05/11/2026
On Thursday, May 7th, Applied Technology held its 2nd Annual Drone Day. This event is organized by Professor Douglass Degen, and months of work have gone into it.
The day started off at 7am with breakfast and a career fair where students could interact with some of the great companies attending the day's activities. Companies attending included Haynes Construction, Independence Excavating, Kleinfelder, Kokosing Construction Company, Mossier Construction Company, Percision Laser & Instrument Inc., Rudolph Libbe Inc., and Woolpert.
From there, we moved to the Pharmacy lecture hall with a presentation of the Flags and opening remarks from the Dean of Arts and Science, Stacey Lowery Bretz.
The students received amazing presentations from Brian Stevens (Woolpart), Donovan Powers (OGRIP), Drew Ritzler (United States Department of Agriculture and President of Freedom Civil Services), Dominic Stepanovsky (OH/IN UAS Center), Jared Baxter (Survey Department Manger), Dan Kempa ( Kleinfelder), Doug Thomas (Independence Demolition), Dr. Janet Deardorff Schroeder (Champaign County), Travis Althouse (Erie Insurance Group), and Dr. James Uphaus (Rhodes State College).
We even received a very special visit from George Washington (Professor Silva) to discuss surveying.
Next was the fantastic lunch provided by Smokin' BBQ.
Then we all got the pleasure of going outside to watch these companies fly / boat their drones. The weather cooperated this year, so the students saw some amazing things and received some first-hand drone experience.
On top of all this excitement, there were door prizes throughout the day, and so many students had the great honor of winning them. Things such as Super Bowl Footballs from Wilson Football Factory, a custom-made ONU Fire Pit ring from International Tank Service, and automotive books from our very own Jim Halderman, just to name a few. There were so many other prizes provided by the companies previously mentioned in this post as well.
This truly is a special event for the students, and we do owe another thanks to Professor Degen for his hard work in putting this all together. We also want to thank the Tech Club, the Applied Technology Department, and all the participants who took time out of their day to make this day so special for the students.