This Week on the Central Coast
Fire Department drones, Microsoft, and Students at the Supreme Court
Salinas Fire Department begins training with drones
Last month, the Salinas Fire Department was able to successfully put out a fire at Taylor Farms with the assistance of drone technology. Thanks to the high-tech imaging, fire fighters were able to quickly identify the fire’s origin, as well as “a large supply of ammonia on-site”, preventing a much more dire health crisis.
The positive outcome of the situation prompted the Department to begin training a drone pilot team. The team consists of twelve firefighters who will learn to use the drones in a variety of situations. “We’ll be utilizing these on all kinds of incidents from hazmat, vegetation fires, building fires, to vehicle accidents if we’re looking for people who may have fled the scene.”
The article includes details on the different drones the Department may be using.
The Naval Postgraduate School is partnering with Microsoft to further its understanding and usage of technology. The two will begin a collaborative relationship to allow each other to grow and develop new systems that will help operational commanders make faster decisions.
In return, the experience with the NPS will allow Microsoft to develop these systems in a way that is cost-effective and more reliable so they can be sold to the government at a more affordable price. “One of the research areas the postgraduate school and Microsoft will focus on will be how to leverage gaming, exercising, modeling and simulation” to help the military.
Mount Madonna School students witness Supreme Court abortion protests first-hand
Every couple years, Mount Madonna High School takes 11th and 12th graders to Washington D.C. “to meet with both political leaders and leaders of non-governmental organizations” through a program called “Values in World Thought”.
A Supreme Court document got leaked to the public regarding their opinion of Roe V. Wade. Since then, protesters on both sides of the argument had been demonstrating outside the building, which was next door to where the students were supposed to meet their speaker. However, the speaker rescheduled unexpectedly and their teacher decided to use the opportunity to let her students witness the demonstrations with their own eyes.
One student said it was interesting to see people who were so passionately fighting for a view opposite of what she was used to seeing in our area. “In Santa Cruz, we’re so sheltered from super strong opinions like that, especially in our school. So it was a different experience to see the other side so passionate and so strongly against us.”
The group kept a virtual diary of their trip with notes on the different speakers they attended.