A Watertown High School graduate took part in a robotics program to use robotics to solve real-world problems in Appalachia.
Camndon Reed got involved in the summer program run by West Virginia University in 2024, and he was featured in a piece in The State Journal. At the time he was attending James Madison University, but after taking part in the program he transferred to WVU.
“It was a great experience. There are a lot of applications for robotics, especially in such a rural, quiet place like West Virginia where people are spread across a lot of land,” Reed said. “There’s last-mile drone delivery of packages, which would greatly help some of these communities.”
Students in the 10-week program are mentored by faculty members of the robotics program, and perform experimental research responding to several challenges of using mobile robotics for field applications within rural environments like Appalachia’s dense forests and harsh terrains, according to a piece on WVU Today. The program is funded by a National Science Foundation Grant.
The group focused on helping areas in the Appalachians after a natural disaster.
“Thinking about the hurricanes that happened in North Carolina, we start to see unmanned vehicles delivering aid in those kinds of situations,” he said. “We’d love to see them almost fully replace the human component to take the danger out of going into those disaster areas.”
Reed did not have a lot of experience with robotics before joining the WVU program, and now he has a passion for using it to solve problems. He added that he hopes that the program brings more attention to the emerging robotics program at the university.
See the piece on The State Journal here.
Good for this young man! Bravo!
As he mentioned, the victims of Hurricane Helene were left high and not so dry by the Biden administration. Individuals and church groups had to step into the gap left by the failures of FEMA (even Elon Musk lent his Starlink network to the effort). One of FEMA’s employees told workers to ignore self-identified MAGA houses. ( FEMA’s acknowledgement here, for those unaware:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/fema-fires-employee-who-told-workers-to-avoid-helping-trump-supporters-after-hurricane).
Delivery drones do sound perfect for the inaccessible hills and hollers of Appalachia. Color me unsurprised that a WHS grad is ON IT.