By Oystein Bergmann, Correspondent Scandinavia and Kingsley I. Ilechukwu, Correspondent Lagos
Ericsson has released the names of the winners of its Innovation Awards Competition 2020.
The 2020 Ericsson Innovation Awards (EIA) is a call to ‘Reclaim the Future.’ This year, the annual global competition calls on students around the globe to set major change in motion by committing to addressing the current and future challenges of climate action. Focused on how ICT/technology solutions can provide radical climate change mitigation for consumers and industry alike.
The unknown of climate change
Ericsson is committed to making a real impact, that’s why our challenge for 2020 is to support a new generation of innovators to find solutions to the current climate change crisis focused on how ICT/technology solutions can provide radical climate change mitigation for consumers and industry alike.
Information Communication Technology (ICT) refers to technologies that provide access to information through telecommunications. It is similar to Information Technology (IT), but focuses primarily on communication technologies. This includes the internet, wireless networks, cell phones, and other communication mediums.
In relation to our theme, it has been shown that ICT solutions have a calculated potential to reduce the global greenhouse gas emissions by up to 15 per cent.
Be the one to act. To face the truth. To innovate. Be the one to reclaim the future.
Transportation efficiency
Transport accounts for 16 per cent of global emissions and has massive impacts on the environment and human health. To tackle this challenge Ericsson’s has been collaborating with Einride and Telia worked to develop electric, self-driving trucks powered by 5G. This innovative solution, brought about by a merging of skills and expertise, works to reduce carbon emissions by reducing the dependency on fossil fuels, ultimately contributing to healthier air quality globally.
Environment conservation
Deforestation and environment protection have been a growing concern for decades. As an effort to conserve a fragile ecosystem we launched the Connected Mangroves project. This effort to protect and preserve local marine ecosystems uses 5G connectivity to capture data relevant to the mangroves’ survival demonstrates how innovative technology can effect real world change. Ensuring sustained growth and impact by empowering local communities with the resources they need to maintain the new environment.
First place winner
Unifying data for fuel-efficient shipping
The University of Queensland, Australia
The transportation of goods internationally via shipping vessels’ represents one of the largest and most unavoidable sources of greenhouse gas emissions; accounting for approximately 3.1 per cent of the annual global CO2 emissions – roughly the same as Japan.
The team from WakeShare – looks at bow-wave sharing as an efficient way to improve shipping fuel efficiency. Currently, this is prevented by a lack of route and timetable coordination. Their solution looks at the creation of a software tool that analyzes shipping timetables, enabling suppliers to coordinate routes while simultaneously optimizing travel positioning.
Ericsson Innovation Awards – Grand finale
Find out all about the event and our speakers.
Finalists
Feeding growing populations with smart predictions
Second place winner, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka
The increase in population requires food production and productivity to increase simultaneously, however, pest and disease have made for challenging conditions. The Elzian Agro team is developing an early prediction platform that monitors both weather patterns and the spread of pests. This will enable easier identification of potential threats and alert farmers to take timely precautions.
Carbon sequestration, from the ground up
Third place winner, Stanford University, USA
Approaching how to efficiently off-set carbon emissions, O2C Marketplace looks at the utilization of farmland for soil carbon sequestration. By simplifying how data is collected and analyzed, it seeks to bring both corporations and governments together via the agriculture industry – to find a cost-effective way to store carbon.
Semi-Finalists
Harnessing methane using algorithms
Bahcesehir University, Turkey
Methane gas from animal agriculture is a major contributor to the greenhouse gases linked to climatic change. Inspired by nature’s own photosynthesis mechanism, the team from Methaneligent proposes a solution that allows the air to be filtered into its natural elements – and then leverage methane for electrical power production. With their unique and dynamic algorithm, Methaneligent is looking to optimize their solution for the purpose of developing a sustainably fueled machine which utilizes this rich and untapped resource.
Connected trees that detect wildfires
Lebanese American University, Lebanon
Wildfires are ferociously destructive and are considered one of the major causes of deforestation. It often is a significant natural or human-made disaster that has far-reaching and severe impacts on the planet. To mitigate and limit the spread of wildfires – the Cedars team has developed a small chip – that is integrated inside the trunk of the tree. This integrated chip solution helps detect the percentage of carbon dioxide emitted once a tree starts burning. This solution aims to improve the early response times, allowing swifter and more timely action to be taken.
Data-powered wildfire prediction
Karlsruhe University of Applied Science, Germany
As wildfires have become more destructive and rampant in recent years, the team from WFPD aims to put a system in place to enable them to predict potential forest fires to counter or minimize their impact. Mixing technologies to both monitor and alert, WFPD looks to protect animals, infrastructure, and humans alike.
Train travel for a cleaner future
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
High-speed train travel could offer a greener (e2e time/footprint) alternative as compared to air travel – offering similar travel times and fewer greenhouse emissions. This, however, is fraught with high upfront investment costs needed to build a viable network. Combining battery-powered trains and precisely planned overhead wires, this solution tackles the cost barrier by looking at the advancements in battery technology.
Fuelling communities with fertilizer
Anahuac Mexico Norte University, Mexico
Natural gas is one of the most abundant sources of energy on the planet. Sadly, extracting this rich resource can be both extremely polluting and expensive. The team from the Bio Digestor Community – looks to propose a solution that would use bacteria present in fertilizers to create an alternative fuel source, benefiting both people across the globe and on the local level (i.e. small communities in rural areas.) Really thinking LOCAL and impacting on a GLOBAL level.
Renewable energy from any surface
Mapua University, Philippines
AuREUS will enable any surface to become a “UV solar device” that absorbs UV light in an effort to produce clean energy. This solution proposes to provide renewable energy where space is a premium, with a technological minimum footprint.
Rethinking Farming With Machine Learning
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Agricultural inefficiencies contribute a significant amount of waste and costs with regards to vital water and energy resources. The OptiGrow team is tackling this issue and is looking to provide a machine learning-based tool to optimize growth patterns and avoid waste.
Connected solar-powered solutions
University of New South Wales, Australia
High local peak grid voltages – often result in the curtailment of grid-connected (household/SMB) rooftop solar systems during times of peak production. Sadly, this results in the need for more energy to be (over)produced from non-renewable resources such as coal or natural gas to meet energy peak demands. In turn, the Autonoma PV team has created an IoT-based solution – which collects data on voltages, usage, and the available local (household/SMB) solar grid to optimize demand and usage.
Algae that powers cleaner breathing
Cummins college of engineering for women, Pune, India
Tackling the reduction of CO2 greenhouse gases within our atmosphere, the Arboreal CO2 Respirator team – uses microalgae to process CO2 in an effort to push industries (i.e. Automotive), into a carbon-neutral direction.
Tackling food waste with consumer insights
Osaka University, Japan
Over 30 per cent of the food produced globally is wasted. Often overlooked, food waste is the third biggest emitter of greenhouse gases within the USA. The team from Mottainai – is looking to integrate an ICT solution the enables retail stores to reduce inventory via consumer insights into their consumers’ habits and patterns.
A smarter way to predict wildfires
Carnegie Mellon University, USA
In 2018 – wildfires destroyed nearly 8.8 million acres of forests in the USA alone. Current methods of forest fire detection often only detect fires once they have reached an appreciable size and may not be easily available in remote areas.
To enable early action, FireLink is a network of solar-powered sensors, dropped on top of trees in fire-prone forests, that will detect early signs of a fire and give real-time updates on the fires spread
