Canary Wharf Group Identify New Innovators for 'Smarter' Homes
07 July 2015Canary Wharf Group Identify New Innovators for 'Smarter' Homes
07 July 2015BlockDox, Puckily and 3D Repo have been announced as winners of the third wave of Canary Wharf Group’s Cognicity Challenge.
BlockDox and Puckily tied in first place in the ‘Connected Home’ stream and will share the £50,000 cash prize. They will also collaborate on their pilot. Puckily’s innovation allows a range of devices around the home to be connected and controlled remotely, while BlockDox has developed an app which enables residents to perform everyday tasks, such as organising repair work and contacting management, more quickly and easily. By combining their technologies, the two companies will vastly improve people’s ability to manage their homes through connected devices and become a true example of interoperability.
In the ‘Virtual Design and Construction’ stream, winner 3D Repo has produced an open source Building Information Modeling (BIM) platform, which enables better collaboration on construction projects.
Cognicity is a smart city accelerator programme designed and delivered by ENTIQ for Canary Wharf Group (CWG) which aims to support the development of ground-breaking technologies, drawing on the expertise of CWG executives and industry leaders including Intel and ARUP. Through Cognicity, the London property developer is demonstrating the potential of smart buildings, sensor networks, and digital analysis software, to create efficiencies and convenience in the development and management of our cities.
Sir George Iacobescu, Chairman and CEO of Canary Wharf Group, said: “We chose to run the Cognicity Challenge to identify companies and technologies which will help ensure that Canary Wharf Group’s developments remain among some of the most advanced in the world. Collaborating with 36 startups has provided the opportunity to appraise our own processes and understanding of innovation in the smart cities arena, at the same time as helping shape their thinking and products. We are looking forward to the piloting phase and its outcomes.”
Claire Cockerton, CEO and Chairwoman of ENTIQ, added: “This is just the beginning of an incredible journey for 3D Repo, Puckily and BlockDox. Their solutions will drastically improve the way we plan construction projects and interact with our homes. A procurement model like Cognicity is one of the best ways of ensuring lasting, authentic innovation which has the power to transform the urban environment as we know it.”
The programme has enabled participating companies to work together to find solutions in an interconnected way, drawing on Big Data and the Internet of Things.
Ian Jones, Intel’s UK Smart Cities Director added: “Data will play a central role in the cities of tomorrow, driving the innovations that these firms are developing. Teaming with the Cognicity Challenge means we can coach these entrepreneurs on the role of data, how they can protect it, and distil valuable insight from it, to create amazing impacts for the residents of smarter cities.”
BlockDox, Puckily and 3D Repo join the winners of the previous two phases, Polysolar, Voyage Control, SEaB Energy, and Demand Logic. An additional eight other innovators have also been invited by CWG to pilot their schemes on the Canary Wharf estate. Boldmind, a firm delivering the dynamism of e-commerce advertising into physical locations, Strawberry Energy, which produces solar-powered benches for mobile charging, and Pavegen, a company that converts footsteps into electricity, are three pilots underway on the estate.
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