FabSpace 2.0 Darmstadt successfully finished First Life-Long-Learning Event at TU Darmstadt
Only two months after the great opening of FabSpace 2.0 Darmstadt continuous to work with the first Life-Long-Learning session at the Institute of Geodesy, TU Darmstadt in collaboration with the ESA BIC- cesah GmbH.
Session Overview
The task was to study the feasibility of Copernicus data (i.e. Sentinel-2 optical images) to develop application in the field of agriculture. Optical satellite images are widely used in agriculture for monitoring crops’ health, detecting plants’ diseases and stresses, estimating crop yield etc. In recent years some farmers are practicing precision farming which partly focuses on the use of optical satellite images.
There are public optical satellite image providers who provide coarse to moderately coarse spatial resolution images at no cost, while several others provide high to very high resolution images on a commercial basis. Therefore, image cost and spatial resolution are two important issues which are considered during image procurement for agricultural application. Recently European Space Agency (ESA) provides Sentinel-2 optical images free of charge but with intermediate spatial resolution and relatively short revisit time which rank the Sentinel-2 images with high potential for use in agricultural applications.
The current challenge is faced by the company Spatial Business Integration (SBI) and their focus on answering the following questions which are considered as prerequisites of using Sentinel-2 optical images for certain agricultural applications:
- Are Sentinel-2 Images available in a particular area of interest during the major plant phenological stages?
- Is Sentinel-2 images derived information comparable with information from other optical images of existing sensors?
Participants of the life long learning sessions hosted at TU Darmstadt.
Interaction with Users
For the first session FabSpace 2.0 Darmstadt welcomed 10 users, most of them are from TU Darmstadt and other organizations. The session was mainly steered by Md Bayzidul Islam (TU Darmstadt), welcome speech given by Prof. Dr. –Ing. Matthias Becker (TU Darmstadt), introduction to Optical Remote Sensing and Sentinel-2 conducted by Dr. –Ing. Damian Bargiel (TU Darmstadt) and conceptual speech given by Mr. Riazuddin Kawsar (SBI). The session was step by step learning by doing process where the manual of working process was provided to the participants. After the session we had the opportunity to have some valuable opinion of our users.
Further Propositions
After the scientific part of the event Sascha Heising (ESA BIC Darmstadt – cesah GmbH) joined the group to introduce the business implication of FabSpace 2.0 and to explore some opportunities in the future. “We also got some great user feedback” tell Heising and Islam after a busy 8-hour session. “University and Corporate Collaboration” model was a great achievement of this event, as FabSpace Darmstadt received monetary prize for participants sponsored by Spatial Business Integration (SBI).
The session will continue throughout the year with public-private collaboration. FabSpace Darmstadt will continue with the Startup and Innovation Day on 31. January 2017 at TU Darmstadt with a booth.
FabSpace 2.0 Darmstadt will be launching an Communication Base (ComBase) during the 2nd Startup and Innovation Day at TU Darmstadt
Only a few weeks after the first announcement of FabSpace Darmstadt, we are proud to launch the communication and networking tool for all the FabSpace users in Germany. The Communication Base (ComBase) will be the complementation of the existing Geo-platform and the FabSpace Laboratory at the Institute of geodesy in TU Darmstadt.
The registration at ComBase is recommended by the German FabSpace administration as one of the most valuable information platform that will be available first for registered users. The highlighted features of the new platform are the community tools. It is more or less like a “Facebook for FabSpace” explains Administrator Sascha Heising. His side kick Bayzidul Islam underlines the hope to “increase the speed of Earth Observation community growth”.
On top of that third parties are also welcome to present themselves and may be a scout for new talents throughout the network. At the end ComBase is just the next logical step for FabSpace Darmstadt on its journey to establish an Earth Observation community.
For more information please visit: fabspace-germany.de
FabSpace Darmstadt will be at the 2nd Darmstadt Startup & Innovation Day
The FabSpace Team Darmstadt will be at the 2nd Startup and Innovation Day with its own booth on 31.01.2017. The team will be presenting FabSpace 2.0 in general and also ask for users to sign ups for the platforms. In addition, the team will share first user experience with the audience.
Keynote will be from nobel price winner Dan Shechtman bachuped by a lineup from stakeholders from economics, science, politics and the startup scene. The startup day will focus on the local ecosystem and its potential.
For more information please visit the official website and find our report soon.
FabSpace 2.0 Open Days: Open to the Public!
FabSpace 2.0 Open Days: Open to the Public!
– Press Release 20 December 2016-
With free entrance, the FabSpace 2.0 Open Days welcome students, researchers, entrepreneurs and anyone interested in learning about the endless business and innovation opportunities offered by earth observation and space data.
Taking place in early 2017 in several European countries, these events will show the possibilities for developing new solutions and applications based on earth observation data and geospatial technologies in an open-innovation and collaborative environment.
FabSpace 2.0 is the network for geodata-driven innovation, leveraging space data in Universities 2.0. With funding from Horizon 2020, the FabSpace 2.0 project aims at launching GIS open innovation one-stop shops (FabSpaces) in European universities and Business Incubation Centres of the European Space Agency (ESA BICs).
The FabSpaces bring together a free-access service, infrastructure, academic materials, developing tools and hands-on-support. Their focus is on data-driven innovation, with a particular attention to earth observation data, a research area with high socio-economic impact. The FabSpace staff supports users in how to use the available hardware and software, and helps them understand how earth observation data and space data can be applied to solve every day challenges.
There are already six FabSpaces in operation in France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Poland and Greece. Students, researchers, entrepreneurs, companies and the public in general are invited to attend the FabSpace Open Days and get to know the entrepreneurial opportunities of earth observation and navigation satellite data in an informal and creative environment.
The Open Days will take place in several places – book your agenda!
02 February 2017: FRANCE, Université Paul Sabatier Toulouse III + Aerospace Valley
02 March 2017: GREECE, Institute of Communication and Computer Systems
08 March 2017: GREECE, Corallia
09 March 2017: ITALY, Universita degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata
28 March 2017: ITALY, ESA BIC Lazio
12 May 2017: POLAND, Warsaw University of Technology and OPEGIEKA
07 June 2017: GERMANY, Technische Universitat Darmstadt + Cesah ESA BIC
For more information, please contact: fabspace@irit.fr
Stay tuned!
FabSpace 2.0 Website: www.irit.fr/fabspace.eu
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fabspaceworld/?fref=ts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/fabspaceworld
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8544813
FabSpace Darmstadt. Photo credit: Sandra Junker
FABSPACE 2.0 RECEIVED FUNDING FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION’S HORIZON 2020 RESEARCH AND INNOVATION PROGRAMME UNDER THE GRANT AGREEMENT NO. 693210.
“FabSpace 2.0 Darmstadt” Explored First User Experience
[Users are exploring Geo platform in the FabSpace Lab at TU Darmstadt (Photo: Sandra Junker)]
FabSpace 2.0 Darmstadt is proud to welcome the first set of users of FabSpace in late 2016, just before Christmas. Most of the user were attracted by the successful opening event. Sascha Heising and Bayzidul Islam hope they will help to spread the word about FabSpace 2.0. On top of that, the two Country Leaders of FabSpace Germany identified a lot of questions, that will help to improve the communication and support strategy of FabSpace Darmstadt and all other European FabSpace. In the beginning of FabSpace daily animation and other support, FabSpace Darmstadt will work on F.A.Q., the section which will be available in the so-called Communication Base (ComBase) in the first quarter of 2017. ComBase will be an exclusive service for German FabSpace users and a recommended but not mandatory part of the local ecosystem. FabSpace Darmstadt team in collaboration with other European partners are looking forward to building up the FabSpace Community.
[Demo Communication Base (ComBase)]
Early user experiences
As the first FabSpace in operation, Darmstadt listens to their early users carefully. While having more than five active users one month after opening FabSpace Darmstadt keeps on a good pace before Christmas break. After the first round of interviews, it shows a very heterogeneous user group, which is actually great. Students, graduates, Start-uppers and also one senior director want to make use out of FabSpace in Germany. Most others are willing to learn and co-create in the field of geo-data driven open innovation.
First problems identified
FabSpace Darmstadt Country leaders also identified first set of problems at very early stage. Most of the problems were a result of insufficient communication but these first interviews helped a lot to improve the communication strategy. “The actual needs that users expecting are not so far from our offers, but we have to precise the extent of support we can offer”, explains Bayzidul Islam from TU Darmstadt. His colleague from cesah GmbH adds “it has to be clear that FabSpace is not a free consulting agency, rather its aim is to enable a free space for open innovation and co-creation”.
Improvement will continue in 2017
While being very close to the users, FabSpace Darmstadt finalizes the agenda for the first quarter of 2017. You will have the opportunity to meet the team at “Aufschwung 2017” in Frankfurt and of course during daily animation in FabSpace Lab at TU Darmstadt. Feel free to contact with the team.
FabSpace 2.0 Darmstadt Landing pages are ONLINE
Finally, FabSpace Darmstadt announces its first two landing pages which are a major part of the local FabSpace ecosystem strategy. They were published just a few days after the great opening on Monday 7th of November 2016. The landing pages aim at two specific target groups looking either for free space data and tools or challenging problems in the field of earth science. FabSpace Country leader Sascha Heising is very happy to unleash the first level of the local strategy. “We’re looking forward to see the feedback of the early users and how the pages perform in terms of SEO.” His colleague from TU Darmstadt Bayzidul Islam adds that “we have to take into account a few arrangements and optimization, but for now it’s wonderful to see one piece of our local strategy alive”. Of course the pages are embedded to the communication strategy concept and nicely mobile ready.
You can reach the landing pages at freespacedata.de and myearthchallenge.de
FabSpace Darmstadt – Successful Opening with more than 80 attendees
On Monday 7th of November FabSpace 2.0 Darmstadt was presented to more than 80 attendees with numerous backgrounds eg. industry, science, politics and society. To read the official local press release, please click here (German only). The event was hosted at TU Darmstadt in cooperation with cesah GmbH /ESA Business Incubation Centre.
The moderator Sascha Heising welcomed several special guests for their speeches. Welcome speeches were given by the Vice-President of TU Darmstadt Prof. Dr.-Ing. Mira Mezini, Hans Weigandt (Ministry of Economics in Hesse), Michael Kolmer (City of Darmstadt), Prof. Dr.-ing. Kutterer (President of the federal ministry of cartography and geodesy) and Juan Miró (European Space Agency – ESA). The event became more delighted because of the presence of Dr. Hansgerd Terlinden (President, Hessischen Landesamtes für Bodenmanagement und Geoinformation), John Lewis (former CEO of Telespazio VEGA), Dr.-Ing. Ralf-H. Borchert (Managing director, InGeoForum), Dr.rer.pol. Jürgen Born (Managing director, SBI GmbH) and Prof. Dr. Peter Buxmann (HIGHEST, TU Darmstadt). FabSpace Darmstadt has been successfully launched with a great acceptance in the grand Opening ceremony.
Sascha Hising explains about the strategic overview of FabSpace Darmstadt (photo: cesah)
Bayzidul Islam explaining technical overview of FabSpace Darmstadt (photo: cesah)
Prof. Dr.-ing. Matthias Becker (Institute of Geodesy, TU Darmstadt) and Dr.-ing. Frank Zimmermann (cesah GmbH/ESA BIC) welcomed everyone in the name of the two responsible partner institutions of FabSpace. They also highlighted the importance of the project and their involvement, while Bayzidul Islam and Sascha Heising revealed more about the project details and its local strategic and technical aspects.
Panel discussion on the topic “Darmstadt is the right place for Earth Observation EO Start-ups” (photo: cesah)
In addition to that, FabSpace Darmstadt also had the participation of Daniel Mesples from ESOC for the Keynote of the evening about “The Highlights of ESA Earth Observation”. There was an outstanding demo presentation from invited earth observation start-up “spacenus” in the field of Machine Learning & Agriculture. The official part was over after the panel discussion about “Darmstadt is the right place for earth observation start-ups”. In conclusion everyone was invited to stay for the get together on the occasion of 10 years of cesah GmbH.
FabSpace is a multidisciplinary team work and the door is just opened for potential users. FabSpace Darmstadt believes “Together we can make changes, together we can create breakthroughs”. To stay connected please join the online Geo-platform here “https://fab-server.ipg.verm.tu-darmstadt.de/” and also visit our websites.
FabSpace Darmstadt participated at SAP digital leaders summit 2016 and listen to Spacenus’ start-up pitch.
From the left Md Bayzidul Islam (FabSpace, TU Darmstadt), Riazuddin Kawsar (CEO, Spacenus GmbH), Lionel Born (CSO, Spacenus GmbH), Sascha Heising (FabSpace, cesah GmbH) (© SAP Digital Leaders‘ Summit 2016).
FabSpace 2.0 is an EU funded activity in the field of space data driven open-innovation and networking. Recently, FabSpace Darmstadt had the opportunity to join the SAP Digital Leaders‘ Summit 2016 held in European Space Operations Centre ESOC/ESA Darmstadt, on 6. October 2016. The theme of the summit was “Gain the competitive edge in a disruptive world”. The summit was an interactive session in the field of digital-transformation research and space-related applications.
FabSpace Darmstadt has the opportunity to meet hot startups incubated by ESA Business Incubation Center and SAP startups. Spacenus GmbH is one of them incubated by ESA Business Incubation Center Darmstadt whom we are cordially inviting in our Fabspace Opening Event to listen to their success story and their experiences in the journey of Start-up creation.
On 7th of November from 16:00 – 19:00 FabSpace Darmstadt will organize their Opening Event in TU Darmstadt, S3/20, EG, Rundeturmstraße 10, 64283 Darmstadt. At the Opening Event, Fabspace Darmstadt will elaborate their services in the field of Earth Observation as well as Geo-data driven innovation in Darmstadt, Germany as well as in Europe. Darmstadt as the European gateway to space science and the ideal location for the German FabSpace where University and Business Incubation Center of ESA will concentrate on innovative Earth Observation Sciences and Geospatial Technologies to develop an ecosystem for Start-up creation.
Do not miss the opportunity to join us on 7th of November in the vibrant event where you will find interesting Keynote on the topic of Earth Observation, Presentations and a Discussion Round on “Entrepreneurial Innovation: Darmstadt – the right place for Earth Observation Start-ups”.
Please do confirm your participation by sending us an e-mail to fabspace-darmstadt@freespacedata.de by 4th of November.
FabSpace Darmstadt made a splash at INTERGEO 2016 in Hamburg
Copyright: HINTE GmbH/INTERGEO
FabSpace Darmstadt was present at the INTERGEO 2016 in Hamburg from 11.-13.10. promoting the first Geomatic Days of FabSpace Germany. The INTERGEO is now the world’s largest platform for the Geospatial community with more than 17.000 visitors from over 100 countries. “INTERGEO is cross industry dialog at its best”, as HINTE Messe says.
If you want to find out more about FabSpace 2.0 and FabSpace 2.0 Darmstadt/Germany in particular, please visit our websites (down below) or just drop a mail to fabspace-darmstadt@freespacedata.de.
Copyright: H. Störkel. “Sascha Heising explains the concept of the FabSpace ecosystem in Darmstadt and highlights the opportunities for students”
FabSpace Darmstadt was hosted at the booth of ESA, SAT Nav-Forum, GSA and the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure of Germany. Besides talking to visitors and representing FabSpace at the booth the international trade show was a great opportunity to get into contact with several corporates and potential partners. There was so many to announce reaching from the FabSpace Opening on 7th of November at TU Darmstadt and the promotion of the Space Science Shops for corporates. In addition, a lot of students which were present at the fair talked about their expectations and needs. Now the team works on a couple of follow-up meetings to tailor the new impressions to the local strategy for the FabSpace ecosystem.
Last but not least Sascha Heising (Project leader, FabSpace Cesah – ESA BIC) sums it up: “We had the great chance to talk to over 20 high-level representatives of corporates and industry-leading businesses and also a lot of students who are highly interested in the opportunity to make use out of FabSpace during their university career and especially during their Bachelor or Master thesis. The knowledge and experience we have gathered from discussions were essential for our work for next months.”.
Please visit:
The FabSpace Darmstadt team exhibited at the 2nd Start-up and Innovation Day at TU Darmstadt with a small booth. Bayzidul Islam (TU Darmstadt) and Sascha Heising (cesah GmbH) had numerous discussions with enthusiastic students about the potential of earth observation. One of the evenings main questions – answered by the team – was “What is FabSpace and what can I do there?”.
Bayzidul Islam explains the benefits for users of FabSpace 2.0
Therefore, the Start-up & Innovation Day was a great chance to inform the visitors about FabSpace and its goals. In addition to that interested visitors were asked to sign up directly on the platform to participate in the FabSpace network, which was also a success. The audience had the opportunity to get a brief look of the two active platforms at FabSpace Darmstadt. The team was very excited to announce the new complementary communication platform “ComBase” and it was wonderful to see such a great first resonance with it. The team will sum up the frequently asked questions of the event and publish them on www.fabspace-germany.de under the F.A.Q. section.
2nd Startup & Innovation Day at TU Darmstadt gives tremendous opportunities to FabSpace Darmstadt
The FabSpace Darmstadt team exhibited at the 2nd Start-up and Innovation Day at TU Darmstadt with a small booth. Bayzidul Islam (TU Darmstadt) and Sascha Heising (cesah GmbH) had numerous discussions with enthusiastic students about the potential of earth observation. One of the evenings main questions – answered by the team – was “What is FabSpace and what can I do there?”.
Bayzidul Islam explains the benefits for users of FabSpace 2.0
Therefore, the Start-up & Innovation Day was a great chance to inform the visitors about FabSpace and its goals. In addition to that interested visitors were asked to sign up directly on the platform to participate in the FabSpace network, which was also a success. The audience had the opportunity to get a brief look of the two active platforms at FabSpace Darmstadt. The team was very excited to announce the new complementary communication platform “ComBase” and it was wonderful to see such a great first resonance with it. The team will sum up the frequently asked questions of the event and publish them on www.fabspace-germany.de under the F.A.Q. section.
Sascha Heising explains the FabSpace Darmstadt ecosystem with the two platforms as its backbone
While most of the visitors were students from TU Darmstadt, FabSpace was also proud to welcome some stakeholders from external institutions like IHK Darmstadt, HIGHEST (Incubator program of TU Darmstadt) and Telespazio Vega. During these discussions future, potential cooperation was discussed and some follow up meetings will be made soon. For FabSpace Darmstadt the Startup & Innovation Day was a fantastic opportunity for networking.
Warmly welcomed on the booth, Dr. Frank Zimmermann jury member of 2nd Startup & Innovation day and managing director of cesah.
Now the team is looking forward to the next start-up and founder event in just a couple of days. The Aufschwung Messe (8.2.2017) in Frankfurt/Main is one of the biggest fairs of its kind in Germany. The team will also be there with a booth. Finally, interested students looking for start-ups and founding opportunities had the chance to get some free tickets for Aufschwung Messe.