November 25, 2014, by Shubham Kumar

INNOVATE Anniversary – A year in a nutshell

The INNOVATE project reached yet another milestone on completion of its 1 year on 4^th Nov 2014. In many aspects this was a memorable year for everyone involved in the project. For the management board, it was the satisfaction and pride of witnessing their vision take a formal shape in form of the ongoing development and achievements of the INNOVATE team.  For us, the researchers, it was undergoing a whole new experience of working together in a team and getting the exposure of working in an industry-like framework while carrying out our individual research work in parallel.

Prof. Hervé Morvan giving an overview of the project during the INNOVATE Launch Event

It’s quite hard to believe that it’s already been a year that we first set foot on the Robin Hood County – Nottinghamshire. As I look back through this year, I believe that I speak for everyone in the team when I say that it was quite an incredible year for us. We were involved in so many different INNOVATE activities throughout the year that it just nullified any possibility of monotonicity that one might otherwise experience if he/she were to pursue a normal PhD programme. With events and activities all-round the calendar year and with the ongoing PhD research work, it seemed like we were always on the move and the year just flew by before we realized it. I think it’s pretty safe to say that Einstein’s theory of time dilation does not really apply in this case!

13 young, talented, promising individuals from different corners of the world were brought together for the project. From being total strangers to being colleagues and friends, we all have come together to form a very well-knit group of fellow researchers. It was an essential aspect of the project that we all gel together as a team because team-work and coordination constitute an integral part of this project. The UAV project and the INNOVATE Outreach activities proved quite instrumental in exercising and improving these skills. In words of Henry Ford – “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success”.

During the year we experienced moments of joy, excitement, anguish, anxiety, despair, satisfaction, jubilation and pride, and it went a long way in developing our interpersonal skills and professional attributes.

The excitement of watching your designs & ideas taking shape!

After bringing the UAV Project to its completion the team was involved in carrying out various Outreach activities to promote the project and encourage the youth in Schools and Universities to pursue higher education and research in the field of science, especially aerospace, to ensure continual development and innovation in this field for years to come.

As a part of these activities, INNOVATE registered its presence in the Farnborough Air Show and Mayfest by setting up an INNOVATE stand to promote our work. We also organised a water-rocket building activity with the children in Hempshill Primary School and we will shortly be conducting a UAV project with the students of the NUAST High School (more details to follow in the upcoming blog posts).

INNOVATE stand at the Farnborough air show 2014

In short, INNOVATE has shown excellent progress this year and it’s growing from strength to strength with every phase of the project. With our achievements this year we have duly demonstrated that we’re well capable of living up to the objectives of the project and we’re extremely determined and motivated towards continuing our progress in the right direction. It’s said that “time creates”; let’s hope that with another year of our perseverance and hard-work, we create more success stories to share here with everyone again next year.

Hempshill Hall Primary School pupils visiting the ATC

The INNOVATE stand in UoN Mayfest 2014

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