Barodian drone expert soars high in America

Vadodara | Monday | 17th September, 2018

Summary:

In the last two years, there is a significant jump is usage of drones in almost every sector. They are multiple industries that use the UAS during emergencies, natural calamities, in agriculture sector and are often being used by the police and the fire departments,” she said.“But not many known that drones are considered as aircrafts and they belong to the national airspace. Vadodara: A young aeronautical engineer from Vadodara is making her presence felt in the US, and that too in otherwise male-dominated field of unmanned aircraft system (UAS), popularly called the drones.Sonal Baid, 28, who had finished her Bachelors in Engineering from SVIT, Vasad, has become the first Indian to feature in the 2018 list of ‘Women to Watch in UAS’ awards. Sonal, who handles product development for a US-based startup Kittyhawk, bagged the award on September 6 for her focus on safety, compliance and maintenance along with a vision for how unmanned aerial vehicle operations need to be managed at scale.“The unmanned vehicles industry has an immense potential and I see myself being a part of the revolution this technology is bringing to the world. Since almost everybody and anybody is using drones, the software that we have developed helps them understand how should they should use drones, what are the weather conditions they should look for and what kind of special permissions, if any, are required for using drones,” she said.She recollected how when she was a child, her father – Sanjay – would take her to the airport every Sunday just to watch airplanes take off and land.“I was always super excited about machines, especially the flying machines,” said Sonal..