UP London Hackathon – Shortlist announced

Start: Sunday 23 June 2013

End: Friday 28 June 2013

Following the UP London Hackathon held 19-21 April, The GSMA have announced the shortlist of entries, the winner will be offered the opportunity to exhibit at Mobile Asia Expo, Shanghai.

Shortlisted entries:

Breather

Breather is a unique Smart City solution that is aimed at informing citizens about air quality in their local environment. Envisioned as a city installation, Breather measures the air quality through a number of sensors such as humidity, temperature and CO2, which in turn cause the installation to morph and shift in response. Breather’s new age design will attract the attention of those in the area and can visually transmit information about their surroundings.

HomeBit

HomeBit puts residents in control of their lives. It consolidates your health data with smart meter data, and empowers the user with the crucial information they need to make the best decisions about their day. HomeBit does not only take into account their personal data but addresses the constantly changing outside environment, be it the weather, traffic conditions or delays in public transport. HomeBit has been designed to help users in everyday situations by seizing the opportunity that GSM and modern technology can provide.

Cytora

Resource management of emergency services during a crisis is a problem that exists across the globe. Cytora’s verified crisis mapping in real time application allows for authorities to use unverified data from social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to inform authorities of on-going activities that may require their attention. Social media data is unreliable at best, subject to hyperbole and hoaxes, it doesn’t mean that there isn’t an element of truth; by using aggregated data emergency services have the ability to push out notifications to users in the immediate vicinity asking for secondary confirmation, thereby allowing them to confirm whether an event is happening.

FIRE!

The Firefighting Interactive Rescue Environment (FIRE) is an innovative end-to-end proposal that tackles a very real world problem. Using current firefighting helmets the team has managed to engineer a solution that addresses issues such as, response to increased stress, environmental monitoring and 3D modelling of the location of each individual within a crew in any situation. Using both GSM and Wifi, FIRE allows for both individuals and mobile command units to react quickly to rapidly changing environments as well coming to the aid of team members in need of assistance. FIRE is a low cost solution that could quite literally save lives.

Inspired City

Built on a social paradigm that plagues most individuals living a metropolis, Inspired Cities encourages it’s user to meet their neighbours and get involved in their local community. Since the advent of social networking, people are more connected to each other around the world than within 10 minutes of where they live. Inspired City is built on the notion of a social networking platform that allows its users to add activities, find out  what is happening and encourages them to get involved, BUT only in a ‘hyper-local’ scenario. Inspired City echoes the essence of a smart community that keeps its residents informed through their mobile phone.

About the event

Hosted by Imperial, the UP London Hackathon will challenge attendees to create prototype technologies that could have an impact on London’s local economy or community.  Participants will have access to data from The Greater London Authority, Met Office and Ordnance Survey, some of which is rarely made available to the public to create their product.

Visit the website for more info

The GSMA Smart Cities project is sponsoring the competition

The application or solution (b2b or b2c) must improve the quality of life in a city.

Desirable approach:

  • Cover more than one vertical sector (e.g. Transport, environment, energy, healthcare, education)
  • Include the use of  a connected device / machine-to-machine device

The GSMA will provide the winning company with help to internationalise their app /solution, through introductions to their potential customers and partners. The winning company will receive a complementary trip to the GSMA Mobile Asia Expo in Shanghai on 26-28 June, where they will be able to:

  • Present their concept / app/ solution to the Smart City Forum of European and Asian CIOs (26 June) and to mobile operators and vendors representing smart cities, automotive, m-education and m-health industries at the Connected Living Asia Summit on the 24-26 June
  • Exhibit the app / solution at the GSMA stand in the Connected City at Mobile Asia Expo

The theme for this year’s UP Festival is ‘Digital Innovation to create resilient environments, economies and communities.’ Attendees will explore how digital technologies can be used to create a sustainable society through ensuring greater integration between the city’s systems and its citizens.  They will also learn how to create technical ideas that improve the environment and communities they live in as well as the correct business models for their sustained use.