AN Aberystwyth University student has won an opportunity to present his idea for a natural disaster rescue app to delegates at a top UK space conference.

Elliot Vale is studying physics and planetary physics at Aberystwyth and worked on the GeoRescue concept app with Tia Mountain, a student at the University of West of England.

Elliot and Tia will present GeoRescue at the UK Space Conference 2017 which takes place in Manchester from 30 May to 1 June.

Designed to help people living or travelling in high-risk natural disaster areas, GeoRescue provides real-time information on predicted, at-risk and ongoing disasters.

It also aims to guide people out of the affected area using advanced maps services.

Once activated, the app will emit a signal using GPS to indicate a person’s location for search and rescue services.

GeoRescue is one of 12 winners in the UK Space Agency’s SatelLife Challenge.

The competition, which offered £50,000 in prize money, sought inspirational ideas from young people aged 11 to 22 on how satellite data could be used to improve life on Earth.

As runners-up, Elliot and Tia also won £5,000 and an opportunity not only to present to the UK Space Conference in Manchester but to pitch their idea to a panel of ‘dragons’ from the UK space sector in June.

Their hope is that this pitch could lead to their idea being developed into a fully working app that could save lives.

As part of his four-year MPhys degree at Aberystwyth University, Elliot is currently nearing the end of a five-month stint at the University Centre in Svalbard which lies inside the Arctic Circle.

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