Global Autonomous Systems Conference wraps up
The first Global Autonomous Systems Conference, with about 300 attendees and 100-plus speakers, closed Friday, Aug. 11 in Anchorage. Final comments came from University of Alaska President Pat Pitney and Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration Director Cathy Cahill, who announced the conference will be held again in 2024.
The three-day conference was sponsored by the UAF Alaska Center for UAS Integration and hosted by the University of Alaska and the state of Alaska.
“When we can prove commercial viability for unmanned flight in Alaska, it will take off in the rest of the nation," Pitney said. "And we can prove it to be safe, but more importantly, we've proven it to be better for the lives of Alaskans.”
Cahill told the closing crowd she was highly pleased with the interaction among attendees.
“On the first day, I charged you to come here to network, to reach out, to listen, to be engaged, to be a part of the conference and to really give it your all," she said. "And thank you, you did that. I saw more business cards being passed around. I saw people catch each other during the breaks. We were having some really good discussions. And I think we found a lot of commonality and a lot of connections across the group here.”
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska spoke at the conference Friday morning, touching on the need for the U.S., with Alaska at the forefront, to be a leader in the rapidly advancing world of autonomous systems. Murkowski serves on four Senate committees: Appropriations; Energy and Natural Resources; Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions; and Indian Affairs.
“The world is really racing to develop autonomous systems and artificial intelligence," she said. "And because of what we already know, both good and bad, there is no choice but for the United States to fully engage and lead in their system development. And if we do this right, they can ensure that the benefits greatly outweigh the costs both at home and around the world.
“I absolutely believe that Alaska is the perfect place to help us advance autonomous systems," she said. "Our state has extraordinary expanses of land areas where you have minimal or no population at all that can help support the testing of a wide variety of surface and airborne autonomous systems.
“If you can pioneer a system to survive Alaska and all that we have here, you can be pretty confident that it's going to be effective just about anywhere else that it may be deployed," she said.
U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan delivered a video welcome message on the conference's second day, touting Alaska as the place to be in the drone industry.
“There is no better place in the country than Alaska to test the benefits for drones,” he said.
Sullivan also gave an update of drone-related legislative efforts. He is a member of the Senate Commerce Committee and sits on the Subcommittee on Aviation Safety, Operations and Innovation.
The conference, held at Anchorage's Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center, included numerous panel discussions. Many of those panels included UAF representatives.
Several uncrewed aircraft, including several from ACUASI, were on display. ACUASI also provided its drone simulator, which was a popular stop for attendees.