Public Dissemination Event of Sagro Research and Innovation Project

On 27 July, a public dissemination event was held within the Faculty of ICT at the University of Malta. The purpose of this event was to disseminate the results of a research and innovation project entitled Sagro (Situation Awareness and Guidance for RPAS* Operations) to the general public.

This was a Research and Innovation project, funded by the Malta Council for Science and Technology led by executive chairman, Dr Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando. The project’s aim was to develop technologies to enable Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (also referred to as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or drones) to fly safely in the presence of other manned or unmanned aircraft. Sagro was carried out as a col- laboration between Idox Health (formerly 6pm) and the Institute of Aerospace Technologies at the University of Malta.

Dr Ing. James Foden, MCST director of R&I Programmes, who spoke on behalf of the Parliamentary Secretary for Financial Services, Digital Economy & Innovation Silvio Schembri relayed the parliamentary secretary’s message by saying “such efforts in Research and Innovation help Malta to remain at the forefront of world class aviation research and help us achieve the goal of making Malta a one-off destination for such an industry. The Sagro project has benefitted from a €176,000 R&I fund through MCST. We look forward to supporting more research and innovation proj- ects that could create more wealth in our digital economy”. Further to the speech, Dr Foden spoke about R&I funding opportunities through MCST.

The event started with a short speech by Prof. Ing. David Zammit Mangion, director of the Institute of Aerospace Technologies, who welcomed the guests on behalf of the University of Malta. Then, Roger Archer from Idox Health gave a project overview and its findings.

Following these introductory speeches, speakers then proceeded to explain the research carried out in the project, with presentations by Archer and Robert Grech from Idox Health, and Kevin Theuma and Dr Ing. Jason Gauci from the IAT.

The event was well attended by representatives from various sectors of the aviation industry in Malta, MCST, students and the press.

* RPAS known as Remotely Piloted Air Systems is a device used or intended to be used for flight in the air that has no on-board pilot. These are controllable in three axes either autonomously by on-board computers or else by remote pilots in ground stations.