21.1.2019
- International challenge "Let's CHALLENGE - NB-IoT Saves Croatian Trees" motivated digital brainers to design early forest fire detection solutions using the Internet of Things
- The “FireFinder” of the Polish team of young innovators was proclaimed the best solution
The Polish (winning) team and Sandra Miku&scaro; director from Information Technology Department of Hrvatski Telekom
In order to further stimulate the development of innovative Internet of Things based solutions, which will help in early detection and fire prevention, Hrvatski Telekom launched the international challenge "Let's CHALLENGE - NB-IoT saves Croatian Trees" in late 2018. Teams from five countries participated in the challenge, and the two best solutions are from Croatia and Poland. Both teams presented their solutions to the jury on January 18 at the headquarters of Hrvatski Telekom. Evaluated by the HT’s jury comprising Krunoslav Vodička, Robert Fitoš and Tomislav Sladonja, the best solution for early forest fire detection was developed by the team from Poland (Konrad Zuchniak, Piotr Szelag and Piotr Jaglarz), while the second place went to the GVG Firefighters - three-member team of high school students from Velika Gorica (Patrik Vuković, Dorian Farkaš and Antun Drobnjak).
Valuable awards were given to team representatives by Sandra Mikuš, director from Information Technology Department and pointed out: "Hrvatski Telekom is the company oriented to the future, the new quality of life and the overall progress of the Croatian society. Therefore, such challenges are a natural part of our socially responsible business and HT’s already recognized role of a promoter of digitalization and STEM in Croatia Many of our activities are aimed at encouraging young people's interest in the STEM knowledge and professions and we are extremely proud of our high school students and their solutions for the salvation of Croatian forests.”
GVG Firefighters - team of high school students from Velika Gorica and Sandra Mikuš
HT Challenge was a true challenge for the digital brainers. They were tasked with designing the solution for super(early) detection of forest fires using sensors of temperature, relative air humidity and air carbon monoxide and dioxide concentrations that would connect via NB-IoT technology to the application or platform. Internet of Things (IoT) technology is one of the fastest growing industries in the world and implies the connection of an extremely large number of sensors that collect and send relevant data that allows them to respond in a timely manner. The Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) network technology is the best way to connect the sensor, and it was first launched in Croatia by Hrvatski Telekom.
The young geniuses from Velika Gorica impressed with their solution and pointed out that the protection of Croatian forests is a topic that we should all pay close attention to. “We applied to the NB IoT Saves Croatian Trees contest so we could dive deeper into this issue and try to offer a useful solution. We wanted to take advantage of our existing knowledge and collect new experiences that we will incorporate into our preservation system of Croatian as well as world vegetation. Our project has remained partly on the theoretical level, as we need additional funding for further realization and upgrading. We hope we will succeed in fully developing the project.”
The Polish team has won with its innovative forest fire detection solution, called FireFinder.
"Our devices, they explained," precisely measure atmospheric parameters in real time, and empowered with NB-IoT technology they send that data to the cloud. The main advantage of our solution is a simultaneous analysis of data from many devices that work in the network. Thanks to this, we can precisely locate the place of fire, and additionally, using sophisticated machine learning algorithms, predict the future spread of fire.”
“Encouraging the development and use of Internet of Things technology, Hrvatski Telekom builds infrastructure that enables further development and realization of new smart IT solutions. The advantages of NB-IoT technology are manifested in low costs and simple communication module that allows for direct connection of sensors and other IoT devices to the mobile network, ensures low power consumption required for the operation of devices and is characterized by a high level of security and reliability,” said a jury member Tomislav Sladonja.
HT's virtual challenge used the platform of the award-winning French start-up Agorize, which connects many companies around the world with a community of five million innovators. Agorize helps companies find students, developers, startups, and employees with partner algorithm to quickly and easily gather multidisciplinary international teams.