Entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds assembled at the Smart Cities Connect Fall Conference to showcase emerging smart community technology.
Entrepreneurs present ideas at Smart Cities Connect
What will a smart community of the future look like?
Entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds took a stab at answering that question at the Smart Cities Connect Fall Conference and Expo in a session dedicated to emerging smart technology. Representatives from seven startups at various stages of development presented ideas to a small group of colleagues and answered brief questions. Like Shark Tank, but way more chill.
Economic development non-profit R!OT, which just wrapped up the 16th iteration of its startup accelerator program RAP, assembled a panel to judge each company’s presentation. I suppose Kevin O’Leary was double-booked?
“Our north star is job creation,” beamed program director Rachael Newberry as she addressed the room. “We believe the best job opportunities are at the forefront of tech.”
Here’s a glimpse at all seven startups, in no particular order:
- Phase II Staffing and Contracting
Phase II is a veteran-owned and operated integrated technology business billing itself as a problem-solver for companies and governments. “Who are the people we want to trust in our organizations?” asked Nathan Goodall, senior manager of business development.
Goodall touted his company’s “zero trust” methodology and asserted its Ridgeback software will monitor and verify network activity more effectively than contemporary tools. He demonstrated use cases for Sentinel biometric access credentials, including key cards which can be inexpensively paired with typical RFID doors yet become useless if they fall into the wrong hands.
Goodall says Phase II provides a “service advantage” to its customers, leveraging the sense of duty its employees still abide by. “We bring unique experiences, integrity, and commitment,” he concluded.
- Cell Matrix Corporation
Cell Matrix Corporation is a woman-owned contract research and development firm. The small business is pre-revenue but sees a path to profitability through licensing data compiled by its sensors. CMC is currently conducting research with the Department of Defense and the Department of Commerce while exploring uses for its tech, which can help pilots or sailors maintain situational awareness.
“As conditions change, sometimes rapidly without warning, how do you recover?” asked co-founder Lisa Durbeck.
Durbeck launched Cell Matrix Corporation with Nick Macias in 1999 after receiving initial funding from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She sees an opportunity for mariners to use her data to reduce costs and avoid other boats or fishing equipment in the water. Durbeck says her biggest unknown at the moment is how her matrix of sensors could be useful to pilots or may benefit a region/municipality.
- AirSENCE
Billed as a one-stop air quality monitoring solution, AirSENCE is a fully integrated apparatus that gathers real-time data at high spatial resolution.
“Comprehensive and accurate air quality monitoring is the first and most crucial step to control air pollution,” observed Xia Liu, director of intelligent systems at A.U.G. Signals Ltd. “We can’t change what we can’t measure.”
Liu argues that conventional air monitoring stations are sparsely located, expensive, and difficult to maintain. AirSENCE promises accurate and precise measurements in a compact, secure, cost-effective package that requires no calibration or weather-proofing. So far, more than 250 devices are in operation- each providing customizable analytics for actionable insights at the community level.
- Devilliers Technology Solutions
Devil-Tech is a systems engineering and software company founded in 2012. It’s a licensed vendor for NASA, the DoD, and NSA (among other acronym’d entities) that utilizes cross-platform software called Locorum.
According to the company’s site, Locorum is “the ultimate Situational Awareness and Geographic Information System tailored for the VIDL Iridium-based satellite radio.” It’s push-to-talk, allowing instant data transfers anywhere, even in areas without power or cell coverage. Locorum also provides mapping, symbology support, chat functions, route overlays, and alert systems.
“It’s a P2P application meant to work at the edge,” explained founder Ed Devillier. “There’s no central server or central point of failure.”
Outside of military use cases, Devillier also sees Locorum as having utility in disaster scenarios, like when it was used in the Bahamas during Hurricane Dorian.
- Acta Solutions
Anyone beholden to their inbox will see the allure of Acta Solutions, a tool for quickly issuing standardized e-mail responses. According to Acta, 60% of a government staffer’s day is spent dealing with citizen inquiries. Inconsistent and incomplete information results in tiresome back-and-forths, often frustrating both parties.
“Acta is a customer help desk in an e-mail inbox,” explains business development representative, Gabe Thomas. With a single click, a municipal employee can draft an e-mail with all the important information about a policy or practice, cutting down the number of inquiries and quickly responding to common ones. All responses are customizable, allowing for highly technical replies and location-specific answers to queries.
Acta is currently being used in more than 30 places, including major municipalities like Maricopa County, Arizona, Tampa, Florida, and Raleigh, North Carolina.
- Breeze Technologies
‘And hailing alllll the way from Hamburg’ (starting lineup announcer voice) comes Breeze Technologies, an air quality sensor, data, and analytics company. Robert Heinecke, founder and CEO, calls it the world’s first fully integrated approach to air quality monitoring and management.
Utilizing sensors and gathered data, Breeze’s AI-driven suite of automated analytics identifies and recommends more than 3500 effective and efficient clean air actions to users. Basically, you put in the data, answer some questions, and then the tech will tell you what to do at a granular level to improve air quality. Those recs come in data-driven and non-data-driven flavors. The self-learning system can even see results from its recommendations and accordingly adjust future guidance.
Heinecke says Breeze can be used for a wide range of things; from alerting sensitive groups of poor air quality to leveraging AI to detect wildfires.
- N-Smart
Within seconds of visiting N-Smart’s website, there’s an AI chatbot in your face asking how it can help (Millennial observation: Clippy, we took you for granted). It’s befittingly solution-forward for a company that promises to revolutionize power grids.
N-Smart seeks to spare us from billions of dollars in economic impact prompted by power outages. Rather than relying on manual processes like sending out bucket trucks full of error-prone humans to inspect the damage to assets, N-Smart can accelerate service restoration through a hub of connected solutions. Smart poles with real-time alerts, smart tool verification and audits, and smart inventory with real-time stock consumption and tracking.
CEO Kiran Yeddalla, who calls N-Smart the Google nest for utilities, simplifies the recipe to: detect, restore, deploy. The company just launched operational deployment with Baltimore Gas and Electric.
And the winner is…
We all win! Yay, technology!
Okay, fine. The audience thought Acta Solutions made the best pitch. The judges, after much deliberation, gave the nod to Breeze.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Paul Gerke
Quelle/Source: Power-Grid, 07.12.2023
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