HATS OFF – Sitka High School graduates toss their mortarboards in the air after receiving their degrees Monday night in the Sitka High gym. This year 74 seniors graduated in a ceremony that included addresses by teacher Howard Wayne and class representative Nai’a Nelson, a performance by the symphonic band and a video of graduates. A car parade was held after the ceremony. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
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Daily Sitka Sentinel
Next Step Explored In Alaska’s Use of Drones
By Yereth Rosen
Alaska Beacon
The drones that fly through Alaska’s skies can be employed for critical and even life-saving purposes, and Alaska’s chief medical officer, speaking at an Anchorage conference Aug. 7, gave one example.
Dr. Anne Zink said that when she was traveling in late July along the Yukon River, a resident of a remote village there went into seizures, apparently from a drug overdose. In that region, where there is only spotty medical and law-enforcement service and where cellphone service limps along at a rudimentary level, a drone could have swept to quickly deliver medicine to that or any other patient suffering seizures.
“If there was a drone that could be deployed to that community quickly, you could be able to provide naloxone, potentially an AED, potentially other medications as well,” Zink said, referring to a commonly used overdose-reversal medicine and to anti-epileptic drugs. A doctor or other provider could be on the other end of the call giving on-the-spot medical advice, she said. She didn’t discuss the patient’s outcome.
Zink’s description of ways that drones could be used for medical services came on the opening day of a three-day conference hosted by the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration.
Through that center, UAF and Alaska have emerged as leaders in the development and use of drone technology, said University of Alaska President Pat Pitney.
“We’re just in a prime position to take the next steps,” said Pitney, who attended the conference. “I think Alaska can be the first state to have commercial drone operations.”
The Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration started as an operation of UAF’s Poker Flat Research Range and has since emerged into a position of national prominence.
In 2012 it became its own department within UAF’s Geophysical Institute and in 2013 it was designated by the Federal Aviation Administration as one of six national test sites for unmanned aircraft. It has accomplished numerous technological and operational breakthroughs, such as the first “beyond-line-of-sight” drone mission in 2019 and establishment of a program in 2021 to aid the U.S. Coast Guard in its Alaska search-and-rescue and environmental-protection missions. In 2022 it conducted the firrst large-drone cargo delivery from an international airport in Alaska.
The Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems is on the verge of expanding its footprint. Earlier this year, the university’s board of regents approved a $3.3 million, 4,800-square-foot hangar at the Nenana airport to serve as a base for cargo-flight tests and other activities.
--https://alaskabeacon.com/yereth-rosen
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20 YEARS AGO
May 2004
Dr. Arthur Cleveland, a former dean at Columbus State University in Georgia, was named the new president of Sheldon Jackson College, SJC officials announced today. He will be replacing C. Carlyle Haaland, who has held the position for four years.
50 YEARS AGO
May 1974
Coaching and managing the Little League teams this year are John Abbott and John Calhoun, ANB; Dale and DeWayne Vilandre, Alaska Federal; Walt Barker, Elks; Frank Simmons and Frank Vilandre, Lions; Leo Bacon, Pat Ness, Cliff Robards and Bob Edenso, Moose; and Everett Webb, Sportsmen. Head umpire is Carl Karpstein.