Summer Internship for Winning Team to Advance
App Concept and Support Toyota’s Partner Robotics Work
Imagine an average commute. Perhaps you wait for a bus, walk
through crowded streets and ride an elevator up to your office.
Now, imagine doing it without being able to see clearly or even at
all.
A team of students did just that and came up with an idea for a
solution that won first prize in the Next Generation Mobility
Challenge, a new competition to inspire millennials to address
critical mobility needs from Net Impact, Toyota and the Toyota
Mobility Foundation. The students’ winning concept, StreetSmart, is
an app that would help people who are blind or visually impaired
navigate their surroundings with greater confidence. The winning
students are: Esther Kim (Rhode Island School of Design), John
Mathai (Olin College), Ayush Singhal (Babson College) and Niklaus
Sugiri (Babson College).
Activated by voice command, the StreetSmart app would provide
users with audio alerts about upcoming hazards or changes to their
commute, such as broken escalators, bus service changes and
construction sites. It would rely on existing GPS location
services, crowd-sourcing traffic technologies and real-time updates
from users on routes’ conditions.
The team envisions that the app would work in tandem with
Project BLAID, a wearable device in development by Toyota that also
works to improve the mobility of people who are blind and visually
impaired. For a preview of Project BLAID,
visit TheToyotaEffect.com to access a short video of an
early-stage version of the device.
“Toyota launched the Next Generation Mobility Challenge with Net
Impact because we want to inspire millennials to join us in solving
the most critical mobility issues facing us all,” said Latondra
Newton, Chief Program Officer, Toyota Mobility Foundation. “We
loved the StreetSmart concept because it builds on our work to help
communities with limited mobility do more so they can go more
places and live better lives. We congratulate the winners and thank
them for their creativity, smarts and hard work!”
“We are thrilled that Toyota is leveraging the talents and
passions of young people through this challenge,” says Liz Maw,
CEO, Net Impact. “We applaud the StreetSmart team for designing a
solution with an eye towards scaling for social impact.”
Nearly 670 students from 60 colleges and universities across the
country participated in fifteen campus events during the Challenge,
pitching 154 ideas. A panel of judges from Toyota and Net Impact
selected StreetSmart’s winning concept from three finalist teams,
based on the clarity of goal, project design, social impact,
feasibility, creativity and the results of a public vote.
StreetSmart’s video pitch garnered 63.6% of the public vote.
The winning team has been offered internships to delve into a
deeper understanding of the mobility needs of the blind community,
build the business case for the StreetSmart app and support
Toyota’s Partner Robotics work to advance the freedom of mobility
for all. Kim, Mathai, Singhal and Sugiri – along with two finalist
teams – will have the opportunity to attend the 2016 Net Impact
Conference in Philadelphia this November on behalf of Toyota.
In addition to local faculty and experts, more than 50 Toyota
team members engaged with the Challenge, including Kristen Tabar,
vice president of the Technical Strategy Planning Office at Toyota
Technical Center (TTC). In addition to being on-the-ground at the
chapter events to help students develop their solutions, Toyota
team members served as judges, selecting the chapter winners, the
three finalists and the ultimate winner. The three finalists had
the opportunity to meet with Toyota mentors to refine their
proposals.
The other finalist teams were:
- University of Oregon and Oregon State
students Carolyn Taclas, Keala Verigan, Sydney Quinton-Cox and
James Greisen, who conceived a mobile community center to offer a
range of pop-up services to meet community needs; and
- Northwestern University and University
of Illinois students Maria McKiever, Szymon Gluc and Shangyanyan
Li, who devised a system that would allow drivers to offer their
car trunks to others for hire as mobile mailboxes.
About the Next Generation Mobility Challenge
Launched in 2015, The Next Generation Mobility Challenge is a
competition from Toyota and Net Impact to inspire millennials to
develop solutions for critical mobility needs in local communities
and around the world. Held at fifteen university campuses across
the country, the challenge invites multi-disciplinary teams of
students to participate in half-day design sprints to develop
solutions for mobility issues that address community, connectivity,
or sustainability. Local transportation and technology experts from
Toyota and universities provided feedback and real-world
perspective to the students’ concepts.
Toyota is executing the challenge through Toyota Motor North
America and the Toyota Mobility Foundation (TMF), which was created
by Toyota in 2014 to help more people go more places – safely,
easily and sustainably – so they can live better lives no matter
where they are.
About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM), the world's top automaker and creator of the
Prius and the Mirai fuel cell vehicle, is committed to building
vehicles for the way people live through our Toyota, Lexus and
Scion brands. Over the past 50 years, we’ve built more than 30
million cars and trucks in North America, where we operate 14
manufacturing plants (10 in the U.S.) and directly employ more than
44,000 people (more than 34,000 in the U.S.). Our 1,800 North
American dealerships (1,500 in the U.S.) sold more than 2.8 million
cars and trucks (nearly 2.5 million in the U.S.) in 2015 – and
about 80 percent of all Toyota vehicles sold over the past 20 years
are still on the road today.
Toyota partners with philanthropic organizations across the
country. As part of this commitment, we share the company’s
extensive know-how garnered from building great cars and trucks to
help community organizations and other nonprofits expand their
ability to do good. For more information about Toyota, visit
www.toyotanewsroom.com.
About Toyota Mobility Foundation
The Toyota Mobility Foundation was established in August 2014 to
support the development of a more mobile society. The Foundation
aims to support strong mobility systems while eliminating
disparities in mobility. It utilizes Toyota's expertise in
technology, safety, and the environment, working in partnership
with universities, governments, non-profit organizations, research
institutions and other organizations to address mobility issues
around the world. Programs include resolving urban transportation
problems, expanding the utilization of personal mobility, and
developing solutions for next generation mobility.
About Net Impact
Net Impact is the world’s best training ground for the next
generation of change agents. Our programs—delivered from our
headquarters in Oakland, CA, as well as globally through our 300+
chapters—connect our members to the skills, experiences and people
that will allow them to have the greatest impact. With over 100,000
members, Net Impact takes on social challenges, protects the
environment, invents new products and orients business toward the
greater good. In short, we help our members turn their passions
into a lifetime of world-changing action. Visit
www.netimpact.org.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160525005307/en/
For ToyotaAmy Schultz, 646-805-2825amy.schultz@finsbury.comorNet
ImpactCatherine Muriel, 415-495-4230 x314cmuriel@netimpact.org
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