Prominent international drone experts at the FAI International Drones Conference and Expo 2018

FAI, the World Air Sports Federation, announces the full list of expert speakers attending the FAI International Drones Conference and Expo 2018 at the EPFL Rolex Learning Centre in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Global experts from throughout the drone world will gather to share their expertise at the two-day conference taking place on 31 August and 1 September. The full list including biographies can be consulted on the website www.fai.org/drones-conference-speakers.

Attending the event will be representatives from the drones industry and related science community, governmental authorities and regulators, air sports organisations and media who will hear presentations in Safety, Innovation and Drone Sport.

Speakers include:

Simon Johnson, Drone Industry Association Switzerland: Simon Johnson mentors and invests in Swiss tech start-ups and is an advisor to the Swiss National Centre for Robotics. Opening the conference, he will present the topic of ‘Current Opportunities and Challenges of the Drones Industry’.

André Borschberg, H55: André Borschberg completed the first-ever circumnavigation of the globe in a solar airplane without a drop of fuel and is paving the way for the evolution of aviation technology. He will discuss ‘Why Drones can play an important role in Aviation’

Grantley Reed, Freespace Drone Racing: With over 19 years of aviation experience, Grantley Reed represents FDR, who design world leading giant racing drones. His presentation will cover the innovation of the user experience: ‘Fans first: the FS500 large racing drones’

Tim Hosenfeldt, Schaeffler Group, co-founder of the Formula E, opens the DRONEMASTERS Meetup

Benoît Curdy, Global UTM Association: GUTMA represents over 60 companies with the purpose of fostering the safe, secure and efficient integration of drones in national airspace systems. As Secretary General, Benoît Curdy will discuss the ‘Revolution of classic air space management: how drones lead to live visibility of air sports and commercial air transport alike’

Max Hjalmarsson, Volocopter, presents ‘Taxi Drones: Volocopter’

Julien Rebetez, Picterra:  An R&D engineer who has worked on a number of remote sensing data analysis projects, Julien Rebetez works with Picterra on software architecture and machine learning. His talk will present the topic of ‘Artificial intelligence and Earth observation imagery from drones and satellite’

FAI President, Fits Brink commented: “The second edition of the FAI International Drones Conference and Expo has an all-star line-up of renowned experts coming together to share their knowledge. This collaborative environment will advance the technology, safety and user potential of drones and we’re excited to discover the directions drones will take in the future as a result of this conference.”

The conference and expo form a central part of the EPFL Drone Days from 31 August to 2 September 2018, including the EPFL Robotics Showcase and the Drone Innovators Session, and finishing with the EPFL Drone Race Cup. The EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) is a renowned engineering college, research institute and centre for excellence in robotics research.