Two Central-East European innovators will travel to NASA BASE
Two winners were announced in the Finals of Singularity University’s Global Impact Competition for East-Central and South-Eastern Europe. More than 60 projects from 11 countries of the region applied, out of which 11 competed in the Finals.
Marton Juhasz (Hungary) and Aleksandra Orchowska (Poland) won the 2nd Global Impact Competition, thus they will participate in the Summer Program of Singularity University based in the NASA Research Center.
The aim of the competition was to find projects, that have the potential to improve lives of at least one million people in three years by using any type of exponentially developing technologies.
Márton Juhász’s project, GyroSet is designed to help disabled people to navigate and communicate. The movement of people paralyzed from the neck down is extremely difficult and pricey. The only affordable wheelchair controller on the market is a mouth operated joystick, which blocks the vision of the user. GyroSet is designed to solve this problem: it makes navigation possible by using a sensor that produces data in correlation with the head’s position. Its embedded system is able to learn and recognize gestures. In an ideal setup - in addition to Gyroset - a tablet is attached to the wheelchair and the user is able to take all the advantages of a 3G/4G enabled smartphone. Using GPS - maps and public transport timetables - means more freedom. Their communication widens: it can incorporate telephony, short messaging, email, social media, web, remote controlling electronic devices and speech synthesis.
Aleksandra Orchowska’s project, Cukeriada aims to educate children suffering from diabetes how to deal with their diseases. Diabetes is a complicated disease, which requires constant care. It is crucial to understand how everyday activities like sports or stress, influence blood sugar levels and how this can be controlled. Type 1 diabetes often starts at early age, which means that even a 5-year-old has to know how to inject insulin and measure blood sugar level without the help of their parents. Cukeriada’s aim is to playfully educate children with diabetes how to cope with their disease. It consists of two elements: a mobile application and a toy. The app provides information about diabetes, its symptoms and self-care through a virtual world where he/she has to take care of a virtual character, who has diabetes. The toy is the embodiment of the virtual character, thus connected to the mobile app, the children can ‘treat’ the ’patient’. Taking care of the character, the user can collect points and compete with other players.
The winners will take part in the University’s graduate program this summer. Each prize, worth $25.000, will cover the costs of the program which include: courses, lodging and meals.
Singularity University, established by the think-tanks of the Silicon Valley, is located in NASA Research Center in California. The University is a central destination for scientists, researchers, entrepreneurs and government officials, who want to learn about the latest innovations, exponentially developing technologies and trends like; 3D printing, alternative transportation (e.g. Tesla car) or even space technologies.