Program Overview

The certificate’s purpose is to train students in fields such as construction, architecture, engineering, environmental management, wildlife management, agriculture, public sector management, or other relevant fields, on how to pilot and operate Unoccupied Aerial Systems (UAS) or "drones" safely and responsibly, and to produce aerial imagery useful for decision-making in their field of interest.

The knowledge and skills that will be acquired, include an understanding of:

the underlying science and physics around UAS flight;
public policies, regulations, and ethical considerations that are required to operate UAS properly and needed to successfully test for a remote pilot license;
the skills to operate and safely control a vehicle at launch, flight, and landing;
the human factors critical for safe flying;
how to identify and mitigate risk;
how to develop a comprehensive organizational UAS safety management system for themselves and/or their organization; and,
the processing of acquired true-color (RGB) imagery via photogrammetry to produce orthomosaic imagery, digital surface models, and 3D models for use in management decision-making. Exposure to other aerial sensors such as longwave infrared (thermal) for energy loss assessment will also be discussed.

To receive this certificate, students would take the following courses, totaling 9 credits. The list below is organized in the order most students will take the sequence of classes.

Certificate in UAS piloting (9 cr)

FAA Remote Pilot Certification Preparation (ECO650; 1 credit). This course provides students with an understanding of the various topics required by the US FAA’s UAS pilot licensing requirements. At the end of this class, they will be prepared to test for their pilot’s license and will have an understanding of current public policy and regulations related to UAS in the United States.
Piloting Unoccupied Aerial Vehicles (ECO651; 2 credits). This hands-on class will teach students how to fly Unoccupied Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) -- specifically quadcopters. We utilize very safe toy quadcopters with operational controls similar to professional machines to start and have students learn fundamental maneuvers that will improve their professional flying. At the end of the class, the students will be comfortable flying entry-level professional UAS machines.
Safety Management for Unoccupied Aerial Systems (ECO652; 3 credits). This course includes three main topic areas: (1) Creating a Safety Management System for UAS Pilots; (2) Human Factors for UAS Pilots; and (3) Risk Management for UAS Pilots. This will teach students how to plan UAS operations and operate missions to ensure complete safety for everyone involved. This course is unique to the UMass program and to our knowledge is not available anywhere else in the United States or perhaps the world.
Applications in Unoccupied Aerial Systems (ECO653; 3 credits). This course allows students to run through much of the material they learned in the earlier classes (piloting, safety management), fly their own mission to collect aerial imagery, and learn new content on how to develop photogrammetry products (orthomosaics, digital elevation models, 3D models) using those images, simulating a complete project similar to what they would do for a client.

The recommended order of coursework would be as listed above. With this proposed curriculum, students can complete this certificate over the course of approximately one year part-time (e.g. for non-matriculated UWW students) or parallel to their other studies (for matriculated students).

This certificate is a shared offering between the departments of Environmental Conservation (ECO), Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), and Geosciences (GEO). In future years, the course identifier rebric will rotate on SPIRE between these three units. For example:

AY 2023-2024 - courses will be offered as ECO650, 651, 652 and 653
AY 2024-2025 - courses will be offered as CEE650, 651, 652 and 653
AY 2024-2025 - courses will be offered as GEO650, 651, 652 and 653