The KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence at the University of Cyprus has been awarded three new EU funded projects to tackle important complex challenges related to emergency response, vehicle cybersecurity, and water scarcity. The KIOS CoE research teams will develop advanced technologies and smart methods in order to improve the emergency response, to enhance cybersecurity for connected and automated vehicles and to reinforce the efficiency of water distribution networks.
The first innovative EU funded project, titled “AIDERS” aims to improve the emergency response by harnessing the large volume of data that first responders collect through heterogeneous sensors on Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) and converting them into actionable decisions. This project is funded by the European Union Civil Protection Call for prevention and preparedness projects in the field of civil protection and marine pollution, and is a joint effort between the KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence, the Cyprus Civil Defence, the Entente Valabre (Spain), the University of Lille (France), the Corpo Nazionale Vigili del Fuoco (Italy) and the Center for Security Studies (KEMEA-Greece).
The second project is titled “CARAMEL” and brings together 15 organizations from 8 European countries with complementary expertise and skills. It addresses the cybersecurity challenge of the next generation mobility, contributing to the long-term vision of safer roads with zero fatalities. The “CARAMEL” project will apply advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) techniques and continuously seek methods to mitigate associated safety risks for connected autonomous vehicles. Consequently, the main goal of “CARAMEL” is achieving modern vehicles’ protection against cybersecurity breaches related to automated driving, communication flows with other vehicles and the roadside infrastructure, and smart charging in the case of pluggable electric vehicles (PEVs). This is an Innovation Action project funded by the EU under the Horizon 2020 programme and the consortium consists of i2CAT, Ficosa and Atos from Spain; AVL from Austria; the KIOS CoE at the University of Cyprus, 8Bells and Sidroco from Cyprus; Altran, Panasonic Automotive and T-Systems from Germany; The University of Patras from Greece; GreenFlux and Cyberlens from the Netherlands; Ubiwhere from Portugal and 0 Infinity from the UK.
The third project is titled “WaterAnalytics” and aims to make smart water technologies accessible to all water operators, by offering them an innovative low-cost intelligent software/ hardware solution designed to reduce the water system’s operational expenses, leakages, and energy usage. The solution is based on state-of-the-art research-based data analytics, crowd-sourcing, and machine learning, to improve the ability to detect and isolate events within a water distribution network. This project receives funding from the Research and Innovation Foundation/ Programme RESTART 2016 – 2020 and the consortium consists of the KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence at the University of Cyprus and PHOEBE Research and Innovation Ltd.
The KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence at the University of Cyprus coordinates the project “AIDERS” and participates as key partner in the projects “CARAMEL” and “WaterAnalytics”.
