The guest
lecture I found most compelling this semester was the one focusing on drones,
their advantages and disadvantages, and the wide variance of drone application
worldwide. This lecture opened my eyes to how much the world is changing and
how much drones have the capability to fit into our evolving world.
Following
this lecture, I chose to write my first paper on drones and their military and
civilian applications because of my interest in them. The lecture and my
research following the lecture opened my eyes that drones are becoming more and
more prominent in our society. The military is using drones for target killing
and surveillance, law enforcement (especially in less populated and heavily
forested areas) are using drones for traffic monitoring, finding criminals on the
lam, and even finding missing persons in the wilderness. Other advantageous
applications of drones include monitoring forest fires in the safest way
possible, studying animal herds and their migration patterns, monitoring of
personal plots of land and crop growth, and most popularly capturing beautiful footage
of nature, cities, and large events from a unique aerial perspective.
Most
recently, Amazon has been testing drones for package delivery, which can give
them a drastic advantage that no other company will have. This points to the
fact that the standard 3-5 day delivery method could be a thing of the past. Amazon
says in many cases thirty minute delivery can be a company-wide standard in
almost all cases. This is truly revolutionary for the entire online shopping
and shipping industries. It is the cheapest, fastest, and most efficient way to
get a package from warehouse to your front door that we have seen thus far. And
it is all because of the evolution of drones. Before we know it, we will see
drones in places we never thought possible which is why I have such a vested
interest in this growing industry.
Before
taking this class, I was very unaware of the problems that Sub-Saharan Africa,
specifically Cameroon, face on a daily basis. First, many of their problems
stem from the corruption epidemic seen in their government. Because of their
financial corruption, government corporations that promote the wellness of
Cameroon are grossly underfunded. One of the biggest problems they face is maintaining
the wellness of their natural resources. Poaching, deforestation, overfishing,
and illegal logging are all huge problems that could be stopped with more
funding for law enforcement and equipment to stop the problems at their source.
And without these natural resources, Cameroon can potentially lose their most
valuable exports of lumber, rubber, and petroleum. This could be a devastating
blow to an economy that is already bleeding. Other problems Cameroon face are
sex trafficking, poverty, and shortages of clean water sources.
Blogging
about Cameroon all semester was eye opening and very beneficial to me. I
learned a lot about a region that is very different from mine, whether it be
their culture, their issues as a nation, their imports and exports, and the
general way of life there. It was a really cool experience and I learned a lot.
This experience overall was very insightful and gave me a unique taste of a
region of the world I may have never learned about otherwise.
No comments:
Post a Comment