Representing Nepal Flying Labs in local and global events

Cross-post from Nepal Flying Labs. 

Flying Labs not only work to build capacity locally around robotics technology, but also work together with a wide range of local organizations and actively engage in any technology fairs, workshops, seminars and events focused on capacity building, business incubation, technopreneurship and frontier technologies. This blog post highlights some of the events that Nepal Flying Labs coordinator Uttam Pudasaini participated in over the last few months.

State of Map Asia 2017

State of the Map Asia is an annual gathering of people who contribute to the OpenStreetMap (OSM) movement during which representatives from different countries of Asia present the state of OpenStreetMap in their country, as well as participate in discussions, mapping activities, workshops and events related to the free and open mapping of the world. During the Nepal session there were four presentations, one of which was given by Uttam - a 10 minute lightning talk entitled “Drones and Open Street Maps”. Uttam talked about the regulatory environment in Nepal for drones, and highlighted the possibility of using high resolution satellite imagery as a base map in OpenStreetMap allowing users to easily identify ground details and help them manually trace objects more accurately. We would like to thank Kathmandu Living Labs, the main organizer of this event for providing us this opportunity. View Uttam’s presentation slides here.

Karkhana Mela

Karkhana Mela is gathering of educators, makers, DIY hobbyists and much more. Organized by Karkhana, an education company and makerspace with a unique approach to learning, it was a one day event to celebrate the culture of learning through making. A part of the Mela was focused on showcasing the work of many young students that reflect the Karkhana beliefs about technology, teaching, and 21st-century skills. Uttam, as well as the CTO of DroNepal (the winner of our Business Incubation Program) participated in the event, flew drones around the event area, explained to kids and other participants the benefits of drones, and shared the Code of Conduct for proper use of this technology. We would like to thank Karkhana Asia for providing us a space to showcase our work.

Mountain Women Workshop for Miss Tech 2017

Miss Tech 2017 is an event co-organised by the Robotics Association of Nepal (RAN), International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), US Embassy, Nepal Telecommunications Authority and Nepal Engineers Association. This year, 17 teams of female engineers from different parts of Nepal worked to devise products that could transform the lives of women in the country. The major objective of the event is to encourage more women to participate in technological innovation. A hackathon was organized on September 12 and 14 to provide mentorship to the participants so that they can refine their product concept and have time to finish coding and development before showcasing their final product. Nepal flying labs was involved throughout the program and our lab coordinator Uttam was one of the mentors sharing his experiences and providing guidance to help the selected teams to improve their ideas.

World Bank Tech Fair at World Bank HQ - Washington DC

Most recently, Uttam was invited to participate in the World Bank Tech Fair - “Bridging the Inclusion and Technology Divide” - in Washington D.C. on the 12th of October, during the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and IMF. The meeting was attended by the finance ministers of 188 member countries and 10,000 delegates from all around the world. The Tech Fair showcased how technology is being used to promote inclusive development in different parts of the world. 15 different organizations from around the world, including Nepal Flying Labs, were given a booth to showcase their digital solutions to conference attendees, who were mostly comprised of high level government clients, media and officials from the Word Bank. Uttam explained to these people the work he has been doing since the 2015 Nepal earthquake, focusing on the use of different robotics solutions specifically for following purposes:

• Disaster Resilience, Preparedness and Response
• Humanitarian Delivery of Medicines and Emergency supplies
• Environmental Protection: Eco Robotics
• Monitoring Climate Change Impacts
• Providing job opportunities to local people

We would like to thank the program organizing committee for considering the work of WeRobotics and Nepal Flying Labs, and inviting us to attend this wonderful gathering of people.

There are more events on the horizon for Nepal Flying Labs, such as Yantra 6.0, so look out for future event updates on the Nepal Flying Labs Site!

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