Inspecting Critical Infrastructure such as Power Masts or Railway Tracks with Drones: University of Klagenfurt project receives funding from the Christian Doppler Research Association

Through its Transfer.Science to Spin-off funding scheme, the Christian Doppler Research Association (CDG) is supporting ten research activities as they take their final steps from fundamental research towards application, with a total of EUR 6.8 million in funding. Among the funded initiatives is AIONIC, a project that aims to enable the fully autonomous inspection of critical infrastructure using drones or robotic systems. The AIONIC project team — Thomas Jantos, Martin Scheiber, and Eren Allak — is led by Professor Stephan Weiss, head of the Control of Networked Systems research group. The team is building on extensive preliminary work from prior research projects.

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Flying to victory with the best drones

Gilbert Tanner is part of the SAPIENCE team at the University of Klagenfurt, a group consisting of six young students and researchers who are working on new approaches to the use of drones in search and rescue operations. However, the student, who is pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Robotics & Artificial Intelligence, is not only launching drones into the air, but also striving for lofty goals himself: he will soon complete his studies in the shortest possible time and will then move on to pursue a Master’s degree programme at ETH Zurich.

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Team from the University of Klagenfurt wins drone competition in Huntsville, USA

Exploring and mapping an environment, locating objects and people in need, and finally bringing them first aid kits: these are the tasks set in three competitions in the SAPIENCE project. Four research teams from four universities compete against each other in these competitions in order to learn from each other. The team led by Luca Di Pierno achieved its first victory in the competitions, which took place in Huntsville, USA.

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Making better use of energy thanks to optimisation methods: new MSCA doctoral network ALMOA approved

ALMOA (Advances in Large-scale, Multilevel, and Hierarchical Optimisation for Challenging Applications) is set to be launched in January 2026. It is the first doctoral network coordinated by the University of Klagenfurt that is funded by the EU through Horizon Europe as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action. Thirteen doctoral students will be conducting research on mathematical optimisation issues at thirteen European universities. The project has two aims: the new algorithms should help to make logistics and transport more sustainable, energy systems more efficient, and data processing more resource-efficient. At the same time, the doctoral students will benefit from an excellent training network, providing them with valuable cross-sector insights.

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