Success of the first “24H innovation challenge for the handicap”
300 students of EPF School of engineering have been challenged for 24 hours to find innovative solutions to make life easier for people with disabilities. Results: a sleepless night, thirty experts present and twenty innovative ideas.
On June 23rd and 24th, the 300 students of EPF in 4th year had to brainstorm in teams on our campuses of Sceaux and Montpellier around disability issues. Many companies, partners of the school, were present during those 24 hours to guide the groups.
Thursday, June 23rd, 9am: kick off
Divided into teams of 10, students had to choose a theme between: digital accessibility, autonomy in the design, autonomy energy, connected robot / object to the service of disability or mobility and urban accessibility.
Thirty experts in disability, digital, innovation, marketing, project management and finance were present on Thursday, to guide and advise the teams in the development of their innovative solution and the installation of their project.
After a welcomed break in the afternoon (rugby, movie, foosball or billiard), students spent an almost sleepless night to finalize their project and realize films, websites or models to convince the jury.
6 finalist teams
The 6 finalist teams (4 in Sceaux and 2 in Montpellier) were selected following a 5 minute presentation, in which were analyzed the originality, the coherence and the sustainability of their project. 20% of the final grade was also attributed to the eco-friendly nature of the concept.
The 6 finalist projects:
- Connected garden in order to allow gardening for all,
- Home automation in service of cognitive senses
- Reading assistance application for people with dyspraxia,
- Connected clothing in order to help hearing impaired people or deaf people to feel the music,
- Connected bracelet for people with memory loss,
- Inflatable vest and connected system to protect from the falls.
The final jury has listened to the 6 finalists groups, following which the three winning projects were nominated.
"Lire Délivre", (Read Deliver) a reading app for people with dyspraxia
The winning team presented the project "Read Deliver", an application that can help people with dyspraxia to read. Their concept: rearrange a document (textbook, tax form...) with a larger line spacing and a larger font thanks to a mobile app to facilitate reading, and thus allow people with dyspraxia to gain in autonomy and comfort.
The team was composed of students from 3 majors: Mechanical, Engineering Management and ICT. Each of them won a gift box “adventure” offered by the EPF and a book on disability from ENGIE.
As 3 members of this team are integrating the EPF dual degree program dedicated to innovation and entrepreneurship on next September (MSc Innovation, Creation & Entrepreneurship at Troyes), the "Read Deliver" project should receive an extra support for one year in the incubator of the Technopole of L’Aube.
« Feelink » et « Connect & U » rewarded
The second place went to a team of Montpellier for its "Feelink - Vibrate music" project that allows people with issues hearing or deaf people to live and feel the music through a connected clothing. This team was rewarded by AUSY and SUBSEA 7 (connected bracelets and waterproof radios).
The team "Connect with Us" from Sceaux and Troyes won the 3rd prize with the project "Connect & U", a connected and location-aware bracelet for people with memory / Alzheimer disorders. They won the Paris Book 3D offered by Dassault Systèmes and 10 cinema tickets each.
Finally, each student of the 3 winning teams also received from Coca Cola a soccer ball of the Euro 2016 and all the finalists left with goodies from our partners.
A positive result
Despite the fatigue of the participants due to the sleepless night, the result is extremely positive. EPF students have been aware of issues of accessibility for all and many innovative ideas to improve the lives of people with disabilities have been developed. Companies have also highlighted the creativity and involvement of EPF students in this challenge.
The EPF also wishes to thank all its partners for their support, their presence and advice of their experts: ALSTOM – AUSY – BIC CAP OMEGA – BNP PARIBAS – BANQUE POPULAIRE – CAPGEMINI – COMMUNAUTE D’AGGLOMERATION DE MONTPELLIER – CGI – COCA COLA ENTREPRISES – DASSAULT AVIATION – DASSAULT SYSTEMES – DEVOTEAM – ENGIE – JCE DE MONTPELLIER – GE – GROUPE ADP – LGM GROUP – MC²I – MYD’L – NEXTER SYSTEMS - OOCITY – SAP – SEGULA TECHNOLOGIES – SOPRA STERIA – SURDI 34 – SUBSEA 7 – UNION PROFESSIONNELLE DES TRAVAILLEURS INDEPENDANTS HANDICAPES.
