Five ideas for smart cities emerge in tech contest

Sponsored by Honeywell‘s corporate citizenship initiative Honeywell Hometown Solutions, the TeChallenge Competition in Bucharest challenged students to combine innovative thinking with automated solutions to protect environment, save energy and improve living standards.

The event encourages students from Politehnica University and local high schools in Romania to develop their technical knowledge and creativity in areas such as energy efficiency, new energy sources, renewable technologies, intelligent technologies, smart cities, mobility and natural gas in the 21st century.

Here are some of the most interesting ideas they came up with.

A box that can monitor a city’s air quality. The idea is a mobile application that measures real-time air quality in various areas of the city. Examples include finding a less polluted jogging path, identifying a time of day with the most ideal weather temperature to take the baby out for a stroll, or even where to buy a house.

An app for real-time status of charging stations in smart cities. This application would save us time and money by allowing us to view in real time the nearest available electric charging station, as well as the price for electricity at any given time.

A solution that uses only a few intelligent sensors to improve public lighting and energy savings. A micro-ecosystem composed of intelligent lamps that communicate with each other to achieve a high level of visual comfort while saving energy.

Imagine we can use sensors to control the light on a street with the possibility of: brightness adjustment, on /off switch, and remote control of the lamp. Having control over these features, we can therefore make smart use of street lighting, resulting in a major efficiency in electricity consumption.

An autonomous house where everything can be controlled remotely. Smart Home is a prototype of a modern multi-functional home with multiple, autonomous and remote systems that allow us to live safer and more comfortably.

Everything can be controlled individually – electronics and appliances, lighting, heating, blinds, the sound in the house, and even home security systems that would, for example, automatically warn us when we leave home without locking the front door.

Smart solar panels that can produce 40% more energy. Another innovative solution is software that monitors the weather and automatically changes the orientation of the panels to prevent damage from storms.

This intelligent orientation eliminates construction costs as it eliminates the need to make the panels resistant to direct wind or hail. It also increases production capacity by up to 40 percent.