from left: the EyeControl project team, and the Touch Flight project team
On 26 April 2017, two University of Malta Engineering projects won the Malta Innovations Scientific Award. The award ceremony was held at the Ministry for the Economy, Investment and Small Business in Valletta, specifically on World Intellectual Property Day to celebrate how innovation can help improve our lives.
The first prize for scientific innovations was awarded to EyeControl, a project by Dr Tracey Camilleri, Mr Nathaniel Barbara and Prof. Kenneth Camilleri from the Department of Systems and Control Engineering. EyeControl focusses on the use of eye movements recorded through electrooculography (EOG) to provide the possibility for a subject with limited mobility to communicate or control his environment. Instead of using standard keyboards, remote controllers or touch screens, these individuals can use their eye movements as an alternative control interface. EyeControl thus helps to provide these individuals with more independence and a better quality of life. This project also received the WIPO IP Enterprise trophy from the World Intellectual Property Organization.
The second prize was awarded to Touch Flight, a project in which new methods for controlling jet aircraft and their systems were developed jointly by the Institute of Aerospace Technologies and QuAero Ltd. The research resulted in a new approach that brings manual (touch) communication with aircraft systems onto a single tablet, thus allowing the pilot to programme the avionics in a more convenient manner, reducing pilot workload and the possibility of error. The project team involved Prof. David Zammit Mangion, Dr Jason Gauci, Mr Mateusz Jedruszek, Ms Natalie Cauchi, Mr Kevin Theuma and Mr Matthew Xuereb from the University of Malta and Captains Karl Falzon, Alan Muscat, Joseph Markham, Mark Attard and Mark Soler from QuAero Ltd. The project was funded by the MCST Fusion programme.