Jerry Jarvis, 22, is a 2016 honors graduate of Everett Community College with an associate’s degree in mechanical engineering. For his capstone project, he created a remote-controlled drone to capture videos of kayaking and rock climbing. He plans to attend the University of Washington in the fall.

Jarvis enjoys snowmobiling and hiking. He lives with his parents, Xiaoli and Brian.

What is a drone?

Drone is a general term used to represent any aerial vehicle that is not piloted by an on-board human. These represent a wide range of aerial vehicles such as the ones used by the military for surveillance or the ones seen on Amazon commercial, for package delivery.

There are a wide variety of drones. The ones used by the military operate more like an airplane, while the one I worked on is a quadrotor, which operates more like a helicopter.

What can your drone do?

Currently it can fly like how a helicopter would fly. It can hover, increase/decrease altitude, go forward/backward, left/right and turn its heading. It is controlled by a remote controller. My purpose for creating this drone is for aerial photography.

I mainly used it for testing different computer algorithms I’ve written to control the drone, and also for having fun flying it.

What do you want people to know about drones?

I think it’s important for people to keep a positive outlook on drones. I think drones sort of got a bad rep as being an annoying flying camera, but it can also have many positive applications. Imagine having a swarm of drones equipped with infrared camera that can be used for search and rescue missions. This would be much more efficient than a single expensive aircraft or a group of people participating in search and rescue.

Any close calls with other objects, flying and otherwise?

Yes, definitely. I crashed it into my house while testing. I lost track of the heading of the drone, and it is really easy to crash the drone without knowing its heading.

What’s next?

I think the next big feature is to add a GPS so it can fly autonomously. But I think the most important thing about pursuing this project is that it opened a large field of robotics that I did not even know existed — such as swarm robotics, where a swarm of robots can be controlled by one person.

If you could have a drink with anyone alive or in history, who would it be?

Subcomandante Marcos. He is the main spokesperson for the Zapatista, an organization fighting for the rights of the indigenous people in Mexico. He seems well educated, well spoken and his true identity has never been revealed before.

What’s your proudest moment?

The most recent thing I can think of is giving a stranger money for the bus.

What are three things in your fridge?

Orange juice, deep fried tofu and cupcakes.

What is your pet peeve?

I try not to have any pet peeve, but it is easier said than done. Recently I find it kind of annoying when an expected quick chat with a classmate turns into a long one-sided conversation where I’m just listening.

What is your guilty pleasure?

Shopping, buying nice things that I do not need, especially shopping online with Amazon.

— Andrea Brown

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