License to skill: System engineering team takes drone training to new heights

Nathan Kahl — Mon, 12 May 2025 18:20:40 +0000

License to skill: System engineering team takes drone training to new heights Nathan Kahl Mon, 05/12/2025 - 14:20

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A George Mason University team of Systems and Industrial Engineering (SIE) students developed a training system to assist people working toward their drone pilot license. As part of the project, the team developed a business plan that won Best Paper in the Systems Design Track at the Annual Andrew P. Sage Memorial Capstone Design Competition and Best Paper and Best Presentation in the Modeling and Simulation Track at the GEN Donald R. Keith Memorial Capstone Conference at West Point.

The system incorporates a drone pilot simulator, Zephyr Sim, that was developed separately by George Mason graduates Kyle Bishop, Alex Estep, and Stewart VanBuren, who graduated from the Virginia Serious Game Institute at George Mason.

All pilots using drones for commercial purposes are obliged to hold a license known as the Part 107 Drone Pilot license. The license, issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), covers all the aeronautic knowledge and the rules-of-the-road for safely flying drones. These rules include establishing where is it legal to fly, how high is too high, how to account for weather, and when and how to notify the authorities about the flight.

Drone flying. Photo credit Public Domain Archive

“To obtain a Part 107 license, all one has to do is pass a multiple-choice exam with about 70 questions,” said SIE student Hannah Nguyen. “Can you imagine getting an automobile driver’s license without the behind-the-wheel driving test? With the Part 107, just pass the knowledge exam and you are good-to-go.”

The team conducted several stakeholder interviews to inform their project, which proved very useful. Team member Corbin Phillips said, “After only a few interviews it became clear that enterprises that routinely use drones for data gathering, and image collection were experiencing excess costs due improper handling of the drones by the pilots.”

Team leader Emaan Abbasi added, “We designed a drone pilot training system that integrates drone flying on the simulator in the with the aeronautic knowledge material. For example, in the section on weather, the student practices flying the drone in different wind conditions or with different levels of fog.”

The end product has 17 modules with concepts-maps, video lectures, flash cards, and practice quizzes. Each module has one or more hands-on simulator flying activities. “The training system was thoroughly tested by five students,” said team member Andrew Kuo. “We learned a lot and made several adjustments. In the end, the training to proficiency is reliably faster than the industry best practices.”

“The most enjoyable part of the Capstone course was seeing all our hard work come together,” said team member Shakira Mangrio. “The system engineering approach really helped us manage all of the moving parts throughout the year, it was really rewarding to see the final result and present it. And winning awards was icing on the cake.”

Rajesh Ganesan, chair of the systems engineering undergraduate committee, congratulated the team and confirmed that the class SYST 464: Commercial Drone Pilot Training was approved and will be added to the fall 2025 university catalog. This course will also be part of the aviation flight training and management minor.

Topics

Drones

Unmanned Aerial Systems drones

Training