The fourth annual public innovation competition, Kick Prague 2023, has announced its winners. The absolute winner was the AI sensor project for street cleaning. In close second place were a website with a database of meals and an application that facilitates movement in the city for people with disabilities.
The nearly four-month innovation marathon, which offered registered teams professional workshops, training, or mentoring with experts from representatives of municipal and private companies, is over. Kick Prague 2023 has its winner. Out of 47 applicants, ten projects made it to the finals. According to a press release, the best of them is the AI sensor for street cleaning Occo from the startup Waste Digital.
The winning teams received a financial reward of 100,000 crowns and the opportunity to obtain further support for financing the prototype based on their proposals. The winner was announced the last Friday in May at the Radlická Cultural and Sports Center in Smíchov.
The ten final proposals were judged by a jury based on the specific challenge, innovation, and ability to apply them in practice and the market. The potential overall benefit to the city and its future was also significant.
The most successful project was the Occo project from the Waste Digital startup, which uses artificial intelligence to help clean Prague’s streets. The companPrague’sped a compact, battery-powered IoT sensor with an optical sensor that uses artificial intelligence to evaluate the surroundings of waste stations. Thus, it can provide data for cleaning and cleaning vehicle routes.
“The biggest benefit of our “articipation is in starting cooperation with Prague. We believe our AIOT sensor will help make our capital cleaner, more environmentally friendly, and more economical. At the moment, we have advanced technologies that we will further develop,” reacted Kryštof Novák and Jan G”ossmann, founders of Waste Digital, to the announcement of the winners.
The food database developed by a young student author team took second place. It is a website that tries to fight food waste in school cafeterias. Each school has its profile in the database, into which it can upload meals from the menu, including actual photos.
The third place was taken by the muuv project, which offers high-quality and reliable navigation for Prague residents with various mobility restrictions. These are wheelchair users, blind people, seniors, and parents with strollers. The mapping application combines existing measures with data collected by its 3D scanner and attempts to plan a route from door to door precisely tailored to the user.
The top three proposals shared 100,000 crowns in prize money, with half going to the winner. Each team also has the opportunity to obtain up to 200,000 crowns for additional support related to implementation and six-month project support from Operator ICT.
The concept of so-called hackathons and modern practices of world metropolises and private companies inspires the competition Kick Prague. It seeks to find, develop and implement technological and innovative projects that improve the lives of Prague residents.