Challenges

Challenges GEN-I

Solution for detecting green and non-green transport

UK figures show that the transportation industry accounts for 26% of all greenhouse gas emissions, closely followed by the energy sector at 25%. These numbers can partly be explained by the growth of passenger and freight mobility, with the demand for goods consistently rising and passenger transportation becoming increasingly accessible. Due to this, it is of the opinion of many that the transport industry should be actively looking for ways to curb its emissions.

Thankfully, innovations in technology have shown great promise in helping the transport sector curtail its carbon footprint, especially through the development of AI and compute.

We would like you to think of a solution for detecting green and non-green transport. 

  1. How would your solution actively encourage road users to change their travel habits? Think about actions. 
  2. How can you connect the solution with the national green transport awareness campaign? Think about the ways of communicating with citizens. 
  3. How would you use transportation metrics to even further evaluate existing transportation processes thus pinpointing areas that could help improve logistical inefficiencient? 

Building a green energy community platform

Energy communities organise collective and citizen-driven energy actions that will help pave the way for a clean energy transition, while moving citizens to the fore. They contribute to increase public acceptance of renewable energy projects and make it easier to attract private investments in the clean energy transition. At the same time, they have the potential to provide direct benefits to citizens by advancing energy efficiency and lowering their electricity bills.

By supporting citizen participation, energy communities can moreover help in providing flexibility to the electricity system through demand-response and storage.  

 

There are pros and cons to building a green energy community as well as main stakeholders involved.
Help us build a green energy community platform. 

  1. Think about whether you would need IoT and AI and how would you use it? 
  2. Create a green energy community platform based on data gathering and device management functionalities.

Smart home charging solutions

‘Smart charging’ is, of course, the smartest way to charge your electric vehicle (or EV). The idea is simple: unlike conventional (or ‘dumb’) chargers, smart chargers can communicate with each other, your car, and the grid. The result? A cheaper, more energy-efficient and sustainable way to top up your car. 

Think of a smart home charging solution and keep in mind the challenge of charging EV in multiple-apartment buildings. 

  1. Think about how you would integrate a calendar in the automation of charging the car with the aim of maximizing the efficiency of charging.
  2. Provide a solution of how to charge EV in multiple-apartment buildings based on IoT data gathering and edge devices/algorithms.
  3. Currently, the proliferation of electrified vehicles (EV) has increased rapidly. Considering EV users’ point of view, the duration of charging, and the place to charge their car are essential factors. Increase of EV penetration gives also impact on the electrical network such as overloading, and power quality issues. At this point, the results show that asymmetric EV/PEV charging cause significant voltage unbalances that exceed the allowed voltage limits. How to detect phase asymmetry and how to solve it? 

Challenge Yaskawa

Robotics in recycling

In todays world we all come across trash daily and we all know the problems that come with it. There is way too much of it, it is hard to separate, find properly sort and most of it hard to recycle. Some studies estimate that only 8% of world trash was recycled. That is why our challenge it how can robotics improve the process of separation and waste collection?

For help you can ask yourslef the following.

  1. How to use robotics to make people aware of proper separation?
  2. Can robots separate instead of us?
  3. Can robots sort and/or redycle garbage?

Challenge Vitens

Drinking water challenge

Our climate is changing and this is becoming very obvious through intense rainfall and very dry periods. In total the average rainfall isn’t increasing but it falls in a shorter and more intense periods. In most countries the water systems aren’t set up to store the water from heavy rainfall to reuse for instance drinking water or to water the fields in case of drought. This effects our drinking water resources.

 

In the Netherlands we pump up groundwater, purify it and use it as tap water. But the resources aren’t unlimited so we have to find new ways of providing the inhabitants of the Netherlands of fresh drinking water.

On Malta they use seawater to desalinate by reversed osmose (getting the salt out of the water). This takes a lot of energy to complete this process. The alternative is import fresh water in bottles which gives a pollution of plastics. On Malta there’s a little resource of groundwater witch is infected by the rising seawater so how to use it in a good way.

What we all find quite normal about having fresh drinking water available from the tap of a plastic bottle, but compare to other parts of the world it isn’t. This asks for a different mindset about drinking water.

 

Probably you’ll recognize one of the three situations. For these countries we’d like you to come up with solutions/ideas according to the following questions:

  • What can we do with rainwater according to reuse for drinking water, to store it and water the fields and to refill our groundwater?
  • Would you explore the solutions/ideas from three perspectives: Government, organizations/industry and inhabitants of the countries?
  • How would you influence the mindset according to drinking water.

Challenge Mahle

Electric vehicle integration into urban environments

We can all see the rise of electric vehicles ranging from skateboards to electric trucks. And with these new vehicles come new challenges. Where will new electric scooters drive, how fast can they drive, do they affect other transports like bikes, cars and pedestrians? Are electric vehicles safe? Some of these questions have already been addressed, but we ask you to design a complete solution to integrate electric vehicles into our society.

  • In what group can we put different vehicles?
  • Must they be separately evaluated?
  • What should a modern street, neighbourhood or urban environment look like? How can technology make electric vehicle traffic more safe?