McMillon Innovation Studio Partners With DroneUp to Improve Campus Safety and Security

The McMillon Innovation Studio has partnered with DroneUp, LLC, a leading autonomous drone delivery platform and drone services provider, to evaluate opportunities to expand DroneUp's operations, including on college campuses. 

The McMillon Innovation Studio, part of the U of A's Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, offers an opportunity for student design and product teams to develop human-centered design solutions to problem statements that have social impacts. The studio serves students across campus and a variety of other industry partners. By empowering students to facilitate innovation as members of an interdisciplinary team with industry mentors, its mission is to shape the future of commerce.

The McMillon Innovation Studio will collaborate with DroneUp on a design team project focused on campus safety and security. The design team will coordinate with key stakeholders on campus to discuss possibilities that could become innovative solutions to real-world problems, and they will also evaluate legal and policy aspects around privacy and safety.

"One of the areas we focus on at DroneUp is creating career pathways for a variety of individuals. It's a clear fit for us to partner with McMillon Innovation Studio as we look to expand our operations and execute our workforce development strategy. We are very impressed with their work, and we're eager to see the design team's ideas to improve campus safety using the latest UAS technology," said Ilya Tlumach, VP of Learning & Development at DroneUp. 

"The McMillon Innovation Studio design approach allows students with diverse skill sets to understand DroneUp's problem statement and develop a solution proposal considering both qualitative and quantitative data. This gives students a unique opportunity to work on an objective approach to develop a professional solution for the company. We are excited to partner this semester with DroneUp and produce an extensive research report evaluating the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of DroneUp's business opportunity to expand operations to college campuses in the safety and security area," said Andres Balderrama, project manager at the McMillon Innovation Studio.

The Design Team work is underway and will be unveiled at the spring 2023 Demo Day on May 3. 

About the U of A Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation: The Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation creates and curates innovation and entrepreneurship experiences for students across all disciplines. Through the Brewer Family Entrepreneurship Hub, McMillon Innovation Studio, Startup Village, and Greenhouse at the Bentonville Collaborative, OEI provides free workshops and programs — including social and corporate innovation design teams, venture internships, competitions and startup coaching. A unit of the Sam M. Walton College of Business and Division of Economic Development, OEI also offers on-demand support for students who will be innovators within existing organizations and entrepreneurs who start something new.  

About DroneUp: DroneUp is an American technology company that combines airspace solutions, software applications, analytics platforms, and a trusted team of industry leaders to help companies operate at scale with drone innovation. DroneUp was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Virginia Beach, Virginia. For more information www.droneup.com.