Outreach

The National Workshop on Smart Drones is held at the INAOE

• More than 70 students from Mexico and Colombia participate.
• As part of the Workshop, an autonomous drone race will be held outdoors.
• Within the framework of the opening ceremony, the company WG Drones made a donation to the INAOE.

Santa María Tonantzintla, Puebla, October 5, 2023.- More than 70 students from different institutions in Mexico and Colombia participate in the National Workshop on Intelligent Drones (TNDI), organized by the National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics (INAOE). ), center of the National Council of Humanities, Sciences and Technologies (Conahcyt).

The TNDI, which began this morning, brings together prestigious researchers and experts to address scientific and technical issues related to the development of intelligent autonomous drones. The program is made up of keynote conferences, plenary talks, tutorials, demonstrations and an outdoor autonomous drone race.

The event was inaugurated in a ceremony chaired by Dr. Edmundo Antonio Gutiérrez Domínguez, General Director of the INAOE; teacher Norma Angélica González Sandoval, President of the Board of Directors of the Mexican Federation of Robotics; Dr. Manuel Martín Ortiz, Director of the National Supercomputing Laboratory of Southeast Mexico and researcher at the BUAP; Dr. Ariel Carrasco Ochoa, Coordinator of Computational Sciences of the INAOE, and Dr. José Martínez Carranza, leader of the INAOE Autonomous Drones Group and general organizer of the Workshop. Xavier Páez, director of the technology company WG Drones, which donated equipment to the INAOE, was also present at the formal event.

In her message, teacher Norma Angélica González Sandoval congratulated the INAOE for organizing this Workshop and, in a special way, Dr. Martínez Carranza for his hard and unstoppable work in the area. She commented that drone competitions take learning outside the classroom, and stressed that robotics should be promoted at the national level because it promotes logical and creative thinking and strengthens teamwork.
For his part, Dr. Manuel Martín Ortiz explained that autonomous drones are used in different tasks, individually or integrated, operating in groups, such as search and rescue, creation of maps, transportation in hard-to-reach places, surveillance in security areas. interest, study of the behavior of wild animals, monitoring of health, crops and forests and study of the environment, among others, and highlighted the introduction of artificial intelligence algorithms in its development. He highlighted the support of the Supercomputing Laboratory in projects of this type.

In turn, Dr. Ariel Carrasco considered that artificial intelligence is still in its infancy: “There is a lot to do in artificial intelligence and what we need are the new ideas of young people and all their talent,” he emphasized. Finally, he invited the young people to learn about the INAOE postgraduate degree in Computer Science and I hope that they will return to Tonantzintla as students very soon.
In his message, Dr. Edmundo Antonio Gutiérrez Domínguez said: “We are committed to doing research, technological development, training of human resources and connecting with society. That is why in the new binational Mexico-United States semiconductor initiative, the INAOE and the National Technology of Mexico have signed an agreement for the training of human resources.” He thanked the young people for their presence at this event and hoped that many of them would be part of the generations that nourish the Institute in the future.
Finally, Dr. José Martínez Carranza reiterated his welcome to the attendees and, in addition, reported that the teams from the INAOE, the Tec de Monterrey Campus Puebla, the UDLAP, the Polytechnic University of Yucatán and the Aeronautical University of Querétaro.
It is important to highlight that this day WG Drones, a technology company located in Chipilo, Puebla, donated equipment to the INAOE. When handing over the equipment, Xavier Páez expressed his desire that this donation help young talent in an industry that is still “green” worldwide, which represents a great opportunity for development.
TNDI activities will conclude tomorrow. More information at https://ccc.inaoep.mx/~tndi2023/