| Centre for Polar Studies |
As part of the ongoing cooperation between the University of Silesia in Katowice and the Centre for Polar Studies with ING Hubs Poland, which began in 2024, we have completed another joint challenge, which was to modernise the BERA Logistics and Research Centre in Svalbard by implementing a security and monitoring system for the facility using smart home technology and AI-based systems.
Work on this project began in the spring of 2025, when engineers from ING Hubs Poland, including Paweł Cieżarkiewicz, Daniel Migdalski and Bartłomiej Orzechowski, developed a list of specifications for the appropriate equipment and software. In addition, to increase the security of the Arctic mission, the set of equipment purchased by the University of Silesia was checked and verified by them before being shipped to Spitsbergen, where it arrived by ship from Poland in September.
Once in Longyearbyen, Paweł Cieżarkiewicz and Daniel Migdalski assembled and installed the system at the BERA Centre. It includes such components as a new server, emergency power supply for the equipment, Wi-Fi access points, room temperature sensors, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, as well as smart home system features, e.g. remote management of the facility’s heating, sensor functionality and internal monitoring of the building’s rooms.
The installation and testing of the system’s functionality were successful, effectively increasing the comfort and safety of work in the facility. In addition, the ING Hubs Poland team immediately trained our employees, i.e. BERA manager Dariusz Ignatiuk and BERA manager Katarzyna Stachniak, in the operation and remote management of the devices’ functionality.
We would like to thank the ING Hubs Poland team for their fruitful cooperation! Thanks to you, from this year onwards we have a security and control system that can be remotely controlled from Poland, and our BERA Centre located above the Arctic Circle is now much closer to us, controllable via smartphone.
The successful completion of ING Hubs Poland’s work was crowned with beautiful views of the Longyearbyen area during the first snowfall. Photo: Daniel Migdalski
