Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 21 | Page 18

NEWS Techstars brings smart mobility- focused accelerator to Turin, Italy Indra, Leonardo and Thales bring interoperability among control centres in Europe closer T echstars, the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed, has announced the launch of the Techstars Smart Mobility Accelerator based in Turin, Italy. In partnership with Turinese foundations, Compagnia Di San Paolo, and Fondazione CRT, and the Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center, the new 13-week mentorship-driven accelerator programme will accept 10 premier startups on an annual basis focused on transformative smart mobility technologies, with the programme concentrated on smart infrastructure and smart cities. The Techstars Smart Mobility Accelerator is part of a series of innovation and entrepreneurship-focused events and programming through a Techstars, Compagnia Di San Paolo, Fondazione CRT and Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center partnership that will build new opportunities for Italian and European entrepreneurs throughout the Turin ecosystem over the next three years. The Techstars Smart Mobility Accelerator will be hosted at the Officine Grandi Riparazioni (OGR) in Turin, a historic building recently transformed by Fondazione CRT into a centre for contemporary culture and innovation. The programme will be led by Martin Olczyk, previous Managing Director of the METRO Accelerator for Hospitality powered by Techstars in Berlin and most recently, Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) for the Arcadis City of 2030 Accelerator, Powered by Techstars located in Amsterdam. Olczyk brings over a decade of startup mentorship and early-stage tech investment to the programme, having invested, co-founded and advised dozens of companies and entrepreneurs over the years. “We are in the middle of a mobility revolution and smart mobility is a new and revolutionary way of thinking about how human beings, data and goods get around in a cleaner, safer, cheaper, more efficient and convenient way,” said Olczyk. 18 INTELLIGENTCIO The companies will help to solve the issue of a lack of updated information T aking place simultaneously in the Maastricht, Reims, Langen and Rome area control centres, 4DTM (Four Dimensions Trajectory Management) project SESAR members; Indra, Leonardo and Thales have conducted the first formal exercise to enable control centres across Europe to share complete information about air operations in real time. The ultimate objective is delivering at the end of the project the tools that will help to increase efficiency and capacity of air traffic management throughout the continent. After this successful trial, the final exercise will take place next year, clearing the way for deployment. (IOP) solution that will help to solve this problem, allowing all involved concerned ATC centres to know simultaneously the complete flight trajectory, thus supporting smoother coordination and transfer between Air Traffic Control centres, improving European air traffic flows. Europe has some of the busiest airspace in the world, covering 11.5 million km 2 of airspace managed through 63 en-route centres. Today, when an aircraft crosses several borders, destination control and airports may not have access to complete and updated flight information. The technological solution is based on Flight Objects that allow all parties involved in the management of a flight to share, access and update information about its situation to have a consistent view of its development. Indra, Leonardo and Thales, within the framework of the 4DTM project, have developed the Interoperability The demonstration involved EUROCONTROL and French, German and Italian air navigation service providers (DSNA, DFS and ENAV, respectively). The solution was tested in a variety of en- route scenarios, covering different stages of the flight. Results showed concept feasibility, increased situational awareness and seamless operations (for instance, change of route spanning several centres). n www.intelligentcio.com