NASA to Launch UAVNZ Conference

Press Release, 13th October 2016

The UAVNZ industry association and Callaghan Innovation are pleased to announce that Dr Parimal Kopardekar, Principal Investigator on NASA's Unmanned Aircraft Traffic Management (UTM) project, will deliver a key note address at the New Zealand UAV Industry Conference in Auckland 13-14th Feb 2017.

A past recipient of a NASA Ames Honour Award for Engineer of the Year (2003), Dr Kopardekar has been working and studying the fields of industrial and production engineering for over 30 years.

As Principal Investigator on the UTM project Dr Kopardekar leads NASA's research to enable large-scale low altitude UAV operations in the US airspace system. Dr Kopardekar will discuss research on geo-fencing, airspace corridors, separation and collision avoidance, future trends and implications for the New Zealand UAV industry.

Callaghan Innovation Aviation Sector Manager Chris Thomson says a burgeoning unmanned aircraft (UAV or drone) industry has developed in NZ with a number of manufacturers, research groups and commercial operators now showing the true value UAV technology can deliver.

“Building on the success of the 2015 ‘Shared Skies’ Symposium, the 2017 conference promises to be the most significant and important event for the NZ UAV industry to date. “With enabling regulations and an innovative mind-set New Zealand has become a world leading location for the development and commercial operation of unmanned aircraft (UAV or drone) technology. "Ongoing partnerships with leading research organisation such as NASA will help keep NZ companies at the forefront of future technology and market opportunities."

For more information on the conference visit: https://www.airshare.co.nz/NZUAVConference

For more information on UAVNZ visit: http://www.aia.org.nz/Divisions/UAVNZ.html

For more information on Callaghan Innovation visit: http://www.callaghaninnovation.govt.nz/

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