Last week RiniGARD participated in the DroneWISE Final Conference that was held on May 20, 2022, in Amadria Park, in the city of Šibenik, Croatia.
A 2-year EU project DroneWISE is almost finished, and RiniGARD as a project partner managed the event. We have chosen the Amadria Park Šibenik as a venue for our last gathering. It was also a great location for our consortium partners to enjoy the beauties of the city of Šibenik and its surroundings.
The Conference was also open to professionals. Over 40 participants joined the Conference where they could find out all about the project and participate in a panel discussion.
The Conference started at 9 AM with a welcome speech by Dr. Holger Nitsch , a project coordinator from the University of Applied Sciences for Public Service in Bavaria, Germany. Next followed Mr. Filip Biočić, Head of Unmanned Systems Department by Croatian Rescue Mountain Service.
Dr. Nitsch presented the DroneWISE project in general, its objectives and implementation phases.
Over the next few hours, project partners presented the outputs of the project, especially the developed counter-UAV training programme.
The following partners presented all the modules that can be found on the DroneWISE Counter-UAV Training Platform:
- Modules 1-3 – Mr. Andrew Staniforth, Saher Europe OÜ, Estonia
- Modules 4-5 – Mrs. Jelena Levak, RiniGARD Ltd, Croatia
- Modules 6-7 – Dr. Holger Nitsch, The University of Applied Science for Public Services in Bavaria
- Modules 8-9 – Mr. Efstathios Skarlatos & Mr. Josif Levis, KEMEA – Center for Security Studies, Greece
- Module 10 – Dr. Borislav Mavrov, European Institute Foundation, Bulgaria
Mr. Antonio Klobučar and Mrs. Jana Miriovsky presented the training evaluation findings while Mr. Andrew Staniforth made an introduction to the DroneWISE counter-UAV Handbook. As an important part of the DroneWISE project, Mrs. Jelena Levak, RiniGARD, presented the DroneWISE Training Portal which includes the training modules presented earlier during the conference.
The closing part of the Conference was an interesting panel discussion that opened some new and challenging questions and introduced insights on the latest trends regarding C-UAV technology, experience from practitioners and why we need further research. The panel, moderated by Dr. Krishna Chandramouli, welcomed Mr. Filip Biočić (Croatian Mountain Rescue Service), Mr. Joerg Toepfer (German Federal Police) and Mrs. Fani Arapoglou (Hellenic Police). Conference participants eagerly asked questions, especially officers from the European Commission (DG HOME) and police officers, debated the mentioned challenges and received more insights from the panellists.
A day before the main event, participants were encouraged to participate in the latest C-UAV technology demonstrations, showing how we can detect and classify drone flights and legally take control over the aircraft.
RiniGARD Ltd did an impressive job organising the Conference and the chosen destination was just a cherry on top to fulfill this first gathering of DroneWISE partners, first responders and the interested public.
The full photo gallery of the Conference is available at the official web page: DroneWISE Final Conference
