Virginia Tech® home

Kevin Kochersberger: Helping Virginia Tech soar to new heights in Malawi

A Group Photo of Students, Lectures and Officials.
Students in the inaugural class of the African Drone and Data Academy are pictured with UNICEF and Virginia Tech representatives.

When you talk with Kevin Kochersberger, associate professor of Mechanical Engineering and director of the Unmanned Systems Lab at Virginia Tech, it becomes clear that he enjoys flying – whether piloting a 40-foot long Cessna plane or operating a drone smaller than a toy car.

Since joining Virginia Tech as a faculty member nearly 20 years ago, Kochersberger has shared his expertise in drone design and technologies with Virginia Tech students. Now, he is taking his aviation skills to higher heights and educating a new generation of drone specialists thousands of miles away in the southeast African nation of Malawi.

Working with CIRED, Kochersberger helped the university land a UNICEF-funded contract to launch the African Drone and Data Academy (ADDA) in Lilongwe, Malawi. The academy will develop expertise in the use of drones for humanitarian, development, and commercial purposes across the continent through a 12-week course. By 2021, it plans to train approximately 150 students to build and pilot drones. Virginia Tech developed the curriculum that combines theoretical and practical methods for making, testing, and flying drones.

By 2022, the academy will run a two-year master’s degree program in drone technology in conjunction with the Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST). It will deliver a curriculum that will build local capacity and a favorable ecosystem for the emergence of sustainable business models for using drones and data for development.

Kochersberger said, “The academy reflects Virginia Tech’s ongoing commitment to the innovative application of drone technology and education in Malawi and the Africa region. Drones are very beneficial in Sub-Saharan Africa. Where you have transportation systems that aren’t functional, aerial imagery helps communities after weather events such as flooding.”

Kochersberger first learned about opportunities to do drone research in Malawi thanks to an invitation from a colleague. He explained, “It all began when a professor in my department asked me to accompany three of her Senior Design students to Malawi as part of their capstone projects. The three students worked on an intravenous drop project in collaboration with three Malawian hospitals. After that trip, I went back to Malawi with students enrolled in my senior design course to complete three water, sanitation, and hygiene [WASH] capstone projects.”

Virginia Tech Engineering students are required to complete a senior design course in which they work in teams to apply learned skills to a real-world problem.

Kevin
Kevin Kochersberger, associate professor of mechanical engineering, standing, provides an overview of the course curriculum at the opening of the African Drone and Data Academy in Malawi; at left is Babatunde Ogunkunle, a member of the inaugural class from Nigeria.
Kevin 2
James Donnelly, a Virginia Tech graduate student in mechanical engineering, demonstrates the EcoSoar wing fabrication technique during a workshop held in 2019. Kochersberger is at center; at right is alum Zack Standridge, who helped supervise drone fabrication as a graduate student in aerospace and ocean engineering.

“While I was in Malawi, I learned about the drone corridor in Kasunga, Malawi, an 80-kilometer corridor sponsored by UNICEF that was used for flying and testing drones. So, I approached UNICEF and asked if I could test in their corridor,” added Kochersberger.

UNICEF agreed to let Kochersberger and two of his graduate students test drones in the corridor. Subsequently, Kochersberger and the students hosted a workshop for 13 Malawian students attending Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST). The students helped build an unmanned aircraft called EcoSoar that carried a simulated package of dried blood samples to the Kasunga Airport. At $350, the aircraft costs a fraction of what a typical remote sensing and delivery drone costs, making it a truly sustainable aircraft design for Malawi and other African countries.

According to Kochersberger, “These international opportunities are beneficial for students who get a chance to work in environments where there may be environmental or cultural challenges. In addition, students must develop innovative solutions to address problems that occur in developing countries such as lack of resources.”

Kochersberger is also a member of TEAM Malawi, a group of Virginia Tech professors, students, and community partners from multiple disciplines that addresses community health and quality of life challenges in Malawi through technology, education, advocacy, and medicine (TEAM).

Kochersberger will lead the drone academy project, which will be managed by CIRED. He added, “I couldn’t have done it without CIRED. I began working with CIRED once there were calls for proposals, and they provided tremendous support on writing the proposal.”