The MCST/MEPA Environment Challenge
The results have been announced as follows:
1st Prize:
Water.com.mt (Steve Zerafa) – A prototype online application that analyses statistics for land vegetation and related water usage, on a national or localised scale, to combat challenges related to water scarcity and water misuse. Steve Zerafa was awarded €15,000 of which €4,000 was in Airbus Defence and Space high resolution satellite imagery.
2nd Prize:
Pjaneta (Stephan Borg, Jonathan Mallia, Johann Mifsud) – A platform prototype to help improve sharing and processing of Maltese geospatial datasets. The team was awarded a second prize of €5,000.
3rd prize:
Crowd-sourced Imagery Re-projection (Gerard Said) – A platform prototype utilizing crowd sourced geo-tagged aerial pictures to help improve the spatial/temporal resolution of multispectral satellite imagery over Malta. Gerard Said was awarded a third prize of €2,500.
The MITA/MCST StartAPP2.0 Challenge
The MITA Innovation hub awarded three startups a cash injection of €15,000 to further develop their proof-of-concepts. The awarded start-ups are as follows:
Ludoi (Kenneth Bugeja, Dorian Bugeja, Kevin Psaila): A B2C solution consisting of an app to help alleviate traffic congestion by choosing more favourable routes. The solution is based on a crowdsourcing approach whereby users download the app, register and switch on their GPS location feature.
Find & Seek (Keith Farrugia, Piotr Bonarki, Aleksey Semiglasov): A B2C solution consisting of a mobile app that allows users to report, locate, find or retrieve any lost or found property and get in touch with their rightful owner or vice versa.
AgrisStat (Etienne Buttigieg, Dylan Schembri, Neil Farrugia): A B2B software service solution for winegrowers to use for monitoring the health and status of vines, hence optimising fertiliser and pesticide use together with planting and harvesting timings.
MCST/MITA StartAPP2.0 Finalists:
SIRS (Clayton Oliva, Thomas Briffa, Ilya Florenskiy): A B2G solution consisting of a web portal featuring functionalities for the smart monitoring and detection of road subsidence through the use of satellite imagery. It includes opportunities for predictive modelling for the purpose preventive maintenance.
Crop Sentinel, (James Attard): A B2C GIS software service solution for farmers to help in better managing arable land, specifically through the monitoring of vegetation health, soil moisture and soil temperature.
Just in Time Travel (Ruben Curmi): A B2C app to be used as a travel aid for public transport users who would be able to retrieve information on bus stage location, arrival times, interchanges and bus route numbers.
Solify (Castaldi Christian, Buhagiar Eman, Gauci Francesca, Agius Keith): A B2B / B2G solution to help simulate and measure the impact of urban development on solar panel installations for the purpose of better planning /design of panel installations.