cutting-edge UAV and drone solutions, research and education
The ITC Faculty at the University of Twente has a long tradition in using UAVs, drones, mapping and photogrammetry. We use drones and unmanned aerial vehicles for geoscience applications, research and capacity-building projects. Over the last decade, ITC has given educational courses on drones and the use of UAVs worldwide.
Through our UAV Centre at ITC, our team delivers cutting-edge UAV solutions and new education. We offer innovative solutions and promote the larger adoption of UAV technology, drones and photogrammetry in various contexts. We customize our education on UAV technology, mapping and Unmanned Aerial Systems. At ITC, we use modern teaching styles on drones and UAVs to fit the expectations of our students.
UAV and drone research
The UAV centres' research focuses on the development of innovative solutions to solve real-world problems with the use of UAV technology. Research is conducted in a team consisting of ITC staff, Postdoctoral researchers and PhD candidates.
- (Former) Postdoctoral researchers and PhD candidates
Postdoctoral researchers and PhD candidates
- John Ray Bergado (2020)
ITC PhD thesis: End-to-end Predictive Models for Remote Sensing Applications.
- Sofia Tilon (2022)
PhD project page: Routine and Post-Disaster Road Corridor Monitoring for the Increased Resilience of Road Infrastructures
- Bavantha Udugama Vithanage
PhD project page: Towards Autonomous and Real-Time UAV Mapping
- Yu-Lun Wu
PhD project page: Autonomous UAV data Acquisition for 3D City Modeling
- Ning Zhang
PhD project page: Scene Understanding in Emergencies
FORMER Postdoctoral researchers and PhD graduates
- Samer Karam (2021)
ITC PhD thesis: Developing a slam-based backpack mobile mapping system for indoor mapping. - Claudia Stöcker (2021)
ITC PhD thesis: Unmanned aerial vehicle mapping for responsible land administration. Currently working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Münster. - Diogo Duarte (2020)
ITC PhD thesis: Debris, rubble piles and façade damage detection using multi-resolution optical remote sensing imagery. Currently working as a researcher at Coimbra University, Portugal. - Phillipp Jende (2019)
ITC PhD thesis: Position estimation of mobile mapping imaging sensors using aerial imagery. Currently working as a scientist at the Austrian Institute of Technology. - Anand Vetrivel (2018)
ITC PhD thesis: Automatic information extraction from remote sensing images and 3D point clouds for building damage assessment. Currently working as Chief Executive Officer at FarmwiseAI, India.
- John Ray Bergado (2020)
Courses using UAV technology
The ITC Faculty has been offering education on the use of UAV technology and drones for geoscience for more than ten years. With our UAV centre, we use our knowledge and expertise to offer both traditional face-to-face and online courses tailored to address your needs. The online material is organized in modular educational elements, covering the different expertise of the UAV centre. These modules have different levels of detail and can be structured in different typologies of courses to address the needs of our students. The educational material on UAVs, remote sensing, photogrammetry and drones is continuously updated and improved following the development of ITC research. Reach out to our team to learn more.
The below courses using UAV technology are part of our Master's Geo-information Science and Earth Observation.
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Autonomous Robots (Master's Robotics course)
- Cadastral Data Acquisition Techniques and Dissemination Methods
- Earth Observation with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)
- Earth Observation (Minor)
- Introduction to Hazards and Risk
- Scene Understanding with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)
Contact us if you are interested in following one of these courses: uav-centre-itc@utwente.nl.
Capacity building with UAV and drone technology
ITC ran several capacity-building projects dealing with unmanned aerial vehicles and drones all over the world. Building on these previous experiences and being fed by ITC’s research and innovation, the UAV centre offers consultancies and tailored-made solutions to answer your specific needs. The UAV centre leverages the cross-disciplinary expertise of the ITC Faculty to conceive innovative solutions and face societal and environmental challenges. Our solutions range from hardware or software implementation to the analysis and interpretation of data for decision making support. Go to our 'Expertise' page to learn more about drones and UAV projects at ITC, related to topics like 3D modelling, disaster management and biodiversity mapping.