Drone Response Soars with Strategic Partnership with the State of Oklahoma
Drone Response, a high-flying startup out of the University of Notre Dame, recently jointly announced an expansion with the State of Oklahoma Department of Commerce, a leader in Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology that includes drones. The partnership will give Drone Response access to a wealth of resources that includes state-of-the-art infrastructure needed to further develop and test their artificial intelligence (AI)-autonomous drone management software technology.
The announcement highlighted that Drone Response will establish an advanced research and development and integrated engineering testing lab in Oklahoma. The lab is anticipated to open this fall and include members of the Drone Response development team currently working in South Bend.
Commenting on the partnership, Drone Response CEO Bill Reh said, “Oklahoma has created the most advanced ecosystem in the United States for drone, UAV and Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) technology research, development and testing. They are inviting tech companies like ours to come and use their resources to accelerate commercialization. We have a tremendous amount of ongoing development and safety assurance testing , so Oklahoma is the right place for us to expand.”
Drone technology, once the domain of the military, is now seen as a critical tool for first responders such as police, emergency medical systems and fire fighters. Drones—or in the case of Drone Response—swarms of drones that work in a coordinated, collaborative manner, act as an extension of frontline responders, providing a level of situational awareness and threat detection not available from traditional ground-level approaches.
Reh says there is a huge need for Drone Response’ technology, which has the potential to have a significant societal impact on a global scale. “There are so many applications such as riots, mass shootings, major wildfires, search and rescue where we can have a positive impact on how first responders address and manage situations and on outcomes.”
Reh has been involved in the AI space since 1988. A serial entrepreneur, he has launched and exited multiple AI-related companies. He came to the Notre Dame IDEA Center in 2021 at the invitation of his son Hunter, then a master’s candidate in the ESTEEM Program, to serve as an advisor to Drone Response. In 2021, Reh was asked to lead the company’s commercialization efforts as CEO. The company is currently raising a $400,000 pre-seed outside investment round, with an eye to a larger seed round in late 2024.
The technology behind Drone Response was developed in the research lab of co-founder and Notre Dame faculty member Jane Cleland-Huang, a professor of Computer Science and department chair of Computer Science and Engineering. She and her team of software engineers, innovators, and researchers are the masterminds who have combined machine learning, AI, computer vision, and other advanced technology that allow multiple drones to fly safely as a “team” and communicate with each other. Cleland-Huang and her lab continue to play a collaborative role in Drone Response’s commercialization efforts.
An addition win for Drone Response and Notre Dame is job creation. A number of students have joined the Drone Response team. “Coaching, developing, and mentoring bright young students who then become part of our team is a huge advantage for everyone,” Reh says.
Originally published by at ideacenter.nd.edu on May 21, 2024.
Latest Research
- 2024 International Frontiers Prize awarded to Notre Dame’s Jason Rohr for innovative public health and sustainability researchJason Rohr, Galla Professor and Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame, is one of three international winners of the 2024 Frontiers Planet Prize for his research that helps improve public health, agriculture,…
- U.S. states impact foreign policy amid national China unease, research showsState-level officials such as governors, state legislators, and attorneys general are shaping U.S.-China relations as the two countries navigate a strained geopolitical relationship, according to new research by political scientist Kyle…
- CI Compass leads archiving, long-term data preservation conversation at 2024 NSF Research Infrastructure WorkshopAs scientific data at U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded mid-scale and major facilities continues to grow exponentially with the help of advanced instrumentation and increased computing power, the challenge of preserving, archiving, and keeping that data accessible grows with it. In March,…
- Thirty-four students and alumni awarded Fulbright grantsNearly three dozen University of Notre Dame students have been named finalists, and another eight alternates, for the 2024-25 Fulbright U.S. Student Program. The finalists include 26 undergraduate students and eight graduate students.
- Colin Barr appointed next Thomas Moore and Judy Livingston Director of the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies.Colin Barr has been appointed the next Thomas Moore and Judy Livingston Director of the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies, effective January 1, 2025. A distinguished historian…
- Notre Dame political and computer scientists probe authoritarian regimes’ use of social media to attack democracy“Authoritarian regimes — like Russia, China, and Iran — are actively using social media platforms to spread misinformation, and this has real-world impacts,” said Karrie Koesel, associate professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame. “To protect democracy at home and abroad, we must understand the different ways it is being attacked.”
