There are real-world solutions right here in our community to some of the biggest public safety concerns in Flint.
On June 2, three teams will compete in the Flint City Smart City Reverse Pitch Competition at Factory Two. They will vie for more than $30,000 in prizes and the opportunity to apply their concepts into real-world, community-changing gigabit solutions to gun violence and opioid overdoses.
The competition is a partnership between Factory Two, US Ignite’s Smart Gigabit Communities Program and the Flint Police Department.
The event begins at 5:00 p.m. with refreshments and launches into an evening that includes the three team’s pitches and the judge’s deliberations. The public is welcome and the winners will be awarded that night.
The goal is to get good ideas that can be turned into these next generation apps and then shared with Flint and with other communities.
Dan Kurin, tech coordinator at Factory Two and the community leader on the Reverse Pitch Competition, and Paul Knific, technical leader at US Ignite, worked along with a steering committee to put on this event.
“Since one of our goals is to address civic problems, effectiveness and feasibility of the ideas are high on the list of our judging criteria,” says Kurin. “The structure of the entire event (and the events leading up to this event) is focused on building a workable solution. The Flint Police Department has been a major supporter of the initiative by helping us identify our problem statements and partnering with the winners of the competition to pilot their technology.”
Knific worked with participants at the Ideation event in April to help them brainstorm ways to use gigabit technology as part of their solutions. The event was the first stage of the Flint Smart City Initiative competition, which will help germinate ideas and identify technology that will positively impact public safety in the city.
“My work really begins once the winners have been chosen,” he says “because I will be working with them to make sure that their app gets created.”
Four teams pitched at the ideation event and two progressed to the Flint City Smart City Reverse Pitch Competition. The third finalist in Saturday’s event is a new pitch by attendees of the ideation event. Attendance at the ideation event was not a requirement to pitch on Saturday, “but it is an advantage,” Kurin says.
One of the pitch participants is Flint resident Lie Njie, founder and president, Technology Peace Corps Association (TechPCA.org). He will pitch a solution to the question: “How can people dealing with addiction – often brought on by legally prescribed pharmaceuticals – avoid overdosing if they don’t know what the correct ‘dose” is?’”
The proposed solution includes finding a way to test a drug’s potency.
“We are looking at solutions for who can test, how they can test, and how best to collect and report on that data to provide heat maps to the police, emergency medical services, and harm reduction services like WellnessAids.org, which is Flint’s only needle exchange program, and one of only five in the state,” Lie says.
He says the team has put close to 100 hours so far in prep and conversations with more than a dozen individuals and organizations to try to scope and craft a set of solutions that can be built, will have direct impact, can be measured and can extend beyond Flint.
The winners will be mentored by the steering committee made up of members from the Flint & Genesee Chamber of Commerce, the City of Flint, the Flint Police Department, University of Michigan-Flint, Kettering University and Hurley Hospital as well as local technology businesses and people who work at Factory Two. The committee members, each with their own networks, will help make sure the winning ideas are fully launched and functional.
“We often hear about the cool, flashy things that technology can do, but technology also has the capability to solve very important problems when it is applied in the right context,” Kurin says. “I think it is inspiring to see passionate people using their amazing talents to solve problems that affect us all in one way or another.”
The winner(s) will also be posted on social media. For more information on the event, or any of the programs mentioned above visit: https://factorytwo.org/ or follow them on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
US Ignite’s Smart Gigabit Communities program is funded by the National Science Foundation to explore new uses for high speed networks (like fiber optic and other gigabit networks). Flint was chosen to participate in this network based on the density of fiber in the county, according to Kurin.
Reverse Pitch Competition at Factory Two aims to bring gigabit solutions to gun violence, opioid addiction added by Anne Trelfa on
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