Team "MakingImpact@Fontys" from the Fontys College of Engineering from Eindhoven won double prizes yesterday at the award ceremony of the COVID-19 Design and Innovation Challenge, organised by the Make Impact Consortium.
The Make Impact Consortium, a partnership of a number of global universities led by US MIT, has issued the COVID-19 Design and Innovation Challenge. The aim was to come up with technical solutions for hotels to open doors in a safe, coronaproof manner.
Out of 63 global entries, 15 teams eventually made it to the finals. Among them 3 teams from Fontys University of Applied Sciences Engineering. At the award ceremony, Fontys won two prizes. They won the "Best use of automation" award and came joint third in the overall competition.
A robot that moves suitcases for hotel guests
The Fontys team designed a robot that transports suitcases from the lobby to hotel rooms for luxury hotels during the pandemic. Guests place their suitcases in a locker themselves. The robot then delivers the locker to the hotel room. This means hotel staff do not have to touch the suitcases themselves.
Chock full of good ideas
The winning team: 'What we mainly want to show is that our little chilly country is also full of good, technical ideas,' says Daan. 'And let's be honest, that amount of money is not bad either, of course,' Jeroen adds (a total of $3,500, ed.). 'We started with three ideas and presented them to the team at MIT. We started working on the idea they saw the most potential in. That's when the ball started rolling,' says Quirine. 'Our goal was to win the best use of automation award. But when we heard that we also won the third prize, we didn't know what we were experiencing,' Marnix says.
Not just coming up with a good idea
Besides coming up with technical ideas, the conceptual model also had to be implementable in the market. The product was tested, costs and feasible profits were considered. Students had to pitch their ideas, liaise with companies and, above all, be able to convince others of their ideas and deal with feedback. This also taught them what it is like to market their own product.
The Make Impact Consortium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) organised this competition in collaboration with Omni Hotels & Resorts. Fontys University of Applied Sciences Engineering is one of the partners of the Make Impact Consortium
