11 Apr 2018

FAI Global Technical Partner Noosphere’s Max Polyakov on the close links between technology and air sports

Noosphere, an organisation focused on scientific research and information provision, has been the FAI’s Global Technical Partner since early 2017.

For the FAI, this partnership has allowed access to the highly efficient event management system eNavigator, which was used with great success at a number of competitions in 2017 – including The World Games.

Here, Noosphere co-founder Max Polyakov explains why his company’s cutting-edge technology is such a perfect fit with the air sports world.

Why is the world of air sports such a good platform to showcase Noosphere's technological expertise?

Noosphere has created a number of initiatives to help promote and curate the noosphere, including partnerships with tech companies, scientists, researchers, and academic organisations all over the world. 

One of these collaborations is with the FAI, to which Noosphere provides the most up-to-date event management tools.

Though this collaboration was only made official in 2017, the two organisations have been working closely together since 2015, when Noosphere organised the European Championship for Space Models.

We say that Noosphereans are dreamers. In fact, the Noosphere logo shows a young boy dreaming about space. Partnering with organisations such as FAI fits with this ideal, whilst also furthering our aim of sharing knowledge so we can all progress together.

Sports are always a way for humans to challenge their capabilities, especially when they take place in the limitless sky. This too fits with our approach to running the business, which is similar to embarking on a challenging adventure.

We recognised the potential of such a partnership after becoming involved in event organisation.

Why is it relevant for technology companies such as Noosphere to partner with organisations like FAI?

I believe that technology companies are created to improve people’s lives, of which sport is a significant part.

Cooperation between Noosphere and FAI began in 2015 when Ukraine hosted the FAI European Championships for Space Models. Noosphere provided high quality streaming of the event and managed to attract more than 30,000 unique viewers – an impressive number for such a specific sport.

Traditional offline sports are losing spectators in comparison to cybersports, an area in which the companies of the Noosphere community have a lot of experience. We’re going to share that experience with FAI to attract even more attention to air sports events.

eNavigator was used at the World Games for the first time. What is your view about being part of one the world's biggest sporting events?

In 2017, Noosphere initiated the development of the sporting event planning software, eNavigator, for FAI. Using the system at The World Games was a big honour and a huge responsibility at the same time.

We’re happy to know that we helped more people to see the real beauty of air sports.

How will you tackle the challenges and promote the opportunities of the use of eNavigator at the upcoming 1st FAI World Drone Racing Championship 2018 in China?

We’re ready for the challenges and we intend to continue working with FAI to further develop drone sports. 

The World Games was a great project, but the FAI World Drone Racing Championship is exciting as it is a brand new event not only for us, but also for FAI. Our team will do its best to meet expectations.

Photo credit: Noosphere