The SkyImpact Challenge, the acceleration programme of the New Heraklion International Airport of Crete (DAIK), was successfully completed with strong participation from the academic and technology communities. The programme aims to foster innovation and young entrepreneurship in the fields of aviation and critical infrastructure.

The awards ceremony for the three winning teams took place a few days ago at the Cultural Conference Center of Heraklion, in the presence of representatives from various organisations, members of the scientific community and DAIK executives.

During the event, proposals from ten teams were presented, standing out for their originality, technological maturity and the value they could bring to the operation of critical infrastructure, such as the new airport at Kastelli, Heraklion, Crete.

The following teams took the top three places:

1st Place – TLScope (Crete)

• Proposal: Real-time detection of malicious activity in critical infrastructure using Artificial Intelligence.
• Team members: Evangelia Papadogiannaki, Sotiris Ioannidis, Manos Michalodimitrakis and Giannis Lamprou.

2nd Place – SigniVoice (Athens)

• Proposal: Translation of Sign Language into spoken language through an AI avatar.
• Team members: Dionysis Chondros, Dimosthenis Myrkos, Nikolas Margaronis, Stelios Nikolacakis, Giannis Apostolakis and Kostas Katsoulas.

3rd Place – Door-to-Gate (Patras)

• Proposal: An integrated remote baggage collection and transportation service from home to the boarding gate.
• Team members: Eleni Paraskevi Paraschi, Evangelia Pantelaki, Dimitris Zopounidis, Manolis Karachalios and Konstantinos Malagas.

The Chief Executive Officer of DAIK, Mr Nikos Anastasiou, stated:

“Today, we are taking one of the many steps we have planned in order to make the new airport much more than just an airport. We want to create a driver of growth for Crete. The SkyImpact Challenge awards ceremony marks the completion of a successful first step in highlighting the potential of the new generation and its ability to produce value-added solutions for the aviation and critical infrastructure sectors.

The New Airport’s partnerships with Crete’s university community, which has demonstrated a wealth of research activity, as well as with start-ups in the field of innovation, are a key strategic objective for DAIK. This initiative does not end here, as a series of further development stages will follow, not only for the award-winning ideas but also for most of the ideas that entered the acceleration process.”

The New Heraklion International Airport of Crete warmly thanks all the teams that participated in the programme, its partners, academics and mentors, as well as Bizrupt for the successful implementation of the initiative.