DENSO Thermal Systems sponsors hackathon focused on sustainable urban mobility
Poirino, Italy | 08 February 2021 – DENSO Thermal Systems has recently confirmed its participation as one of the major sponsors of the first ever Next Mobility Hackathon, an event initiated by the Italian Association of the Automotive Industry (ANFIA), which specializes in concept design, modeling, engineering, and testing, as well as the design and production of special vehicles. The event is intended for young and talented students from Italian universities and design schools, and challenges participants to measure themselves against trends within the automotive sector reflected in the areas of “CASE” or Connected, Autonomous, Shared, and Electric mobility.
The initiative represents an important step towards the new role that the world of engineering and design plans to take up, in terms of styling, engineering, and customer experience, as the contest could potentially serve as the ideal bridge between companies, public institutions, secondary schools, and universities.
There are three themes to choose from for innovative ideas and projects.
1. The Engineering & Design theme will focus on the need to reinvent, both the interior and exterior space of the vehicle, including a completely new approach to usability. Participants will be asked to reflect on how future models used in the transport of goods and people will be shaped by the urban and industrial context of smart cities. Their approach to the design needs to respond to this new type of information.
2. The Autonomous & Data-driven mobility theme will focus on the evolution of connected and autonomous vehicle technologies related to novel forms of interaction between the user and the vehicle as well as with the surrounding environment. New developments will evolve in which sets of big data and fast connections will increase possibilities and services available to the individual.
3. The HMI Interface theme intends to give ground to the new frontiers of human-machine interaction. With the progressive achievement of autonomous driving, the user, as a driver of the vehicle, will gradually become an observer and there is a clear need to combine both wishes of the driver-observer with the guarantee of safety for the driver and other road users, achieving a perfect balance between interaction and distraction. Here, the challenge is to focus, not only on interaction strategies such as human perceptive and cognitive but also on technical design, application, and implementation.
The judges consist of the Technical Scientific and Evaluation Committee of the event, all experts in the field of mobility. These experts come from ANFIA member companies, as well as the academic and industrial world.
Through the website and social media, registered users will be able to vote for the most noteworthy proposals. The judges will consider the opinions of the online community and will take into account these results when compiling their final evaluation. Prizes will be awarded to the winners of each category. However, all participants will also benefit from a range of prizes, financial and/or in the form of assistance in the development of their proposed idea, made possible by the sponsors.
Applications to participate in the contest will be open from the 1st to the 15th of February 2021. More detailed information can be found on the Next Mobility Hackathon website.
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ANFIA – Italian Association of the Automotive Industry
Born in March 1912, over these one hundred years, ANFIA mission has always been to represent the interests of its associate members and ensure effective communication between the Italian motor vehicle industries on the one hand, and the Public Administration and Italian political bodies on the other, with regard to all technical, economic, fiscal, legal, statistical and quality-related issues referred to the automotive sector. The Association is structured in three product-based Groups, each one chaired by a President. Components: motor vehicle parts and components manufacturers; Car Coachbuilders and Designers: companies working in the sector of design, engineering and style of motor vehicles and/or parts and components for the automotive sector; Motor vehicles: motor vehicles manufacturers in general, including trucks, trailers, camper vans, special means of transport.
For more information about DENSO, visit www.nextmobilityhackathon.com.
