UAF Alaska Center for UAS Integration

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And that’s it for the first Global Autonomous Systems Conference, which had about 300 attendees and 100-plus speakers. The conference closed out today with final comments from University of Alaska President Pat Pitney and ACUASI Director Cathy Cahill, who announced the conference will be held again in 2024.

UA President Pat Pitney: “When we can prove commercial viability for unmanned flight in Alaska, it will take off in the rest of the nation. And we can prove it to be safe, but more importantly, we've proven it to be better for the lives of Alaskans.”

ACUASI Director Cathy Cahill: “On the first day, I charged you to come here to network, to reach out, to listen, to be engaged, to be a part of the conference and to really give it your all. And thank you, you did that. I saw more business cards being passed around. I saw people catch each other during the breaks. We were having some really good discussions. And I think we found a lot of commonality and a lot of connections across the group here.”

The conference was sponsored by the UAF Alaska Center for UAS Integration and hosted by the University of Alaska and the state of Alaska.



University of Alaska Fairbanks
UAF Research
University of Alaska Anchorage

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska spoke this morning at the Global Autonomous Systems Conference in Anchorage, touching on the need for the U.S., with Alaska at the forefront, to be a leader in the rapidly advancing world of autonomous systems.

Murkowski serves on four Senate committees: Appropriations; Energy and Natural Resources; Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions; and Indian Affairs.

Below are excerpts of her comments.

“The world is really racing to develop autonomous systems and artificial intelligence. And because of what we already know, both good and bad, there is no choice but for the United States to fully engage and lead in their system development. And if we do this right, they can ensure that the benefits greatly outweigh the costs both at home and around the world.

“So that's been my focus here: to help put in place policies to guide the responsible development of these technologies to find the beneficial uses while avoiding or at least preparing for any negative application…

“I'd like to share with you what I think is perhaps a starting point. Much like the early product developers in the space race back in the ’50s and then, of course, more recently with SpaceX and its peers, we need to acknowledge that there's going to be some risk.

“We have this fear of failure, certainly when the government is in power, but we're going to have to accept that this is a new venture. And to that end, I think that we need to offer reasonable federal rules for beyond visual line of sight operations and vehicle certifications to help create a viable market for these technologies.

“We're also going to need more federal agencies like the FAA to be real partners as ACUASI and others work to integrate UAS into the National Airspace System. We’re going to need to be up and running quickly, to adapt technologies and to deploy them, which will in turn require us to test and certify systems. We’re going to have to look at the regulations and streamline them to be faster than the current regulations allow.

“We need regulations to allow industry to move at the speed of business but still keep an eye on safety…
“I absolutely believe that Alaska is the perfect place to help us advance autonomous systems… Our state has extraordinary expanses of land areas where you have minimal or no population at all that can help support the testing of a wide variety of surface and airborne autonomous systems. If the land isn't expansive enough, just looking at our large oceanic footprint…

“If you can pioneer a system to survive Alaska and all that we have here, you can be pretty confident that it's going to be effective just about anywhere else that it may be deployed.

“These are unprecedented times, new frontiers with systems and technologies that so many of us are just beginning to understand. People like me are just beginning to understand what people like you have been working on and focused on and getting excited about for so long.

“But it's a moment that demands U.S. leadership — I think U.S. leadership with Alaska in the center of all the attention.”



University of Alaska
University of Alaska Fairbanks
University of Alaska Anchorage
UAF Research

It’s day three of the Global Autonomous Systems Conference here in Anchorage. Aside from the numerous panel discussions about the expanding world of drones, there are also several uncrewed aircraft to check out. Come see for yourself.

The conference is sponsored by the UAF Alaska Center for UAS Integration and hosted by the University of Alaska and the state of Alaska.

Register: autonomousalaska.com



University of Alaska Fairbanks
UAA: University of Alaska Anchorage
UAF Research

The group photo of drone experts, users and others at the ongoing Global Autonomous Systems Conference in Anchorage were made from an Autel EVO V2 flown by pilot Matthew Westhoff of the UAF Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Integration with assistance from fellow ACUASI pilot Jason Williams on day two of the conference.

The conference runs through Friday. Registration: autonomousalaska.com.

Alaska is known as the Last Frontier, but in drone research and industry assistance we are on the leading edge. Be a part of it!



The conference is sponsored by ACUASI and hosted by the University of Alaska and the state of Alaska.

University of Alaska Fairbanks
UAF Research
UAA: University of Alaska Anchorage

And more coverage of the Global Autonomous Systems Conference: https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2023/08/10/global-conference-highlights-importance-promise-drone-use-alaska/



University of Alaska
University of Alaska Fairbanks
UAA: University of Alaska Anchorage

Global conference highlights importance, promise of drone use in Alaska The Global Autonomous Systems Conference in Anchorage this week is welcoming more than a hundred industry experts to the Dena’ina Center.

Here's more media coverage about the Global Autonomous Systems Conference. Lots of attendees from around the country.

https://www.youralaskalink.com/news/international-drone-conference-begins-at-denaina-center/article_27ff5132-3715-11ee-98cb-9f7bc2afc2c6.html



University of Alaska
University of Alaska Fairbanks
UAA: University of Alaska Anchorage

The Global Autonomous Systems Conference underway in Anchorage has been getting some good media attention. Drones and their many uses are clearly an area of public interest.

Here's a story from the Alaska Beacon: https://alaskabeacon.com/briefs/university-of-alaska-hosted-conference-explores-public-service-and-industry-uses-of-drones/



University of Alaska Fairbanks
UAA: University of Alaska Anchorage
University of Alaska

University of Alaska-hosted conference explores public-service and industry uses of drones - Alaska Beacon A UAF program is a national leader in unmanned drone testing. A conference it is hosting is exploring the various ways drones can be used.