In the front row, from left to right: Francisco Falcone, Antonio López, the Minister Ana Pastor, José Javier Astrain, Jesús Villadangos and Miguel Beruete.

A team of researchers at the Public University of Navarre (UPNA) has won the Talgo Award for Technological Innovation with the project, “Implementation of an ambient intelligence environment for the rail ecosystem”. The AWARD was presented on the 29th of May in a ceremony presided by the Minister of Development, Ms Ana Pastor, and in which the Vice-Rector for Research at the UPNA, Alfonso Carlosena, was also present. The award, with which Talgo aims to encourage the scientific community to develop R+D+i projects in this sector, has a grant of 30,000 euros.

The project was led by Francisco Falcone, lecturer in the Theory of Signals and Communications; participating in the project were Mario Sorolla, Professor of Theory of Signals and Communications, Antonio López, lecturer in the same discipline, Jesús Villadangos and José Javier Astrain, lecturers in Language and Information Systems, and Miguel Beruete, researcher contracted through the Ramón y Cajal programme.

The ambient intelligence environment created by the UPNA researchers in this project enables, by means of a wireless network, controlling the presence of passengers in rail carriages, the interior luminosity and temperature, as well as other data and information that could be useful to rail users. This network, seeking greater energy efficiency and comfort for passengers, is supported by software which gathers the data through sensors and aerials and sends them to a central computer located at the head of the train.

* Elhuyar translation, published in www.basqueresearch.com