DUBAI, (Pakistan Point News - 16th Dec, 2021) Khalifa University of Science and Technology of the UAE has received an award for its project at #T-TeC 2021, the Open Innovation space contest promoted by Leonardo and Telespazio, held at the Italy Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai.
The university's project was about recharging remotely piloted aircraft (UAV) on remote celestial bodies using wireless energy transfer with Bessel beams.
This third edition of #T-TeC for the first time was open to young people around the world and over 70 students and researchers of STEM disciplines participated. They come from 22 universities and research centres in nine countries of three different continents: from the UAE to Argentina, from Turkey to El Salvador, including Italy, Belgium, France, the United Kingdom and Switzerland.
The participants presented their innovative solutions as they challenged each other on four different macro-themes – Space Exploration, In Orbit Servicing, GeoInformation Applications and 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 coming from seven countries, analysed the 20 projects submitted assessing not only the innovative quality of the technological solutions presented, but also their sustainability.
The awards went to the Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna (Italy) for presenting the "Multi- purpose modular satellite services" project (macro-theme: "In Orbit Servicing") dedicated to the development of a small modular satellite able to extend the lifetime of the space assets in orbit while also mitigating the problem of orbiting debris.
The second prize was given to a team made up of students coming from the Argentinian universities Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Universidad de Palermo, Universidad Buenos Aires, and Universidad Argentina de la Empresa, from the Universidad Don Bosco of El Salvador and from ETH Zurich (Switzerland).
The third prize went to a team of the CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique - France) and the University of Siena (Italy).
Four special mentions, one for each macro-theme, also went to the worthiest projects, which were above all chosen based on the value of their possible impact in terms of sustainability.
Luigi Pasquali, Space Activities Coordinator of Leonardo and Telespazio CEO, said, "Never before like this year has #T-TeC had an international nature, with participants coming from universities of nine countries of the world. The fact that many teams are the result of international collaborations between universities of different countries is also particularly significant as it stands as proof that innovation – just like Space – has a strong spirit of cooperation. It is precisely due to this peculiarity that we decided to announce the winners here at the Italy Pavilion of Expo 2020 Dubai. This international event par excellence is the perfect setting to underscore Leonardo’s commitment to promoting innovation and cooperation."
For his side, Sultan Al Zeidi, Principle Engineer - Space Projects Section at UAE Space Agency, said, "It is a privilege to be part of T-TeC 2021, a platform to connect with brilliant minds here at Expo in order to explore new ideas and find new solutions for the challenges we are facing. From UAE Space Agency background I believe we need to facilitate the movement of researchers, and this can’t be done without the support of space agencies as well as of the companies. We really appreciate this initiative done by Leonardo and it was a privilege to have us as mentors for supporting new ideas."
