Business Program and Hackathon at the Digital UAV Forum in Armenia

The grand opening of the business program of the International Scientific and Practical conference “Digital UAV Forum” on IT development, artificial intelligence and unmanned aerial vehicles took place on October 17, in Yerevan (Armenia).

The ceremony was attended by the Rector of Moscow Aviation Institute Mikhail Pogosyan, founder of Moscow School of Management Skolkovo, co-founder of the Aurora Forum Ruben Vardanyan, Rector of the National Polytechnic University of Armenia Vostanik Marukhyan, Director of the Institute for System Programming of the Russian Academy of Sciences Harutyun Avetisyan, Deputy Minister of High-Tech Industry of Armenia Armen Abroyan and other guests of honor.

MAI Rector Mikhail Pogosyan: “By organizing the Digital UAV Forum, we create conditions for the innovative development of the most promising technological trends, and facilitate the training of complex specialists with competencies of the future. Promoting high-tech projects at the intersection of UAV and artificial intelligence to solve the widest range of tasks for the economy of the future, including the humanitarian focus, gives impetus to the development of research activities of young scientists and specialists from all world countries and teaches to cope with global challenges.”

Recall that the Digital UAV Forum is part of the Aurora Forum program, which is held in Armenia in October this year and brings together leading world experts in the field of social, scientific, technological, educational and humanitarian innovations. Within the framework of the forum, experts can exchange experiences and discuss examples of successful and revolutionary solutions to various problems.

Ruben Vardanyan: “We are very glad and grateful that our friends from Moscow Aviation Institute and personally Mikhail Aslanovich Pogosyan chose Yerevan as the venue for the Digital UAV Forum and became partners of the Aurora Forum and part of its program. The agenda of the Digital UAV Forum - the popularization of artificial intelligence technologies and unmanned aerial vehicles for solving practical problems - is also extremely relevant for the Aurora Forum, one of the key topics of which is innovation and technology. Yesterday, on October 16, another event was launched as part of the Aurora Forum - the Global Innovation Forum - 2019 “Transforming Intelligence”, and one of its central topics were also artificial intelligence and its application in practical fields. We tried to gather in one place the key minds of modern applied science, that is the moment when synergy arises."

In the second day of the scientific and practical conference Digital UAV Forum, reports were presented on such relevant topics as: “Technical and Economic Aspects of the Ose of UAVs for the Delivery of Goods” (Maxim Kalyagin, Deputy Director of MAI UAV Center); “Automation of Settlements between Operators of Telecommunication Companies” (Daniil Forshenev, student of Moscow Aviation Institute, leading engineer of PJSC MTS); “Actual and Promising Areas of Services Using Unmanned Aerial Systems” (Anton Nazarov, leading engineer of MAI UAV Center).

Also on October 17, at the conference, the results of the student reports competition were summed up. According to the jury’s assessment, the best were the speeches of Pavel Tyapkin (MAI) with a report on the topic “Software and Hardware for Measuring the Characteristics of UAV Modems” and Nerses Nersisyan (NPUA) with a report “UAV Control System and Selection of PID Coefficients in the SIMULINK Software Environment”.

Hackathon Results on the Integration of UAV and Artificial Intelligence Technologies

On the evening of October 17, at the hackathon as part of the Digital UAV Forum, the results of 36-hour work on cases from leading business customers in Russia and Armenia were summed up.

The hackathon jury included: Gleb Boyarsky (MAI), Arman Khachatryan (CJSC Lokator), Serob Muradyan (NPUA), Thomas Mazedzhyan (MTS Armenia), Vardges Badalyan (MTS Armenia), Konstantin Arkhipov (MTS IT), Alexander Shersebnev (MTS IT). The main prize of the hackathon amounted to more than 300 thousand rubles, granted by MTS of Armenia (VivaCell-MTS).

12 teams presented at the defense the solutions’ prototypes for four relevant cases on the integration of UAV technology and artificial intelligence created during the work at the hackathon. It is noteworthy that five teams at once chose for solving a case from CJSC Locator about using of UAVs for organizing rescue operations on water. To successfully create a prototype for this task, the participants had to propose solutions that would allow them to quickly identify the critical situation on the water with the help of a drone and an intelligent rescue complex, as well as determine the most effective way of providing first aid.

Arman Khachatryan, Director of CJSC Locator: “The problem of saving people on the water has always existed. At present, all rescue operations are carried out by people with a large concentration of tourists, as a result of which errors can occur with serious consequences. And in this area, people should come to the modern rescue equipment capable of quickly and accurately recognizing situations requiring the start of rescue operations, as well as finding and applying the most effective way to save people on the water."

The jury experts heard presentations of projects and appreciated the level of solutions proposed by the hackathon participants. As a result of the defense, the prototype of the solution created by the IMPROVIS team was recognized as the best. MAI team “Alpha & Omega” took second place. Sergey Kupriyanov (Institute No. 3), Nikita Permyakov (Institute No. 8), Oleg Sosnov (Institute No. 6) and Pavel Tyapkin (Institute No. 4) took DUAV.hack silver with a prototype drone-based cellular network signal tracking system. The solution presented by the students of Moscow Aviation Institute interested the representatives of MTS, which offered this case to work on a hackathon. MAI students received an invitation to hold a demonstration of the prototype they created in the capital's MTS.

“The transition to the digital world is happening rapidly. The pace is accelerating with each new day. Nations must decide: either to be at the forefront of these transformations and to be among the few who are actively leading in the process, sacrificing time, resources, making efforts, failing, learning and building, or not doing anything, staying away from global processes, and become a passive consumer of the crumbs we get. We have no alternative but to become one of the active centers of global trends. We have all the necessary prerequisites for this. As a leader in the field of information and telecommunications, VivaCell-MTS for many years supported the initiatives of young professionals. Congratulations to all the winners and participants of this significant event,” said Ralph Yirikian, General Director of MTS of Armenia (VivaCell-MTS).

At this Digital UAV Forum does not end its work. The school section of the forum will be held on October 19 and 20, which will include an exhibition of schoolchildren’s projects, drone assembly workshops and demonstration flights. The event is held at the Ayb Innovation School.