CONCLUDED "AIRATHON" OF PRATICA DI MARE, THE FIRST TWO PROJECTS FOR TRAINING AND MAINTENANCE WITH IMPLANTED REALITY AND BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGIES WERE SELECTED

48 hours of creative marathon, over 100 participants, with 15 start-ups, industry experts, researchers and students from universities worldwide.

6 June 2018

Source: Public Information Office

Author: Major Stefano Testa

48 hours of creative marathon, over 100 participants, with 15 start-ups, industry experts, researchers and students from universities. It ended at the airport Military from Pratica di Mare, at the Experimental Center for Aeronautics of the Air Force, the first hackathon in the aeronautical field, which was aptly named “Airathon”. At the end of the 48-hour creative marathon, which involved 15 start-ups, representatives from five Italian universities and experts from the Armed Forces and the industrial sector were awarded as winners: two of the eight projects presented were selected as the best solutions for immersive reality and blockchain technologies applicable in the fields of training and maintenance on aeronautical systems. The first-place team, composed of the start-ups Wideverse and M3S, was followed by the teams of Impersive and Merkur.io.

A creative marathon that brought together subjects from different sectors and backgrounds – technicians, computer scientists, researchers, students, military experts and industry experts – with the aim of bringing together diverse experiences, concretizing the best ideas and turning them into prototypable solutions that can be applied in a short time in the logistics sector of the Armed Forces. In addition to representatives of the national industry and the aeronautical sector (Leonardo, Vitrociset, Techno Sky, Mimos – Italian Movement for Modeling and Simulation) and various Italian universities (Professors from Sapienza – University of Rome and the University of Tor Vergata, and the Pordenone Technology Center and students from Federico II of Naples, the University of Salerno and Luiss Guido Carli of Rome), the 15 sector-specific start-ups were the protagonists and the driving force of the initiative. In addition to the four award winners, the start-ups First, Bcademy, Edgelab, Elysium, Skylabs, Heuristic, ChainBlock, Lin Up, B2Lab, and weAR were also present. Technological partners of the event were PTC and Microsoft.

One year after the event “From Industry 4.0 to Logistics 4.0: The Race to the Future Has Begun”, organized last June in Rome, the collaboration between the Air Force Logistics Command and EY (Ernst&Young) was renewed for an open innovation initiative unique in its kind in Italy, the first event of this kind organized in the military sector, with a specific focus on the topic of logistics for the aeronautical sector and in particular on personnel training and the optimization of logistical processes through the implementation of new technologies.

“We are already in the midst of an industrial and organizational revolution, but also cultural – the so-called Industry 4.0 – in which new technologies ”They play a fundamental role in making systems increasingly interconnected and digital,” stated Air Force General Giovanni Fantuzzi, AM Logistics Commander.‘We are particularly proud to have We have organized an event like ’airathon“, and we thank all our partners for making it possible, because it helps us understand the opportunities and the challenges. challenges that await us in order to lead this change within the logistical system of the Air Force. We want it to be just the first step towards creating an environment of sharing ideas, experiences, and different skills, which can benefit everyone The interesting participants have ”dual” and increasingly profitable returns technological exchanges between the military and civil world”.

The participants, supported during the two days by experts and mentors from the Air Force and EY, as well as industrial and technological partners, were divided into eight teams that competed in developing integrated applications of augmented and virtual reality solutions, the Internet of Things and Blockchain, for combined training requirements, on-the-job training, and maintenance interventions within the systems and equipment used in aeronautical applications.

“EY has supported the Air Force in this first experience of open innovation aimed at leveraging the contribution of new technologies to the optimization of logistics processes,” explained Marco Mazzucchelli, Transaction Advisory Services Leader for the Mediterranean Area at EY. “The collaboration with selected startups represents a quick and effective approach to transferring technological, process and strategic innovation to the Public Administration, as well as to companies.”.

All the ideas collected, which were evaluated at the end of the event by a jury of quality, will in any case represent a further step forward in terms of the knowledge and experiential growth of the Armed Forces within a long-established process of in-depth study on the impact of new technologies on the logistical processes of managing and using materials and equipment of aeronautical interest. The Airathon in Pratica di Mare represents, in this sense, not only a great opportunity to stimulate broader reflection among the institutional (and non-institutional) stakeholders in the aerospace sector on complex issues related to 4.0 logistics, but also to promote knowledge of that cultural and technological revolution that is already underway in the Defense sector and that represents the engine of the National System.


Watch the video from Tg1:

Watch the video from Rainews:
/comunicazione/notizie/Documents/20180608_rainews%20airathon.mp4

Here’s how the Blockchain works for the Air Force https://mytech.panorama.it/sicurezza/blockchain-aeronautica-militare-airathon-hackathon/


The winners of the first Airathon of the Air Force https://www.airpressonline.it/33834/airathon-vincitori-aeronautica/