What is DJI doing for STEAM education around the world?

DJI is leading the way with its drone technology and is wanting to do the same in the STEAM education field, prompting the creation of DJI Education. We got the chance to talk with the head of DJI Education, Jianrong Gao to see what more the company is doing.

What does DJI do for STEAM education?

Since late 2019, DJI has been working with universities to use drones in research projects with the most recent example of this being the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia. The UNSW is working with DJI to provide education, training, and research in engineering studies as a way to better prepare students for life after university.

An example of a DJI research project that can be seen below was using the company’s drones to count Koala numbers around Australia after droughts, wildfires, and human development.

Are there plans to integrate DJI’s products into school curriculums?

“We are going to partner with local education experts to develop curriculum which aligns with Australian curriculum standards. We also work with local curriculum partners across the globe to develop and tailor teaching materials and courses that is more in line with the needs of a particular market or local institution. As we continue to expand our hardware, software / SDK support and competition kits, we are looking forward to working with more curriculum partners to take our drones and ground robots to more schools [around the US].”

“Teaching materials and curriculums is already a part of our all-in-one solution with the RoboMaster series and Tello EDU drone. For example, our Tello EDU includes project-based curriculum in which every lesson is based on real-life applications. Students are challenged to apply their programming knowledge to come up with a solution to a specific problem. In addition to their coding skills, students will also make use of logic, problem solving skills and teamwork.”

Head of DJI Education, Jianrong Gao

DJI Education products

Ryze Tello EDU

The Ryze Tello EDU is DJI’s first step into educational robotics which allowed students and anyone who wanted to learn to code flying the drone using simple commands via the mobile app. The Ryze Tello is not produced by DJI but does use DJI’s flight technology to provide us with the flight experience we expect from DJI products.

RoboMaster series

In 2019, DJI released its first fully-fledged educational robot with the DJI RoboMaster S1. While this is a ground-based robot, it introduces users to so much more potential. You are now able to control it with external controllers such as Arduinos and allows you to add third-party addons with an SDK and ability to code in Python, Scratch, and C programming languages.

Last month, DJI built upon its RoboMaster line releasing the RoboMaster EP Core, a new ground-based robot with a fully programmable robotic arm instead of the toy-like turret found on the original RoboMaster S1. The EP Core is focused even more on the education world as it is only available to educational institutions for the time being.

Photo: DJI