshman.

Latimer said she wanted to give drone flying a try and has found it rewarding by meeting new friends.

“I learned how to fly a drone and other skills that you need to learn to do well in the competition,” Latimer said.