The Smart City Living Lab and Silicon Labs joined forces to spark innovation through the Wi-SUN Smart City Challenge, empowering startups, innovators, and academic institutions in developing workable prototypes using Wi-SUN RF mesh technology. This challenge aimed to inspire students, hardware startups, and MSMEs to fully utilise the Wi-SUN network and create impactful solutions that drive innovation in smart city development and encourage in other areas too.
The story of the association began three years ago when Silicon Labs became the corporate partner with Smart City Living Lab, IIIT Hyderabad. Now We have a full-fledged Wi-SUN network backbone covering the entire IIIT Hyderabad campus, supporting FSK and OFDM modulations.
Wi-SUN based Smart City Challenge, concluded on 26 September with an exciting prize distribution ceremony. The event brought together talented innovators, developers, and tech enthusiasts to showcase their creativity and problem-solving skills using Wi-SUN (Wireless Smart Ubiquitous Network) technology. The finalists got a chance to win a total prize pool of ₹8,00,000, empowering them to bring their cutting-edge ideas to life.
The initial announcement of the challenge was made in June 2024, followed by a webinar to inform the prospective teams about the significance of Wi-SUN for IoT applications. The challenge attracted 266 teams from diverse backgrounds, including students, professionals, and startups, all focused on developing cutting-edge solutions that leverage Wi-SUN for smart city applications, IoT (Internet of Things), and more.
The project ideas went through multiple rounds of screening to select the most impactful, feasible and scalable ideas for application in the Indian context. On 9th August, top 10 teams were called to IIIT Hyderabad for a hands-on workshop on Wi-SUN connectivity and hardware/software stack. Over the next 6 weeks, the Smart City Living Lab team provided constant support to the teams to develop their ideas into a prototype/product.
Anuradha Vattem, Chief Technology Architect, Smart City Living Lab, IIIT Hyderabad stated, “The 10 finalist teams have worked tirelessly on innovative projects in various domains such as energy management systems, smart street lighting, water management, agriculture, waste management, and environment monitoring, to develop secure and scalable IoT networks, demonstrating the limitless potential of Wi-SUN in shaping the future of connectivity.”
The efforts of the top 10 teams culminated in deployment of their solution at IIIT Hyderabad campus, levering the backbone Wi-SUN network present at the institute. On 25 September, the final evaluation of the teams was conducted by the judging panel, comprising of esteemed industry leaders and technology experts. The evaluation was based on innovation, technical execution, and real-world applicability. After careful deliberation, Team “DBR Innovative Tech” emerged as the winner for their outstanding project, Farmer’s Voice, which addressed the problems faced by the farmers in their day-to-day activities, using a voice-enabled interactive solution, in a regional language. The team expressed their gratitude towards the smart city living lab, specifically Mr. Vaibhav Naware, Research Engineer, for their constant support during the development phase.
The event culminated in a prize distribution ceremony by Ross Sabolcik, Senior Vice President and General Manager at Silicon Labs., to the winners for their remarkable achievements.
The winning teams were DBR Innovative Tech (INR 5,00,000), Horus (INR 2,00,000), and Yantram Electronics (INR 1,00,000). All the finalists were also honoured with certificates and mementos for their impressive projects, reflecting the high level of competition throughout the challenge.
Dr. Aftab Hussain shared his excitement about the event’s success, “The Wi-SUN challenge has demonstrated the incredible talent and innovative spirit within our tech community. The solutions developed here today have the potential to revolutionize smart city infrastructure and IoT applications on a global scale. We look forward to seeing these ideas grow and make a real impact.”
The Wi-SUN challenge is part of (Organization Name)’s broader commitment to fostering innovation and collaboration in cutting-edge technologies. By providing a platform for creative minds to develop practical solutions using Wi-SUN, the event has laid the foundation for future advancements in smart and sustainable technologies.
Ms Anuradha Vattem has reiterated that the three year long journey with Silicon Labs has been very successful with the constant support from the Silicon Labs Team Dr.Manish Kothari, Mr. Venkatesh Narsimhan and Mr. Srinivasa Dukkipati .and this event marks the beginning of the roadmap to wider Wi-SUN Deployments.
More information – www.smartcitylivinglab.iiit.ac.in
September 2024