Congratulations to the “Spaghetti Coders” team who took home the win at the Boost 2023 Ideation Camp, held from March 16-20, for their SmartLights Traffic Solution idea to reduce idling time / greenhouse gas emissions in our community by optimizing the traffic light system.
This year’s Ideation Camp challenge focused on reducing transportation related community greenhouse gas emissions – using data and technology. The SmartLights idea provides a more affordable solution, than existing suppliers, using cameras, software, and real-time data to optimize the traffic light system. Its focus is to reduce idling time/greenhouse gas emissions at key intersections without having to influence a behaviour shift from the vehicle travelling public.
Boost was presented by the City’s Boost Fredericton Civic Innovation Lab, in partnership with the University of New Brunswick (UNB), New Brunswick Community College (NBCC), Ignite, plus 2023 technology partner-Black Arcs.
The winning team ‘Spaghetti Coders’ comprised three NBCC Programmer Analyst students, Jeremy Boss, Rodrigo Castro, Josh Saunders; and a UNB Masters-Computer Science student, Simran Dadhich.
“By placing specialized cameras at intersections around the city and collecting data from approaching vehicles, our SmartLights solution will better inform the City of Fredericton about which intersections are causing the most greenhouse gas emissions due to idling and reacceleration” said Team Leader Jeremy Boss. “SmartLights proposes a more cost-effective solution to make real-time traffic decisions, reduce wait time at intersections, prioritize certain vehicles like buses, and ultimately lower GhGs.”
The second-place winner, who also won Best Video, was Civic Tech Wolves for ‘My Way Fredericton’. The team comprised Civic Tech members, Pierre Cormier, Ahmed Shalaby, Mark Smith, Michael Fellows, Poornima Srinivasan, Ahmed Shaltout. Their solution focused on using a free and readily available application in an innovative way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Boost is a smart city innovation event that alternates bi-annually as Boost Ideation Camp and Boost Prototype Camp. This collaborative event offers a unique opportunity for teams, comprising post-secondary education students and entrepreneurs, to help devise innovative solutions to address Fredericton’s priority smart city challenges.
During the five-day ideation camp, five teams/27 participants had access to subject matter experts who lent their expertise and guidance as mentors, coaches and customer idea validators. The esteemed judging panel decided the final winners:
- City of Fredericton – Steve Hart, Chief Administrative Officer
- NBCC – Ann Drennan, Vice President – Academic, Innovation & Student Affairs
- UNB – Dr. Kenneth Kent, Professor & Barrett Chair in Entrepreneurship for Digital Transformation & Director of IBM Centre for Advanced Studies – Atlantic
- Ignite – Sarah Corey-Hollohan, CEO
- Business/Entrepreneur Representative – Asif Hasan, Chair of Climative
This year’s technology partner, Black Arcs, provided Boost teams with an opportunity to use outputs from their digital twinning software, Citisketch, to better understand emissions in the city. Black Arcs helps municipalities analyze how changes to the city will impact mobility and access to services using simulation.
About Boost Fredericton Civic Innovation Lab
The City of Fredericton is proud to be an early adopter of new technologies and edge applications. That is why we are giving entrepreneurs and post-secondary education students a BOOST by providing real municipal challenges to solve, and the opportunity to co-create and test solutions in our living lab environment. We are also powering ideas through Boost innovation events, and digital infrastructure like our LoRaWAN (IoT sensor network), Open Data Portal and most recently Rogers 5G!
Incorporated in 2015, Black Arcs has worked with municipalities, the Government of New Brunswick, and the Government of Canada on a series of projects to analyze and discuss the impacts of the built environment on communities. Their first product, Citisketch, allows users to construct digital twins of their neighbourhood and analyze how changes to infrastructure and policy are likely to impact the people who live, work, and play there.
