The UNICEF Innovation Fund is seeking make $100,000 equity-free investments in technology startups that plan to use drones to benefit humanity.   “If you’ve got a start-up registered in one ofUNICEF’s program countries and have a working, open-source drone prototype or service (or you are willing to make it open-source) showing promising results, the UNICEF Innovation Fund is looking for you,” the fund says on its website.   The deadline to apply is 11:59 p.m. EDT on Sunday, July 22. UNICEF is seeking software to collect and share data, manage flight and delivery operations, unmanned traffic management systems and business models for sustainable drone services, among other needs.  

South Korea's second-largest mobile carrier, KT Corp., has unveiled an emergency network service platform that features UAS for search and rescue operations. Co-developed by a local UAS maker named Metismake Inc., the Skyship platform features a helium-powered airship and a high-resolution camera that can scan for mobile signals of people who need to be rescued. Capable of scanning for LTE or high-end fifth-generation (5G) signals, the airship can determine a person's position “to within 50 meters” before sending UAS to find their exact location. Once the signal of a survivor is picked up by the airship, the platform will deploy smaller UAS that will deliver emergency kits and supplies before actual rescue personnel arrive at the site.

In an effort to help members of its department fight fires, the Syracuse Fire Department has launched a new UAS program. According to Fire Capt. Timothy Gleeson, the department expects to use the technology for stubborn fires or on fires in large commercial buildings. Thanks to the drones' thermal imaging capabilities, firefighters will be able to see hotspots in stubborn fires and identify spots where roofs or parts of buildings could collapse, notes Syracuse Fire Chief Michael Monds. “We're aggressive. ... This is a really different type of concept,” Monds says via Syracuse.com. “To step back and get a good picture.”

In support of the Oklahoma Emergency Management and Dept. of Wildlife Conservation’s efforts to survey the aftermath of large rangeland fires that spread across hundreds of thousands of acres in Oklahoma back in April, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach students embarked on a UAS Disaster Study Away trip in May. Led by Embry-Riddle Professors Dan Macchiarella and John Robbins, the Embry–Riddle UAS Disaster Response Team started their trip in Arlington, Texas, where they underwent Predator/Reaper UAS orientation flight training. Following that, they went to the State Emergency Operation Center in Oklahoma City, where they received an initial briefing, and prepared to help with response and recovery efforts resulting from various severe weather events.