Press Release
Airbus experts have selected seven teams for the 2019 final of world-class competition Fly Your Ideas which invites students from around the world to innovate in key areas for the industry: Electrification, Data Services, Cyber Security, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and Mixed Reality. The finalist teams were selected after a three-month development phase working with support from Airbus mentors.
Fly Your Ideas gives students the opportunity to develop exceptional or radical ideas for tomorrow's aerospace industry. The selected concepts represent a range of trendsetting topics such as a ‘Smart Wheelchair’ for air travel or a ‘Solar Windmill’.
The finalist team members represent 11 countries (Argentina, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Moldavia, Netherlands, Norway, United Kingdom), 8 different universities and were selected from over 270 entries worldwide. Their academic backgrounds vary from Engineering to Information Technology and Natural Sciences to Finance.
In June, the teams will travel to Toulouse, France to work in Airbus' innovation and R&D facilities to further develop, prototype or visualise their ideas using state-of-the-art equipment with support from Airbus. On 27th June, the students will present their projects in front of Airbus experts and personalities from the aerospace and academic world, live-streamed in parallel to a global audience.
The students, competing for a share of the €45,000 prize fund and the chance to further evolve their idea in the aerospace industry, are clearly motivated by the digital nature of this year’s challenge, and the chance to change the world with their ideas.
The seven finalist teams are:
- Airbus Integrated Fisheries Information Services (Data Services Challenge) – Team AirFish, University of Cambridge, UK. AirFish is an ocean monitoring system using satellite imagery and
video imaging technology. It can help governments combat illegal
fishing, reduce bycatch of endangered species, and generally decrease
damages to the marine habitat. This project aims to improve the
efficiency of fish farming, making food production more affordable
whilst reducing open-water fishing and thus environmental impacts.
- Automated Intelligent Real-Time Quality Inspection Exploiting Human-Robot-Collaboration (Artificial Intelligence Challenge) - Team AIQinspect, Saarland University, Germany. AIQinspect will assist the human operator in performing rivet
inspection by using Artificial Intelligence. Quality is predicted based
on images and physical parameters while riveting in real time. The
resulting information is communicated to the operator via Augmented
Reality.
- Batteryless Wireless Switches for Airplanes (Internet of Things Challenge) - Team “Zero” Heroes, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands.Application of wireless systems in aircraft instead of traditional
wired systems. This idea solves the main limitation for IoT in aircraft
by removing battery integration - a current challenge for safety and
regulation. Furthermore it reduces fuel consumption and weight while
simplifying aircraft retrofit and maintenance needs.
- Motor Intra-body Cooling System - MICS (Electrification Challenge) - Team Osprey, University of Strathclyde, UK. Replacing the traditional method of cooling electric motors with a
water jacket or submerged cooling with a cooling system integrated
inside the body of the motor itself. This project has the potential to
provide mass effective motors for future Urban Air Mobility and Hybrid
Electric aircraft.
- The Solar Windmill (Electrification Challenge) - Team Seren, University of Cambridge, UK. A novel method of electricity generation for spacecraft using trapped
high energy particles. Using two concentric aluminium spheres, the
energetic electrons flux from solar wind trapped in planetary magnetic
fields can be collected and harnessed to generate power. This innovative
approach aims to store and generate energy in deep space where the
current density from sunlight is low.
- Swan – Smart Wheelchair for Air travel Needs (Internet of Things Challenge) - Team Move-ez, Technical University of Milan, Italy.SWAN is an innovation that aims to revolutionize the air-travel
experience of Passengers with Reduced Mobility (PRM) using IoT
technology. It converts a redesigned class of detachable airplane seats
into smart electric wheelchairs that passengers can use from check-in to
arrival. It is fully controllable by smartphone through a dedicated
app.
- V.A.C.A. - Earth-obserVation-data based Application for stoCkbreeding Administration (Data Services Challenge) - Team V.A.C.A, National University of La Plata, Argentina VACA is an integrated service for stockbreeders, based on Earth
observation, meteorological and IoT data applied to agriculture. VACA
aims to provide actionable information to stockbreeders on quality and
quantity of pastures, number of animals in paddocks as well as the
physical condition of cattle.
Teams will share project updates, photos, sketches and stories using
#flyyourideas with their posts captured on the social wall of the
competition website.
Airbus Fly Your Ideas is a global competition challenging students worldwide to innovate for the future of aerospace, designed and launched by Airbus in 2008 and organised in partnership with
UNESCO since 2012. Since 2008, over 22,000 students have registered for Fly Your Ideas from over 700 universities and 100 countries worldwide, with more than 500 Airbus employees contributing their mentorship and expertise to support the competition.
For more details and information on the finalists, please visit
www.airbus-fyi.com.
Key figures Fly Your Ideas 2019:
· Number of ideas submitted: 270
o Number of countries involved: 72 (80 nationalities)
o Number of universities involved: 284
o Top 5 countries: India – 43 teams, China & HK – 17 teams, France – 16 teams,
Iran – 15 teams, United Kingdom – 15 teams
o Gender mix: 47% of teams mix male and female students
·
Finalist universities involved
o University of Cambridge, UK (two teams)
o University of Strathclyde, UK
o Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
o National University of La Plata, University of Buenos Aires and
National University of the Centre of the Province of Buenos Aires,
Argentina (all in one team)
o Technical University of Milan, Italy
o Saarland University, Germany
Fly Your Ideas competition – since the 2008 launch:
· 6 competitions in 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019
· Partnership with UNESCO since 2012
· More than 100 countries represented
· Over 700 universities supporting
· More than 22,000 students registered
· Over 500 Airbus staff involved
· 1,900+ ideas submitted
