Engineers in Business Hackathon

Project:

As global temperatures rise, low-income housing encounters challenges in maintaining comfort. Shifting climate pattern disproportionately impact these communities.

The Earth Avengers team found a solution which incorporated an automatic temperature reading Internet of Things device distributed throughout the community. These battery-powered devices used temperature sensors with Wi-Fi/4g capability, with data continuously fed into a database. An online platform would be created to engage with the community, with transparency about data collection and for people to learn about climate change.

Project:

Ice Cube’s idea for data collection is computer-based and wireless where the collected data is displayed in an easy-to-understand dashboard that the building manager can view the temperatures in each flat, the average temperature on each floor, and any alerts for any elderly/vulnerable tenants that may need a check-in during high or low temperatures.

It uses cheap technology that is easily set up in each flat, just a simple module about the size of a credit card, that can be stuck to the wall above the door to the flat to get a temperature measurement from the same place in the flat every time for consistent results. There is no wiring needed as the temperature modules are battery powered and the batteries will only need to be changed about once a month.

The temperature collection modules send the data to a small repeater device at the end of each corridor that will forward the data down each floor’s repeater to the manager’s office on the bottom floor where the main data collection module will be located to process the data and display it. It is easily scalable to fit any sized block of flats, as well as being cost-effective. Also, the data collected will be saved to a spreadsheet so it can be viewed at any point in the future.

Project:

To tackle the challenge of demonstrating that social housing gets hotter than other forms of housing, the Tempcap team conceptualised a detailed solution encompassing a data logging system, an app, and analytical tools.

It incorporated a data logging system which identified key rooms where temperatures rise significantly like living areas and bedrooms, application development to allow tenants to easily view and understand temperature data and analytical tools to show trends and spikes.