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Nevada Launches A New Center For Public Safety Focusing On Drones

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The Nevada Institute of Autonomous Systems or NIAS has launched a new center focusing on education revolving the use of drones. KUNR's Stephanie Serrano has more.

The center plans to provide incursion research data and education on drone rules and regulations. The data will be made available to the public so industries, rule makers and regulators can have reliable information on the capabilities of the technology. 

The group’s business development director Brett Kanda said the information is needed because of possible threats that drones may pose worldwide.

"In a defense world ISIS and different terrorist groups are actually weaponizing and trying to fly them into our bases and our troops aboard basically taking those drones that are a threat out of the sky,” Kanda said.

Closer to home, there are concerns that residents are flying drones too high, interfering with commercial and military aircraft which may result in a drone possibly being sucked into an engine leading to a major disaster.

Kanda also said drones my also pose a threat to Northern Nevada's growing tech industry mainly data centers being built by Google and Apple.

"Those are extremely critical assets in Nevada that need to be protected and with the capability now-a-days weaponizing is one threat but some of the systems have the ability to hack into WIFI networks to try to compromise data," Kanda said.

The center will help advance infrastructure protections, air safety and expand air commerce across the Silver State.

Stephanie Serrano (she/her/ella) is an award-winning multimedia bilingual journalist based in Reno, Nevada. Her reporting is powered by character-driven stories and is rooted in sound-rich audio. Her storytelling works to share the experiences of unserved communities in regards to education, race, affordable housing and sports.
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