UN-Habitat Makerthon Challenge 2019
A Makerthon is an organized event that gives budding innovators a platform to make, create and showcase their innovations based on a given theme by the organizers.
The UN-Habitat Makerthon challenge 2019 theme is “Innovation for Better Quality of Life in Cities and Communities” and is organized by Urban Basic Services Branch, UN-Habitat which will run from 25 to 31 May 2019.
Who is invited? All budding IoT engineers, makers and designers passionate about harnessing digital connectivity to solve urban challenges in their cities and settlements.
Where and When? On the margins of the first UN-Habitat Assembly, makers from all over Nairobi will converge for a one-week course. Participants will compete and develop a prototype to solve a specific challenge out of the three urban “verticals” including:
- Water Quality Monitoring The safety of tap water in Nairobi for drinking is uncertain. A Smart drinking water quality monitoring system for households could use sensors placed in household water pipes or water storage containers for households using public standpoints. The data collected using standard water quality parameters could then be uploaded over the internet for analysis. When there is a deviation of water quality parameters from the pre-defined set of standard values, an sms-based alert could be generated by the system to warn consumers to further treat their water before drinking. The monitoring system could also be scaled up by the water utility through a centralized dashboard to regularly assess the quality of drinking water supplied to consumers.
- Indoor Air Quality IoT can be used to monitor the air quality through the use of Air Quality Sensors that could be placed in either indoor setups such as kitchens or outdoor (e.g city streets, parks).The monitoring process may utilize a cloud solution to show the air quality through an AQI (Air Quality Index) measurements. Results are sent to users, decision makers and dedicated experts for appropriate actions.
- Public Mobility Members of the public most often want to know when and where their Matatu is on the roads, a “Real-Time Passenger Information System” can help them plan their commute and time better with more real time information. Such a system could use sensors to know the Location of a public bus and produce a “Digital Map” to graphically show the location. A “Smart Ticketing” system may also work in tandem with such a system.
The participants will go through an intensive competition to build the minimum viable product and come up with a sustainable business and operating model to scale the solutions and present their elevator pitches at a livestreamed session within the United Nations Complex in Nairobi.
Registration can be found here: https://forms.gle/sLuoXcpYKSuZwqr5A and the deadline for applications is 20th May 2019, 6:00PM.
For more information, please contact:
Tania Lim: tania.lim@un.org
Josphat Gakuru: Josphat.gakuru@un.org
