What’s that Droning Noise?

If you were to walk through the common area of our Short Hills site, you might be surprised to hear a high-pitched buzzing noise coming from one of the rooms. Peeking in, you might see a tent and the thin mesh of a net set up in the middle of a science classroom, trapping in some sort of small bug-like creatures with glowing eyes trying desperately to get off the ground.

This isn’t some mad science experiment gone wrong: it’s just our Drone Programming class! Each student is equipped with their own miniature flying machine and Bluetooth-enabled controller to experiment with. Moving the drone involves devising code for specific tasks and sending the directions wirelessly to the buzzing machines which carry it out. It’s hard work, but the result is always worth it!

The task today was to code a maneuver known as a “turtle roll,” in which the drone tries to right itself after falling by flipping itself back on its “belly.” Even a single line of code can lead to unpredictable results, which is why we have the net: It’s not worth accidentally setting off the fire alarms with a badly calculated “rise” function!

These programs are just the basics, however — by the end of the week, students engage in an all-out drone battle, in which campers (and sometimes counselors) zip around in their drones and try to deactivate their rivals through the use of special lasers. These new recruits will have to be all trained up by then in order to succeed. Here’s hoping our counselors are up to the challenge, too!