Competition for the Ü. Pärnits Scholarship “How to make Ülemiste City campus smarter?”

Our cooperation partner Ülemiste City supports entrepreneurial education and invites all entrepreneurial people to take part in a competition to help make Ülemiste City smarter. Ülo Pärnits was the long-standing head of AS Mainor and the founder of Ülemiste City.

Who can apply?

We are mainly awaiting submissions from the students of the Estonian Entrepreneurship University of Applied Sciences in Ülemiste City, campus partner universities (Tallinn University of Technology, University of Tartu) and start-up communities. The competition is also open to anyone who relates to the topics of the competition and is ready to contribute to the development of the smart campus of Ülemiste City. The submission may be presented either individually or in teams, and supervisors or mentors can also be involved.

Competition procedure and the amount of the grant

The competition will be announced on two topics, see Competition Topics below. After the announcement, the organisers are awaiting submission of the participation application and the preliminary outline of the future work to the e-mail address of Katrin Sulg, the contact person for the competition, at katrin.sulg@mainor.ee From the preliminary outlines, the Supervisory Board of AS Mainor (hereinafter: Supervisory Board) will select up to 3 of the best outlines on each topic. The Supervisory Board will distribute up to EUR 10,000 among the presenters of the eligible works based on the selected outlines.

Topics of the competition

Ülemiste City’s mission is the development of an international broad-based and knowledge-based working, development and living environment, which would enhance the global competitiveness of individuals and enterprises, bring talents home to realise themselves and inspire the creation of new business models. Ülemiste City is unique and inspiring environment fostering creativity for the people working, studying and living there.

The project submitted to the competition must be a practical research work, answering the questions WHY, WHAT and HOW?

New business opportunities and business models relying on the data collected within the Ülemiste City campus.

Today, the “Internet of Things” (IoT) is gaining more and more popularity, enabling two-way contact with objects—on one side, devices connected to a network use sensors to provide information about themselves and the surrounding situation and, on the other, they are ready to take orders dictating action. It is important to develop ideas for using sensor networks or other smart city solutions in Ülemiste City to create new business opportunities/business models to be implemented in a smart city based on the valuable data collected by them.

Objective of the work

To propose (ideas, future visions, but also specific examples used in different districts/fields of activity):

• What kind of data to collected in Ülemiste City and why?
• What technological solutions, strategies can be used for collecting the big data of Ülemiste City (using already existing and/or new analytical tools)?
• What are the additional Ülemiste City services (offered within the district) that could employ the solutions and strategies proposed in the 2nd question and how could it be realised?
• What would be the other economic benefits of using the data collected (by each field and activity)?
• What kind of data that is important for the city of Tallinn could be collected in the campus?

The impact of the sharing economy on the development of the Ülemiste City campus in the next few years.

According to some estimates, in 10 years the market share and volume of the traditional economy and sharing economy will be equal. People have started to prefer sharing objects and resources with others, borrowing from another individual and not a company mediating the service, as it is usually cheaper. People are also less interested in long-term rental relations and personal ownership of items. They are looking for flexible solutions for their living and working spaces and the new services accompanying them.

Objective of the work

To propose (ideas, future visions, but also specific examples used in different campuses/activity areas) for the sharing economy:

• Solutions justified from the perspective of both the client and the provider to create services that are important for the community of Ülemiste City, incl. peer-to-peer matchmaking opportunities.
• How does the sharing economy physically influence the infrastructure of services resulting from: shared workspace solutions, shared living solutions, education of the next generation and shared academic infrastructure from the perspective of the sharing economy, transport solutions, etc.?
• New ideas for public services from the aspect of the sharing economy.
• Assessment of the impact of the sharing economy on the working and personal life in Ülemiste City in a 10-year perspective.

Criteria for assessing works

• Innovation
• Potential for implementation
• Efficiency/profitability of the solution (whether it is in compliance with the set objective)
• Visually and substantially compelling presentation (video, PowerPoint, mock-up, etc.)
• Relevance of the competition submission

 Contact

As the organizer of the competition, Mainor AS offers the opportunity to hold a 1-hour meeting to discuss the expectations for the selected topic. Contact person: Katrin Sulg, katrin.sulg@mainor.ee

Application deadline April 10! 

Tallinn Science Park Tehnopol, University of Technology,  Ülemiste City developers and Entrepreneurship University signed cooperation agreement in virtual reality on May 3rd, 2016