A team led by Kevin Kochersberger has taken a first place award in the XCELLENCE Awards presented by the Association for Unmanned Vehicles Systems International (AUVSI). Kochersberger’s team, selected from a pool of accomplished applicants, received this top honor for their work in Humanitarian and Public Safety for their role in the launch of the UNICEF African Drone and Data Academy. The team was recognized during the August 19 keynote session of XPONENTIAL, the premiere expo for unmanned systems.

The academy was first envisioned by Michael Scheibenreif, the program lead for UNICEF. Kochersberger and his team joined the effort in 2017 following a demonstrated expertise in training.

“We’re thrilled to receive this recognition of the great work by graduates in passing along the technology of unmanned systems to our partners in Africa,” said Kochersberger. “Now that we’re several years into the project, we have seen many successes come our way, and it’s great to share those successes with the larger community.”

The AUVSI XCELLENCE Awards honor innovators with a demonstrated commitment to advancing autonomy, leading, and promoting safe adoption of unmanned systems and developing programs that use these technologies to save lives and improve the human condition.

Kevin Kochersberger and Manav Gandhi
Kevin Kochersberger and Manav Gandhi