Syracuse, Rome to host UTM Convention Tuesday through Thursday

Syracuse and Rome are set to host the 2016 UTM convention, which has events scheduled Tuesday through Thursday.

The Nicholas J. Pirro Convention Center at Oncenter in Syracuse and Griffiss International Airport in Rome will host the convention events, CenterState CEO said in a news release.

The organization first announced the event at SRC (the former Syracuse Research Corporation) in the town of Cicero in June.

UTM stands for unmanned-aircraft system (UAS) traffic management (UTM), a NASA-led research effort that seeks to “safely” integrate low-altitude unmanned aircraft (such as drones) into the national airspace.

CenterState CEO describes it as the “only conference in the country solely focused on UTM technology, policy, integration, and implications.”

The convention on Tuesday will include a tour of Griffiss International Airport, which is the home of NUAIR and one of seven FAA-designated UAS test sites.

UASs are also called drones. NUAIR is short for Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance.

FAA is short for Federal Aviation Administration, which is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The three-day event will also include keynote addresses from Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney and New York Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday at the Oncenter; and from Howard Zemsky, commissioner of the New York State Department of Economic Development in the same venue on Thursday, CenterState CEO said.

Zemsky is also president and CEO of Empire State Development Corp., New York’s primary economic-development agency.

In addition, NASA on Wednesday will conduct a briefing on its latest research, development and testing of UTM technologies related to beyond-visual, line-of-sight operations in “sparsely populated areas.”

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com