New ASSETs+ free online course: “Cybersecurity in the digital world”

Learn from the basics to some advanced techniques with this 22‐hours free course that will take place from February 21 to March 9.

Technology is at the core of our daily life and, in this vein, cyberattacks are on the rise. In this regard, cybersecurity knowledge is essential to protect our assets.

With this ASSETs+ free online course you will learn the main concepts of cybersecurity, advanced ways to protect information and network, as well as some cyberattack techniques and legal issues.

Pre-requisites: Computer basics

You can sign up for one or more modules for free. Every course is taught in English and has an assessment. Upon completion, you will get an achievement certificate.

Focussed on:

  • Professionals working in Defence Industry (up-skilling and re-skilling activities), and
  • Engineering Degree/Master students

IMPORTANT: This programme is EXCLUSIVE FOR partners of the ASSETs+ consortium and associated stakeholders. If you want to join the ASSETs+ Stakeholders Group and become part of our ecosystem, you just have to fill out a 5 minute form here. before signing up for the course.

Juliette GUILLOT (Nouvelle-Aquitaine Office), Antoine FERAL (ROLLS-ROYCE), Vincent MAZZONE (Nouvelle-Aquitaine Office), Miguel GARRIDO MORENO (Winner of the EDC I), Marie RAOUL (University of Bordeaux), Eric GRIVEL (Bordeaux INP/University of Bordeaux

A day in Brussels with the winners of the I edition of the ASSETs+ European Defence Challenge

Last June 27, the winners of the first edition of the ASSETs+ European Defence Challenge had the opportunity to visit different European institutions and to have interesting and fruitful meetings with stakeholders in Brussels.

Our partners Antoine Feral from Rolls Royce and the team of the University of Bordeaux  -host of the 1st edition of the ASSETs+ European Defence Challenge- met in Brussels on the occasion of a whole day programme with the winners of the 1st edition of the Challenge, Miguel Garrido Moreno and Emre Kursat Kaya, last June 27.

The special programme included visits to several European institutions and different meetings with Vincent Mazzone, EU Policy Officer for Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine; Caterina Avanza, European Parliament Assistant (Renew France), Alessandra Bosini, from the EU Committee of the Regions, and Barry Conroy from the Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space DG DEFIS, European Commission. They also visited the Rolls Royce Office, had lunch with Michel Gary from the Group of French Industries for Land and Air-land Defence and Security GICAT and met with Benedikt Weingärtner, Communication Manager at the Aerospace and Defence Industries Association of Europe, ASD.

The ASSETs+ European Defence Challenge is an open competition to attract young talent to the Defence industry and to encourage them to initiate a career in defence-related technologies. The III edition is open and the topic is: “Security – threats identification and defence strategies”. If you want to learn more about this great opportunity for students  to boost their careers and open new horizons, click on the button below.

Join the ASSETs+ Stakeholders Group and become part of our ecosystem!

ASSETs+ is a four year Erasmus+ project, built on close collaboration between Defence Industry, Sectoral Organisations, Higher Education Institutions, Vocational Educational & Training providers and Research Centres, with 30 partners from 8 countries and a broader ecosystem of stakeholders.

ASSETs+ aims to build a sustainable human resources supply chain for the European Defence Industry, that boosts innovation by both attracting highly-skilled young workers and upskilling its employees. The ASSETs+ main goal is to design and develop education and training programmes, from their prototyping to replication in other contexts,  to provide trainees with new skills and knowledge related to key technologies that will be expected in the Defence sector in the coming years.

Beyond our full partners and associated partners, the ASSETs+ project is part of an open and expanding Defence ecosystem welcoming the participation of associated stakeholders.

ASSETs+ mainly targets defence-related companies and defence industry representatives, individual experts and other stakeholders who have an interest in developing skills and competences in four main technologies: Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, C4ISTAR and Cybersecurity aspects, allowing the European defence sector to innovate.

WHY SHOULD YOU PARTICIPATE?
– Help define the new ASSETs+ Sectoral Skills Strategy for the Defence sector

– Enlarge your network in a prestigious context

– Possibility to participate in pilot implementations

– Networking and exchange of information regarding the skills agenda in Defence sector

WHAT IS REQUIRED OF YOU?

– Voluntary involvement

– Engagement free of charge

– Optional participation to workshops, online surveys and review of outcomes

Meet the winners of the ASSETs+ European Defence Challenge II edition!

The ASSETs+ European Defence Challenge (EDC) is an open competition to attract young talent to the Defence industry and to encourage them to initiate a career in defence-related technologies.

In this II edition of the Challenge, 130 registered students from 16 different countries were asked to share their vision on the topic ‘Remote everything? To what extent can unmanned assets interact with humans in the field for defence operations?’.

The EDC II edition Awards Ceremnoy took place last Friday, with the presence of highly relevant speakers from the European Commission DG Defence Industry & Space, the European Defence Agency, the European Parliament, and universities and industry partners of the ASSETs+ consortium.

It is a pleasure to announce that the winners of the EDC II edition are…

WINNING TEAM

Andreas Wouters & Nathan Prakopetz, from the Royal Military Academy (Brussels).

Their proposal, “Autonomy in Air Defence Systems”, analyses the problematic characteristics of hypersonic missiles and how these missiles manage to evade air defence systems.

  • Download the essay here.
  • Watch their presentation here.

FINALISTS

Susanna Hein & Emilien Maquaire, from Sciences Po Lille (France).

Their proposal,  “Human-Robot teaming Research Initiative for a Combat Aerial Network (HURRICANE)”, outlines the opportunities and challenges that robotics and artificial intelligence technologies offer for future air combat by indicating how we can gain an advantage through human machine teams.

  • Download the essay here.
  • Watch their presentation here.

FINALISTS

Anaëlle Salamon from Sciences Po Lille (France) & Sinan Bekka from University of Edinburgh (UK).

Their proposal is a three-step development program of European Defensive Autonomous Submarine Systems (EURO DASS) which will follow strict principles and hopefully will set a precedent for the making of unmanned systems in defence operations.

  • Download the essay here.
  • Watch their presentation here. 

SPECIAL MENTION TO YOUNG STUDENTS

In this edition there has been also a special mention to the best essay from students up to 20 years, and the winners are:

Carlos Daniel Farias, from the University of Cadiz (Spain), & Carlos Thurn, from Nordakademie (Germany).

Their proposal “Can I trust you? An AI for secure, authenticated communication” aims to create a method of secure communication between two or more individual parties in order to allow interaction of human and machine for the application in the defence field. In order to achieve this, a combination of encryption and identity authentication will be implemented.

  • Download the essay here.
  • Watch their presentation here.

Congratulations!

You can watch the full Awards Ceremony below:

We invite you to join us for the next edition EDC III. The topic will be announced soon.

Stay tuned!

Download the press release here.

ASSETs+ General Meeting in Rome, April 6-7

General Meeting with Barry Conroy from the Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space (DG DEFIS) sharing the progress of the ASSETs+ project with all the partners, on an hybrid event: online and at Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini in Rome.

5G Technology in the field of Defence and Security: Capabilities, Challenges and Risks

Our partner Mateo Burgos, from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM), is organizing an interesting open activity on 5G technologies for defence. It will take place in Madrid, next April 6, from 09:00 to 14:30 CET. The event will be held in Spanish.

5G technology heralds a qualitative leap compared to LTE networks. Its extremely high bit rates and virtually instantaneous transmission open up a range of applications that represent a revolution for civil industry, but also for defence.

Recognized experts in the field will try to answer to all the uncertainties surrounding this technology in this interesting open activity next week.

You can follow the event on streaming here.

ARTICLE: ‘Blending brainstorming with industrial experts and automatic data-driven analysis’

Our partners Filippo Chiarello and Irene Spada from the University of Pisa, have published this interesting article about the ASSETs+ project on CTSoc News on Consumer Technology (NCT).

The article describes the technology and skills analysis done in the ASSETs+ project and the process that leads to the development of the Defence Technologies Roadmap, starting from the Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques for big data analysis of technical and scientific documentation and the brainstorming sessions with panels of industrial experts, developed during the first two years of the project, to the blending process of these months.

It has been published in the February issue of CTSoc News on Consumer Technology (NCT) online monthly publication that divulgues timely and newsworthy articles that bring a wide range of topics related to the consumer technology industry.

Authors: Filippo Chiarello, Irene Spada
Source: https://ctsoc.ieee.org/publications/ctsoc-nct.html

European Defence Challenge II Edition Webinar with Experts. Don’t miss it in streaming on March 1!

The webinar will be streamed online through YouTube on March 1st, at 17:30 (CET). Join us!

This webinar marks the beginning of the second phase of the European Defence Challenge, a key part of the ASSETS+ project, that aims to engage young talent in the European defence industry.

In this online event, contestants and professionals will have the opportunity to directly interact with experts and key players of the European defence industry,

The topic of this second edition of the Challenge is ‘Remote everything? To what extent can unmanned assets interact with humans in the field for defence operations?’

AGENDA

17:30 Introduction to the webinar

  • M. Mateo Burgos – Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM).
  • Moderator: Michel Bosco – Director of EMBA in space, defence and security at the Université Côte d’Azur.

17:40 Remote everything? To what extent can unmanned assets interact with humans in the field for defence operations?:

  • Barry Conroy – DG DEFIS, European Commission.
  • Benjamin Punge – AIRBUS, Unmanned Aerial Systems department.
  • Cristina Cuerno – Dean of Aeronautics and Space Engineering, UPM.
  • Enrico Vignola Capitano di Vascello – Chief of Space and Technological Innovation Department, Italian Navy.
  • Isabelle Barthes – Deputy General Secretary, industriAll European Trade Union.
  • Dorota Stadnicka – Associate Professor, Rzeszów University of Technology.

18:20 Q&A session:

  • Moderator: M. Bosco.

18:35 Conclusions

  • Gualtiero Fantoni – University of Pisa – ASSETs+ Project Coordinator.

279 ideas generated in the workshop on the ASSETs+ strategy for developing skills and competences for the Defence Sector

The Workshop on the ASSETs+ Strategy for developing skills and competences for the Defence Sector took place on December 16th, with the participation of 81 experts in 6 parallel sessions, where 279 ideas have been generated.

The scope of the Workshop was the identification of the actions and practices related to the pillars of the ASSETs+ strategy for developing skills and competences for the Defence Sector.

Six parallel sessions were carried out on policies, projects and funds, technologies, technical standards and best practices, qualifications certifications & ESCO, and human resources.

More than 80 external experts strengthened the ASSETs+ Consortium, that includes universities, VET providers, companies, sectoral organizations, and accreditation, certification, qualification and research foundation.

In the coming weeks we will make public all the interesting results. Stay tuned!