On the 7th of April 2010, fifteen teams of students desiring to get involved in projects of international solidarity were selected by the Red Helmets Foundation to participate in the second edition of Challenge Humanitech.
These teams were composed of 4 to 6 students coming from diverse and prestigious backgrounds: Delft University of Technology (Netherlands), Ecole d’Architecture de Strasbourg, Ecole Centrale de Paris, Université de Paris-Dauphine, ENSIETA, ESCP, ISEN Toulon, Creapôle, ENSCI-Les Ateliers ….
During 2 months, they were tutored by a coach, a professional of humanitarian action and innovation working in a field related to their subject.
On the 27th of Mai, the 50 students and their coaches finally met at the Comptoir Général during the Working Day.
Joined by experts, the students benefited from this day by refining their ideas and finalising their presentations. The students as well as their coaches and the experts were all pleased with the collaborative and respectful atmosphere that they have experienced throughout the day.
On the next day, the teams were finally ready to defend their innovation. At the Cantine, they met again with some of their coaches who came to support them and they also met the jury for the Final.
After lunch, the students presented their project in front of Nicole Guedj, former Minister and President of the Red Helmets Foundation, Pierre Aliphat, General Delegate at the "Grandes Ecoles" Conference, Nathalie Boulanger, Vice-President in charge of innovation at Orange, Laurent Dutheil, CEO of Lieu du Design, Maryam Salehi, CEO of NRJ Group, Joel Derriennic, Technical Account Manager at Google, Julien Roitman, Vice-President of France Compétitivité, Antonio Guell, Chief of « Application and Valorisation » department at CNES, Angela de Santiago, Founder of online media Youphil, Johanna Naon, Chief Editor of Campus Mag, Jean-Baptiste Soufron, Think Tank Director at Cap Digital, Gwenael Prié, Consultant in responsible telecommunications, and Marie-Vorgan Le Barzic, General Delegate of Silicon Sentier.
Although it was difficult to select the winners of Challenge Humanitech, the jury finally rewarded the “Leaf Supply” project, led by two students of the ESCP and 2 students of the Strate College Designers. This emergency bed made of carton paper can be produced everywhere in the world at a very low cost. Moreover, the jury was seduced by the “Leaf Supply” bed’s modularity enabling it to be transformed in a chair or a table.
Thanks to a 5 000 euro prize, “Leaf Supply” will be experimented this summer in the refugee camps of Port-au-Prince in Haiti.
Two other projects also caught the attention of the jury. “Les Grains de Sable”, 4 students studying home automation, received the second prize, an award of 1 000 euro, in order to help them with their development plan of the school of Markala in Malia. Their project aims at facilitating the water pumping to irrigate a garden and also at installing the lighting of a class room. Their plan is designed to work with the help of solar energy.
Finally, "Humanimap", the project of the “ENSCI – Les Ateliers” students, won the third prize. They designed a feed aggregator (Twitter, Facebook, SMS…) enabling to centralize and to geolocalise data in case of natural catastrophes.
Until these projects are being developed, we already give you an appointment for the 2011 edition!
