My role as a supervisor is to get an overview of the various projects that my team members are working on and to find and resolve technical bottlenecks. For example, for the wind turbine project, I understand the customers’ needs through communication with members of the customer relations team and translate them to technical requirements. Afterwards, I breakdown the requirements in tasks, collaborate with the other internal technical teams and integrate their development into our product. This involves collaborating with the “hardware” and “software” of the “drone” and “ground control system”. It is not an easy job to communicate and coordinate with many parties involved but I am very pleased to be able to contribute to solving the client's issues by taking on this role. More importantly, it is rewarding to support our society and to contribute to the safety and security of our people.

In order to play such a role, I must continue to expand my technical knowledge in a variety of technical fields. This job provides me valuable opportunities for growth, as I gain new knowledge every day in the ever-evolving field of industrial drones.

I am from the Netherlands. After studying mechanical engineering at university in my home country, I came to Japan to study and was impressed by the culture, environment, and technology of this country. Did you know that Japan has lower regulatory barriers for drones than the Netherlands? Compared to Europe as a whole, I feel that Japan has a unique approach to the drone sector.

When I sought employment in Japan, I looked at different companies, from well-known large manufacturing companies to start-ups. Among them, I decided to join ACSL because it was a group of people with a high level of knowledge and experience. For example, our CTO Chris Raabe joined ACSL after working for a major U.S. airline and as an assistant professor in the department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Tokyo, and he applied his experience from the aircraft industry to drones. I was also attracted to the fact that many executive employees have experience as strategy consultants and that the R&D group is a mixed team regardless of nationality. For example, my current manager was raised in Austria. It is an environment where people can play an active role according to their individual ambitions regardless of their background.

Through my work at ACSL over the past three years, I also feel that the Japanese drone industry is still growing compared to other countries. While unique research and projects are progressing, Japan has strong regulations on procurement from overseas. I believe that domestic players are in some respects protected by these regulations. Overseas, B-to-C services with excellent UI are emerging one after another, led by the U.S. and China. As these companies enter the B-to-B market in earnest, Japanese companies will be placed in a competitive global environment in the future.

Having this in mind, I would like to further advance the use of drones for infrastructures. I believe that there are still many industries where drones can play an active role. I would like to contribute to further enhance ACSL's position by pursuing a higher standard of the quality of our products and developing our technical capabilities, which is one of our strengths. This enables us to confidently offer our products to our clients.