With civilian drone competition, Iran battles against brain drain
| Tehran
The 26 drone-building teams descended on the polished, manicured technology park 15 miles east of Tehran with the overflowing enthusiasm of school kids preparing for the Science Olympiad.
Their challenge, in a competition sponsored by the fast-growing Digikala company, Iran鈥檚 version of Amazon, was to create the best drone for delivering packages.
For the drone builders, the prize that day at Pardis Technology Park, Iran鈥檚 purpose-built version of Silicon Valley, was 50 million tomans, or about $14,300. But for Iran, the goal was much greater: a step toward providing the country鈥檚 whiz-kid youth with the hope that they have a future in Iran.
The teams assembled their flying contraptions with everything from carbon fiber frames and propellers to homemade radio controls and imaging units bursting with wires. The drones had to carry a 2-kg (4.4 lbs) courier package for 700 meters (765 yards), avoiding obstacles and dropping it gently on one of four bar-code emblazoned targets.
The only casualty was a drone flown by the Amir Kabir University of Technology robotic center that struck a balloon and crashed. But it was flying again within an hour, and became one of three joint winners.
The drone challenge posed by Digikala, which handles more than 90 percent of Iran鈥檚 online commerce, is similar to the technical problems faced by Amazon, DHL, and others as they seek innovative ways to speed deliveries.
But the competition organizers say the event was about more than marshaling Iran鈥檚 brightest young minds to some day bypass Tehran鈥檚 notorious traffic jams with a fleet of Iran-built commercial drones. It was also about stemming the broader problem of a brain drain, even as Iran鈥檚 annual legion of university graduates struggles to find jobs.
鈥淭he main reason of the contest is to recognize the high potential of youth here,鈥� says Babak Moghaddam, the head of innovation at Digikala, as the teams assembled their drones. 鈥淢any leave the country.鈥�
That鈥檚 one reason the three winning teams 鈥� two university groups and one drone-making start-up from Tehran 鈥� are to join forces into a single 鈥済olden team鈥� for Digikala that starts laboratory work next December.
Losing 'educated brains'
While Amazon and DHL focus on in-house drone creation, Digikala has chosen a different model based on what it calls 鈥渙pen innovation and crowd sourcing鈥� to pool creative talent.
鈥淚t helps, seriously. But we need a lot of these competitions and more investment to help people think of living in Iran,鈥� says Reza Kalantarinejad, a competition jury member and founder of Shezan, a biotech and nanotechnology company.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a chance, it helps people have a belief in the future of Iran and high-tech,鈥� says Mr. Kalantarinejad. 鈥淪uch tech development helps keep people here.鈥�
Anything that eases Iran鈥檚 chronic brain drain is welcomed by officials, who have struggled to find solutions. The former minister of Science, Research, and Technology, Reza Farajidana, has estimated that 150,000 鈥渆ducated brains鈥� leave the country each year, calculating the cost to Iran to be tens of billions annually.
Official statistics in 2012 indicated that 64 percent of Iran鈥檚 International Science Olympiad winners in the previous 14 years had left the country. Another official source that year stated that 90 of Iran鈥檚 125 medal winners from 2008 to 2011 had immigrated to the US.
鈥淭he problem will lead Iran toward becoming a nation void of intelligent genes,鈥� lamented Hamid Mirzadeh, the head of Islamic Azad University in 2014.
The Digikala success story
One way the government is trying to check the flow is supporting projects like the Pardis Technology Park, which aims to nurture high-tech and start-ups. The compound, carved out of desert along the highway, has streets with names like 鈥淚nnovation.鈥� The board of trustees is headed by an Iranian vice president and includes the president鈥檚 deputy for science and research.
After an initial private investment, which made space for some 200 science-based companies, an expansion is under way that officials hope will eventually create 5,000 jobs.
Among the success stories they would like to recreate is Digikala, which has experienced exponential growth, jumping from 250 to more than 1,900 employees in the past two years alone. Digikala sells more than 100,000 items online, to between 1.4 million and 1.7 million unique visitors each day, but the challenges of getting purchases to customers in real time are technical 鈥� and fraught with security restrictions.
Even getting the contest approved required extensive meetings with officials, both civilian and from Iran鈥檚 security forces, anxious about having drones in the air that they don鈥檛 control.
鈥淭his is only the first step; we have a long way to go,鈥� says Digikala鈥檚 Mr. Moghaddam. 鈥淲e need to convince the government and police it is not a threat but a tool for customer satisfaction.鈥�
'Ready for the future'
Iran鈥檚 drone exploits are best known for the intact capture of an American RQ-170 Stealth drone on a CIA spying mission over Iran in December 2011. Unveiling new military drone capabilities in mid-September, Iran鈥檚 Army chief said drones were the 鈥渟harp eyes and far-reaching arms鈥� of his forces. In August, Iran presented a new drone it said was designed for 鈥渏amming and deception operations.鈥�
Such experience by Iran鈥檚 military 鈥撀燼s well as fielding reconnaissance drones in Syria, Iraq, and other battlefields 鈥撀爃as made launching commercial drone use a particular challenge.
鈥淭he government has two faces,鈥� says Moghaddam. 鈥淚t wants to follow these trends and show that Iran is modern, but it also wants to be careful for security and safety reasons. In the end we should not fight the technology, we should use it.鈥� We should be ready for the future.鈥�
And that is exactly what the drone competition teams aimed to achieve, as they prepared their creations for flight.
Mostafa Moffarah of Falcon Delivery Drones 鈥� the Tehran start-up that placed in the top three 鈥撀爐inkered with his six-rotor drone and explained that improving flight time and boosting payload were priorities.
And as his drone took off, Farzad Ahmadinejad 鈥撀燼n electrical engineering graduate from Amir Kabir 鈥撀爓orried about the on-board computer and vision system meant to prevent collisions.
鈥淲e have an attitude in our country, 鈥榊ou can鈥檛 do it,鈥� 鈥� says Mehran Ahmadi, a competition organizer for Digilaka with a background in robotics. 鈥淏ut we are showing that you can. For people to stay in the country and solve problems, and to think, 鈥業f we can solve this, maybe we can solve other problems.鈥� 鈥�
