Winners of STAMP Data Innovation Challenge 2019, Kochi announced
Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) in collaboration with WRI India Ross Center and the Toyota Mobility Foundation (TMF) have announced the two winners of the Station Access and Mobility Program (STAMP) 2019 Kochi Data Innovation Challenge.
The two winning solutions were from teams Hyperpro and Sukriti. Hyperpro developed a platform for transit agencies to recognize commuter movement through a combination of ticketing data and platform video analysis. Sukriti used different data sets such as like economic distribution and people movement to help better understand the characteristics of the commuters.
The two winners of the challenge will receive a combined implementation support of INR 200,000 to demonstrate their solutions in the city. KMRL and WRI India will also provide mentorship to all the teams for designing and implementing last-mile solutions.
The STAMP 2019 Data Innovation Challenge focused on making available to innovators, multiple types of city data to be able to develop a host of commuter applications and analytics. The open innovation challenge is in its third-year and leverages talent from developers, students, urban and transport planners and enterprises to analyze and develop a host of applications that allow an easier understanding of all available transportation and city information.
“Kochi Metro vision is to revolutionize public transport and to get people from all walks of life to utilize public transport. To achieve this vision, KMRL believes that data will play a crucial part to create a truly multi-modal transportation system. Through the Data Innovation Challenge, the teams demonstrated solutions that are both commuter and transit agencies facing, providing the whole picture of the connectivity gaps to be addressed in the city,” said A.P.M. Mohammad Hanish, Managing Director, KMRL.
The winning solutions predominantly addressed three areas of intervention: solutions that cater to providing information and improving accessibility to vulnerable commuter segments; solutions that aggregates and disseminates real-time updates for informed commuter journeys; and solutions that map commuter flows to help transit agencies plan and optimized network of services. “Each commuter moves through the city differently; has different travel patterns and has a specific requirement for first- and last-mile solutions. Data-driven solutions provide an insight into the commuter movement patterns and provide transit agencies with the necessary information to plan and deploy services that are beneficial for seamless integrated passenger movement. By addressing gaps in services and catering to the benefit of the commuter, transit agencies can look forward to improved ridership and use of public transportation. This is what we are trying to address through STAMP,” explained Madhav Pai, India Director, WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities.
Other teams that pitched at the event were:
- Evelabs: Trip planning through an IVR and text message-based system which will help commuters identify buses that can take them from one area to another. The system is based on coding the city into different zones, which can be identified by a 2 digit code and allow for more accurate trip planning.
- Neostars: A transit operator dashboard that analyses commuter movement, translating it into a gap analysis sourcing multiple sets of available data.
- Siya: A multimodal fare integration engine for transit operators to enable them to customize and create commuter-centric travel payment and fare options.
- Visual Moves: Spatial and economic analysis to identify and measure the access barriers to transit stations. By understanding physical access and plotting it against the economic topography of the city.
“The STAMP 2019 Data Innovation Challenge is the first of its kind. The winners went through an intense review process in three stages in a span of six weeks. A panel of industry experts shortlisted the best applications to constitute the STAMP 2019 Cohort, who thereafter underwent a two-day tech submission bootcamp in Kochi. Experts from different backgrounds including metro agencies, data scientists, and mobility experts guided the teams to develop the proposed solutions and refine them to the specific needs of Indian cities,” added Sudeept Maiti, Senior Manager, Integrated Transport, WRI India.
“Kochi has been an incredible city to conduct the STAMP Data Innovation Challenge with KMRL being one of the more proactive transit agencies to adopt the Open Data initiative and support innovative data-driven solutions to initiate integrated and seamless multi-modal transport. We now look forward to the deserving winners implementing their solutions on the ground and supplementing KMRL efforts. TMF operates under the principles of developing innovative solutions with like-minded partners and thereby leaving a sustainable legacy. We believe that this Kochi STAMP has amazing potential to deliver, not only solutions for the city but also act as a catalyst for more data-driven reforms in other parts of the country,” said Shin Aoyama, President of the Secretariat and Chief Operating Officer of TMF.
“Data sets and technology to improve last mile connectivity has become a very critical aspect for mobility needs as urbanization is increasing rapidly resulting in congestion and pollution problems in our cities. The metro rail is emerging as a popular means of transport for modern India, and developing smart, friendly, affordable, and integrated mobility solutions create a complete public transport system that enables commuters to use the metro more extensively. I congratulate the winners and all the other participants who have made the STAMP challenge reach this magnitude, and I see great potential in the solutions encouraging more commuters to take to the metro in the coming months and years,” said Shekar Viswanathan, Vice Chairman and Whole-time Director of Toyota Kirloskar Motor.
