Smart Traffic Light: “GridLock” – The smart traffic light network apps that adjusts traffic light schedules to optimize traffic flow through real-time monitoring and analysis of traffic conditions, developed by Zedd Mekhaiel, James Staud and Nhat Tran from University of Texas at Arlington has won the USD10,000 prize in the inaugural NTx Apps Challenge for the Internet of Things (IoT) category.
The project that was sponsored by Gemalto, utilized the Gemalto Concept Board or the Gemalto SensorLogic Application Enablement Platform.
The mobile app competition, a 10-week innovation competition that was concluded earlier this month aims to spur web and mobile apps development that will solve regional challenges in four major subject areas: water conservation, waste reduction, energy efficiency and transportation.
The competition which was organized by North Texas Commission in collaboration with Clenweb, awarded a total of $80,000 to five teams of web entrepreneurs who created the best apps for each respective category. The other 4 apps are:
- Smart Energy: Energy Pal– The mobile app for Android displays real-time electricity usage to homeowners and allows users to track the electric usage of individual appliances. Developers are Ian Macalinao, University of Texas at Dallas student; Brandon Truong, Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science student; Dylan Macalinao, School for the Talented and Gifted student; and Adil Virani, Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science student.
- Water Conservation: Sprink.ly– The Web app and smart sprinkler system incorporates weather data, neighborhood water usage and municipal water restrictions to prevent over-watering of residential lawns. Developers are Michael Erdahl and Urmil Shah, both engineers at Texas Instruments.
- Transportation: Juxt– The mobile app for iOS allows drivers of alternative fuel vehicles to find fueling stations, parking spaces and other points of interest along their route, and share this information with other app users. Developers are Gerard Matthew, Priyanka Sharma and Harish Upadhyayula.
- Waste and Recycling: Compost Denton– The municipal composting service uses a Web app to manage customers, weight tracking of materials composted, route optimization for drivers and environmental monitoring of compost piles. Developers are Andrew Miller andThomas Wild.
Robert Kent, NTx Apps Challenge Co-Founder and Director of Public Policy for the North Texas Commission
More than just a competition, NTx Apps is a unique public-private partnership that brings together the best minds in technology, entrepreneurship, and municipal government to solve some critical issues our region is facing. We hope to see more collaborative efforts like this in the future to create innovative solutions for North Texas’s toughest challenges.
Blake Burris, CEO of The Cleanweb Initiative
The NTX community answered the call to tackle challenges facing our region. I’m pleased to see the both the caliber of talent and the solutions conceived. It is my hope that winners create companies that become scalable companies ultimately impacting our region – environmentally and economically.
Thanks to EVERYONE who participated! All the apps were amazing, we are so proud of all the submissions! #NTxApps pic.twitter.com/QvoIFffvEI
— NTx Apps Challenge (@NTxApps) October 18, 2014
