Awards
2024 – ESA BIC incubator Program for AI-Methods Spin Off.
2023 – Luis Azcárraga Award. Fundación EnAire. National level, 10.000 €. Awarded to Paper[1] This award distinguishes annual scientific studies with unique contributions to air transportation. The jury valued “the remarkable impact of this research on algorithms for the planning of climate-optimal aircraft trajectories at network scale, as well as the potential of its possible application for the reduction of the carbon footprint of aviation, which is essential in the fight against climate change.”
[1] Fateme Baneshi, Abolfazl Simorgh, Manuel Soler. Conflict Assessment and Resolution of Climate Optimal Aircraft Trajectories at Network Scale. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment. Volume 115, February 2023.
2023 – Spin-Off accelerator award: Selected in the 1st edition (2023) of the EnAire acceleration program for Start-Ups (31 start-up worldwide, 8 from the US) with “Applied Innovation Methods” (co-founded by Dr. Soler). 40.000€ and 6-months fast-track innovation program to deploy the solution of the company.
2023 Digital Sky Award – ISOBAR, Best Exploratory Research project. The ISOBAR project was recognised for prototyping a storm forecaster tailored to air traffic management and a user-driven mitigation plan that takes into account flow constraints and network effects. The set of weather management boosters includes a neural network that integrates convective prediction into a structured airspace map, together with a set of AI modules, such as AI-based hotspot detection and adaptive mitigation measures, to support decision-making by the human operator.
SESAR JU Awards 2021 – Sustainability Award. – The category recognised projects offering multifaceted solutions to reducing ATM’s impact on the environment (noise and emissions), contributing towards making Europe the most environmentally-friendly sky to fly in the world. The winning project, Flying Air Traffic Management for the benefit of environment and climate – FlyATM4E, is developing a concept to identify climate-optimised aircraft trajectories, which enable a robust and eco-efficient reduction in aviation’s climate impact. Climate optimisation will consider CO2 and non-CO2 effects, such as contrails and contrail-cirrus, water vapour, NOx and particulate emissions. https://www.sesarju.eu/awards2021
2021- UC3M’s TFM Emprende Award (acting as a mentor). 1st position 10,000 Euro.
2019–Luis Azcárraga Award. Fundación EnAire: National, 12k €. For (González-Arribas, Soler et al. 2018).
2019- UC3M’s TFG Emprende Award (acting as a mentor). 1st position 10,000 Euro.
2016–Luis Azcárraga Award. Fundación EnAire: National,12k€. For (Soler, Olivares et al. 2015)
2013–SESAR Young Scientist Award. SESAR JTU: European level, 5000 Euros. Awarded “for its innovative modeling and interdisciplinary solution approach to the trajectory modeling problem, as well as strong engagement with European Research Centres and the USA”. This award provided me the opportunity to present my PhD Thesis at the World ATM Congress (~400 attendees to the talk; ~7000 to the event).
INVITED TALKS AND SEMINARS
2023-Sustainable Skies Conference: Contrail in Focus. Organized by Eurocontrol. Invited as Speaker (together with S. Barret (MIT), S. Mathees (DLR), etc.). The event brought together scientists, the aviation industry, policy makers to improve the understanding on contrails & contrail-induced cirrus clouds. The 2-day event (Nov’23) had 250 attendees on site and over 2,000 participants online (peaking at nearly 4,000).
2022 – Appointed @ ICRAT (International Conference for Research Air Transportation) scientific committee.
2022-SESAR innovation days conference. Invited as panellist “Aviation and climate change panel”.
2021-World Meteorological Conference. Invited as panellist “Meteorology and aviation panel”
2018-2020 Lead of the Challenge «Efficient provision and use of meteorological information in ATM» at SESAR network http://www.engagektn.com/. Moderating panels & attending to meetings.
