TIMELINE
Our humble journey of building Caerobotics.
Registration and initial partnerships.
Caerobotics Consultancy Pvt Ltd is registered in Mumbai.
A detailed need mapping and innovation gap assessment exercise is done in Nandurbar, Chitrakoot and Palghar regions alongside Global Futures Network.
We partner with WeRobotics to launch India Flying Labs alongside 8 ecosystem partners.
We organize a Youth Engagement workshop in Bordi village of Palghar district to do a need analysis of challenges faced by the tribal small-hold farmers.
The seed is sown.
Dr Ruchi Saxena was engaged in a project for Danish Red Cross in Far-west Nepal. She comes across stories of families who are too far away from mainstream healthcare and miss out on opportunities. Her project on telemedicine was also facing a backlash as diagnosis and prescribing alone was not solving the problem.
Key players in drone ecosystem were willing to support enabling medical drones in mountain states of India and Nepal, but the industry is hardly ready for it. There is an access gap evident in research and actions, and a strong expressed need for technology integration in mainstream healthcare.
Dr Ruchi decides to register the business to make it a full-time mission to streamline adoption of innovations to make healthcare accessible for everyone, irrespective for where they reside.
Early traction.
We launch UAV Task Force to build a community for humanitarian drone operators and respond to mass climate emergencies such as floods, cyclones and landslides.
We demonstrate to the youth of Bordi about how drones can be used to benefit small-hold farmers and oriented them about the laws, policies, training and collaboration opportunities.
We participated in WeRobotics Conference organized at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York and presented our vision for a community-led collaboration model for scaling drones for social impact applications in India, and appealed for regional cooperation between Flying Labs to strengthen response to climate change challenges with innovative systems using drones and data.
We supported Nepal Flying Labs and Naxa's initiative to establish a drone professional's association in Nepal. We shared our insights and policy process in India. We aim to form a regional cooperation in South Asia for supporting each other in drone ecosystem for disasters and healthcare.
We shared our vision and ground work done by Flying Labs at IIT Roorkee's Unmanned Aerial Systems in Geomatics 2019 Conference. We insisted on local capacity building in drones for disasters, especially during the preparedness phase, and the application of drones for sustainable development with community engagement.
We organize a mega 3-day multi-stakeholder workshop on Co-creating Sustainable Futures with Drones and AI at IIT Delhi with WeRobotics where about 80 participants charted out plans and strategies for using drones for disasters, healthcare, conservation, agriculture, youth empowerment and sustainable development.
After mega Cyclone Fani hit the shores of Odisha, we demonstrated to the Government of Odisha the safe, ethical and responsible use of drones with powerful machine learning tools for a transparent and efficient damage assessment process. We proposed capacity building in the vulnerable state to make it self-sufficient in the wake of future disasters.
We shared our learning and experiences from the field work in disasters at Global Inclusive Disaster Management Conference 2019 and stressed upon ethical use of management of drone data, abiding the Humanitarian UAV Code of Conduct and local capacity building during the preparedness phase of any disaster.
August 2019 was a particularly busy month for us as we helped coordinate several drone-based disaster response projects in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Gujarat, Punjab and Bihar. The local teams were inducted in processes of UAV Rapid Response Task Force and were able to coordinate with the local government and emergency responders to extend their drone services for floods and landslides.
We launch a signature Capacity Building program for disaster-vulnerable states - Drones and Data in Disasters, We organized capacity-building workshop in the state of Odisha to train a batch of young professionals in ethical, safe and responsible use of drones and drone-data for various stages of disaster response.
We worked with Nagaland State Disaster Management Authority to organize a 5-day workshop for their state-wide team of district disaster management officers in using drones for data during disasters with WeRobotics, Nepal Flying Labs and India Flying Labs.
We participated at International Conference on Entrepreneurship and Innovation held at Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand and presented on Drones for Social Good.
We presented on Localization of Drone-based Disaster Response at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore during the annual meeting on 'Emergency Flood Response and Management using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles'.
We were on the panel of Healthcare Drones at the 3rd Annual Drone Innovators Network Meeting organized by World Economic Form discussing the challenges and opportunities for drones in healthcare in India.
We were on the panel of discussing Drones for Social Transformation at the India Economic Summit organized by World Economic Form discussing the challenges and opportunities for drones in healthcare, disasters, agriculture and development.
We presented on Drones and AI for Disasters at National Frontiers of Science organised by Indian National Young Academy of Science, supported by Indian National Science Academy, NIPGR and Office of Principal Scientific Advisor to Government of India.
We presented on Drones for Disasters at the 18th International Conference on Information Technology organized by International Institute for Information Technology, Bhubaneshwar.
We participated in the workshop on 'National AI Ethics Framework' organized by NITI Aayog and World Economic Forum to co-create national standards and ethics for AI and responsible use of data generated by the emerging technologies.
We participated in the annual Techfest at Indian Institute for Technology Bombay to connect with the youth for applying drones for social good.
We participated in the panel discussion on Drones as First Responders at the Drone Festival of India organized by Drone Federation of India.
Systems are put to test.
We participated in the workshop organized by WeRobotics, SheMaps and Philippines Flying Labs to be trained as trainers for using drones for school education, especially with students from vulnerable communities.
We were one of the ten finalists selected as one of the finalists at Aarambh 2020, a competition organized for women-led businesses by Shiprocket, for our flagship youth engagement program, Project WINGS.
As the COVID-19 cases surged, we geared up to respond with our local drone teams and associations spread out all over the country. We organized a series of webinars during this time to connect, educate and track the activities.
We mentored the finalists of Fight Corona Ideathon co-organized by Ministry of Human Resource Development's Innovation Cell, AICTE and InnovatioCuris.
We interacted with students of Amity University in a webinar organized by Institution Innovation Council to share ideas on how robotics and data are helping tackle the pandemic and what are the opportunities for application of drones, mapping , data and AI in social innovations.
We participated in the panel discussion on Drones and COVID-19 with WeRobotics at World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) Talks organized by International Telecommunication Union to share our ground experiences and learnings from using drones in COVID-19.
We teamed up with MUKTI team in West Bengal to support drone-based damage assessment after Cyclone Amphan with the help of local drone pilots in our UAV Rapid Response Task Force network.
We co-organized a webinar on 'Indian Student Bodies in UAVs' with Aerial Robotics club of IIT Kanpur which connected with more than 200 students from various IITs across the country to discuss about applications and careers in drones.
We organized Advanced Course in Drones for Development which had about 80 participants learn from more than 30 knowledge experts, complete 30 hands-on assignments and discuss over 30 topics in 30 days, focusing primarily on medical deliveries, disaster preparedness and response, agriculture, rural development, and STEM education.
We organized a week-long interaction with stakeholders in education and skill development in a webinar series co-organized with Electronics Sector Skills Council of India called D for Drones.
We participated in the webinar organized by Technology Engineering and Management Society of The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and presented our work on using drones for social impact.
We interacted with 150+ professionals from diverse sectors through our series of Network Meets between October 2020 and February 2021 to create a passionate community for adoption of technologies for social impact, supporting their ventures, projects and growth.
We organized a 4-day workshop, 'Command, Control and Communications in UAS', to discuss various non-flying components of unmanned aerial systems including flight controllers, ground control stations, command and control links, unmanned traffic management systems, and fleet management.
We presented at the 'm-Health for Belt and Road Region' Convention during the Entrepreneurship Week 2020, hosted by IEEE and Sustainable Belt and Road Initiative. We also witnessed the launch of the book, 'Mobile Technologies for Delivering Healthcare in Remote, Rural or Developing Regions' where more than 75 authors from around the world have contributed, including our chapter with experiences from the field for medical and humanitarian drones.
We were working with Goethe-Institut. for conducting online drone workshops for about 200 school students from 8 cities in 3 countries during their KinderUni Curiosity Week! Our workshop was titled 'Robots that Fly' engaged students in remotely operating our edu drones to solve a real world challenge.
We were a part of 'Power Women Of India: Beyond 2020' Conclave in collaboration with INSEAD Emerging Markets Institute. We discussed some challenging topics which we as a society face today. Is it time for humanity to look at new leadership models? How does the future look for gender equality and what will it take to get more women (of colour) to the top? Is this the end of capitalism as businesses talk about sustainable models and business for good. We were on the panel that discussed 'Sustainable Businesses and Business for Good'.
Global Humanitarian Policy Forum examined the longer-term health, socio-economic, political, ethical, and security challenges exposed and aggravated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and concurrent crises. Our panel on 'Realizing the Digital Promise: Moving New and Emerging Technologies from Pilots to Practice' discussed the challenges and methods to enable emerging technologies for humanitarian applications.
'Drones for Daughters - Education, Skilling, Leadership, Investments and Opportunities' workshop invited industry leaders to discuss possible strategies for improving gender balance in emerging industries.
Ecosystem expands.
3rd UAV Taskforce Meeting had 200+ first responders, rescue workers, emergency and risk professionals, disaster management experts, technology manufacturers and service providers, drone professionals, students, and stakeholders keen on supporting life-saving operations with unmanned aviation sharing knowledge and experience on Drone Technology for Disasters and Emergency Management, Drone Data, Analytics and Intelligence, Building and Scaling Up Local Partnerships.
We worked with Women in Big Data and Indira Gandhi Technical University for Women to introduce the vast myriad of opportunities of using drones for data for social impact projects and especially focus on why and how women should be leading this.
We organized a Youth Ambassadors program to learn from the youth what they want, what they think and what they create.
We had super fun conducting Drone Champs workshop for girls from 8 cities of India and Sri Lanka, courtesy Goethe-Institut for their Gender Week! We simulated the environment for Ingenuity Helicopter that was tested at the Mars 2020 Mission.
We contributed to the report published by OCHA, 'From Digital Promise to Frontline Practice: New And Emerging Technologies in Humanitarian Action' – that underscores that artificial intelligence can facilitate analysis and interpret vast and complex humanitarian data sets to improve projections and decision-making. Mobile applications, chatbots and social media can create immediate feedback loops with people affected by humanitarian crises. And, as showcased by the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses, education and health services can be shifted to virtual environments overnight. We provided our inputs in the development of this report.
Our Founder, Dr Ruchi Saxena received the People's Choice Award in the Person-Disruptor Category at Airwards 20/21
We launched the 2nd edition of the Advanced Course in Drones in Development which was a month-long course with live presentations and daily assignments on 30+ topics, with 40+ mentors and 100+ students from 12 countries.
We launched the Global Alliance on Drones in Public Health alongside 200+ ecosystem partners from 35 countries. The aim of this alliance is to bring together multi-stakeholder groups who would be leading medical drones projects in their countries. The alliance members would meet often, learn from each other and support planning, design and implementation of projects and capacity building programs across countries and regions. We would support development of evidence-based policies, implementation frameworks and outcome measures.
We conducted a workshop for the Aerodynamcs Club at BITS Goa and shared with them about projects and prospects in the global drone industry.
We participated in the medical drone trials organized by Government of Telangana, World Economic Forum, NITI Aayog and Apollo's HealthNet Global, along with our partners Sagar Defence Engineering and Avianco, transporting vaccines with drones across 27 km near Hyderabad.
Our Founder, Dr Ruchi Saxena was listed among the '50 Women in Robotics that You Need to Know About', 2021 List.
We were part of a panel discussion on 'Driving Data for Equitable and Sustainable #Agriculture'. NASTech 2021 was themed around “Resilience to Resurgence” and aimed to bring together stories, case studies and best practices from the Indian Tech industry on harnessing emerging technologies to pave way for a thriving future.
We hosted the 1st International Conference on Drones in Development with over 300 guests from 30 countries and with 30+ presenters on diverse topics.
We hosted the Drone Leadership Summit of global drone leaders discussing experiences, challenges, strategies and solutions.
We hosted the meeting for Women Leaders in Aviation who shared their stories of love, grit and success on the occasion of International Women's Day 2022.
Our founder, Dr Ruchi Saxena receives the prestigious Chevening Scholarship to study MSc International Health and Tropical Medicine at the University of Oxford. We part ways with India Flying Labs and terminate our partneship with WeRobotics, handing over the Botnar grant youth project to Institute of Sustainability and Development Studies..
We paused all operations and enter a dormant mode to bring back the focus only on medical drones and health systems innovations ONLY, returning to the strategy black board. We ran out of fuel and needed some time off to gain field perspectives on public health structures, funding, emerging innovations such as AI and robotics, and build core partneships..
Changing priorities.
We hosted the Drone Leadership Summit of global drone leaders discussing experiences, challenges, strategies and solutions.
We hosted the meeting for Women Leaders in Aviation who shared their stories of love, grit and success on the occasion of International Women's Day 2022.
We presented at the panel of Drone Festival of India for Women Leadership in Drones.
We launch the Global Voices in Drones in Development Podcast.
We organize Drones and Data in Development Workshop in Mumbai along with Thakur Institute of Aviation Technologies.
We presented at Global AI Summit at Riyadh on Drones and Data in Development.
Our founder, Dr Ruchi Saxena receives the prestigious Chevening Scholarship to study MSc International Health and Tropical Medicine at the University of Oxford.
We mentor participants at the Chevening Health Hackathon organized at the London School of Business.
Reflections and reviews.
We present our framework on 'Ruralification of Drones for supporting Small-hold Farmers in Climate-vulnerable Regions' at the International Symposium on Drones for Agriculture, co-hosted by Mahatma Phule Krish Vidyapeeth, World Bank and NAHEP.
We were the finalists at NITI Aayog's Women Entrepreneurship Platofrm (WEP)'s Unnati Program, where we received a year-long mentorship for launching Project CAERODROME, our flagship capacity buildling program for public health institutions to adopt medical drones, and build infrastructure for safe medical drone operations.
We published the Drone Education Framework to support our academic and institutional partners in launching multi-layered drone skilling programs in their respective countries.
Period for reflections.
We presented at the panel on Ethical Adoption of AI in Drones for Development at the Global AI Summit - Now, Next, Never at Riyadh and shared our experience in engaging young people at the grassroots in drone projects and development of supportive policies for AI adoption in development sector.
We were selected by the UNDP Villgro program to scale our work for grassroots adoption of innovations.
AI Adoption era
We presented at YourStory TechSparks on the Emerging Technology Spotlight Panel.
We received mentorship from World Bank and India Exim Bank during the Women in Trade workshhop.
We presented our Drone Education Ecosystem framework at the World Bank's South Asia Drone Forum in Kathmandu.
We received the Perplexity AI Business Fellowship, Healthcare AI course at the IISc, and for Google AI for Startups program.
We were selected for the Spain India Council Foundation's India Leadership program where we got the opportunity to present our multilingual medical AI systems to key stakeholders in Spain.
Integration of innovations through systems designs.
We launched the Climate-Health-Food Interchange to bring together key actors working to address climate change impacts on health and food systems.
We introduced working models to demonstrate multiagent systems medical industry.
We launched a book and a coursework on Multiagent Systems in Primary Health and Hospital Settings.
We launched new self-paced programs to support capacity building in drones, AI and robotics in health, food and climate systems.
New goals.
We are positioning ourselves as a glbal health systems innovations consultancy, think tank, and a capacity building institution..
We are restructuring our professional networks to be largely automated.
We are launching new programs, directories, platforms and learning resources.
We are researching, writing and publishing industry reviews, policy briefs and market analytics.
