I am honored to be elected as your AUVSI New Chapter President. As you know the New England region is a hotbed of innovation in the unmanned vehicle and robotic systems space. We are now becoming known not just for technology but for sorely needed capabilities.

The Chapter and its volunteers are working to help grow the industry by promoting unmanned and robotic system benefits and by working with the legislature to understand issues and reduce regulatory constraints.

The Chapter participates in many regional initiatives, recent activity includes:

• The recent Navy Advanced Naval Technology Exercise (ANTX) 2019 in Newport RI showcasing the strong New England maritime capabilities and technologies in Undersea Unmanned Vehicles, including Raytheon’s Barracuda Single Sortie Detect to Engage Mine Counter Measures demonstration, General Dynamics BlueFin Mine hunting, and BAE’s new Riptide (small business) acquisition.
• The Robotics Industry Roundtable with Damon Cox, Massachusetts Undersecretary for Technology, Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Industry and Academia to aid the Baker administration in preparation for their next Commonwealth of Massachusetts Fiscal Budget and investment strategy for robotics.
• The Massachusetts TechHub Caucus tour together with Senator Crighton and Representative Ferrante around Kendall Square to learn of the innovative technologies and capabilities being developed.

Talking about events, save the date for November 20 as we are deep in the planning phases for our AUVSI New England UAS Summit in Boston. Topics include:

• Enabling UAS discussing policy, technology and test infrastructure
• Countering UAS, where the Massachusetts Counter-UAS Working Group will provide a status
• Advances enabling Urban Air Mobility such as vehicles, infrastructure and low altitude air traffic management.