Christine Edwards and Peter Hall of the British company, Sci-Tech, were awarded the Galileo Master prize in the European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC) 2008. Their winning idea is a novel tracking system for seamen falling overboard. It is made up of a navigation device installed onboard the ship and mobile modules that are worn by all crew members. The system constantly sends the position of the man overboard to the ship, which is thus shown relative to the ship. The ship can then be navigated to this position.

The position of ‘man overboard’ is updated constantly by receiving real-time data from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), in the first instance by the Global Positioning System (GPS) and the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS). In the future it can work with the European satellite navigation system Galileo which will provide greater accuracy.

Edwards and Hall were also awarded the special prize for the best application of EGNOS by the European GNSS Supervisory Authority GSA. Here is seen at the award ceremony (from left) Emilia Müller (Bavarian Minister for Economics), Christine Edwards (Sci-Tech), Peter Hall (Sci-Tech), and Ann Sta (Head of Galileo Programmes at UK Department for Transport).