Northland Community and Technical College, in Thief River Falls, Minn., is using a federal grant to encourage high school students to consider working in the unmanned aircraft industry.

The college was just awarded a $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.

Jon Beck, an unmanned aircraft system instructor and program manager at Northland, said the college will develop science-based high school curriculum about careers in the industry.

The college will also hold a summer camp where students can get hands-on experience.

"Let the imagination run wild on where they see this going and what they might be interested in the future," said Beck. "It drives enrollment for our programs but it also just allows us to expose high school students to different opportunities that are out there."

Currently, Northland has training programs in drone maintenance and imagery analysis. The summer camp will start in 2016.