The final session of the contest #SmartMobilityChallenge, organized by Ford Fund and the Universitat de València, was held last May 21st. In that session, the participants presented their sustainable mobilty projects before the jury.
This jury was composed by, representing the Universitat de València, the vice chancellor of Employment and Training Programs, M. Adela Valero, the professor of the Department of Business Management, Lola Garzón, and the entrepreneurship technician of UVemprén, Marta Llácer; and, representing Ford Fund, its director, Debbie Chennells, the Mobility Specialist of Ford Motor Company, Javier Gibello, and Eva Mocholí, from the Internal & Corporate Communications department of Ford Motor Company.
In this final participated six teams with business ideas based on sustainable mobility and smart cities design. After the jury’s deliberation, it was decided that the winning project was My Way, an application that centralizes in a single interface all public transport tickets, to facilitate mobility and avoid the unnecessary accumulation of physical cards.
Besides, there were two finalist projects: NetCare and EVLocker. NetCare is an application designed to improve the quality of life of the elderly, facilitating their communication and their connectivity with their close people. For its part, EVLocker proposes a system of lockers integrated into the urban design, that allows to charge all kind of electric vehicle, encouraging its use and a bigger sustainability in the mobility of the cities. The members of My Way belong to the International Business degree of the Universitat de València, while the members of NetCare belong to the Political and Public Administration Sciences degree and the EVLocker team belong to the Industrial Electronic Engineering degree of the ETSE.
The winning project will receive a 12.500 € award, intended to facilitate the actual implementation of the project as a viable business idea. Moreover, the two finalist projects will get 5.000 € each, with the same goal.
The final session of the contest #SmartMobilityChallenge was held online, due to sanitary restrictions, but it is planned that the awards ceremony will take place in face-to-face mode next June 30th.
As the philanthropic arm of Ford Motor Company, Ford Fund's mission is to strengthen communities and help improve people's quality of life. Working with dealerships and nonprofit partners in 50 countries, Ford Fund provides access to opportunities and resources that help people reach their full potential. Established in 1949, the Ford Fund has invested more than $2 billion in programs that support education, promote safe driving, enrich community life, and promote volunteerism for its employees. For more information, you can visit their website or follow their profiles on Facebook and Twitter. In Europe, Ford Motor Company Fund works with its international grant making partner GlobalGiving, which connects nonprofits, donors, and companies in nearly every country in the world to accelerate community-led change. They help nonprofits access the funding, tools, training, and support they need to serve their communities. Since 2002, the GlobalGiving community has raised nearly $500 million from more than 1 million donors for nearly 27,000 projects in more than 170 countries. Each of the nonprofits on GlobalGiving.org has been vetted and has committed to providing donors regular updates about how donations are put to work. Find out more at globalgiving.org.
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