2019 The 2019 Forbes Idea Incubator Challenge Showcased Female Leaders of the Future
March 11, 2019
By Christina Moazed
On March 2nd, students unveiled their STEM skills in order to develop answers to the following proposed question: How will electric vehicles and charging stations impact the overall mobility ecosystem of a city?
Overall, 23 women students from NYU Tandon contributed to the challenge. For the challenge, NYU Tandon students created roughly 5-7 minute presentations to a panel of NYU faculty judges.
The first team, Everywhere, presented to the audience by first providing information on America’s views on electric vehicles. Whereby those planning to purchase electric vehicles rose from 15% in 2017 to 20% in 2018. The team proceeded to answer questions from the audience, explaining: “There is a movement towards electric in all different industries, a shift towards EV (electric vehicle) with less range than a full tank of gas. This database can understand your own city, it’s own type of users. The West Coast vs. East Coast.”
The next team, Telectric, described their solutions including “information accessibility and environmental incentives.” They also outlined their mobile app that will provide pickup locations for the rider and time lapse until next charge refill is needed for the owner.
The third team, City Charge, focused on creating a mobile app that allows city planners to understand more about how to attain mobility and navigate their city environmentally. Overall, City Charge will “maintain mobility in the city, make the user experience more convenient, and help city planners understand and improve the changing ecosystem.”
The following team, Green, described their web and mobile platform with information on city mobility, everyday pleasures, charging stations, parking garages, live reports, and how to earn points in the app each time they charge their car.
The next team, Green & Clean, is a platform to educate and provide insights to consumers, while preparing them for travel. The team emphasized how their product is centered on mobility and accessibility, “To the People. For the People.”
The last team, 2Point, started out describing the chicken and egg situation with electric vehicles, and proceeded to describe their innovation. Essentially, they propose to develop a hardware and software integrated system enabling the ability to divide power distribution at charging stations.
The final winners were announced after the panel of NYU faculty judges discussed the different teams for 10-15 minutes. Coming in second place was team City Charge, the second place winners of the Audi Drive Progress Grant, created by students Jillian Larson, Nicola Ramdass and Bryanna Simone Allen. They were awarded $15,000 for their idea.
Coming in first place as the winners of the Audi Drive Progress Grant, was team 2Point for their hardware and software integrated system enabling the ability to divide power distribution at charging stations. There were awarded with $35,000. Congratulations to Tasmia Anika, Aida Mehovič, Nicole Lyons, and Vidya Gopalakrishna!
