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 Melanie Lux at ideacenter.nd.edu on May 21, 2024.