​2 winning projects for making Mulhouse into a more connected city

The finalists – Checkpoints, Ewattch, AEMO Automation, LOCALOPRET, Greenberry, and Kool Today – each had 6 minutes to present their project in front of a hundred people and to discuss it with the selection committee.

Following the pitch session, 2 winners were announced and prizes were given out with Jean Rottner, the Mayor of Mulhouse, in attendance.

- The "citizen" prize was presented by Jean Rottner to Checkpoints for their proposed “Mulhouse Social Energy" challenge, which would reconnect the citizens of Mulhouse through connected sports in a simple and widely accessible way.

- The "technical" prize was awarded to Greenberry, whose proposal would display data collected from sensors around the city on an interactive map, taking the "pulse of the city" through “beats” sent out by the citizens. The award was presented by Gilles Simoncini of ENGIE and Philippe Krembel from SUEZ.

Both winners will be able to use a life-size laboratory to test and demonstrate their projects: the city of Mulhouse!
The city’s technical services will help them implement their projects, and the teams will also be coached by experts from ENGIE and SUEZ to accelerate their development.

A third prize, the “Committee’s Favorite” Award, was given out by the Mulhouse Agglomeration to the Sensybair project, which involves a connected object that measures indoor air quality in schools and displays indicators in real time, designed and developed for children. Having won the award, Sensybair will soon be tested in one or more schools in the Mulhouse urban area.

We contacted the two winners to ask about the background of their projects.

For Greenberry, this means Leo Casagrande, co-founder of the start-up, who talked about his plan to "take the pulse of the area."

How did you hear about this call for projects?

Last April, we met a team from ENGIE at the "Startup 42" show hosted by the city of Metz, in Blida, and they encouraged us to apply for this call for projects, since our solution seemed "tailor-made" for it!

We develop digital solutions based on the concept of the connected city and citizen. Our goal is to help make the city smarter - and more understandable to its users. Our solution met the project criteria almost as-is. We are now located at the Paddock, the LORnTECH accelerator for the Greater Nancy area. We are currently working on a project involving connected bicycles for the Greater Nancy area and are rolling out Pulsaction in the Sillon Lorrain area.

What exactly does your solution entail?

Our project makes it literally possible to take the pulse of the city. It’s a platform where users can send and receive information in real time about many things (cultural and community events, traffic conditions and recommendations for restaurants, etc.). It’s a platform that lets users learn more about their environment by sharing, but it also allows local authorities and organizations to deliver information and get feedback from users on projects or services.
A number of sensors are linked to the platform that let you monitor a number of things that affect citizens’ lives.
The platform also calculates quality of life indicators for quality of life, economic activity, etc.
Local authorities get a basic framework that they can add bricks to for businesses, non-profits or to meet other needs.

How do you feel about having won this call for projects, specifically ENGIE’s "technical" prize?

It’s first and foremost a recognition of our work, and that’s a big thing for us.

It will also allow us to try out the tool in Mulhouse, a city that has shown a strong political commitment to becoming a smart city.
Last but not least, we hope this is the beginning of a fruitful collaboration between Greenberry and ENGIE!

Jean-Baptiste Brette, co-founder and CEO of Checkpoints, answered our questions about his company.

How did you hear about this call for projects?

We work out of the "Village by CA" incubator in Paris. During a breakfast hosted by startups at the Village, we met a group from ENGIE that was also in incubation there and who told us about this call for projects.

We design and develop custom online sports challenges for companies, communities and brands. As a response to this call for projects we designed a connected sports competition that seemed to meet the city’s expectations.

What does winning this prize mean to you?

It’s a great opportunity for us! Having a city like Mulhouse as a testing ground will allow us to apply our vision at the city scale. We plan to use it to show how our overall offering and our project are relevant.

Our goal, of course, is to quickly move to the implementation phase, and to go forward with making the project a reality. And of course making sure our solution meets the expectations of the city of Mulhouse.