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Cocoa High students demonstrate drone mapping and 3‑D printing to school board
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Summary
Students from Cocoa High School presented a drone‑mapping and 3‑D printing project to the Brevard school board, describing software/hardware workflows and challenges overcome while building campus models.
Students from Cocoa High’s JROTC/robotics team presented a drone‑mapping and 3‑D printing project to the board, detailing the workflow from aerial photography to printed campus models and highlighting hands‑on learning outcomes.
The student team said they began by taking manual drone pictures, then used Pix4Dmatic and a process learned from Embry‑Riddle representatives to automate flights and gather image sets. The team exported models to Blender to adjust geometry, produced STL files and used BambooLab printers to create physical models; print times ranged from about 50 minutes to as long as 14 hours for the largest sections.
James Kenta (self‑identified) explained the technical steps: exporting OBJ files, converting to G‑code, and using school resources for rendering when home computers crashed. Team members identified the main problems as manual flight time, software crashes and on‑site communications; solutions included adopting automatic flight plans, using school computer labs for processing and communicating with handheld radios. The students described the project as a 12‑week process that taught software skills, drone piloting and cross‑team collaboration.
Board members praised the students’ technical skills and noted the relevance of such projects to workforce needs. The presentation concluded with the board encouraging the students to participate in upcoming district innovation competitions.
No formal board action was taken; the item was a nonvoting demonstration and recognition of student achievement.
