Genius NY teams at Syracuse Tech Garden competing for $1M grand prize

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSY-TV) - A new group of drone companies is now at The Tech Garden in Syracuse.

The five companies are hoping to win $1 million in Round 3 of the GENIUS NY competition.

They all say they're excited to be in Syracuse because of the drone ecosystem that exits in Central New York.

GENIUS NY Director Jon Parry says, "These companies are knocking on our door to get here, right to Syracuse to be part of the ecosystem, to leverage the investment the State is willing to put behind them and to create jobs, that's our number one goal here."

The companies are from around the world including CivDrone of Israel.

It uses drones to physically put markers in the ground at construction sites like roads, rail, ports, pipelines, solar panel fields, long linear projects.

CEO and Founder Tom Yeshurun says, "No more trying to find a blueprint."

"You never have to own a drone, you never have to know how to fly a drone, you never have to deal with regulations," says Brian Streem of Vermeer from Brooklyn.

By downloading the app from Vermeer it pulls up a 3D model of anyplace in the US and you use your phone like a camera.

Streem tells NewsChannel 9, "You send those shots to somebody with a drone locally, they pull it out of the trunk of the car, they download your shot. The drone autonomously goes click, click, click and two days later like magic for a fee you get the footage."

ResilienX of Syracuse calls itself a "check engine light" for the drone ecosystem.

Andrew Carter is the President & Co-Founder, ResilienX.

He tells NewsChannel 9, "When you start going Beyond Visual Line of Sight and you don't know what's out there and you don't know what your drone is doing, you're having to rely on other systems the system robustness and resiliency to failure become a much bigger factor."

Patrick Walsh, CEO & Co-Founder of EagleHawk, says "We've inspected 700-plus buildings and we found that 70-80-percent show signs of leakage."

But thanks to the infrared technology for drones developed by EagleHawk of Buffalo it can see water leakage that can't be seen with the naked eye.

Sentient Blue of Italy is developing hybrid power systems that will double the length of time a drone can be in the air and help with power loss to the cold, which they say can sometimes be as much as 50-percent.

The company's Business Developer, Miguel Dupret, tells NewsChannel 9, "This technology now allows for you to do Amazon deliveries, this technology now allows you to transport very large, heavy merchandise in very difficult environments."

The Italian company is already looking at building a factory near Griffiss International Airport in Rome, site of the of the nation's seven FAA approved drone test sites.