SESAR Innovation Days highlight cutting-edge solutions and celebrate promising young talent
SESAR Innovation Days, the flagship event for air traffic management (ATM) research and innovation in Europe, took place this month (11-15 November).
Hosted by Aeroporti di Roma, ENAV (Italy’s national air traffic control services provider), and Leonardo, and organised by the SESAR Joint Undertaking, the event showcased 54 technical papers, 37 posters, and sessions on topics such as climate-optimised trajectories, innovative air mobility, and quantum computing to over 600 participants.
SESAR JU Executive Director Andreas Boschen opened the event, remarking on the importance of collaboration in achieving a sustainable Digital European Sky, whilst emphasising the role of events like SESAR Innovation Days in fostering knowledge exchange. Keynotes from industry leaders and policymakers underscored SESAR’s role in addressing aviation challenges and called for bold innovative steps to achieve climate neutrality. In a series of plenary sessions, attendees discovered the progress made and challenges faced in achieving net-zero emissions, the integration of Innovative Air Mobility (IAM) aircraft, and the potential of quantum technologies in ATM. Attendees also participated in site visits to Aeroporti di Roma and ENAV facilities, witnessing cutting-edge technologies and SESAR innovations in practice, in both airport operations and air traffic control.
Closing the conference, the SESAR Young Scientist Award highlighted the groundbreaking achievements from students and early-career researchers in ATM. Yutong Chen from Cranfield University won first place in the PhD category for his research on conflict management in air traffic, using machine learning to modernise European systems. Second place went to Andreas Dilan Jean Guitart from École Nationale de l’Aviation Civile for developing robotics-based algorithms for flight trajectory planning, whilst Raquel Delgado-Aguilera Jurado from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid took third for her analysis of separation minima infringements.
In the student category, Samuel Christian Heilein from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) won first place for research on radar altimetry and barometric navigation, Manuel Lombardi from La Sapienza University took second for suggested improvements in Call Sign Similarity management, and Julia Schön from Friedrich Schiller University took third for her virtual reality tower workstation study.
