Scientist Teaches Children to Pilot Drones with their Brains at Local Library
Columbia, MD – In a scene seemingly lifted from the script of a Star Wars film, nearly two dozen Howard County school children flew small commercial drones using theforce of their brain waves on Sunday afternoon at the Howard County Central Branch Library. The group of African American boys in middle and high school were participating in the Columbia (MD) Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.’s Kappa League Program.
Dr. Chris S. Crawford, Director of the Human-Technology Interaction Lab (HTIL) at The University of Alabama, was invited to Columbia to facilitate a STEM focused workshop that allowed the children to race drones with their thoughts using Dr. Crawford’s NeuroBlock software and Muse headsets that monitor brain activity.
BCI technology has drawn interest from futurist thinkers and investors such as Elon Musk and his Neuralink brain implants. Dr. Crawford on the other hand is pursuing non-invasive technology and working to make it accessible to the masses as an education tool. He’s using “brain drone racing” (users wear the headsets and compete to be the first to fly their drones across the finish line) as a fun and interactive way to engage young people and encourage more interest in physiological computing education.
“We believe that our next generation of scientists will push this technology far beyond anything we can currently imagine,” Dr. Crawford said. “That’s why our NeuroBlock software is written in a way that allows kids as young 10 to program machines to respond to electrical signals from the brain.”
Dr. Naja A. Mack, Director of Morgan State’s HAX (Human AI eXperience) Lab, is a former colleague of Dr. Crawford. Dr. Mack and her computer science students attended Sunday’s workshop to see the technology they’ve been studying live and in-person. Dr. Mack and Dr. Crawford studied together at the University of Florida and are now collaborating as Lab Directors to host a brain drone race on Morgan State’s campus during the 2024-2025 school year.
“It was an incredible display of science and innovation that you really have to see to believe,” Kappa League Co-Chair Arinze Ifekauche said. “Dr. Crawford is a former Kappa Leaguer and current member of Kappa Alpha Psi. He knows the importance of modeling success for young Black men. I hope that today’s workshop will be the one that inspired one of our students to change the world through science and technology.”
Dr. Crawford’s work is directly funded by the National Science Foundation. The Brain Drone Racing League was co-founded by Dr. Marvin Andujar alongside Dr. Crawford.
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