AirFish
The University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Three of us come from Indonesia, and one comes from Japan, where fisheries form a big part of the economy and life in general. Airbus Integrated Fisheries Management System (AirFish) is our answer to existing challenge faced by the global fisheries industry: depletion of fish stocks due to overfishing. AirFish proposes the usage of a constellation of microsatellites that will enable a fast, accurate and economical ocean monitoring system.
Competing in a business competition is very common for MBA students, as it gives you a good opportunity to train your business acumen and creativity in an almost real-life setting. Fly Your Ideas is the right competition for us to develop an idea with the potential to make an impact, both in the aerospace industry and in society.
AIQinspect
Saarland University, Germany
We are enthusiastic engineers always in search of new ways to push the boundaries of the current engineering paradigm. We are building a comprehensive quality inspection solution which concentrates on assessing the quality of the rivets by gathering data from different sensors and a camera. The data is then passed through a trained AI model and visualisation of the results is done through HoloLens.
We hope our solution can be deployed in the real production and maintenance of all kinds of machines, making industrial production more advanced and future ready.
Move-ez
Politecnico di Milano, Italy
A proverb says, ‘necessity is the mother of inventions.’ The Smart Wheelchair for Air-travel Needs (SWAN) aims to revolutionise the experience of Passengers with Reduced Mobility (PRM) by converting a redesigned class of detachable airplane seats into wheelchairs. It is fully controllable by smartphone through a dedicated app.
A student of Politecnico di Milano and swimming paralympic champion, Giulia Ghiretti, inspired us during the project: she reminded us of the importance of taking always account of the needs of the users of the idea and made us aware of the positive potential outcomes of SWAN. We are motivated to make a real change in the state of art and to be an example of a new perspective, which we hope will guide the whole industry.
Osprey
The University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom
Our idea replaces traditional methods of cooling electric motors via a water jacket, with a network of internally located cooling channels, to dramatically decrease weight and allow the motors to run more efficiently and at higher power settings. We are inspired by the methods of cooling rocket engines and how this can be applied to enable highly power dense electric motors.
We are passionate about reducing the catastrophic consequences of climate change at the hands of our favourite technology, aircraft. We find flying to be extremely awe-inspiring and hate the idea that the aerospace industry is somehow inevitably always going to use fossil fuels but following our research we now know this not to be the case.
Seren
The University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
The Solar Windmill is a novel method of power generation designed for space. By tapping into high energy particles in planetary radiation belts generated by solar wind, our project aims to unlock a new form of renewable energy that is cheaper and more environmentally friendly than current methods.
We believe that many problems, like the trouble radiation belts pose to space travel, are simply misunderstood solutions. We hope that we could inspire young people to think about space and how they might contribute, just like we were by the likes of Curiosity. With any idea you believe in, seize it and try to make it work – it just might change the world.
The ‘Zero’ Heroes
Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands
One of the main topics in our research group at our university is low-power communication on zero-energy systems, one of the most prominent research areas for the factories of the future. However, no research is done on the implementation of such systems in the aerospace industry, which would reduce the weight, maintenance time, and fuel consumption.
We present a batteryless wireless switch that can be used in a variety of applications in airplanes entailing ON-OFF triggers within the aircraft interior. Potential applications of our system include flight crew service, controlling overhead reading light, monitoring seatbelt latch, detecting life jackets under the seats, baggage cabin door lock, and seat position detection.
V.A.C.A.
National University of La Plata, Argentina
Our cost-effective and easy-to-use app provides an integrated service for stockbreeders based on Earth observation, meteorological and IoT data. The app 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.
We came up with the idea after meeting a stockbreeder who was about to leave his business because of the huge amount of time it demands. The opportunity to develop our idea and introduce it in the aerospace market motivated us to enter Fly Your Ideas. We wonder how many people (and Argentinians) we could help with this app!