Unmanned Systems Technology 022 | XOcean XO-450 l Radar systems l Space vehicles insight l Small Robot l BMPower FCPS l Prismatic HALE UAV l InterDrone 2018 show report l UpVision l Navigation systems

20 In conversation | John Vernon it gets to 99% certainty it will dramatically reduce time to approval,” he says. DroneUp builds its software in-house, the app development team consisting of about 30 people, all of whom report to Vernon. They are organised into groups that work on the back-end processing, the front-end web development, mobile apps for iOS and Android, and geospatial and airspace management issues. DroneUp’s web portal complements the app by providing a means of bringing UAV pilots and potential customers together. The back end, he says, is based on complex multi-index mathematics. “A lot of the problem we faced was grabbing the sheer amount of data from missions and requesters, and figuring out the best way to tie those pieces together,” he says. “You could put all that into a database and run queries,” he adds, “but it wouldn’t create a solution that would scale. Ultimately, we used index solutions similar to Elasticsearch.” That allows them to gather analytics and data about ongoing events in real time, and match capabilities with needs, either manually or automatically. Ambitions for the app Vernon wants to facilitate the use of UAVs for public safety missions. The goal is to ensure that the craft help but don’t interfere, for which it is essential to coordinate UAV missions with aviation authorities as well as civil and military authorities in command of situations on the ground. He is cagey about his career ambitions, and although he stresses that he loves what he does, he might want to apply it in a different way in future. “What drives me is problem-solving, but I’ve matured past the point of wanting to physically fix everything myself to where a lot of what I do now is more consultative in nature, guiding other teams to create solutions. I can’t see that ever changing!” October/November 2018 | Unmanned Systems Technology John Vernon, 39, has more than 20 years of experience in IT systems architecture, software solutions and development, information management, security and business operations. As chief technology officer of DroneUp, he has overall responsibility for managing technology deployment, network and system management, integration testing and developing technical operations personnel. Before joining DroneUp, he was the vice- president and chief information officer of Knowledge Information Solutions, where he was instrumental in the leadership and strategic planning for rolling out new products and services. He went to university to study computer science. After two years of that, however, he decided that the course wasn’t for him and that he would learn more in industry, so he left to get a job. “I wouldn’t recommend that to anybody now – I don’t recommend it to my own kids – but in my view, IT at the time was moving way faster than college education,” he says. “I was learning how to build motherboards and structure the components, and I saw that IT would always abstract to a higher level, so it didn’t make sense [unless I was going to go into chip fabrication] to continue down that path.” John Vernon The app gives pilots the opportunity to help their communities in emergencies, join the network and post mission plans (top), while the advisories screen (above) provides information about incidents, any restricted areas or special-use airspace, and the distance away for each emergency along with a map link (Courtesy of DroneUp)