My First Post

 Welcome to my Blog

My name is Evan Hockridge and I am a Southern California native pursuing my bachelors degree in Unmanned Aerial Systems(UAS) at Purdue University. This blog serves two roles. The first, is to be a component of my UAS senior capstone by effectively housing my project information and results for the course. The second, is to be a collective resource for my knowledge and passion of UAS up until this point.

Background in UAS

Beginning with Engineering

My path in the UAS industry has changed a few times since I joined the degree program a few years ago. My first exposure to true industry work outside of classes began with an internship with Northrop Grumman the summer after my first year of college. There, I worked as an engineering intern largely focused on utilizing additive manufacturing techniques to develop structurally viable plastic mounts for medium-sized UAVs. While I certainly developed my engineering skills during that summer, I certainly felt something was missing. I knew, largely because of my background in manned aviation before college, that I wanted to be on the operational side of UAS. I thought maybe working in engineering would change that, but it became clear I was not satisfied with the idea of being an engineer my entire life. So, I began looking for how I could work on the operational side.

Phone case I made during my internship with Northrop Grumman. Fortunately, they had some extra filament to practice with!

A Love for Science

When I returned to campus I knew I wanted to work on the operational side of UAS, but I wasn't sure how I was going to do that. The one thing I realized is that I would need to find an industry I was passionate about and I would probably need to understand the basics of that industry. So I started taking classes for certificate in entrepreneurship and innovation at Purdue. In addition I began taking an assortment of classes to built a solid knowledge base. What I found was that I loved the idea of using unmanned aircraft to assist in natural disaster situations. More specifically, calculating risk of developing property in specific areas. Due to this, I started a minor in Earth and atmospheric science. During that process I realized I truly love the natural sciences and wanted to attend graduate school so that I could better understand how to use UAS to study the natural world.

Since the Discovery 

Over the past two years I have attempted to work with a variety of people aiming to use unmanned aircraft in science. This has led to research opportunities with forestry, agriculture, oceanography, and marine ecology. I quickly became aware of all the potential advantages of using unmanned aircraft as a remote sensing tool versus satellite and manned aircraft methods. Due to this, my focus for sometime now has been on mastering data collection, processing, and analysis methods. I have developed experience on a variety of software include Photoscan Pro, Pix4D, Erdas IMAGINE, ENVI, ArcMap, and AirMap as I learned how to utilize the data I have collected. I have also learned how to use the statistical programming language, R, to analyze drone remote sensing data with methods such as linear regression, kNN, and RandomForest machine learning classification models. Ultimately, my goal is to be fully capable at completing and planning a UAS mission from sensor integration through spatial statistical analysis.

Why UAS?

Ultimately, I decided I did not want to become an airline pilot, my childhood dream, for a variety of reasons. One of which was that I was afraid I wouldn't be challenged enough in the long run and left to be bored, unsatisfied with my impact on the world. The opening of the new UAS major at Purdue made me realize I could be creative in a new field without having to sacrifice my life long love for aviation. So, I took the risk and switched my major to UAS. I honestly have not looked back since.

My Future Career with UAS

It is difficult to say for certain what my career will look like, but it would also be incorrect to say I do not have a "Plan A". As of now, I intend to enter academia as a researcher. This upcoming year, I will attend graduate school at one of several possible institutions. More than likely I will be studying ecology (nearly all the PhD programs I am interested in are ecology related programs) focusing on how drones can be used in a specific ecosystem. My focus will either be on ultrahigh resolution phenology related projects, or involve ecosystem services. This is because I am very interested in measuring change (phenology) and how that change will impact what humans gain out of their surrounding ecosystems (ecosystem services). At the moment, it is hard to say where I will be headed, but I am excited either way.

While I am sure I will change as a person during graduate school, I am very interested in becoming a professor because I love performing research, interacting with a variety of people, the high level of job freedom, and the prospect of teaching.

Ultimately, I am sure it will be a long exciting ride. Hopefully this blog highlights the fun parts.