MAI Drone School Opened Its Doors to International Students
MAI Drone School launched an experimental program for international students.
It all started with the fact that Isaac Wanderemah, a student of the Pre-University Foundation Program of MAI from Uganda, saw the news on the University’s resource about the MAI Drone School and since then had set himself a goal to learn as much as possible about unmanned aerial vehicles. He contacted the organizers of the Drone School and received the warmest response: he was shown an educational laboratory, technics and developments. He especially liked Baba Yaga on a broomstick (a drone designed by experts from MAI Drone School on Halloween). Isaac was so impressed that he told his friends about Drone School, and a whole group of people who wanted to become students of the program has gathered.
“The appearance of the first international students in the MAI Drone School is connected with the multidisciplinary and internationalism of our university. We negotiated such courses with many international students of MAI, but students from Uganda were the most enterprising. Creating such a group is the first experience for us,” – says Kirill Schukin, founder of the MAI Drone School. - “Our team has created an unique program for them. The main task is to acquaint young people with the world of unmanned aerial vehicles and to give them initial skills in control system. We also decided to see how the information will be delivered in the classroom. The language of instruction is English, the students know some Russian. There are some difficulties in communication that we will need to overcome. However, technical language is one, it is easy enough to understand if you are an engineer. I hope that this experience will bring great benefit to the students.”
The specialists of MAI Drone School entered the position of students and made the experimental course absolutely free. The first lesson took place on March 16, and will be held every Saturday. The beginners' class are taught by Mikhail Kolodochka, a student at the Faculty No. 7 “Robotics and Intellectual Systems”, the winner of the inter-university competition WorldSkills Russia, who is now actively preparing for the international stage of the contest.
“I have long wanted to join a group in which I could meet students who had interests similar to mine, and also make friends among Russian students. I am interested in aviation and space engineering, programming and technology. I believe that the MAI Drone School meets all that I was looking for. At the first lesson, I tried to keep confidently, but deep inside I felt like a little boy holding my first drone. It was so exciting and instructive. The equipment we worked with was really modern. We were shown many different types of drones and copters. We were also given an idea of the software used to program the drones. Lecturer Michail was very eloquent, he spoke interestingly and patiently answered all our questions, that there were so many,” - Isaac shared his impressions of the first lesson.
In the future, with the assistance of other units of MAI, the organizers of the MAI Drone School plan to create a full-time program for international students based on the test group. "This is one of the areas that need to be effectively developed," - emphasizes Kirill Schukin.
