TEKEVER IT Hosts the iSAR+ Kick Off Meeting

TEKEVER IT hosted the Kick-Off Meeting (KOM) of the FP7 Research Project iSAR+ Online and Mobile Communications for Crisis Response and Search and Rescue at its Lisbon facilities, signalling the Project's official launch on January 1st 2013.

The meeting was attended by most Project partners and also the EC's Research Executive Agency (REA) representative, Mr. Sakellaris Hourdas, in the quality of the iSAR+ Project Officer, who addressed the audience with several key observations on the successful execution of FP7 projects.

TEKEVER IT is the Coordinator of the iSAR+ Security FP7 research project (http://isar.i112.eu) that aims to develop the iSAR+ Guidelines, providing instructions and recommendations for citizens and PPDRs for an effective and efficient use of social media and mobile technology in crisis situations, and the iSAR+ Platform, integrating ICT tools and functionalities that offer additional communication channels between PPDRs and citizens and enhanced high-quality situational awareness for PPDRs and citizens, during and after a crisis. 

Ranking second in its call's evaluation, iSAR+ is a 2 and a half years Project, with an overall budget of about € 5 millions for the 16 participating institutions of 9 European countries, also benefitting from the valuable contributions of transatlantic expert consultants in Chile and the United States, relevant to explore the applicability of the iSAR+ Guidelines and Platform to non-European markets.

TEKEVER SPΔCE at the QB50 Workshop

TEKEVER SPΔCE attended the QB50 Workshop held at the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics (VKI) premises in Brussels, where updates on the evolution of the QB50 Initiative and the status of the QB50 Launch were presented.

An EU FP7-funded project, QB50 (https://www.qb50.eu) has the scientific objective to study in situ the temporal and spatial variations of a number of key constituents and parameters in the lower thermosphere (90-320 km) with a network of 40 double CubeSats (miniaturised satellites), separated by a few hundred kilometres and carrying identical sensors. QB50 will also study the re-entry process by measuring a number of key parameters during re-entry and by comparing predicted and actual CubeSat trajectories and orbital lifetimes. QB50 will also accommodate about 10 double or triple CubeSats for In-Orbit Demonstration (IOD) of technologies and miniaturised science sensors and the Gossamer-1 solar sail technology demonstration package. 

At the QB50 Workshop, TEKEVER SPΔCE hosted a splinter session on the ambitious GAMANET endeavour, aiming to create the largest ad hoc communications network ever in Space, providing the networking capability to satellite constellations. This session generated a great deal of interest from workshop participants and instructive discussions took place concerning the next steps of this revolutionary initiative in space communications. TEKEVER SPΔCE's GAMANET proposition will join CubeSats and ground stations in a seamless communications network that will be instrumental to validate innovative communication technologies in space and to improve the overall QB50 communications and scientific results.

SAFECITY Successful Proof of Concept in Stockholm

The first SAFECITY Proof of Concept was developed and successfully demonstrated at the Stockholm Arlanda Airport. The use case scenario of Stockholm tested an express train derailment in a tunnel in the northern part of the Stockholm County leading to the Arlanda Airport, caused by a winter storm and provoking serious disturbances in the public road and railway transport systems.

The objective of the Stockholm use case was to demonstrate SAFECITY's increased situation awareness based on analysis environmental sensors. TEKEVER ASDS was responsible for the ad hoc radio network, which used TEKEVER Communication Systems' WAC radios and supported SAFECITY sensors and sensor adapters, gateways and the security manager. All sensor data was then collected locally in Stockholm and processed by applications running on the FI-WARE test bed in Seville (Spain), using FI-WARE Generic Enablers.

SAFECITY is a FP7 ICT research project (http://www.safecity-project.eu/) dealing with smart public safety and security in cities with the main objective of enhancing the role of the future internet in ensuring people are and feel safe and protected in their surroundings. SAFECITY will create an open IT platform for M2M developing eco-designed networks and sensors and high-value smart public safety applications and demonstrating the feasibility of urban public safety services, in order to highlight the positive impact of the SAFECITY solutions on a city's sustainable development. The eight smart SAFECITY public safety applications (video analytics, ad hoc networks, sensors gateway, real-time 3D positioning, road track and environmental sensors, information security, data fusion and decision support system) will be tested and demonstrated in use case scenarios in several European cities (Athens, Bucharest, Helsinki, Madrid, Óbidos and Stockholm), representing crisis situations where public safety and emergency responders take part.