The first event of its kind in Poland: on 15–16 March 2024 the Regional Centre for Development and Education organised an event called Dronowa Dolina (Drone Valley). The first nationwide event of this type took place at the Lubin Business Incubator. It consisted of three parallel events: an industry conference, a hackathon and FPV races.
Industry conference
The conference attracted industry specialists who led panel discussions and networking sessions.
This is a big event for us. The programme was designed so that everyone would find something interesting about unmanned aircraft – Kacper Budnik, Co-founder of BZB UAS, organiser of Dronowa Dolina
INDUSTRY
The industry panel brought together specialists from the Regional Directorate of State Forests in Zielona Góra, ORANGE S.A. and NAVIGATE. The discussion focused on the potential of unmanned aerial systems and artificial intelligence in various industries.
EDUCATION
The future of our young people and of teaching methods using drones was debated by the heads of ZSTO in Krotoszyn and ZS No. 1 in Lubin, representatives of universities such as the Wrocław University of Science and Technology and the Military University of Land Forces, and DPS Software, a company that supports education.
LEGAL REGULATIONS
We had the pleasure of hosting a representative of the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency (PAŻP). The specialist discussed current and future threats, drone flight planning software and the legal regulations that are an important aspect of this fast-growing industry.
UNIFORMED SERVICES
The clash of the titans featured the Provincial Headquarters of the State Fire Service in Wrocław, the Provincial Police Headquarters in Wrocław, the Wrocław Municipal Police and the Volunteer Fire Brigade in Jarogniewice. They described how they use drones every day and the challenges they face in their work. Footage from rescue operations was also shown. They all agreed that drones are a tool that makes their work much more efficient, while stressing that drones will not replace people.
THE IMPACT OF OPEN SOURCE ON THE DRONE WORLD IN SMEs
On the second day we heard from specialists such as Paweł Spychalski from FPV University and Paweł Stefański (Open Source Contributor). It was a fascinating discussion on the impact of open source on the use of drones and the potential risks involved.
HACKATHON
Designing, building, soldering and programming drones – that sums up the hackathon that accompanied Dronowa Dolina 2024. 15 teams applied, and 5 were selected in the qualifiers: KIWI, StreamJet (Wrocław University of Science and Technology students), the Communications and Electronics Science Club (students of the Military University of Land Forces), KLIK (students of the Wrocław University of Science and Technology) and Zimne Dronie (Wrocław University of Science and Technology students), who competed at the Lubin Business Incubator. The organisers provided the equipment, the participants brought their own computers and solved 3 scenarios over 26 hours.
The total prize pool was PLN 15,000 (PLN 5,000 for completing each scenario). Both speed and quality of the competition task counted. The technical partner of the hackathon was the ArduPilot Community.
It is the first event of its kind in Poland, and I can safely say also in Europe, maybe even in the world
During the hackathon the participants worked on 3 scenarios:
- Mayday, mayday, mayday – imagine a drone on a collision course with a passenger plane approaching Wrocław airport; the participants had to hack into the drone and take control of it. Two teams won: KLIK (Błażej Bałczun's team) and Zimne Dronie (Tomasz Woroniecki's team)
- Madonna on the catwalk – the participants used design, drone building, soldering and 3D printers to build a drone. The most important parameters were weight and assembly time. Of course, the machine had to fly safely. Two teams completed the scenario. Team KLIK won.
- Chicken foot – using artificial intelligence to control a drone in flight based on the camera image was the final task. Only one team, KLIK, completed this scenario.
FPV races
The first FPV championship of its kind for secondary school students and the professional Polish Whoop of Poland championship. The races bring together drone pilots who combine breakthrough technology with thrilling drone racing, creating a new era of sport with exciting competition both in real life and in virtual simulation and the metaverse. The pilots' drones are equipped with cameras that stream live video to the pilots' goggles in first-person view (FPV), so the pilots (and spectators following the races) feel as if they were flying inside the drone. The event was held in cooperation with Hubert Wilczyński – Whoop of Poland
First Secondary Schools Championship
- Bartosz Wyrzykowski, ZS No. 1 in Lubin
- Gracjan Demkiw, ZS No. 1 in Lubin
- Ernest Portaszkiewicz, ZSTO in Krotoszyn
Whoop of Poland Polish Championship
Whoop of Poland MIX 3/2024 – Dronowa Dolina Lubin brought together the 48 best FPV pilots in Poland.
- Marcin Bator
- Robert Stopiński
- Marek Ruszczyk
Congratulations once again to all the hackathon and FPV race participants – you did a great job!
I would like to add that as a team we put all our experience and passion into organising this event, which we hope will bring all of us closer to drones, their capabilities and uses, to create a better tomorrow
See you next year!
