The U.S. Forest Service used a Cessna 205 aircraft to discover that 26 million trees have died in California since October 2015. Instead of relying on satellite images or unmanned aerial vehicles, popular devices in today’s agriculture, the Regional Aerial Survey Program uses a more old-fashioned method of collecting data.

Following this week’s announcement of the Smart City Challenge winner, the White House is prompting a call to action for state and local governments to further build on smart city initiatives.

Farmers are concerned about some aspects of the Federal Aviation Administration’s recent regulations regarding unmanned aerial vehicles. Robert Blair, vice president of agriculture for Measure, one of the nation’s leading drone operators, specifically addressed the regulation that states a UAV operator must fly his or her drone within a line of sight.

Columbus, Ohio, is the winner of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DoT) Smart City Challenge and will receive $140 million in new investment to further its initiative.

Not enough transit providers are taking advantage of Intelligent Transportation Systems, according to a Government Accountability Office study. “Most small urban and rural transit providers are not using other ITS technologies—such as automatic passenger counters or electronic fare payment—due to the cost of the technologies or because there is no perceived need,” the study said.

Short attention spans are causing educators to rethink their teaching style. At the Higher Ed Leaders Forum in New York, panelists discussed the future of digital technology in education. Students are now accustomed to a certain level of technology, and have those expectations in the classroom.

In 2012, the Utah State Legislature recognized the importance of closing the academic achievement gap between wealthy students and those below the poverty line, and specifically wanted to find a way to close the gap before it even started. As a result, the Legislature passed a bill creating an early intervention program to help at-risk preschoolers. After looking at multiple programs and technologies, Utah selected UPSTART.

States are beginning to feel neglected in the creation process of FirstNet, a broadband network intended to provide wireless communication for first responders, according to witnesses at the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet hearing.

Next week, 16,000 educators will descend on Denver for ISTE 2016. The International Society for Technology in Education’s (ISTE) annual conference runs June 26-29 and will feature 1,000 sessions highlighting technology in education. Here’s a preview of what to expect.

An initiative is underway at the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory aiming to prevent hackers from gaining control of parts of the nation’s power grid, or Industrial Control System. As the grid gets smarter, threats increase, including damage to electrical equipment, local power outages, operational halts to production, and more.