The Vindo team, of which University of Twente student Sebastiaan den Boer, from the Netherlands was announced as the winner of the FabSpace 2.0 Prize in the third edition of ActInSpace® 2018 which was held on the 25th – 26th of May 2018 all over the world, knocking out 54 other applications in this category. The announcement took place during the finals of ActInSpace® 2018 on the 27th of June 2018 in Toulouse, France.
ActInSpace is an initiative of CNES, ESA and ESA BIC Sud France that aims to find solutions to space technologies and EO data challenges provided by industry partners, such as Airbus ArianeGroup. During this contest, students and other participants are motivated to develop a sound business plan for their new space solutions, and subsequently launch their start-ups. The ultimate aim of this competition is to change the lives of citizens for the better, both in the EU and around the world, through entrepreneurship and the use of space technologies.
This year the contest was fulfilling an international ambition; bringing together 53 cities from 32 countries in all continents; attracting 3400+ participants with 510 teams working on 60+ different challenges; and creating between 20 and 30 new start-ups.
Team Vindo, of which University of Twente student Sebastiaan den Boer is the lead developer, built and designed a mobile application around Copernicus satellite data aiming at matching urban development strategies with citizens' perspective on environmental sustainability. It achieved this by combining the preferences of citizens on their living environment (air quality, amount of green space, leisure activities, transportation access, etc.) with Earth Observation data collected by Copernicus satellites and other third-party sources.
"Winning the FabSpace 2.0 Earth Observation Prize at ActInSpace 2018 is truly amazing. Not only does it provide a sense of personal accomplishment, but it has also encouraged the team to keep working on the prototype. It also shows that small ideas, if executed properly, can grow to leave a positive impact on society. We welcome the support of FabSpace 2.0 and other partners during our journey so far, and hope to share more news with you on this project in the near future." said Sebastiaan den Boer, a Business Information Technology student at the University of Twente.
Find more information on this announcement at the official ActInSpace website.