The Maritime Robotics for environmental protection in the Wadden Sea and Texel, May 2019
Just recently, in perspective of IMIEU’s Environmental Maritime Robotics Programme, a site visit was made to the Wadden Sea and Texel Island, jointly with the Dutch National Heritage Service, and IMIEU partners W-Sense and INDYMO. It was explored how INDYMO’s and W-Sense Maritime Technologies would function in the Wadden Sea. The goal of the excursion was to try-out the drone in tough conditions (streams, visibility, wind and the capability and the quality of the sensors). It was an exciting day in occasionally tough conditions, that INDYMO’s drone perfectly withstood. Also, a visit was made to the Kaapskil Museum in Texel, where there is an amazing and compelling collection of maritime archeology; where there was a short meeting with its conservator. All in all an amazing day! Also in the Wadden Sea Water maritime robotics seem to be able to perform useful additional monitoring complementary to the existing instruments. We will…
High-level conference: A global approach to sustainable finance in Brussels, March 21
IMIEU had a great opportunity of attending the high-level conference on sustainable finance in Brussels, March 2019. The conference was hosted by President Juncker and Vice-President Dombrovskis. The goal of the conference was to discuss a common vision and to underline the need for co-operation in the international financial system that supports channeling private capital towards sustainable projects. The programme had three main topics that were discussed: 1- On financing sustainable global growth: the need for international coordination. 2- How to substantially deploy private capital towards sustainable investments? 3- Digitalisation as part of the solution to mobilizing sustainable finance across the globe. IMIEU is looking forward to the EU Sustainable Energy Week that is going to take place in Brussels, 17-21 of June 2019.
Conference of the European Space Agency (ESA) in Leiden, February 2019
IMIEU presented the first poster of the European Lighter Than Air Network at the HAPS (High Altitude Pseudo Satellite) conference of the European Space Agency (ESA) in Leiden, February 2019. There was a lot of interest of the aerospace industry manufacturers (e.g. Sonaca) for some of the LTA carriers being developed. Notably at the ESA meeting was the presentation of Google Loon that put forward a very large structure already in place with groups of high altitude balloons (lift from helium), providing communication connections in Latin America, e.g. after the Porto Rico Hurricane and in the near future in Kenya. The ground operations seem also to have been put in place quite extensively. Besides there were at least three other initiatives for Lighter Than Air platforms in the form of airships presented: 1) Thales Alenia (France) 2) Alvea 3) The Italian
The Urban Sky Initiative is Taking Off
On March 15th the first 2018 meeting of the Urban Sky project took place on the premises of one of the key partners, Antwerp Airport. The meeting in Antwerp was attended by partners from the Netherlands, Belgium, and the United Kingdom. Present were also Rotterdam and Ostend Airports, the City of Ostend, Innovation Quarters (the innovation fund of the Province of South Holland/Netherlands as well as Portsmouth University (Mathematics and Urban Transport) and the Smart City Unit from the Antwerp Management School. The Urban Sky platform and project, initiated in 2017 by IMIEU, has the purpose: “Connecting Airports and Metropolitan areas in an innovative, decarbonized and passenger centric way”. Urban Sky will change the role of regional airports, also while looking at future of urban elecromobility in 7 years. Renewable Power Generation and/or storage at the airport is one of the focus areas of the initiative as well as, implementing…