Maeva Leblanc and Perrine Langlet, second-year students in the Grande École program at the Châlons campus, and Hajar Ait Abid, a student at Roosevelt High School in Reims, have been selected for the national final of the Innovatech Challenge for their project on sustainable cities!
What is the Innovatech Challenge?
Created in 2016 by the Elles Bougent association in partnership with the Directorate-General for Enterprise, the Innovatech Challenge is a major competition for women focused on entrepreneurship and technological innovation.
This year, candidates can choose from several innovative and forward-looking themes: food of the future, transportation of tomorrow, cybersecurity, sustainable cities, business and work of tomorrow, school of tomorrow, medicine of the future.
The competition takes place over one day as follows:
- formation of a team (high school and college students) supervised by two Elles Bougent mentors
- 5 hours of work in "hackathon" mode
- project pitch to the jury members
- announcement of the regional winners who will participate in the national final
From February 24 to April 15, 17 regional challenges are planned, a record!
Tri’Act, an app to make sorting easier!
Waste sorting systems vary from city to city, including garbage collection days, which waste goes in which bin, etc. We quickly get confused when we move or even just travel!
It was after this observation that Maeva and Perrine teamed up with Hajar, a high school student at Roosevelt, to take on the challenge.
They chose the theme of "sustainable cities" and then brainstormed based on their personal experiences to develop their idea. This is how they came up with the Tri'Act app, which would centralize all information related to sorting and thus maximize the recycling of household waste, a real issue in France!
The application would have several functions:
- Search: location to geolocate the nearest dumpsters, types of waste
- Location: find stores and organizations that recycle or sell secondhand goods (e.g., Emmaus)
- Settings: profile, calendar, and reminders (e.g., garbage collection day), report illegal dumping, FAQ, etc.
- What should I do with my waste? Scan the product code to find out how to sort each part of the packaging.
- QR code specific to each profile: connected dumpsters to check who is depositing waste and how much
They have also come up with a gamification system that would allow app users to earn "cleanliness points." These points could be used to obtain discounts at local businesses, free bus/train/subway tickets, gift cards, etc. This scalable app, which would be available in all French cities, would therefore be developed in partnership with local authorities. This is something they are still thinking about for the national final!
A wonderful project that would enable citizens to get involved and become more aware of recycling, while also facilitating and automating waste sorting.
Their slogan? "Let's act together!"
See you on May 6 for the national finals!
