Toyota: Ade Adepitan / Mallory Weggemann / Sama Bullock / Martyn Sibley Announce Crowdsourcing Campaign to Find Ideas for $4 ...
March 08 2018 - 3:32AM
JCN Newswire (English)
Today the Mobility Unlimited Challenge is announcing a
crowdsourcing initiative, aimed at helping inspire entrants in
their quest to develop life-changing technology for people with
lower-limb paralysis. The #MyMobilityUnlimited campaign will invite
people around the world to share their life experiences with
lower-limb paralysis and the solutions they would like to see to
the challenges they face every day.
The Toyota Mobility Foundation, in partnership with Nesta's
Challenge Prize Centre, launched the $4 million dollar global
challenge in November 2017, with the aim of changing the lives of
people with lower-limb paralysis. The Mobility Unlimited Challenge
is seeking teams around the world to create game-changing
technology that will help radically improve the mobility and
independence of people with paralysis. This Challenge will
culminate in the unveiling of the winners in Tokyo in 2020.
The Challenge is encouraging a user-centered approach and will
invite people with lower-limb paralysis, across the world, to take
part in a global conversation about the types of mobility
technology innovations they would like to see, using the hashtag
#MyMobilityUnlimited. These suggestions will then be used to
inspire entrants to create genuinely life-changing technologies
which directly address the issues faced by users on a day-to-day
basis.
The Challenge is supported by a number of public figures from
around the world, including Mallory Weggemann, NBC reporter for the
Winter Paralympics in South Korea; Ade Adepitan, British wheelchair
basketball player and television presenter; Sama Bullock, Brazilian
wheelchair tennis player and model; and Martyn Sibley, journalist
and broadcaster; all of whom have lower-limb paralysis and star in
this video. Many have created their own personal videos and tweets,
in which they share their hopes and ideas for the Challenge, and
they are asking others to follow suit.
The challenge is also backed by a number of global ambassadors
include: Aki Taguchi, Director, Paralympian Association of Japan;
August de los Reyes, Head of Design at Pinterest; Preethi
Srinivasan, Indian athlete and campaigner; Dr Rory A Cooper,
director of the Human Engineering Research Laboratories at the
University of Pittsburgh; Sandra Khumalo, South African rower;
Sophie Morgan, British TV presenter; Tatyana McFadden, US track
& field athlete; and Yinka Shonibare MBE, Turner-Prize
nominated British/Nigerian artist. Hi-Res images of international
ambassadors available.
The Challenge will drive and reward the development of personal
mobility devices incorporating intelligent systems. The mobility
solutions of the future could include anything from exoskeletons,
to artificial intelligence and machine learning, from cloud
computing to batteries. Watch the Mobility Unlimited launch film
here to understand our vision.
In order to open the challenge up to as many people as possible,
ten Discovery Award prizes of $50,000 will be presented to support
small, early stage innovators. A panel of expert judges will then
pick five finalists who will each receive $500,000 to take their
concepts from an intelligent insight to a prototype. The Challenge
winner will receive $1,000,000 to make the device available to
users--with the winning concept unveiled in Tokyo in 2020.
Interested innovators can apply online by 15 August at
mobilityunlimited.org.
Around the world, millions of people have lower-limb paralysis (the
most common causes being strokes, spinal cord injury and multiple
sclerosis). While there are no statistics on paralysis worldwide,
the World Health Organization estimates there are 250,000-500,000
new cases of spinal cord injury globally every year.
For more information please visit mobilityunlimited.org.
About Toyota
Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) is the global mobility company that
introduced the Prius hybrid-electric car in 1997 and the first
mass-produced fuel cell sedan, Mirai, in 2014. Headquartered in
Toyota City, Japan, Toyota has been making cars since 1937. Today,
Toyota proudly employs 370,000 employees in communities around the
world. Together, they build around 10 million vehicles per year in
29 countries, from mainstream cars and premium vehicles to
mini-vehicles and commercial trucks, and sell them in more than 170
countries under the brands Toyota, Lexus, Daihatsu and Hino. For
more information, please visit www.toyota-global.com.
Source: Toyota
Contact:
Public Affairs Division
Global Communications Department
Toyota Motor Corporation
Tel: +81-3-3817-9926
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