“Comfort Train from ENSEIRB-MATMECA in France wins the 2015 Atos IT Challenge”

Paris, 17 June 2015

The winning app for connected living helps travelers find the least crowded carriage on a train

Atos, an international leader in digital services, announced the winner of its 2015 IT Challenge as Comfort Train from ENSEIRB-MATMECA in France for its Connected Living app that helps travelers find the least crowded train carriage. Comfort Train from ENSEIRB-MATMECA beat 300 students from 34 universities and “Grandes Ecoles”  around the world to take first prize - a trip to Barcelona including a visit to the Atos mobile competence center, where the team can discuss with Atos experts how their app can be further developed and commercialised.

In second place was YES from Dankook University in South Korea for its energy management app that helps to reduce electricity bills by calculating the best time to use or sell alternative energy.

In joint third place was Digitalcare from FH Oberösterreich University in Austria with an app for elderly people that warns their families in an emergency and Chime from University College London in the UK for the doorbell of the future, which lets you answer your door from your phone anywhere, anytime.

The theme for this year's Atos IT Challenge was Connected Living. Participating students were asked to uncover the opportunities enabled by the Third Digital Revolution* which will see 25 billion objects connected to the Internet by 2018. Knowing that the benefit of connecting people, devices, processes, location and other data sources will be measured in how new services improve our quality of life, the judging panel were looking for benefits to both end users and potential business partners.

Speaking at the award ceremony, Thierry Breton, Chairman and CEO, Atos said: “We set up the Atos IT Challenge in 2012 to foster and encourage innovation in the future generation of IT professionals. We have once again been impressed by the high standard of entries and the enthusiasm and passion for technology of all the students involved around the world. Our four finalists have created innovative and commercially viable working applications that I can imagine using myself very soon. Congratulations to all!”

Peter Fatelnig at the European Commission said: “It was great to see what young motivated people can achieve, when you put the technology in their hands.”

Peter Kellendonk, EEBus Chairman said: “This award and IT Challenge itself are important to the EEBus Initiative. To search and promote tomorrow's IT specialists that have brilliant ideas for a concept to enhance people's lives and provide value added services through connected living, is a good way to shape the future of the Internet of Things while helping young talents to strive for success in this market.” 

The jury was made up of members of the Atos senior management team and Scientific Community - a global network of around 100 of the best business technologists within Atos; experts from EEBus and representatives from the European Commission, BFM Business and Telefonica. The 15 shortlisted apps have been thoroughly tested by Atos experts and judged in terms of user benefits, business benefits and how far the app has been developed.

To underpin this technological excellence, the teams were offered the choice to work with FIWARE, an open Internet platform for innovative Internet applications and service developed by Atos and its industrial partners.

The winning apps

 

First: Comfort Train from ENSEIRB-MATMECA in France – an app that helps train travelers find the least crowded carriage to sit in. It is has been designed so that new train and tube networks can easily be added so it can be used wherever you are travelling. The team has already been in contact with potential clients/partners showing a true entrepreneurship. The judges were impressed with how the code has been implemented for the app and the server as well as the visual design which makes it intuitive and easy to use.

Second: YES from Dankook University in South Korea an energy management app that helps to reduces electricity bills by calculating the best time to use or sell alternative energy. The judges were impressed with the sound business case, the technical structure and documentation and the overall ease of use.

Joint third: Chime from University College London in the UK for the doorbell of the future, which lets you answer your door from your phone anywhere, anytime. The judges were impressed by the fact that the team has secured interest from one UK delivery company, which sees potential for the app to reduce the cost of re-deliveries.

Joint third: Digitalcare from FH Oberösterreich University in Austria for an app for the homes of elderly people in order to warn their families in case of an emergency. It uses microphones in different rooms and calculates an activity map of the user. The judges were very impressed with the idea and while the prototyping is in the early stages, the team provided a very thorough and promising document explaining how they would complete the app.

For more information about the contest and to register interest, visit: atositchallenge.net

Read more about Ascent Journey 2018: The 3rd Digital Revolution - Agility and Fragility.