Local High School Students Visit GENIUS NY Startups for a Morning Full of Drones

This week GENIUS NY teams at The Tech Garden got to present their companies to high school students from Syracuse P-TECH, a specialized high school housed at the Public Service Leadership Academy at Fowler which offers programs of study in either Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems or Computer Information Systems.

More than 25 students were in attendance on Tuesday, which has been the largest P-Tech student group to visit to date. Students had the opportunity to fly drones with assistance from SkyOp, a GENIUS NY '17 finalist. SkyOp offers drone training courseware, test prep, and flight training for drones, and recently signed a contract to make its customizable Drone Training Curriculum available to local school districts through the New York Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES). 

Students also had the opportunity to talk in smaller groups with teams like Sentient Blue (GENIUS '19), Fotokite (GENIUS '18), CivDrone (GENIUS '19), OmniMesh (GENIUS '17), and UsPLM (GENIUS '18). These teams operate out of The Tech Garden and are continuing to grow their businesses in Syracuse. 

"This program is part of the region’s ongoing effort to engage the next generation of talent for the growing UAS industry," said Jeff Fuchsberg, director of GENIUS NY. "Our startup founders are eager to share their excitement about bringing innovative drone technologies to market and the career opportunities being created now and in the future as our UAS ecosystem grows." 

"It was lovely to share my journey as an entrepreneur in the UAV space and answer great questions these bright students had about our industry and innovation," said Tom Yeshurun, CEO of CivDrone. CivDrone is an Israeli company and 2019 GENIUS NY finalist that uses autonomous marking solutions on drones to increase construction site productivity.

At the end of the visit, GENIUS NY teams surprised the students with new Predator Mini RC Helicopter Drones! 

GENIUS NY remains the largest accelerator competition for unmanned systems in the world and is housed at CenterState CEO's Tech Garden. The 2020 GENIUS NY program kicks off on January 21. The five new teams will be publicly announced on December 11 at Startup Night at The Tech Garden. To learn more and attend click here.