Manuel Soler [SESAR Young Scientist] @ World ATM Congress

Earlier this month, the SESAR Joint Undertaking had the pleasure to organise a series of events as part of the World ATM Congress from the 3 to 6 March, in Madrid, Spain. Themed “From innovation to solution: partnering for smarter aviation”, the SESAR events provided the latest on the programme’s progress in delivering a solid stream of solutions in response to the most pressing operational business demands across Europe’s entire ATM system. This eNews provides an overview of the events that took place over the course of the Congress.

All this information can be downloaded @ http://www.sesarju.eu/node/1782

SESAR Internal Meeting: Providing members with a flavour of recent achievements and what is to come

The 2014 World ATM Congress provided the backdrop for SESAR members to come together and hear about the latest developments and upcoming activities of the SESAR Programme. This year’s internal meeting took place on the 3 March and was opened by Mr Claude Chêne, Executive Director of the SESAR Joint Undertaking, who took the opportunity to thank their members for their continued dedication and enthusiasm for the SESAR Programme.

SESAR Programme update

Florian Guillermet, Deputy Executive Director for Operations and Programme, kicked started the meeting with an update on the SESAR Programme. He outlined that the challenges facing SESAR in 2014 would involve ensuring the proper handover and transition to the next programme and striking a pragmatic balance between covering the whole scope of air traffic management and what is feasible.

SESAR ATM Stories

David Bowen, Head of ATM Operations and Systems & CNS-Avionics Expert, outlined the research activities that make up the roadmap for realising SESAR’s Operational Concept. Intended as a high-level introduction for aviation stakeholders, the presentation outlined that each area of research is grouped into one of seven priority strategic business needs.

Validating SESAR

Benoit Fonck, Chief of Development and Delivery, detailed the validation process of SESAR solutions, focusing on the results to be published later in 2014 as part of Release 4. He also took the opportunity to highlight the SJU’s new website, whereby the first SESAR solutions have been packed into a new online portal, allowing access to the research and development (R&D) results achieved by the SESAR Programme. The portal offers access to extensive documentation on each solution, including validation reports, technical and interoperability specifications, and regulatory recommendations.

Regulatory update

José Antonio Calvo Fresno, Chief Regulatory Affairs, gave an overview of the activities of the Regulatory department at the SJU, noting the involvement of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and 17 National Authorities and how their knowledge and expertise feeds into the overall SESAR Programme.

SESAR “Going Global”

Michael Standar, Chief Strategies and International Relations, took the participants on a global tour of how the SESAR Programme is seen throughout the world, highlighting the growing collaboration with the FAA’s NextGen project as an example of SESAR’s increasing global reach, as well as the initiative of the Chinese authorities to translate the Master Plan into Mandarin.

Demonstrating SESAR

In this presentation, Alain Siebert, Chief Economics and Environment, highlighted how the SESAR Programme has developed since its launch in 2008. He went on to outline his predictions for SESAR’s future evolution, which included more larger scale projects in order to further bridge R&D with deployment.

Towards 2020 – Delivering the ongoing Programme

Carlo Borghini, Deputy Executive Director, Administration and Finance, took the stage to give some insight as to what should be expected from the SESAR 2020 Programme. He took the opportunity to encourage members to continue in their active contribution towards 2020 and highlighted that we all share a responsibility to clearly demonstrate the results of Europe’s most ambitious R&D programme. He also took the occasion to present a short video showcasing what members views are with regards to SESAR 2020.

Recognising excellence

Peter Hotham, Chief Technology & Innovation and Deputy of the Director, highlighted how important exploratory research is to the SESAR Programme, arguing that it is exploratory research that drives the development of the next generation of innovative ideas that will define the performance of the future European ATM system. He went on to explain the importance of the SESAR Young Scientist award in recognising the exceptional contributions of young talent in ATM research and introduced the winner, Manuel Soler from the department of bioengineering and aerospace engineering at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.

SESAR: A young scientist’s perspective

Manuel Soler was the 2013 winner of the SESAR Young Scientist Award for his work on ‘Commercial Aircraft Trajectory Optimization based on Multiphase Mixed Integer Optimal Control’; his work being recognised for its innovative modelling and interdisciplinary solution approach to the trajectory modelling problem, as well as strong engagement with European research centres and with the USA. He took the opportunity of the Internal Meeting to present this research.

2014 SESAR Project Awards

This year’s internal meeting provided the backdrop for the 2014 SESAR Project Awards ceremony.  A total of 21 projects were submitted for nomination, 7 Best in Class and 14 Outstanding projects. The Awards were presented by Mr Claude Chene and Florian Guillermet, Deputy Director, Operations and Programme. This year’s winners included:

• Best in Class: Project 9.21, which was recognised for the considerable work it undertook in defining options and developing a framework for airborne ADS-B performance evaluation, which is now accepted by the global SESAR community and is being used by other programme projects.
• Outstanding project: Project E.02.06, an exploratory research project focussing on Passenger Oriented Enhanced Metrics (POEM), developed a brand new network model to explicitly take into account passenger behaviours and propagation of passenger delay.
• Outstanding Project: Project 6.7.1., was recognised for its pioneering role in developing Airport Safety Support Tools for Pilots, Vehicle Drivers and Controllers, with a very clear roadmap towards 2016.

Conclusions

Mr Chêne concluded the meeting by once again congratulating the winners of the awards and by thanking the participants for their commitment to the SESAR Programme.