Winners of PhiWeek Bootcamp 2019 announced

11 September 2019

The second edition of the PhiWeek Bootcamp has just come to an end. Hosted by the European Space Agency (ESA) and Pi School in the course of the PhiWeek (6-10 September 2019), the goal of the event was to explore the scope of Earth Observation data by non-space industries by example through an industry or company relevant challenge, set by the official challenge partner.

Energy service producer and provider, EDP group, through its innovation arm, EDP Inovação (EDPI) set the challenge of the PhiWeek Bootcamp 2019, which concerned the prevention, detection and mitigation of the risk of wildfires around important energy infrastructures in Portugal, relating to bushes and vegetation.

The event followed the Design Sprint format, which provides a structured Hackathon experience for the participants. The participants collaborated in teams with the goal of prototyping solutions and user testing these prototypes in order to respond to the industry challenge, applying their various areas of expertise and skills. The event also assembled resource partners, startups and speakers to provide additional inputs in the form of technology demonstrations, access to APIs and training to the participants.

The 8 teams presented their final solutions on Tuesday when the three winning teams were announced. The first, second and third ranked teams were awarded with prizes that shall help them advance their presented business concepts.

First prize was won by the team PowerPatrol – An end-to-end demonstrative platform which allows the user to visualise their entire asset network, specify an area of interest, and observe the predicted risk of wildfire by tree contact, with recommended actions based on this risk. As the overall winner team PowerPatrol won an 800€ travel voucher to a space/startup event of their choice and a 3-month licence to Planet’s API to further develop their prototype.

First prize team “PowerPatrol”. Photo credit: Design & Data GmbH

The team Forestcast won the second place prize. Designed as an EO online platform, it customises very high-resolution data to make vegetation management faster, cheaper and safer for businesses. As the second-placed team, they won a 1-year free licence to Mathematica courtesy Wolfram Research Europe Ltd to help further their prototypes using machine learning, image processing, geometry, data science and visualisation tools.

Second prize team “Forestcast”. Photo credit: Design & Data GmbH

Third place went to team PowerAngel – a semi-automated vegetation monitoring solution that detects encroachment on power lines for closer inspection with very high-resolution satellite images. The idea won a book bundle.

Third prize “PowerAngel”. Photo credit: Design & Data GmbH

The second PhiWeek Bootcamp was a great success for the participants, as well as for the organisers and partners. 40 participants from over 14 countries showed the high international resonance. For many participants, this cultural diversity contributed to the success of the event and to the development of innovative ideas.

Go to phiweekbootcamp.space to read more information about the event. You can also gain an overview of the social media impressions of the event with the hashtag #PhiWeek.

PhiWeek Bootcamp was supported by the ESA Forestry TEP (Thematic Exploitation Platform), Planet, Planetek Italia, e-GEOS, Deimos Space UK, Wolfram Research Europe Ltd, GAUSS Srl and SpaceChain. It was organised by Design & Data GmbH for the European Space Agency (ESA).

About the PhiWeek Bootcamp

The PhiWeek Bootcamp is hosted by the European Space Agency (ESA) in the framework of Φ-week. It is an intensive 5-day event, which guides you through the design sprint process, answering critical questions in the design, prototyping, and testing ideas relating to Earth Observation.

About the Φ-week

The European Space Agency (ESA) is organising a Φ-week event, 9-13 September 2019, focusing on EO Open Science and FutureEO – to review the latest developments in Open Science trends.

The Φ-week will include a variety of events (e.g. inspiring talks, workshops, roundtables, startup pitch, hackathons) to connect multi-disciplinary communities – from EO researchers, data scientists, non-space corporates, tech leaders, entrepreneurs, up to startup and innovators – to (i) explore together how EO Open Science and innovation can benefit from the latest digital technologies and (ii) help shape FutureEO missions and services.

For more information about PhiWeek visit: https://phiweek.esa.int

About Design & Data GmbH

Design & Data GmbH is an award-winning crossmedia agency specialised in science communication and outreach solutions for science domains in general and the space sector in particular. Our services are designed around our customer’s needs. We help to increase the visibility towards various target audiences including stakeholders, investors, employees, media and the general public.

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