aau/MüllerGilbert Tanner is part of the SAPIENCE team at the University of Klagenfurt, a group consisting of six young students and researchers who are working on new approaches to the use of drones in search and rescue operations. However, the student, who is pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Robotics & Artificial Intelligence, is not only launching drones into the air, but also striving for lofty goals himself: he will soon complete his studies in the shortest possible time and will then move on to pursue a Master’s degree programme at ETH Zurich.

Across the globe, four teams are competing against each other in a total of three competitions as part of the SAPIENCE project. The participants are the University of London (UK), the University of Alabama in Huntsville (USA), Delft University of Technology (NL), and the University of Klagenfurt (A). In July 2025, the competition took place in Huntsville (USA). This time, the team from the University of Klagenfurt claimed victory.
“It’s rare for students to be able to participate in projects at university in this way while still studying for their Bachelor’s degree. For me, SAPIENCE represents a huge opportunity: working as a group on realistic applications and then competing against others. The best work leads to the best results and wins. That motivates us,” says Gilbert Tanner, who is part of the six-person team at the University of Klagenfurt. Tanner chose to study Robotics and Artificial Intelligence because “it combines knowledge of hardware and software. Even during my time at technical college, I always wanted to know: How can you build something that can then perform a useful task autonomously?” That is exactly what the applications at SAPIENCE are all about: For example, drones are designed to autonomously map areas for search-and-rescue missions—both outdoors and indoors—identify injured persons, and deliver aid packages to people. The drone used in the competitions was developed by the young researchers themselves: “We built our drone ourselves. We primarily rely on lidar sensors, which emit laser pulses and use the light scattered back from the atmosphere to form a picture of the environment.” The next step was to make the drone fly as intelligently and autonomously as possible. “The tricky part is often figuring out where you are. The drone needs to know exactly where it is. It should be able to do this without GPS, because GPS isn’t always reliable, especially in disaster areas.” Training flights are also part of the preparation, as Gilbert Tanner explains: “We use the drone hall for indoor tasks. The Hobby Airport in Klagenfurt, which is part of a cooperation with the university, is available to us for outdoor training.”
The Klagenfurt team performed particularly well in the mapping tasks during the competition in the USA, which led to their victory. But this success is not the only reason for Gilbert Tanner’s joy: he is making rapid progress with his Bachelor’s degree and, despite working throughout his studies, is set to complete his degree within the minimum study period this summer semester. He will then go on to pursue a Master’s degree programme at ETH Zurich, one of the world’s leading universities in this field, which selects only the best students in a highly selective process. For Gilbert Tanner, who grew up in Ranten near Murau and came to Klagenfurt to attend HTL Mössingerstraße, the move to Zurich is the highlight of his relatively young career so far. When asked how he achieved this, he explains: “I continued my training autodidactically and always seized the opportunities that came up, with my family encouraging me every step of the way. When Stephan Weiss, who heads the Control of Networked Systems group, mentioned the project in a lecture and said that people could apply for it, I knew it was a great opportunity. I believe you have to be confident, but also work hard. Then what previously seemed unlikely can become reality.”
Der Beitrag Flying to victory with the best drones erschien zuerst auf University of Klagenfurt.