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Tech Talk: Emergency Drone Program (Bainbridge Prepares) (Free)

Hear about the status of the Bainbridge Island drone program and how to get involved as a public emergency responder.

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Tech Talk: Emergency Drone Program (Bainbridge Prepares) (Free)

Tech Talk: Emergency Drone Program (Bainbridge Prepares) (Free)

Hear about the status of the Bainbridge Island drone program and how to get involved as a public emergency responder.

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Registrations Closed

About

Drones can help emergency responders during rescues, fires, and pollution spills on or around Bainbridge Island. Recent incidents like the Walla Walla ferry grounding in April 2023 underscore how important it is to get the right information to the right decision makers quickly.

Bainbridge Prepares, our community resilience nonprofit, is working to develop a volunteer drone program in partnership with our city's emergency responders and partners like the US Coast Guard. Initial flights will start this summer.

In this talk, Rakesh Bharania will present the current status of the Bainbridge Island drone program, the journey to create a community-based program that is safe and trusted by the public and emergency responders, and how you (yes, you) can get involved! He will talk about the types of missions the team will fly, how they will work with emergency responders, and the kinds of training volunteer pilots will need to have. He will address key issues of privacy and cybersecurity. We want to build a program that reflects the city it serves, and actively welcome the participation of women, BIPOC, and other marginalized communities in our drone program.

Details

  • Free, but please register.

Class Policies

  • Ages 14 and up are welcome.
Instructor
Rakesh Bharania

Rakesh Bharania is a co-lead and chief pilot of Bainbridge Prepares' Technical Operations team. He has led humanitarian technology efforts at Cisco and Salesforce and responded to more than 50 emergency responses including 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the Haiti Earthquake and refugee crises in Syria and Ukraine.

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