Dr Carmine Clemente, Domenico Gaglione and Christos Ilioudis from the Sensor Signal Processing and Security Labs at Strathclyde Space Institute, developed the idea with support from the Scottish Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications (SoXSA).
Dr Clemente said: “It is incredible to have won first place, especially seeing the calibre of entries. The competition is an exciting opportunity for us to accelerate our idea to a market-ready application.”
Dr Malcolm Macdonald, director of SoXSA, added: “This award is further evidence that Strathclyde is a leading international technological university at the heart of the thriving and rapidly growing Scottish space sector.”
The winning design is a ‘silent lookout’ system that uses low-cost sensors and satellite navigation technology for the early detection of UAVs, addressing concerns over public safety, security and privacy. The team is also working on a passive radar system that uses GNSS signals to detect, classify and track micro UAVs.
Stuart Martin, CEO, Satellite Applications Catapult and chair of the UK judging panel said: “This is a great result and reflects the quality of innovation in satellite applications coming out of the UK today.”