Great ideas for satellite navigation
On 23 October the winners of the Galileo Masters 2007 will be announced at the SYSTEMS Fair in Munich. An astonishing number of new ideas have been entered for the competition, which is run under the patronage of the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Transport and Technology, and supported by ESA.
This year’s competition was open for proposals from 1 May to 31 July. Participants could choose in which of the participating 11 high-tech European regions they wanted to compete: South Holland (the Netherlands), Prague (Czech Republic), Madrid (Spain), Wallonia (Belgium), Hessen (Germany), Baden-Württemberg Germany), Great Britain, Ireland or Lombardy (Italy) which joined as a participating region just before the competition ended.
Now in its fourth year, the Galileo Masters has grown to become one of Europe’s largest networks for satellite navigation down-stream applications and now covers ten high-tech regions in Europe. This year 258 entries were received; double the number of previous years. Of these, 60% submitted entries for one of the special prizes sponsored by T-Systems, the DHL Innovation Center and the German Aerospace Center (DLR).
Selecting the winners
A team of 80 international experts from industry, research institutes, DLR and ESA have selected one finalist for each region as well as the overall Galileo Masters winner for 2007. The overall winner will receive €10 000, as well as extensive support from well-known industry partners and the participating economic regions.
The winners will be announced on 23 October at an official state reception at the Munich Residenz. On the following day a press conference will be held at the SYSTEMS 2007 fair and all the winning ideas will be presented at the Navigation World Area of the trade show from 23 to 26 October.
Original ideas from previous years include a mobility system to help the blind, a seismographic survey system, electronic car-sharing system and a rescue system for hikers; all take advantage of the opportunities offered by global navigation systems to create new businesses in Europe.
The best proposals are products that combine signals from global navigation satellite systems with other sensors and technologies, and which have the potential to provide benefits for Europe’s citizens.
For more information, see the Galileo-Masters European Satellite Competition website (http://www.galileo-masters.com).
