SMARTLAGOON at the RAMONES Summer School on Environmental Intelligence
Last July, the Environmental Summer School of the RAMONES project, held from July 3rd to 7th, 2024, took place in Methana, Greece. Part of the SMARTLAGOON team attended the school at the invitation of the RAMONES team.
The event focused on the monitoring of radioactivity in marine ecosystems and brought together around 30 participants from different scientific disciplines and backgrounds, including students, professors and research professionals.
The opening session of the Summer School was chaired by Theodoros Mertzimekis and Eleni Petra, both from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA). Together with the representatives of the municipality, including the Mayor of Troizinia-Methana, Mr Tasos Mougios, the Deputy Mayor of Methana, Mr Vasilis Pantelis, and the members of the Municipal Council, they welcomed all the participants and speakers.
During the Summer School, participants had the opportunity to learn from leading European experts in various fields about a wide range of topics included in Environmental Intelligence, such as radioactivity, the properties of thermal springs and their connection to the geology of the area, the latest developments and contributions of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) in scanning and surveying marine radioactivity, as well as innovative sensors in the environment and science in general. Participants from NKUA included Assistant Professor Savvas Genitsaris (Department of Biology), Dr Andreas Gontikas (Department of Geology & Geoenvironment & EU Horizon nexus monARC) and Professor Paraskevi Nomikou (Department of Geology & Geoenvironment).
From the second day, presentations by project partners and representatives of collaborating organisations and research programmes focused on environmental issues, with particular emphasis on marine radioactivity, marine biology and marine pollution by microplastics. The third day was dedicated to forecasting systems that can be used in environmental intelligence, AI for the detection and analysis of underwater environments, AUVs and geographic information systems. On this day, the SMARTLAGOON representatives gave a presentation on their project, explaining the ecosystem problems of the Mar Menor and the holistic approach to the development. It generated a great deal of interest among the participants, given the questions that were raised.
During the last two days, a field exercise was carried out in the area of the hot springs of Agios Nikolaos with the participation of all trainees. Based on the field measurements, the teams worked competitively within the framework of a specialised datathon, which concluded on the last day with presentations and awards to the participants.
SMARTLAGOON would like to thank the RAMONES team for inviting us to the Summer School and for all their efforts to make us feel at home. We would also like to congratulate them on the Summer School, which we consider to have been a great success.
