Service Innovation Award 2019

12 digital business models for cleaner air and optimised traffic flow

Good air quality proves to be a great challenge for more and more cities. RWTH Aachen University students showed, however, that it also provides a real opportunity. They took part in the Service Innovation Award and developed innovative business models. The basis for these models was the current “AirQuality Project”, which makes mobile real time air quality analysis possible, and the GEOTAB Telematics Platform.

The teams had 3 months to create business concepts, first mock-ups and realisation plans. Their concepts had to be based on a mobile air quality sensor and the GEOTAB-Dongle, a small and compact device, which is connected directly to the OBD-II-connection of a vehicle and used for fleet management. Each team provided a complete business model canvas in the framework of their concepts, including financial plans, SWOT analyses to evaluate the concepts and implementation plans. After a pre-selection, the best teams presented their ideas to a jury consisting of selected experts.

Congrats to the Service Innovation Award winners!

The winning team, Francisco Almeida Machado and Niels Carstensen, developed a concept based on the functions of the GEOTAB dongle to determine the weight of vehicles while driving. Until now, this was only possible using stationary scales or expensive weighing sensors on the truck axles. The newly developed concept is particularly interesting and useful with regard to the current efforts of the EU concerning valid weight certificates for trucks. Finally, it can increase the value and functionality of the GEOTAB telematics platform significantly.

In the competition, the teams of Michelle Jungen and Simone Cornelißen as well as Jannik Hachmann and Hendrik Minis came in second and third. In their solution, they found a way to use AirQuality’s mobile air quality measurement to show cyclists routes with low air pollution.

If you are also looking for new business model concepts or if you would like motivated, creative students to work on specific service issues, please contact us! Join the long list of companies that have already found innovative approaches in this way and, last but not least, have found one or the other qualified employee in this way.