FET-OPEN seminars with DG Connect

It is common practice for REA to organise FET Seminars with its partner unit in DG Connect.

The aim of these seminars is mainly to increase visibility and exposure to stakeholders on the most successful FET projects.    

On Thursday 25 October, Prof. Stephen Brewster from University of Glasgow presented LEVITATE. LEVITATE is creating, prototyping and evaluating a radical new form of human-computer interaction to create displays through which users can feel, manipulate and even hear three-dimensional objects appearing to float in space.

LEVITATE started in early 2017, however due to its highly innovative character, it has attracted already a lot of media attention. The project was even presented on the TV show Good Morning Britain on the UK channel ITV.  Other examples of LEVITATE media exposure are available here. 

On Thursday 8 November, Prof. Peter Baltus from Eindhoven University of Technology, presented the Phoenix technology. Phoenix is developing a novel swarm technology that will enable the exploration of difficult-to-access environments.  

Phoenix will explore inaccessible environments with physical agents that are extremely limited in size and resources, and can operate without direct control over software and hardware. With Phoenix, exploring the status of waste water under the Fukushima reactor or discovering suitable sites for underground CO2 storage will become possible.

For Timo Hallantie, Head of the FET-OPEN Unit in REA, hearing the researchers explain their vision and steps towards it, is incredibly enriching and exciting. "These seminars allow us to see the development of the project, outside of the review meetings. LEVITATE for instance is opening a new exciting world of possibilities in multiple fields such as health for people with mobility issues, beyond what I could have imagined. By using modern technologies like virtual reality, it has also the potential to raise the attention of children and youth to our projects. I’m already looking forward to the next seminar".