|
Newsletters
|
|
|
|
|
Wireless Developer Network - Daily News
View Today's WirelessDeveloper NewsWire
Today's News |
WirelessDevNet DevZones |
Yesterday's News |
Submit News |
News-"wireless" Top Stories! |
Around-The-Web
| Wireless DevZones!
GNSS 2003 – The European Navigation Conference
A review by Günther Abwerzger, Elmar Wasle
GNSS 2003 Local Organising Committee
GNSS 2003 – The European Navigation conference was the seventh conference in the GNSS series held under the auspices of the European Group of Institutes of Navigation (EUGIN). The conference was hosted by the Austrian Institute of Navigation (OVN), organised by TeleConsult Austria (www.teleconsult-austria.at) and ran from 22-25 April 2003 in Graz, Austria.
The conference focused on the present status, as well as on future developments in navigation systems, with special emphasis on Galileo. Thus, GNSS 2003 was a showcase for state of the art and, more important, for innovations in the field of terrestrial and satellite navigation. The implementation of new technologies in navigation was illustrated by the industry exhibition, which ran in parallel to the conference.
The programme of the conference started on Wednesday with an introduction into the field of navigation, given by the last year’s winner of the GNSS Best Presentation Award, Dr. Christian Tiberius from Delft University of Technology. Afterwards, the official opening session of the GNSS 2003 conference started. Beside the excellent keynote speeches given by Prof. Vidal Ashkenazi (Nottingham Scientific Ltd.) and Prof. David Last (University of Wales), the plenary session comprised welcome addresses of representatives from the European Group of Institutes of Navigation (EUGIN), the Austrian Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation, and Technology (BMVIT), and the Austrian Institute of Navigation (OVN). Further, the plenary session included an interactive and interesting round table discussion. Representatives from the U.S. GPS, the Russian GLONASS, the European Galileo, the Japanese MSAS/QZSS, and the Chinese BEIDOU talked about the present status and future developments of the navigation systems.
The general scientific programme of the conference was scheduled in parallel sessions. Every session comprised four oral presentations. Apart from the traditional scheme of presentations and sessions, the GNSS 2003 also offered Flashlight sessions. One Flashlight session included twelve short presentations. The assigned time to each speaker was 5 minutes. Thus, the presenting person had the opportunity to introduce her/himself and to briefly inform the audience about the contents of her/his scientific work. Although the idea of organising flashlight sessions was innovative and to some extent a daring attempt, the concept turned out to be effective. All presenters did strictly keep their assigned time and have also been able to generate interest within the audience in their work and results.
The scientific programme of the conference was finally completed by a plenary closing session. One of the closing session’s highlights was the awarding of the GNSS Best Presentation Award. The winner of this year’s Best Presentation Award is Wouter J. Pelgrum (The Netherlands). Congratulations on a fabulous presentation!
Beside the scientific programme of the conference, the participants had a number of opportunities to meet other conference participants or to establish new contacts and business connections. Not only coffee breaks and lunch breaks during the conference, but also the Ice Breaker Party, the reception of the Governor of Styria, and the Styrian Night taking place in a traditional Austrian brewery, offered enjoyable ambiences for conversations.
Also for accompanying persons and conference participants, who wished to have a “day off”, an attractive programme was organised. The programme ranged from guided tours through Graz old town, a visit of the famous stud “Piber” and the thermae “Blumau”, to a travel to the South-Styrian “Weinstrasse”.
Summarizing it can be stated that the “GNSS 2003 – The European Navigation Conference” has been a real success. The overall feedback from 470 participants, and 25 exhibiting companies was very positive and also the organizers of the conference noticed a smooth and well coordinated run of this major European navigation event.
The great number of participants from countries outside of Europe proves, that the series of GNSS conferences is gaining importance for researchers, policy makers, manufacturers, users, and service providers all over the world. Delegates from 36 nations in total attended the GNSS 2003 conference. Thus, Europe is on the way to establish a series of trend-setting GNSS conferences of good and world wide reputation!
For further information about the GNSS 2003 conference or for ordering digital GNSS 2003 proceedings on CD, please visit the conference web site (www.gnss2003.com), or contact the conference office (office@gnss2003.com).
|
|
|
|
