Drones, robots highlights of Dixie Crow event

For the nearly 400 students from Middle Georgia who attended the Dixie Crow Symposium 40, it was an opportunity to see drones, robots and other electronics that contribute to the Air Force's electronic warfare mission.

Two of those students were Ben and Jack Hartman, who are both home- schooled. The pair visited the Century of Flight hangar at the Museum of Aviation on March 23.

The brothers have been coming to the event for a few years, but this year 11-year-old Jack wanted to talk about the U-2 plane.

William Deaver was dressed in the U-2 pilot suit, which many mistook for an astronaut suit. He fielded questions from the children such as how one goes to the bathroom while piloting one of the planes.

Another exhibit that caught the interest of the school-age children was that of Bibb County's Team 4941 Robobibb, a robotics group that has 40 members from all seven of Bibb's public high schools.

The team at the symposium consisted of junior Hunter Fleenor, senior Sebastian Lauterpach and sophomore Dustin Tate Testa who showcased the robot that made it to the semifinals in a recent robotics match.

"It runs on Wi-Fi and creates its own network," Testa said.

The robot was controlled by a laptop and Xbox controllers.

Mercer University's Machine Intelligence and Robotics Laboratory students also brought robots to generate interest in the program.

"We always like to get out and talk about what we do," Mercer student James McNichols said.

One of the projects was a weather drone, and the other was a crop tester to be used for agriculture.

For the other 2,100 participants in the event, there were more than 30 speakers to choose from during the four-day event, all geared toward electronic warfare and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

One of the speakers was Lt. Gen. Bradley Heithold, commander of the Air Force Special Operations Command, Hurlburt Field, Florida, who spoke to an audience Wednesday morning at the Scott Theater at the museum.

Heithold spoke about the improvement time of the C-130 aircraft maintenance at Robins Air Force Base. He said it helps his team in Florida perform its mission, which decreased its production time by more than half.

"You guys continue to produce quality work," he said.

The symposium is the main fundraiser for the club, which has given more than $500,000 in scholarships since 1979 to students who are pursuing degrees in either engineering or science.

This story was originally published March 30, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Drones, robots highlights of Dixie Crow event ."