A startup "made in UPV" develops an autonomous drone for firefighting and will travel to Silicon Valley

VALENCIA, June 21. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The startup Utopia, belonging to the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV), has been proclaimed the winner of the ImaginPlanet Challenge 2023, the national entrepreneurship event focused on sustainability and the environment. The project, which has developed an autonomous drone for extinguishing forest fires, will travel to Silicon Valley to participate in an incubation program and continue developing its business model there.

ImaginPlanet Challenge is the entrepreneurship contest organized by Imagin, digital banking with a social aspect focused on environmental conservation and the promotion of activities focused on ecology, among others.

The Utopia proposal, which was the best valued by the expert jury that decided among ten finalists from all over Spain, consists of an automated aerial drone, which goes to the sources of the start of forest fires and, through Artificial Intelligence, evaluates the risks of the area, the danger in the perimeter and throw an extinguishing agent.

"Currently manned aerial vehicles are used for firefighting, a system that endangers human lives and has a very long reaction time. We want to work with governments and finance ourselves with European funds, since Utopia is fully aligned with the SDGs" , says the CTO of the project, Laura Sempere.

In addition to the triumph of Utopia, two other projects with the UPV seal were finalists in the competition: Farsave, e-commerce for the pharmaceutical sector, and Veritae, dedicated to promoting rural communities for retirees and the elderly.

The Utopia team, which has already won the last edition of Dream Big UPV, will travel to California in a few days to stay in the incubation program.

"In addition, it is one of the areas of the planet where the most fires occur and it is the best technological ecosystem to develop our project," they say.