Attending the event were the award-winning teams and prominent representatives of the European and Emirati Space sector, with the speakers Luigi Pasquali, Space Activities Coordinator of Leonardo and CEO of Telespazio; Pierpaolo Gambini, SVP of Innovation and IP of Leonardo; Marco Brancati, SVP of Innovation and Technology Governance of Telespazio; and Stefano Beco, Head of Technology, IPR and Product Policy of Telespazio.
For the first time in the competition’s history, this third edition of #T-TeC was open to young people around the world, with over 70 students and researchers of STEM disciplines participating. They came from 22 universities and research centres in nine countries on three different continents: from the UAE to Argentina, from Turkey to El Salvador, including Italy, Belgium, France, the United Kingdom and Switzerland.
Participants presented their innovative solutions as challenging each other on four different macro-themes – Space Exploration, In Orbit Servicing, Geo Information Applications & Platforms, Space Situational Awareness & Space Traffic Management – considered of utmost importance for the present and future of the space sector.
A committee made up of Leonardo and Telespazio representatives, members of the European (ESA), Italian (ASI) and Emirati (UAESA) Space Agencies, and industry experts from seven countries, analysed the 20 projects submitted, assessing not only the innovative quality of the technological solutions presented, but also their sustainability.
CUSAT-WD (Weed Discrimination based on satellite imagery and UAVs in a precision farming framework), the project from the University of Namur (Belgium), won the Geo Information Applications and Platforms category. It aims to develop a tool for precision farming that will be capable of producing maps of harmful weeds infesting farmers’ fields. The maps will be produced applying advanced machine learning techniques to satellite images. This project was led by Antoine Hubermont (University of Namur) and Vito Trianni (ISTC-CNR).
As a Belgian company that also works in the field of geo information, we at Telespazio Belgium are very proud of them! Congratulations!