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Feb. 25 Engineering in Action features Project VolCAN

February 11, 2022 - By Kim Delker

The next edition of “Engineering in Action: How Our Innovation is Impacting Our Community,” a periodic virtual series presented by The University of New Mexico School of Engineering, will feature a presentation led by Department of Computer Science faculty Melanie Moses and Matthew Fricke of UNM’s Project VolCAN and the possibilities of unpiloted aerial vehicles, commonly referred to as drones.

“Where Humans Fear to Tread: UNM Robots Take Flight to Study Volcanic Eruptions” will be at 3 p.m. Feb. 25 on Zoom.

The Project VolCAN team will discuss their recent visit to the Canary Islands, where they were one of the first and only groups to fly a drone into the plume of an active volcano, obtaining samples of the gases of the historic eruption. They will discuss the highlights of this mission, as well as how the effort grew out of the successful NASA Swarmathon project and what it means for future possibilities of drones.