GEOGRAPHY ALUM LEADS PRESTIGIOUS DRONE RESEARCH AT UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN

Dr. Joseph Hupy, an MSU alum and associate professor of geography at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire is the project lead on a geospatial mining research project that has earned a Regent Scholar award from the UW System Board of Regents' Research, Economic Development and Innovation Committee.

Hupy himself formally received the award, which includes a $50,000 stipend to support the research. This team specifically targets lowering overhead costs for volumetric analysis within Wisconsin’s industrial sand and aggregate mining industry using UAS (unmanned aerial systems) technology.

Unmanned aerial systems, commonly referred to as drones, have the potential to solve geospatial problems in ways never before imagined. The rapid development of UAS is possible as technology mounted to the devices has become lighter, smaller and less expensive.

Interest in UAS has soared as their uses have been considered for everything from agriculture and forestry management, to insurance assessments, and search and rescue missions.

Hupy opted to focus his project on the mining industry because use of UAS in mining makes good economic sense given the industry’s need to constantly evaluate how much material is being removed from its sites, Hupy said. Current data-gathering systems within the industry can be inaccurate, costly, time-consuming and often dangerous, he said.

“The industrial sand and aggregate mining industry is a market where UAS has a high return on investment potential,” Hupy said. “With UAS technology, mining operations have the ability to get the high-quality data they need at a fraction of the cost compared to traditional collection methods.”

Hupy graduated from MSU with a PhD in Geography in 2005.