Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014 | Volume 210 | Number 32 | 40 cents | iowastatedaily.com | An independent student newspaper serving Iowa State since 1890.
Up, up and away Student’s drone provides new opportunity for company By Sarah.Muller @iowastatedaily.com
S
ome may say it’s a bird or a plane, but senior AJ McNeil can proudly claim it’s his drone. As an employee of Peoples Company, a real estate company and land brokerage, McNeil flies a quadricopter with a camera over various properties and areas of land. “[The farmers] absolutely love me coming out there and flying over the farm,” McNeil said. After leaving an impression on the company after a career fair, McNeil approached the company about their potential need for a drone, but it turned out they had already been investigating the feasibility of using one. Up to that point, Peoples Company used planes to take aerial shots of the properties and had been considering using a drone since last spring. They allowed McNeil to choose the model and begin working as an intern almost immediately after classes were finished in May. “When you have to fly over with an airplane, you have to get a pilot and a plane,” said Steve Bruere, president of Peoples Company. “It’s a lot more efficient to use the drone technology to go out and fly over it.” Not only does the drone have the power to fly 500 meters above ground and take photos, but is able to capture videos as well. The company posts the videos online to appeal to potential buyers and to view trails, roads and lakes. It can even see specifics such as density of the timber and the types of trees, causing the experience to be interactive. On the agricultural side, it allows farmers to view fence lines, waterways, gullies, erosion and crop progression. “There’s definitely an art to flying it,” Bruere said. “You got to [decide] at what elevation is best to look at the property, what angles you want to shoot, what all you want to capture. Not only that, but you want to get the video edited and uploaded… it’s been a little bit of a learning curve.” Not only did McNeil and Peoples Company learn more about drones, but McNeil learned video editing and communication skills with agriculture professionals. Traveling all over Iowa, McNeil has encountered
Photo illustration: Jessica Darland/Iowa State Daily
AJ McNeil flies his drone on campus on Oct. 7. The drone, which has a Go-Pro attached, is used for his internship with Peoples Company to take photos and videos of real estate.
DRONE p8
New student-made app keeps campus updated on events By Oscar.Alvarez @iowastatedaily.com A new app will show ISU students which events they may want to attend. Nicholas Terhall, GSB director of student affairs and senior in aerospace engineering, developed an app known as Ventfull. Ventfull is an app where students can add their own events onto the calendar and rate events they think are important. The app is designed like Reddit. Reddit is a website that showcases what is new and popular on the internet. Users of Reddit provide all of the content, and they can vote for what they believe is interesting and exciting and vote against what they believe is unappealing. When the front page is refreshed, links with the most votes remain at the top
and front of the page. Terhall acquired the idea for Ventfull from a group of students who attended Brown University last year. “They developed this platform their senior year, launched it their senior year, and had quite a bit of success at Brown,” said Terhall. “My roommate from my summer internship this year knew one of the guys who founded it, and told me about it. I talked and worked with the guy since the end of June, worked with him pretty closely and developed it from there.” In order for this app to become a reality, Terhall had to work with a lot of different people both in and out of the GSB. “I’ve worked mainly with the three guys from Brown, I’ve worked with people inside GSB, I’m currently working with
APP p8
Photo courtesy of Nicholas Terhall/Iowa State Daily
The app is designed like popular internet site Reddit, where users can up-vote things they like and down-vote things they don’t. Terhall has been working closely with the developers of a similar platform that has had quite a bit of success at Brown University. This app should allow smaller organizations to get the word out about their events and get publicity that they would otherwise not have access to.
Greek chapters reviewed By Danielle.Ferguson @iowastatedaily.com Three ISU greek chapters are under interim suspension after an incident involving a pairing of chapters resulted in medical and police response. At least two of the pairings’ houses were involved in the incident. The Alpha Gamma Delta sorority and the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity are under review. The other two chapters in the pairings were Alpha Sigma Kappa and Theta Xi, according to a March 9 Iowa State Homecoming Facebook post. President of Alpha Sigma Kappa, Shana Matthews, said the sorority was not under review. President of Theta Xi, Elliot Rossow, said he could not comment on the issue until after consulting with the national organization. The Office of Judicial Affairs has put the involved chapters on interim suspension, meaning the chapter members and the chapter itself can be denied any activity on campus. A bus party on Sept. 20 at the Whistlin’ Donkey bar in Woodward, Iowa resulted in the arrest of an ISU student who is also a member of Alpha Gamma Delta. Police responded to a call at the Whistlin’ Donkey at about 8 p.m. Sept. 20 after reports of intoxicated persons needing medical attention, according to a Dallas County Sheriff’s Office incident report. When the officer arrived at the bar, there were four buses holding hundreds of passengers in the parking lot, according to the report. Sandra Sebastian, member of Alpha Gamma Delta, was arrested for public intoxication. According to the incident report, “Sebastian had bloodshot and watery eyes and the strong odor of an alcoholic beverage was coming from her person. EMS was not comfortable releasing her due to her level of intoxication.” A breath test showed her blood alcohol level was .212. Sebastian deferred comment to the sorority’s president, Rebecca Kohlmann, who said she could not comment on the matter at this time. The Collegiate Panhellenic Council required that each CPC sorority read a statement regarding the situation at a chapter meeting, said a greek member. The member wished to remain anonymous because chapter presidents are the designated members of the house who can talk to media. The statement told members there was an incident involving more than one chapter. A pairing withdrew itself from homecoming festivities to “regroup and focus on [the] well-being of the chapter members.” The statement also said the office would stay as transparent as possible with all the CPC members and the campus as they find out more information. Sara Kellogg with judicial affairs said she could not discuss matters during an investigation. “I cannot share information during an ongoing investigation, as we are still in the process of gathering information and confirming reports and details at this point,” Kellogg said via email. Alpha Gamma Delta and Phi Gamma Delta, have denied comment on the situation. “Due to the fact that this investigation is ongoing and we are waiting to hear an official outcome, I am not in a position to make a statement at this time. We are, as a chapter, fully cooperating with the university and our international headquarters on this matter. At this point in time, I do not know when I will have more information,” said Kohlmann, president of the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority. Trenton Purdy, president of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, responded similarly via email. “This is still an ongoing investigation. Our chapter is fully cooperating with the university, but because there is no official outcome I still don’t feel that I am in a position to make any further comment. At this point in time I do not know when I will have more information,” he said. Sarah Muller contributed to this article.