Drone Technology -- UND Is Global Leader. Period. Dot. -- February 9, 2019

I haven't talked about drone technology and North Dakota in a long time, but I do have it tagged.

The fifteen best "drone-training" programs are listed at this site: UND comes in at #5. At this site, UND is listed second. Most of these programs are in the midwest. None are in California (at the first link; at the second link, one -- Berkeley). We've talked about that before.

After being sent a story on drone technology being expanded to manage the oil industry in North Dakota, I was curious what else is going on.

Two days ago, from the Fargo paper: Australian company specializing in bees -- that would be honeybees -- taps into UND drop expertise.

North Dakota is the nation’s leader in honey production. The University of North Dakota in Grand Forks is a leader in drones and drone research.

That led Bee Innovative, an Australian company, to pair up with UND to enhance the company’s current drone technology that tracks bee movements and pollination patterns, the two companies announced Jan. 30.

“It’s a match made in heaven,” said David Dodds, a UND spokesman.

The relationship, recently recognized in a memorandum of understanding signed on the UND campus, is still in its early stages, and many details still need to be worked out. But there will be a role for North Dakota beekeepers who want to participate in the project, Dodds said.

North Dakota led the nation in honey production in 2017 for the 14th straight year, with producers with five or more colonies totaling 33.7 million pounds of honey, according to federal government statistics. The collaboration with UND will work to upgrade Bee Innovative’s current drone platform, “BeeDar”, which is used to track bee movements and pollination patterns in real time by Australian farmers, according to the statement from UND and Bee Innovative. 

"It's a match made in heaven": nature's drones meet UND's drones.

The honeybee drone is the best analogy for the male human millennial:

A drone is a male bee. Unlike the female worker bee, drones do not have stingers and gather neither nectar nor pollen. A drone's primary role is to mate with an unfertilized queen.

By the way, it is now being reported that honeybees can do basic math.

But this is what is most notable about honeybees and math that is not being reported:

• the honeybees are home-schooled
• most of the nation's advanced degree programs are located in hives in North Dakota during the winter 
• education is free for all
• worker bees that don't want to work are pushed out of the hives every February