Media Advisory: UB to demonstrate drone testing facility Thursday

BUFFALO, N.Y. — News media are invited to see the University at Buffalo’s new outdoor testing facility for uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) in action.

The facility, known as SOAR (Structure for Outdoor Autonomy Research), is a 24,000-square-foot netted structure located off Maple Road on the North Campus. It is among the nation’s largest such facilities on university campuses.

It will enable UB researchers, students and partners to develop cutting-edge technological solutions using UAVs (more commonly known as unmanned aerial vehicles or drones), to address challenges in transportation and delivery services, disaster response and national security.

Because it is enclosed, and thus considered an indoor flight facility, researchers will not be subject to Federal Aviation Administration rules when testing UAVs.

What: UB researchers will conduct several demonstrations of drones flying autonomously and in synchronization.

Where: Crofts Hall parking lot. This campus map shows the location.

When: 3-5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 30

Who: Kemper Lewis, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; Chase Murray, assistant professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering.

Also scheduled to participate in the event are faculty and students from the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and the Department of Electrical Engineering.