Recently, the 2024 World Congress of the International Association of Institutes of Navigation (IAIN) was held at Beijing Guoce International Convention and Exhibition Center. More than 300 participants attended, including IAIN members from the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Egypt, Japan, South Korea, and other countries, as well as academicians, experts, paper authors, and guests. They gathered to explore the new prospects of integrating navigation, communication, remote sensing, and other technologies.

This year, more than 40 paper authors from China and abroad were shortlisted and divided into four groups for paper presentations and discussions. According to the IAIN paper evaluation mechanism, expert reviewers comprehensively assessed the papers based on such factors as innovation, scientific rigor, practicality, as well as the presenter’s communication ability, content depth and impact. The paper titled Utilizing Radar Landmarks for Self-localization in GNSS-restricted Marine Environments submitted by three teachers from our Navigation College, Sun Shuai, Lyu Hongguang and Yang Xiao, won the Best Paper Award, "Sadek Award" at the conference. The paper proposes a lightweight and radar landmark-based self-localization method for ships, which can continuously and in real time estimate a vessel’s position in GNSS-restricted environments, thus improving the ship’s autonomous navigation capabilities. This method is based on practical maritime operations, and its innovation and practical application value were unanimously recognized by the expert panel. This award-winning paper demonstrates our university's active exploration in the field of autonomous ship navigation and is a typical case of integrating undergraduate maritime courses with the latest navigation research achievements.

The International Association of Institutes of Navigation (IAIN) was established in 1957 as a non-governmental international science and technology organization. As an important advisory body to the International Maritime Organization and the International Civil Aviation Organization, it has not only promoted the development and advancement of navigation technology but also facilitated the application of related technologies such as satellite navigation, mobile communication, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and other relevant technologies across multiple domains, including land, sea, air, and space. Since 1976, the IAIN World Congress has been held once every three years. This year’s conference, which marks the return of the event to China after 30 years, focuses on the theme "Expanding Navigation Applications and Empowering the Future of Humanity."