D‑printed Lace drone by student-led nonprofit offers modular UAV design for affordable environmental and scientific research.

On a frozen landscape in Svalbard, Norway, where the glaciers bleed into the Arctic Ocean, a small buzzing drone lifted into the air. Its mission was not surveillance, nor delivery. It was science.

That gap between adoption and confidence is where Mohammad Hamid of Detroit, Michigan has been focusing more of his attention. Hamid, based in Downtown Detroit and often called Mo, argues that drones ...