The European GNSS Agency’s (GSA) MyGalileoApp competition has sparked significant interest among the app development community, with the high number of entries in the competition underlining the value that app developers place on Galileo’s precise positioning. The GSA has now selected the 30 most innovative projects to advance to the next phase of the competition.
In total, 148 ideas were submitted for initial consideration, covering a broad range of applications providing solutions to social and environmental challenges. Reflecting the fact that Galileo is a truly global system, the ideas came from a wide geographical area – from Belgium to Bangladesh – with a total of 35 different nationalities represented.
In addition to challenging developers to design, develop, test and launch mobile applications that take advantage of Galileo’s increased accuracy and availability, the competition also aims to gain insight into the latest trends and hot topics in the app development community.
Top trends
Ideas were submitted in 10 of the 11 innovation areas open to submissions, and ‘smart navigation and infotainment’ was the most popular area, with 37 ideas submitted. Apps in this area help reduce congestion while offering faster, greener and more efficient transport options based on real-time data.
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Also among the top trends were ‘augmented reality and games’, where Galileo’s dual-frequency capability has a lot to offer, as does access to Galileo raw measurements, which enables developers to use advanced positioning techniques to develop solutions that are generally only available in professional receivers.
Other app ideas submitted offer solutions to real life problems such as public assets management and navigation support for people with low autonomy, in addition to solutions and services that support environmental sustainability, the local economy, and so on. From these, GSA experts selected the 30 most innovative projects leveraging Galileo’s added value, to advance to the first development phase of the competition.
“The number of applications and the breadth of brilliant ideas clearly indicate the significant role that Galileo will play in the next generation of mobile applications,” said GSA Executive Director Carlo des Dorides. “Thanks to this competition we are strengthening our relationship with the app development community, a community that is key to generating a high return on the EU’s investment in space, by delivering concrete solutions that address societal challenges and improve people’s lives. Service provision and related apps engines: this is where the highest value is” he said.
What next
The first development phase of the competition will take place until the 15th of July 2019, after which the beta versions of the apps will be reviewed. Then, on the 31st of July, the 30 teams will be narrowed down further, with a maximum of 10 teams being selected to advance to the second development phase, at which stage the projects should deliver a finalised version of their app with 100% functionality.
Those that succeed will be invited to the finals, to be held in October 2019, where they will present their application to the GSA evaluation board. Following the presentations, the judges will announce the winners, with the first-place winner receiving a EUR 100,000 prize. The runner up and third place finishers will receive EUR 50,000 and EUR 30,000 respectively.
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