Drones: The good, the bad and the scary

Brought to you by The Future Devices & Technologies Group, The Security, Privacy, Identity & Trust (SPIT) Group

'UAV's or Drones have captured people's imaginations, but they present challenges which must be addressed to realise these dreams. Learn about key technologies, barriers & current applications for drones. Discuss emerging & transformative opportunities in this dynamic, rapidly growing tech sector.

Registration for this event is now closed.

About the event

In this event, jointly delivered by the CW Future Devices & Technology and Security SIGs, we will examine the new and disruptive opportunities presented by UAVs and hear from leaders in the field.

We will consider the various challenges which must be met to realise their dreams and protect us from the potential negatives; from the diverse array of new technologies required in wireless, positioning, materials, AI and imaging to the necessary legislation and regulation required to ensure safety, security and privacy.

The day will culminate in an optional workshop where participants will be invited to propose new and exciting applications and business models for drone technology, building on what they have learned from the earlier presentations.  We will aim to see which of these might be the next big drone-enabled disruption. 

From appearances in popular entertainment such as Mission Impossible and Bladerunner, to their use in such diverse applications as conservation, creative arts, delivery, security & surveillance and new sporting events (drone racing) their impact is widely talked about. At one extreme, their use in military operations seems likely to change the face of future warfare, whilst at the other extreme, ever smaller and cheaper devices promise to assist each one of us in our everyday activities. 

However, are we rushing too fast into this utopian future where deliveries are automatically taken into our homes, where we can be ‘present’ at any time with loved ones by ‘dropping in’ through a 360 VR drone? The possibility for automated 24/7 facial recognition by an army of surveillance drones will surely protect us all from terrorist threat, but at what price? Organised crime has already adopted the new technology, which circumvents walls and fences. In response, a whole new industry has arisen in drone countermeasures, from radio jammers, to net firing guns, or even lasers. 

Attendees should leave with a broad understanding of the key technologies and current applications for drones, together with an appreciation of the emerging future opportunities and challenges to be addressed in this dynamic and rapidly growing tech sector.

You can follow @CambWireless on Twitter and tweet about this event using #CWFDS.

Hosted by The Bradfield Centre

The Bradfield Centre is the premier Tech Hub serving the Cambridge technology cluster and the wider East of England region.

View profile

Agenda

Expand all

The information supplied below may be subject to change before the event.

09:30

Registration, networking and refreshments

10:00

Welcome, Robert Driver, CEO, CW (Cambridge Wireless)

10:05

Introduction to Future Devices & Technologies SIG and Security SIG

10:10

Session 1: chaired by Paul Tindall, Future Devices & Technologies SIG Champion

10:15

Flying High - Shaping the Future of Drones in UK Cities: Kathy Nothstine, Lead, Future Cities, Nesta

Kathy will talk about The Flying High Challenge which aims to position the UK to become a global leader in shaping drone systems, as the first programme of its kind to convene national government, city leaders, regulators, public services, and industry around the future of drones.

10:35

Drones: it's the data that counts: James Dean, CEO, SenSat

In this presentation, James Dean, CEO of SenSat (UK's largest drone data provider) will explore some of the practical value propositions enabled by drone data and why they are making such a big difference to enterprises.

10:55

Drones and their impact on 19th century technology: Scott Stonham, ExpandAndLaunch.com

Drones are on the frontline of today’s rapidly accelerating combinatorial technology evolution. With that comes uncertainty, risk and regulatory challenge, however the rewards can be significant. This session covers several innovative use cases across different verticals, with a deeper dive into improving a 19th century innovation using AI + Drones + Machine Vision

11:15

Q & A

11:25

Refreshments and networking

11:55

Session 2: chaired by Tim Phipps, Security SIG Champion

12:00

Public perceptions and acceptance of drones, and the issue of regulatory effectiveness: Dr Alan McKenna, Kent Police Drone Development Board

It is widely recognised that the public's acceptance of drone technology is an important consideration that needs to be appropriately addressed, and the presentation will look at the applicable issues surrounding the perceptions and acceptance by the public of the growing use of drone technology. With the recently announced changes to the regulation of drones it may be asked whether we now have the right regulatory balance, and the newly structured framework will prove adequate in helping to achieve appropriate control and to help to facilitate overall public confidence.

12:20

Implementing a UTM framework to enable the safe integration of drones: James Cranswick, Head of Drone and UTM Programmes, NATS

In his presentation, James will consider:
• What is the safety imperative behind our commitment?
• How has the UK government and NATS reacted to date?
• What is preventing the industry from moving to the next phase?
• What are the requirements of a new UTM framework?
• What can operators and service providers expect?

12:40

Using Drones for Commercial Aircraft Inspection: Gavin Goudie, Operations Director, Blue Bear Systems Research Ltd

There are currently over 25,000 commercial aircraft in worldwide operation today which is forecast to grow to nearly 35,000 by 2025 and over 40,000 by 2040. MRO Drone, a joint venture between Blue Bear and Output 42, is applying drone technology to introduce step changes in aircraft engineering data management and decision making, reducing Aircraft on Ground (AOG) time by up to 90% and introducing measurable efficiencies and cost savings for aircraft operators.

13:00

Q & A

13:10

Lunch and networking

14:00

Drones - License to Spy: Zahid Ghadialy, Senior Director, Strategic Marketing, Parallel Wireless

14:20

Q & A

14:30

Session 3: Optional workshop session chaired by SIG Champion

Participants will be invited to propose new applications and business models for drone technology, building on the earlier presentations. We will aim to see which of these might be the next big drone-enabled disruption.

15:20

Wrap-up

15:30

End of session

Speakers

James Cranswick - Head of Drone and UTM Programmes, NATS

Jim joined NATS in 2015 after serving 6 years in the Royal Air Force as an Air Traffic Controller and Battle Space Manager, working with drones in the UK, Iraq and Afghanistan. He recently ran a surveillance company delivering airborne surveillance solutions around the globe. Jim is now NATS Head of Drone and UTM programmes with the primary role of developing NATS RPAS solution capabilities and commercial strategy.

James Dean - CEO, SenSat

James is a technology entrepreneur fascinated by the way the world works. He founded SenSat in 2015 to enable the greatest step change since the internet; the digitisation of the physical world. SenSat allows computers to interact with the real world in their own language, making important information accessible to everyone.

James received a BSc from King’s College London in Geography and a minor in Astrophysics from The University of California, Irvine. His speciality lies in Satellite Sensing and Earth monitoring where he worked with NASA’s LandSAT and MODIS satellites. In addition he worked collaboratively with professors from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Zahid Ghadialy - Principal Analyst & Consultant, 3G4G

Zahid is a technologist with a deep understanding of architecting world-class mobile products and solutions. With over 20 years of experience in the telecom industry in various roles, he has been an evangelist for mobile and wireless technologies. Over the years he has accumulated a vast following on his blogs and social networks with simple explainer posts and videos.

His 3G4G blogs are widely read where he looks at different aspects of mobile technology and especially 5G and 6G nowadays, including the architecture, deployments, use cases, applications, etc. His YouTube channel is also very popular where he explains many new features expected as part of 5G in the future. While his style and content is unique, he also references many industry publications and provides slides that are very useful to view online.

He is also very active on Twitter under his @3G4GUK brand helping disseminate the benefits of 5G and why 5G will be needed in the long run. He covers a very wide portfolio of 5G related information that is hard to find otherwise.

Until recently, Zahid was a Senior Director looking at Technology & Innovation Strategy in Parallel Wireless. As a brand ambassador, he represented the company in various Open RAN discussions and also created tutorials on Open RAN and O-RAN which are being used as reference for new starters on the topic.

Gavin Goudie - Operations Director, Blue Bear Systems Research Ltd

As Operations Director at Blue Bear, Gavin is responsible for programme management, leading flight trials and liaising with end users and regulators to deliver high profile multinational programmes. Gavin has delivered civil and military projects that have demanded a fast paced turnaround of research through to product delivery. He combines his engineering skills with in-depth knowledge of aviation requirements; through professional and personal interests in the field.

Alan McKenna - Lecturer, Kent Police Drone Development Board, Lecturer, University of Kent

Dr Mckenna is a lecturer at the University of Kent where he teaches law. He has been researching and writing on drones for a number of years, with a particular interest in public perceptions of drones and their use. His published work includes a chapter in the Bart Custers edited book, The Future of Drone Use: Opportunities and Threats from Ethical and Legal Perspectives. In 2015 he provided evidence to the House of Lords European Union Committee investigation into the Civilian Use of Drones in the EU, and in 2016 was an invited expert participant in the Department of Transport's Public Dialogue Workshops on Drones project. He has participated in a large number of BBC radio and television programmes where drones have been under discussion. He has been a lay member of Kent Police's Drone Development Board since its inception.

Kathy Nothstine - Lead, Future Cities, Nesta Investments

Kathy is the Lead for Future Cities in Nesta’s Challenge Prize Centre, where she investigates emerging trends and opportunities and convenes multisector partners around issues of urban transport and future cities. She is currently leading on the cities stream of the Flying High Challenge (http://flyinghighchallenge.org/) to empower cities to explore the future of urban drone operations. Previously, Kathy served as Program Director for economic development, resilience and transport at the National Association of Counties, where she convened leadership networks of local government officials with national, philanthropic, civic and business leaders to drive innovation, by identifying and scaling up transformative new approaches to creating stronger communities and economies based on local assets and place-based strategies. She has designed and delivered peer learning and capacity-building networks and technical assistance programmes on a variety of topics related to planning, economic development, transport and sustainability in both urban and rural places. She has also worked in the private sector on planning, design and real estate development projects.

Scott Stonham - Director, SSPS Ltd

Director, ExpandAndLaunch.com

Scott has been at the forefront of technological innovation since 1996, working with large and small enterprises to deliver complex, life-changing technologies including the mobile internet, GPS, and technologies enabling modern day mobile commerce.  Since graduating in Cybernetics and Control Engineering, he has worked to develop technologies and markets for well-known international organisations, including Vodafone, Qualcomm, Openwave, RootMetrics and IHS Markit.   

SIG Champions

Nadia Aziz - Innovation Consultant, Unbounded Future Ltd

Nadia is an Evangelist of emerging technologies with an expertise in AR & VR and IoT technologies. She has advised C-level executives in Telecom and Media organisations for digital transformation and M&A projects over more than a decade. While being a SIG Champion of Future Devices and Technologies at Cambridge Wireless, she has recently co-founded Unbounded Future, a Deeptech consulting firm based in London. Previously Nadia led Emerging Technologies at NTT Data UK where she supervised R&D and innovation in Augmented (AR) & Virtual Reality (VR), AI, and IoT. Nadia is a supporter of Women in STEM initiatives and is a mentor at the University College London (UCL) IXN programme. She is an industry advisor to IoTerra, a USA-based B2B marketplace for IoT products and was a co-producer for the GIANT Health Event.

Muhammad Chughtai - Senior Research Specialist (Electronics & Electrical Engineering), Beko

I am a seasoned senior technology and engineering consultant with over a decade of multinational experience in AI & Robotics, MedTech, and thermodynamics. My career seamlessly blends corporate discipline with start-up agility, informed by a deep understanding of system dynamics and a holistic perspective. My expertise centres on empowering companies to gain a competitive edge through innovation, successful solution commercialization & partnerships, and strategic business development, all while upholding industry standards. In addition to my engineering expertise, I hold a PhD in the field, complemented by an MBAE. This dual qualification positions me uniquely at the intersection of advanced engineering and educational dynamics.

Zahid Ghadialy - Principal Analyst & Consultant, 3G4G

Zahid is a technologist with a deep understanding of architecting world-class mobile products and solutions. With over 20 years of experience in the telecom industry in various roles, he has been an evangelist for mobile and wireless technologies. Over the years he has accumulated a vast following on his blogs and social networks with simple explainer posts and videos.

His 3G4G blogs are widely read where he looks at different aspects of mobile technology and especially 5G and 6G nowadays, including the architecture, deployments, use cases, applications, etc. His YouTube channel is also very popular where he explains many new features expected as part of 5G in the future. While his style and content is unique, he also references many industry publications and provides slides that are very useful to view online.

He is also very active on Twitter under his @3G4GUK brand helping disseminate the benefits of 5G and why 5G will be needed in the long run. He covers a very wide portfolio of 5G related information that is hard to find otherwise.

Until recently, Zahid was a Senior Director looking at Technology & Innovation Strategy in Parallel Wireless. As a brand ambassador, he represented the company in various Open RAN discussions and also created tutorials on Open RAN and O-RAN which are being used as reference for new starters on the topic.

David Roberts - CTO - Special Projects, Cambridge Wireless, Founder, Jabooh Software

David is a technology leader with over 25 years experience working in the hi-tech arena. He has recently completed a successful project for ghd in conjunction with CW where he carried out the role of System Architect and facilitator.  Prior to this he worked in in the C-IoT space where he ran a multi-national R&D department that developed silicon and software designed for the burgeoning IoT market. He was also responsible for driving an agile transformation programme and assisting the organisation with their integration into a large Chinese multi-national telecoms company. Having started his career as a software developer working for BT and Acorn Computers, he went on to hold senior roles in a number of world-class organisations such as Symbian, Cambridge University and Citrix in the areas of Software Development, Project Management, Product Management, Research, Consultancy and Architecture. His background includes leading and developing teams involved in the creation of large-scale integrated hardware and software products, web-based services and CE devices. He is also highly experienced in large-scale agile development practices, agile coaching/transformation and creating and executing strategies for increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of organisations.

Charles Sturman - CEO, TechWorks

As CEO at TechWorks, Charles is driving collaboration between Deep Tech and Semiconductor companies, Academia and Government in order to promote the sector and grow business opportunities for UK companies.

Previously, Charles was responsible for International Business & Marketing at HiSilicon (Huawei’s chipset business) based in Cambridge UK, with responsibility for product strategy, go-to-market and business development in IoT, edge and smart devices fields. Prior to this he led u-blox’ activities in the fast moving consumer IoT segment (wearables, smart-home and entertainment) following the acquisition of the ARM Software Radio spin-out Cognovo, where we was founder and executive VP Sales & Marketing. Charles has held various positions in system design, business development and product marketing within Acorn Computers, TTPCom, Motorola and ARM.

Zahid Ghadialy - Principal Analyst & Consultant, 3G4G

Zahid is a technologist with a deep understanding of architecting world-class mobile products and solutions. With over 20 years of experience in the telecom industry in various roles, he has been an evangelist for mobile and wireless technologies. Over the years he has accumulated a vast following on his blogs and social networks with simple explainer posts and videos.

His 3G4G blogs are widely read where he looks at different aspects of mobile technology and especially 5G and 6G nowadays, including the architecture, deployments, use cases, applications, etc. His YouTube channel is also very popular where he explains many new features expected as part of 5G in the future. While his style and content is unique, he also references many industry publications and provides slides that are very useful to view online.

He is also very active on Twitter under his @3G4GUK brand helping disseminate the benefits of 5G and why 5G will be needed in the long run. He covers a very wide portfolio of 5G related information that is hard to find otherwise.

Until recently, Zahid was a Senior Director looking at Technology & Innovation Strategy in Parallel Wireless. As a brand ambassador, he represented the company in various Open RAN discussions and also created tutorials on Open RAN and O-RAN which are being used as reference for new starters on the topic.

Richard Jacklin - Business Development - Commercial Lead, Plextek

Richard is the Commercial Lead for Plextek Services, helping customers design and produce highly innovative electronic, radar and radio communications enabled solutions. His career, now over 30 years, has included sales management, product management and engineering leadership in companies including Ericsson, Samsung, UL, Keysight, PPM and NI. He has presented and contributed to many forums including Cambridge Wireless, GSMA working groups, and Satellite Innovation Group. Richard graduated from the University of Portsmouth with a degree in Electronic Engineering, he was also awarded Chartered Engineer status and Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET).

Bob Oates - Associate Director, Cambridge Consultants

Bob Oates is a specialist in the interaction between safety and security for operational technology, critical infrastructure, and IoT devices. He works within the Engineering Assurance Team at Cambridge Consultants, ensuring that intelligent, AI-enabled systems are safe and secure. In addition to his academic background, Bob has over a decade of industrial experience working in the critical national infrastructure, defence, aerospace, nuclear, and maritime domains, including acting as the head of security for the development of the world’s first commercial remotely operated ship. He holds an Honorary Professorship in Safety and Security at De Montfort University.

Yiru Zhong - None

Yiru is an M2M/IoT market veteran with an industry research background and practical deployment experience. She understands the complexity of new service launches and the investigative nature of enterprise adoption trends. In her analyst past, she has launched two successful M2M/IoT research programmes, changed leadership minds on focussing on security, and managed an IoT platform validation programme. Her current role utilises her industry and IoT technology knowledge to accelerate enterprise adoption. She represents Soracom in the UK to lead conversations with start-ups, SMBs and enterprises on how to use IoT for their business. She is passionate about resolving commercial practicalities of IoT deployment and mostly building a positive conversation around IoT security.

Event Location

Open in google maps

Location info

The Bradfield Centre, Cambridge Science Park, 184 Cambridge Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge, CB4 0GA

Email organiser

Related resources

Related events

  • Cambridge Wireless

    East of England Tech Collaboration

    Register now
  • Cambridge Wireless

    Risk, perception, management and mitigation in RF Safety

    Register now
  • Cambridge Wireless

    AI, Law and Ethics 101: a quick start guide to what you need to know

    Register now

Subscribe to the CW newsletter

This site uses cookies.

We use cookies to help us to improve our site and they enable us to deliver the best possible service and customer experience. By clicking accept or continuing to use this site you are agreeing to our cookies policy. Learn more

Reserve your place

Join the CW network

CW is a leading and vibrant community with a rapidly expanding network of nearly 400 companies across the globe interested in the development and application of wireless and mobile technologies to solve business problems.

Sign in to your account

Please sign in to your CW account to reserve a place at this event and to qualify for any member discounts.

Start typing and press enter or the magnifying glass to search

Sign up to our newsletter
Stay in touch with CW

Choosing to join an existing organisation means that you'll need to be approved before your registration is complete. You'll be notified by email when your request has been accepted.

i
Your password must be at least 8 characters long and contain at least 1 uppercase character, 1 lowercase character and at least 1 number.

I would like to subscribe to

Select at least one option*