Summer School in the field of UAV photography opened at IRNITU

On 29 July, the Siberian School of Geosciences of INRTU for the first time organized a summer school for students from Africa. The students learned open technologies of UAV remote sensing of the earth and took part in fieldwork based on Chernorud practices. The project was implemented with the support of the Russian-African Network University (RAFU) consortium.

The summer school for students from Nigeria, Liberia, Ethiopia, Cameroon, and Zimbabwe lasted three weeks. The students learned about multispectral and lidar imaging, unmanned aerial vehicles and autopilot systems, imaging techniques, and data processing.

Eight students from African countries received certificates of completion from the Summer School of the Siberian School of Geosciences (SSG) of INRTU.

One of the certificate holders was Maliki Dieudonné Marcel from Cameroon. Earlier, the young man studied Russian at the sub-faculty of Tomsk State University and received bachelor's and master's degrees (radio designer and specialist in applied mathematics) at TUSUR. As a postgraduate student, Maliki Dieudonné Marcel will apply the knowledge acquired at Irkutsk Polytechnic when writing his PhD thesis.

‘At Tomsk State University of Control Systems and Radioelectronics, I design and program drones for agriculture. That is why I was glad to become a participant in the summer school from the Siberian School of Geosciences at INRTU. We learnt how to solder, assemble copters, process and analyse images. Thanks to the teachers for the knowledge and field work’, Maliki Dieudonné Marcel shared his impressions.

During the trip to the Chernorud base, the participants not only consolidated their knowledge but also learnt about the rich history and nature of the Siberian region. The summer school programme was complemented by sports and cultural and educational activities. The participants visited the architectural and ethnographic museum ‘Taltsy’, the Baikal Museum of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Regional Museum of Local Lore, and went on a tour of the city's landmarks.

On 16 August, Stepan Bykov, Vice-Rector for International Activities of INRTU, congratulated the participants from Nigeria, Liberia, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Egypt and Zimbabwe on the completion of the course. He thanked the students for their curiosity and responsible attitude to study.