N° 32–2018: Call for media: The ESA Earth Observation Φ-week
6 November 2018
Media are invited to the Φ-week, a five-day international event organised by ESA on innovation and its applications to Earth observation and other space domains, to be hosted at its Earth observation centre in Frascati, Italy, from 12-16 November 2018.
Φ-week (with ‘Φ’ pronounced ‘fee’ or ‘fi’) combines plenary sessions with traditional scientific workshops, roundtables, hackathons and inspirational talks. It will connect communities from multiple disciplines to explore how space and Earth observation can benefit from the latest digital technologies and review the latest developments in ‘open science’. It is designed to seed ideas for new ventures and applications by demonstrating how emerging technology can be harnessed to bring data applications to life.
The event is a unique forum for leading scientists, engineers, managers, space operators, industry, academia and policy-makers. Keynote speakers will discuss issues such as developments in launchers, integrating High Altitude Pseudo Satellite (HAPS) and Earth observation satellite data, the Earth observation geospatial revolution and levers of the new space economy.
The week will kick off the development of European research agendas on artificial intelligence, blockchain, quantum computing and virtual reality for space and Earth observation.
Hosted at the recently created Φ-department and Φ-lab, these will identify the challenges to deploying these technologies in space and earth observation.
The opening session of Φ-Week, titled ‘Space for Earth’, will take place on 12 November from 09:00 to 10:30, with special contributions from ESA Director General Jan Wörner, ESA Director of Earth Observation Programmes Josef Aschbacher, ESA Director of Space Transportation Daniel Neuenschwander and ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.
The full programme and a list of speakers is available at phiweek.esa.int/agenda. In parallel, a three-day Φ-Week Bootcamp will give budding entrepreneurs and researchers the tools to create their own space start-up. The themes for this year are space, food and energy. The final day of the week will focus on space for business.
Media are invited to attend the overall conference.
Related links
Φ-week webpage
http://phiweek.esa.int/
Φ-week video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btb4V-hLXQ4
Location
The Φ-week will be held at ESA ESRIN.
Largo Galileo Galilei 1
00044 Frascati
Rome
Italy
How to get to ESRIN: https://www.esa.int/About_Us/ESRIN/Getting_to_ESRIN
Media accreditation
Media wishing to attend can register by writing to Valeria.Andreoni@esa.int, specifying at which session they would like to participate. The deadline for registration is 8 November.
About the European Space Agency
The European Space Agency (ESA) provides Europe’s gateway to space.
ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, created in 1975, with the mission to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space delivers benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
ESA has 22 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Slovenia is an Associate Member.
ESA has established formal cooperation with six Member States of the EU. Canada takes part in some ESA programmes under a Cooperation Agreement.
By coordinating the financial and intellectual resources of its members, ESA can undertake programmes and activities far beyond the scope of any single European country. It is working in particular with the EU on implementing the Galileo and Copernicus programmes as well as with Eumetsat for the development of meteorological missions.
ESA develops the launchers, spacecraft and ground facilities needed to keep Europe at the forefront of global space activities.
Today, it develops and launches satellites for Earth observation, navigation, telecommunications and astronomy, sends probes to the far reaches of the Solar System and cooperates in the human exploration of space. ESA also has a strong applications programme developing services in Earth observation, navigation and telecommunications.
Learn more about ESA at www.esa.int
For further information, please contact:
ESA Media Relations Office
Email: media@esa.int
Tel: +33 1 53 69 72 99