The founder and president of PrecisionHawk, an IU-funded venture that uses unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to collect and process data for various commercial uses, will be the closing speaker for this year’s TedxIndianapolis event set for 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday (Oct. 21) at Hilbert Circle Theatre.
Ernest Earon’s 4:20 p.m. address will discuss the promise of “solving world problems from a bird’s eye view” — a nod to PrecisionHawk’s expanding commercial mission. Data collected by its UAVs are used in a range of industries, one of which is agriculture. As the global population continues to increase, farmers must increase production by an estimated 70 to 100 percent to keep pace, PrecisionHawk spokesperson Lia Reich said.
The Innovate Indiana Fund, administered by the Indiana University Research and Technology Corp. (IURTC), is among PrecisionHawk’s lead investors. The fund was one of PrecisionHawk’s earliest investors and last month participated in a second financing round that totaled nearly $10 million.
PrecisionHawk, which has offices in Noblesville, Ind., also was one of 10 Indiana Innovation Award winners for 2014. Other speakers with IU connections include:
- Raymond Burke, the E.W. Kelley Professor of Business Administration at IU’s Kelley School of Business and founding director of its Customer Interface Laboratory. He will discuss why companies are so intent on using technology to track customers’ behavior (4:04 p.m.)
- Ukamaka Oruche, an assistant professor of psychiatric and mental health nursing at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis. Her address will focus on the challenge of providing sustainable health care (11:49 a.m.)
TedxIndianapolis is a self-organized, local platform designed to share large-scale, innovative ideas from a variety of local and national speakers. Late ticket information is available here:
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