Our student's award-winning project "TROPO O3 DRONE" is a specialized drone for tropospheric ozone research with wireless data transmission, which can be used to assess photochemical smog and contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms of ozone formation under specific conditions. High mobility allows for areas of exceedance of threshold values to be sought, and for the diagnosis of their causes, based on the analysis of spatial distribution of point, surface or linear ozone precursor emitters. The tropospheric ozone research with the use of the drone that Marek developed creates a wide range of possibilities for the analysis of cause-and-effect relationships and the development of appropriate models of these processes.

iCAN gold medal

Years of practice = valuable experience

Marek started working on this project in secondary school and is still developing it. The first versions of the drone have already been appreciated and awarded at national and international competitions, including the European Exhibition of Creativity and Innovation EUROINVENT gold medal, and the silver medal at the International Warsaw Invention Show IWIS. Marek also represented Poland at the world's largest scientific competition, ISEF (International Science and Engineering Fair) in the United States, with about 1800 participants from over 70 countries. There, he took third place in the Environmental Engineering category, and received a special award from the American Meteorological Society.

“Drones have been my passion for several years. When I was just fourteen, I became a licensed unmanned aerial vehicle pilot, and held a UAVO flight personnel qualification certificate issued by the Polish Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). The experience gained during flights with several types of drones and hundreds of hours flown were extremely valuable in developing – from scratch – the original design of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for scientific and research purposes. At various stages of work, I encountered many challenges, often of a technical nature, which frequently resulted in a significant extension of initially planned times,” says our student.

Marek, as he says himself, is not only passionate about unmanned autonomous systems, but is also interested in modern technologies, methods and models of data mining, the implementation of artificial intelligence, as well as the research and use of outer space. Last month, our student also had the opportunity to participate in the first scientific conference organized by the European Space Agency (ESA) entirely devoted to AI applications in the space sector: SPAICE - Artificial Intelligence in and for Space, which took place at ESA's ECSAT-MVCC (European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications) at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire, UK.

“I’ve been able to combine my educational duties with preparation for competitions and the development of my own projects and inventions. I created several innovative solutions in which I tried to combine a creative approach to current problems and sensitivity to other people. A few years ago, I received the Ambassador of Innovation title for representing the country at international innovation exhibitions, where I won 5 gold and 2 silver medals”, Marek sums up.

iCAN special award

The International Invention Innovation Competition iCAN 2024 is Canada's largest international event promoting innovation and inventiveness. This year's edition of iCAN was attended by over 700 participants from 50 countries, presenting solutions in several different categories – from ecology and environmental protection, through electronics, to innovative medical solutions. The innovative projects were evaluated by an international jury. The competition part was held in two stages. The solutions with the highest scores in the first stage qualified for the finals.