Fraunhofer-GesellschaftFraunhofer honored for its winning satellite navigation ideas
Fraunhofer institutes took home a total of four awards from this year’s European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC). At the awards ceremony held on the 25th of Ocotber in Munich, the Bavarian Regional Prize went to the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, while the Project Center of the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML in Prien was awarded the HPI Special Prize. In addition to winning its region, Fraunhofer Portugal was also named overall winner.
Every year, the ESNC honors innovative ideas that harness satellite navigation technology and offers participants both the opportunity to present their ideas and the chance to get the backing they need to put those ideas into practice. The event is sponsored by the European GNSS Agency GSA, the European Space Agency ESA, the European Commission, the Free State of Bavaria and the German Aerospace Center DLR. The annual competition has been running since 2004 and is organized by Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen (AZO). Other sponsors include HPI Fleet & Mobility as well as the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI).
A total of 24 regional, 5 special and 2 prototyping prizes were awarded. In addition to the regional and special prize winners, the ESNC overall winner was revealed and awarded 20,000 euros prize money. This honor went to Prof. Dirk Elias, who now holds the title of Galileo Master 2012. Prof. Elias has been running Fraunhofer Portugal for the last four years and was also named regional winner for Portugal. The Fraunhofer research scientist’s concept for indoor navigation using smartphones landed him double acclaim – and this on Portugal’s ESNC debut. Fraunhofer Portugal is furthermore at the very forefront of international research.