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On June 8–9, 2022, I attended Reglermötet 2022, the annual Swedish Control Conference (Reglermötet). The conference brings together the Swedish automatic control community from academia and industry to share research results, network, and discuss the future of control systems in Sweden. As an early-stage Ph.D. researcher, participating in this national event provided valuable exposure to the Swedish research landscape.

On June 7th 2022, I visited the Aitik open-pit copper mine in Gällivare, Sweden, for the first time as part of the G-DRONES Vinnova project. This initial site visit allowed us to assess the environment and requirements for deploying autonomous drone systems in one of Europe's largest open-pit mines, laying the groundwork for future experimental campaigns.

On March 31 – April 1, 2022, I participated in the first experimental campaign for the 5G Edge Innovations for Mining (5GEIM) Vinnova project in Skellefteå, Sweden. These initial experiments established the baseline for testing 5G-enabled edge-controlled robotic systems in mining environments, validating the system architecture and communication infrastructure.

During March 6–12, 2022, I attended the first AERO-TRAIN Training School (TS1) in Seville, Spain, hosted by the University of Seville. This was my first training event as an MSCA Early-Stage Researcher, bringing together the full network of ESRs and supervisors for an intensive week of lectures, workshops, and networking activities on aerial robotics and autonomous systems.

On Christmas Eve 2021, the Robotics & AI Team at Luleå University of Technology released a Christmas video, showcasing the team's robots, research activities, and the festive spirit of the group. It was a fun way to round off my first few months as a Ph.D. researcher and celebrate the team's work with the broader community.

The 5G Edge Innovations for Mining (5GEIM) Vinnova project officially kicked off in 2021. The project focuses on developing and validating 5G-enabled edge computing solutions for autonomous robotic systems operating in underground and surface mining environments. I joined the project as a contributor from the Robotics & AI Team at LTU, and it would go on to produce several important experimental results over the following years.

During October 5–7, 2021, I attended the official kickoff meeting of the AERO-TRAIN Marie Curie Innovative Training Network – European Training Network (MSCA ITN–ETN) project. The kickoff brought together all Early-Stage Researchers, supervisors, and project partners for the first time, establishing the collaborative framework for the four-year research programme on aerial robotics and autonomous systems across European institutions.

On August 15th 2021, I concluded my role as Automation Engineer at Rockwell Automation (I.C. SYSTEMS) in Athens, Greece, where I had been working since March 2021. During these 5 months I developed SCADA systems, HMI interfaces, PLC programs, and electrical panel designs for clients in the food, manufacturing, and oil refinery industries. With this experience behind me, I was ready to pursue doctoral research in Sweden.

As course owner, I developed and published two online courses: Industrial Automation through the EU Digital Europe Programme's REBOOT SKILLS initiative, and Edge Computing in Robotics through LTU's lifelong learning programme. Both courses are available online and target professionals seeking to upskill in automation and edge-enabled robotics.

During my secondment at Ericsson in Lund in 2023, I delivered an invited seminar to the Automatic Control Group at Lund University, entitled "Edge Connected Drones". The seminar covered our research on offloading drone control to edge servers, the associated communication and latency challenges, and experimental results from Kubernetes-based cloud-robot deployments.

In 2023, I contributed to Team ROC for the Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge (MBZIRC), one of the world's most prestigious robotics competitions. The MBZIRC challenges teams to solve complex real-world robotics problems in dynamic environments, with a focus on autonomous aerial and ground systems. My contribution was in the area of edge computing and autonomy stack development for the team's aerial platforms.