Brian J. Kelly is a teacher at R-MA, as well as the Director of Unmanned Flight Operations. He teaches students about drones, and oversees our unmanned systems lab. Most recently, he played an instrumental role in developing a partnership between R-MA and Silent Falcon UAS Technologies, an unmanned aircraft systems company investing $6 million into a facility in nearby Warren County, which will serve as their East Coast headquarters. This move is expected to create 249 new jobs in Virginia, and the facility will be used for research, development, and manufacturing purposes. The opportunity for the company to put down roots in Virginia is exciting, and opens up possibilities for students to learn about unmanned systems in new and hands-on ways.
Here’s what Kelly has to say about the partnership, how it enhances students’ education, and how it can prepare students for various future-focused career paths.
Unmanned Systems, and How Students at Our Private Upper School Learn About Them
Since first joining R-MA in 2019, Brian J. Kelly has been making his mark. He teaches students about drones, noting that as a rapidly evolving field, “there’s a lot of critical thinking that’s necessary around this.” Kelly has also helped set up the unmanned systems lab, which gives students plenty of hands-on experience. He says that for students, the “cool” factor of the lab hasn’t yet worn off. They are being challenged with new concepts, such as weather theory, aeronautics, the components of physics, and navigation.
In addition to teaching students and setting up the lab, Kelly has also helped with several community partnerships. “We were the beneficiaries of one of our community partnerships last year with the Smithsonian Institute for Biological Research, which is a couple miles up the mountain behind the school. We got involved in doing a tree study with them.” Kelly says. That partnership helped demonstrate to students some of the many different applications of unmanned systems, which can be used in agriculture, emergency response, and much more.
How the Partnership With Silent Falcon Came Together, and How Students Can Benefit From It
Recently, our boarding school formed a partnership with Silent Falcon. It’s a partnership that Kelly played a significant part in facilitating, and one that will provide many benefits to students. After first partnering with the Warren County Economic Development Authority (EDA), which mentioned Silent Falcon as a client they were trying to convince to come to Warren County, the EDA’s director asked Kelly if he could meet with Silent Falcon to see if there was potential for a relationship. Kelly admits he needed to contain his excitement while talking with them. “The kind of stuff that Amazon is talking about doing [with their Prime Air drone delivery service], Silent Falcon has an FAA waiver to test that between here and Orange, Virginia,” he says. “The idea of being able to work with them was tremendous.”
Although there were logistical hurdles to overcome first, conversations were productive, and Kelly admits R-MA needs to “pinch ourselves every now and then” because of how well the partnership has been working out. When asked what the biggest motivating factor was behind the partnership, Kelly notes that it is the kind real-world opportunity R-MA has been looking for. “We’re talking about real-world challenges, real-world missions that they’re going to be out there flying, and that our students are going to have access to,” he says. “Silent Falcon represents the peak of the kind of clients we want to work with.”
Why These Systems Are Important for Students to Learn About
An understanding of unmanned aircraft systems can open up opportunities in a variety of different fields. These include five areas that the program at our private upper school focuses on: Cinematography for Television and Film, Agriculture, Emergency Response and Management, Engineering and Construction, and Energy and Infrastructure Management.
The hands-on and cutting-edge education that students receive at R-MA helps them to stand out and feel ready for success at university. In fact, it all culminates into our 100% university acceptance rate for every single graduation senior, every single year. Although drone operators and pilots are obvious career choices that students may want to eventually aspire to during their higher education, Kelly emphasizes that there are many other opportunities to consider. “When we look out into the industry as a whole, we have engineers, software developers,” he says. “With Silent Falcon, they’re developing some pretty interesting artificial intelligence applications, where the sensors that they’re using to do infrastructure integrity analysis for concrete roadways… can be applied to so many other things.”
Kelly thinks that these systems are important to learn about, especially given the industry’s growth. “10 years from now, they [students] may not be using drones, or flying drones. They may choose not to be certified,” he says. “But I can almost guarantee that somewhere in either their professional or personal lives, they’re going to be using either drone-collected data or services based on drones. That’s how quickly it is moving, and that’s how quickly it is expanding.”
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