“Live as if you were the key to solving the transportation issues. Because in a way, we all are.” Lucía Moreno González-Páramo, UK / Spain, Civil and Structural engineer, Team Compal

Another season shifts and settles. Here in Stockholm, the summer sun is drawing what has been sown into full growth and bloom. In the centre of the city, a trolley is pushed from one raised herb garden to another, watering the tidy boxes of aromatic green in the intense light and heat. Between the conference centre and the railway station, groundspeople are carefully tending and replanting perfect flowerbeds. And here, among patches of shade from steady trees, tiny midges are happily feeding on participants of the 3rd Global Y4PT Hackathon as they exercise and meditate in the warm air.

In the framework of the 63rd UITP Global Public Transport Summit Stockholm 2019 – the world’s oldest, largest and top leading sustainable transport event – the winners of local and global Y4PT Hackathons have gathered for the finale of a third year. These young researchers, students and professionals bring together expertise and knowledge from over 40 events worldwide.

In a soft curtained room in Stockholmsmässan, a record-breaking 45 initial ideas were pitched by the young participants. Addressing healthy and sustainable mobility, and universal accessibility through local experience and global scalability, some of these ideas were brand new, while others built directly on previous successes.

“The final in Stockholm is like a dream – to work with people with the same objective. I already feel like a winner because the technology we made is now used by the government of Colombia to save lives and improve mobility.” Walter Gavez, Columbia, Engineer, Team Evital

From these 45 ideas, 12 were voted by the group for development and teams were formed around them.

During the 3 days of the hack, these diverse collaborative teams, with members hailing from over 30 countries, developed each idea into a prototype and pitch, which was tested and refined throughout with international industry mentors.

“I believe that working in interdisciplinary groups, where everyone can share different ideas and visions of things, added to the cultural value of our perspectives allowed us to achieve much more interesting projects.” Alejandro Sanchez Gutirrrez, Mexico, Biomedical Engineer, Team Check

These projects were presented to a panel of international judges representing the 5 Y4PT Ring Cities –  Dubai, Manchester, Menden, Milan and Moscow – UITP and Y4PT.

“I would tell those living in the future to work across geographic, gender and racial barriers to overcome their future challenges. I will tell those living in the world today that our challenges are only surmountable through collaboration and idea sharing.” Disun Vera-Cruz, Nigeria, Remote Operations, Team Clearway

During the opening ceremony of the UITP Global Public Transport Summit Stockholm 2019, the winners of the 3rd Global Y4PT Hackathon Finale were announced and prizes presented:

The winners, and all our hackathon pioneers then joined the congress, welcoming visitors and dignitaries to the room where these ideas were created, and taking to the show floor.  

The theme of the summit is “The Art of Public Transport”, and throughout we experience transport professionals wrestling with what it is to be an artist, what it is to truly create. Aesthetic inspiration quickly travels to the immediacy and power of making things happen. To the awareness of detail, and to lasting human impact.

This is the core of Y4PT Hackathon.

As we return to a breath in the green space, we are as aware of the midges as we are of the trees. I am reminded of a saying I read on a whiteboard at Tower Hill Tube station, London: “If you think you are too small to make a difference, you have never been in the dark with a mosquito”. I look it up – it is an African proverb. Told, but not credited, like so much of our shared knowledge.

Look again at the names and faces here – follow them as they recur. They are creating the future of our mobility, of the ways we navigate our world. Now they are hackers, here to challenge and create. Here to buzz in your ear and make you notice what you previously had not. Tomorrow they will be beside you, and you will follow where they lead. Don’t wait, invite this now.

“Humanity and community will always remain. Working together as one knowing that together you get farther. Don’t forget that you are not the only one.” Alejandra Ortiz Rengel, Ecuador. Designer Team Check

It is not perfection and completion that keeps us going, but other lives and ways of being – and these may not sit comfortably with what we currently choose to recognise as our own. A tiny itch of a bite in the summer sun spurs me to move, and I realise I had sat too long on one position. My body is glad of the change.

Being part of something greater than ourselves is not always easy, smooth or convenient, but it is in these times that we learn truly what our actions are capable of transforming.

– Laura Trevail; Stockholm & Southend On Sea, June 2019

“The world is a small world for passionate people” – Eloi Stree, VR Developer, and Y4PT Hackathon Winner & Mentor

 

 

In a little under a week, Y4PT participants and mentors will be travelling from all over the globe to Stockholm, to take part in the 2019 Y4PT Global Hackathon Finale. Our adventurers will bring and share their winning ideas from the past 2 years, and, in the framework of the UITP Public Transport Summit, create and present new solutions to our planet’s most pressing problems.

 

To those outside the field, transport may seem an unlikely leader and champion in the fight for the future of our world. On our journeys we see huge vehicles, grey roads, and shimmering fumes. We get lost in stations, miss connections, wade through grinding and wasteful delays. When we travel, when we move, all around us are reminders of the dangers we face now and may yet leave as our legacy to those walking the Earth after us.

 

The truth is, though, none of us are really outside this field. Transport is not a sector that can ever hide away. However we choose to use or build it, however we participate, however it carries us; we all have to find a way to get from one place to another. From the moment we wriggle in our parents arms and reach out towards something we want on the other side of the room, we are working out how to get around, and what we can make use of to help us get there! We humans are ambitious beyond the limits of our own bodies; ambitious beyond the limits of our current abilities; ambitious beyond the limits of our resources. This ambition gives us the power to achieve great things for ourselves, for our communities, and for our world. And also the power to deplete, to pollute, to waste, and to destroy. Nowhere is this battle for balance more tangible than in the ways we travel. For the entirety of human existence, transport has been right at the point where idealism and messy reality meet. So this is where we choose to stand, to create, and to make a difference.  

 

“I have learned to never give up, and find [a] solution for every situation I encounter” – Sabin Dimian, Landscape Engineer, Product Designer, Y4PTHackathon Participant and Winner

 

Our Y4PT community – participants, mentors and supporters alike – are determined, proactive and visionary. We know in our hearts, and can conjure in our minds a future where sustainability, humanity, equality and health are fundamental to practical innovation rather than words thrown into a wishing well for funding. We have the guts to be building this world right now, with our own hands. We can see and create the destination. Our challenge is to you; Can you get here? We can help you find the way.

 

 

Every time we plan a journey, we launch ourselves into an uncertain future. We put our hopes, our goals, our safety in the hands of others. And not just those who build the machines and routes to move us, not just those who operate and maintain them, but also those who create the ways we navigate from where we are now to where we want to be. Whether across a town, a continent, a galaxy or an ambition; navigation is key.

 

On arriving at each Hackathon destination, the first thing we experience is the transport within that location. We find ourselves, new and young each time, in an unfamiliar place, with somewhere we need to be. How to we get there? Often the smallest and most immediate steps are the hardest. We know there is a train, but how do we find the platform it is leaving from?

 

“As an avid world traveller, I have faced many challenges when trying to use public transport in non-English-speaking countries like Russia where even signs were in a local language and very few people spoke English.” – Ion Morozan, Software Engineer, Product Designer, Y4PT Hackathon Participant and Winner

 

Replace “English” with Russian, Arabic, Spanish, Hausa, or whatever our mother tongue may be, and we find we are all of us thrown each time into a moment of uncertainty on arrival in any place that does not share a language we are already familiar with. The joy of growing understanding during our stay will come, but first we must overcome the initial confusion. Right at the time when we need to achieve something very practical and specific! And the confusion is not just with words; symbols, patterns, placement and customs taken for granted can be very different. Even a small difference can shake it up – people travelling from one city to another sharing the same language still often find the differences overwhelming.  

 

It is the same in our lives and work, when striving to achieve a powerful fresh goal. It is often the most immediate, tiny, practical steps into the the new that are the most daunting. It is the same pattern of challenge each Y4PT Hackathon team faces, when generating and beginning work on a new idea.

 

“Looking from different perspectives, taking into account the different needs that people have in their lives and countries. And this, I think, is not a matter of country. We’ll be there to share our experience, and to create something that will hopefully be available to a lot of people all over the world.” – Massimo Santi, Mechanical Engineer, Y4PT Hackathon Participant and winner.

 

Many translate that experience directly into solutions. Joint winners of the 2017 Global Finale in Montréal, “UpWay”, took on the challenge of Metro navigation head-on with a combination of Augmented Virtual Reality, and Bluetooth beacons. In Dubai and Moscow, teams “Alwan” and winners “Portunhol” faced this challenge using the universal language of Colour. “Pomoshnik”, also a winner in Moscow, built on “FindMyTaxi”’s Montréal chatbot development to create a conversational solution, as did “BeMyGuide”. And “SellingRed” so improved navigation in the Moscow Metro that as well as taking 2nd place, the team were taken on to work on the official app, and aid international visitors throughout the FIFA World Cup 2019.  

 

Moving outside the stations to the streets, Dubai Winners “Namshi” proposed moving walkways throughout the city to aid navigation and provide ease of healthy mobility at the same time. Many teams, including “Origin”, also Dubai winners, and “EcoTravellers” used navigation to inform and incentivise healthy and sustainable transport choices, rewarding positive choices.

 

 

Also incentivising healthy mobility, and thinking beyond the limitations of any one city, “Walkarama” (Moscow), focused on building a global walking community.

 

Alongside human navigation, projects have also addressed the logistics of locating and moving physical assets in more sustainable ways. Montréal 3rd place winners combined the two with “uDeliver”’s clever combination of wayfinding and crowdsourced courier service, and IMOVE Berlin winners AKM made mutually beneficial use of host Urbi’s location and usage data to enable sustainable transport providers to better manage their assets.   

 

Y4PT Participants have explored solutions to navigation challenges, and also how navigation impacts all other elements of transport. All with the important advantage of working in teams made up of participants from many countries, and with many different skills. Each knowing how to navigate problems and journeys in their own spheres, and open to sharing with and learning from others.

 

“The ability to share knowledge is something astonishing. If we empower this to its best, we could provide a better life to a lot of people all over the world.” – Massimo Santi, Mechanical Engineer, Y4PT Hackathon Participant and winner.  

 

Now, at the Y4PT Global Hackathon Finale, participants will once more walk bravely into the new. A fresh quest, in the City of Stockholm, among industry leaders and great opportunity at the UITP Summit 2019. In the space of just a few days, ideas will be dreamed, developed, presented and finessed.  Old friends will greet each-other, new friendships and collaborations will be made. The magic of ambition meeting great love for our shared world will again mean our ability to travel is carried far beyond the expected, to where we really want to go.

 

 

“I think that this group of people can solve any problems that we are facing.” – Sabin Dimian, Landscape Engineer, Product Designer, Y4PTHackathon Participant and Winner

 

The expertise and fresh viewpoints of our young participants stand ready to join the discourse and exploration developing our transport of the future. They will be grasping the opportunity to learn from, and to inform the transportation decisions of the future that are developed here, and will be presenting their new ideas and projects at the Y4PT Hackathon Fair – described in 2017 as “The most exciting thing in the Congress”. These are the young people who will challenge and inspire. These are the young people who bring the solutions of the future. Join us in room T6, follow us on social media, invite us to visit your stands, sit on your panels and join your debates.

 

 

Whether you are a delegate, an exhibitor, a speaker, a journalist, an investor, or following us from afar, these are the young people who will help you find your way.

 

“How would you like to see the future? Now go for it, and build your own future!” – Johnny Heesterbeek, Engineer and Y4PT Hackathon Participant

 

– Laura Trevail; Southend & Disneyland Paris. May 2019

 

TEAMS REFERENCED:

 

UpWay: “An augmented reality app to help people find their way in, out and around city transport hubs and underground networks” Aleksandrs Konopackis, Eloi Stree, Jonathan Adiaheno, Charles-Henri Van Nuvel, Ignacio O’Mullony

 

Alwan:  “Breaking the language barrier with colour”   André Borges, Jean Marinho, Bisher Zumot

 

Portunhol: “Colour coding hardware and software solution to help the guidance and management of crowds, inexpensively integrating with existing @moscowmetro technologies” Andre Borges, Luis Martins, Fernando Giraldo Montoya, Esteven, Bernardo Tavares, Vreixo Gonzales Caneda

 

Pomoshnik: “Passenger communication platform integrated into existing Moscow Metro application, providing route planning, ticketing, security & live support” Ion Morozan, Sabin Dimian, Riccardo Scarinci, Mariam Khalifeh, Emma Phiri, Stefan Binder, Uli Stroetz

 

FindMyTaxi: “Decreasing wait times for shared taxis in developing countries” Emma Phiri, Keven Villeneuve, Myriam Beauvais, Abhishek Gupta, Poyan Nabati, Sebastien Blais-Fernandez

 

BeMyGuide: “Virtual assistant for easy, clean & sustainable city navigation”  Dafne Medina, Diego Cardenas

 

Selling Red: “Gamification app about #moscowmetro life. RL quests, which can be promoted by local businesses, provide users with points to spend at the inner metro e-shop” Rimikhanov Husein, Vladislav Bakhanov, Nikolai Zhikin, Dmitry Kuznetsov, Stanislav Vorobiev

 

Namshi: “Eco-friendly city moving walkways” | Facundo Di Giacomo, Simon Carpman, Riccardo Scarinci, Mariam Khalifeh

 

Origin: “App rewarding green route choices” | Soorya Kumar, Shaurya Sood, Bilal Shabandri, Kevin Martin

 

EcoTravellers: “AR trip planner rewarding green routes” | Ahmad Mehravaran, Fares Bou Najm, Hadi El Baba, Mostafa El Sayed

 

Walkarama: “Walk the world from your phone” Ignacio O’Mullony, Vreixo Gonzalez

 

uDeliver: “A city logistics crowdsourcing solution connecting commuters to parcel delivery”  Filip Ivic, Tomas Janovsky, Jan Kouba, Tomas Kouba,, Matej Kuraja, Dejan Pavkovic, and Uli Stroetz

 

AKM: “Helping sustainable mobility providers optimise physical resources” Kai-Ting Chan, Abhinav Suman Paul, Matthias Kuhn

“Sustainability is the key. Plan all your actions with this in mind.” – Riccardo Scarinci, Algorithm Designer, Project Manager, Biz Dev. Y4PT Hackathon Participant and winner.

 

 

As we travel together, the sun is beginning to grow warm over part of the world. Spring is rising with the dawn, heating the earth and coaxing the seeds of plants and ideas to crack open and send tendrils of potential out into the unknown.

 

Beneath our feet and in our hearts, this journey is moving from hope to happening in a season of new growth.  

 

And elsewhere on this same planet, at this same time, the year is cooling into autumn. Plants and animals are preparing to survive the winter; gathering resources, sheltering what is important and shedding what is no longer needed.

 

Surrounding us, and in our brains, this journey is moving from hope to happening in a season of harvest, readiness and conservation.

 

Our world is in balance, breathing steadily in and out. From all our different seasons, our different weathers; we global elements of Y4PT travel together. We meet, we exchange, we travel on. We return to meet again.

 

 

Beginning the morning’s work with meditation, we focus on our breathing. In, and out. Steady, balanced. The flow of air and ideas uniting our community in this moment. All our languages, our skills, our unique experiences brought together; breathing in and out.

 

As we breathe the air of the places we meet, we are aware that it gives us life. We are aware that we breathe in the oxygen we need. But what else are we breathing?

 

Perhaps we listen to traffic passing outside. Or perhaps to the movement of trees. Perhaps we hear people laughing. Or perhaps we hear horns and shouting.

 

Someone reaches into their pocket for a tissue and blows their nose. Perhaps the white paper is grey with the dust of the city. Perhaps someone else is using their asthma inhaler more than usual today. Perhaps we are tired. Perhaps there is a little catch in our throats..

 

We know why we are here. Our world is in danger. We have been choking it up for years. Creating processes, vehicles, objects, and whole places that seep, exhale, belch and slough off dangerous waste. Tiny particles shivering off and away, into the air. Into the air, and so into us as we breathe. Every particle containing the potential for sickness and disease. Heart disease, stroke, COPD, respiratory infections and lung cancer – just from breathing. And not just now, as we are learning and aware of the danger, but every day as we go about our lives.

 

 

We have been building ourselves cities – wonderful human gatherings where we can work together, make friends, make families. But for generations, we have built them in ways that stifle us, and even take our lives.

 

“The trend I see is that people are more inclined over short term goals and wins and they don’t foreseen the big picture or the implications of their actions over long term.” – Ion Morozan, Software Engineer, Product Designer, Y4PT Hackathon participant and winner. 

 

We have prioritised expansion, without conserving what we need. We have been living as though it is always spring. But at Y4PT, when we meet, we have travelled from all the seasons, not just one. We are here to create and to inspire a better, healthier way. We do not need to do things the way they always have been done. We are new generations. We choose to work with the balance of nature, rather than attempt to conquer it.

 

“Don’t repeat the mistakes of the past and don’t consider mankind superior to all the rest of the organisms in the world.” – Vreixo González Caneda, Software Developer, Y4PT Hackathon participant and winner.

 

Mistakes of our past and present have polluted not just the cities themselves, but far beyond. In 2012, the WTO reported that one in eight of total global deaths was due to air pollution, making air pollution the world’s largest single environmental health risk. New data in 2018 revealed that one in nine people globally breathe highly polluted air.  As well as particulates, a wide range of gasses in our polluted air including Carbon Monoxide(CO), Chlorofluorocarbons(CFCs), Nitrogen Dioxide(NO2) and Sulfur Dioxide(SO2), are forcing the climate of our entire planet to change.

 

Our air knows no borders. So our ideas too must travel. Just as every particle or molecule of pollution contains the potential for harm, every spark of an idea contains the potential to prevent and reverse this damage. And so we meet, we exchange, we research, and we create the solutions of the future.

 

We know that just pushing the problem elsewhere is not a solution, because we all come from somebody else’s “elsewhere”. Truly global collaboration owns and addresses the whole challenge.

 

“My hope is that the pollution generated by transport and especially private transport might be reduced in the years to come, even removed [and replaced entirely] with sustainable power sources. My fear is that we just move the contamination from place to another, for example from city centres to the surroundings of big batteries manufacturers.” – Vreixo González Caneda, Software Developer, Y4PT Hackathon participant and winner.

 

In 2015, we launched the #BreatheableCities World Campaign; a multi-stakeholder initiative measuring people’s exposure to and inhalation of air pollutants through different modes of transport, in order to estimate impact on human health.

 

 

In the first experiments of this kind ever performed in the country, Bogotá DC (Colombia, South America), was the was the first city to host the Campaign, organising two editions to date. The first measuring black carbon during the course of a day, and the second integrating exposure and inhalation aspects, monitoring a wider range of air pollutants over a 12 day period.

 

The studies concluded that not only did car drivers experience the highest exposure to particulate matter, but that those engaging in healthier mobility modes, such as cycling, while suffering significantly lower exposure (almost half), were vulnerable to increased inhalation of pollutants due to the physical effort that would otherwise provide health benefits. Our polluted air is making even #HealthyMobility significantly less healthy.  There is no option but to clean up, and fast. 

 

 

“I hope and I’m sure that it will be sustainable one day, but my fear is when this will happen.” – Silvio Biasiol, Software Developer, Maker and Y4PT Hackathon Participant.

 

The Youth of Y4PT are not prepared to wait for older generations to come up with the answers. Why wait, when 8.8 million lives a year could be saved? At each Local and Global Hackathon, ideas are pitched that can solve these problems. From the improved air pollution monitoring hardware of Montréal Global Finale 2nd Prize-winners “Air4”, to the integrated rural transport of Menden Local Hackathon winners “Get moving”, Y4PT teams are offering improvement, optimisation and innovation at every step. Skilful teams of young minds develop these ideas, carrying them forward and exposing visiting mentors, judges and supporters to the inescapable truth that things can be done differently, and that the people capable of making these changes are already here. We must welcome and invite them. We must employ them; and not to continue our work as it already stands, but to listen to them, learn from them. They know how to make it work, and they know that it is practical and logical to improve.

 

“Technology moves forward rapidly, and […] current standards tend to leap behind quickly. Therefore nowadays humanity is still actively looking for popular movements which could eventually become the standard. So once humanity can be convinced to adopt a greener or better standard, this might become the next million-dollars platform for the years to come.” – Johnny Heesterbeek, Engineer and Y4PT Hackathon Participant.

 

The world is listening to the youth, and is beginning to change. Even those of us motivated only by the bottom line are aware that these changes must be made.  What is best for us as humans, is best for us as cities, as countries, and as a planet. A healthy way may seem simple and obvious, and ideas promoting it are often selected to win these competitive Hackathons – so why do we keep avoiding it in our everyday lives?

 

“What makes people happy in a city? Clean air, green spaces to meet and play, facilities in proximity of each other. Put these wishes central to your urban developments and mobility decisions. I can guarantee you will face many temptations in your daily work, especially of things that people want (more), but never forget what makes people happy in the end! – Geert de Leeuw, Urban Geographer,  Lecturer in the Built Environment, and Y4PT Hackathon Participant and Mentor

 

 

 

– Laura Trevail; Brussels & Southend. April 2019

Keep listening to your inner voice, the real work comes from inside out.” – Yasmina Ravijse, Wellbeing Instructor, Y4PT Mentor  

 

We are on a journey, you and I. Always on a journey. In our minds and hearts a vision of a better world, and it is to this we set our compass. We strike out in hope of reaching our destination – but do we really know the way? What will we achieve today, tomorrow, this month, this year, this lifetime, this generation?

 

In 2013, Y4PT began our campaign for Healthy Mobility, to connect and build on shared knowledge of global links between transport and health across interconnected challenges of modal shift, air pollution, emissions, nutrition and road safety. In that time we have developed and incentivised tools for practical youth knowledge of reducing C02 emissions with #iCOmmit2, improved nutrition education with #NutriEnergy, measured exposure to transport pollution with #BreatheableCities, lead 3 years of #ModalShift to healthy and sustainable transport modes, and encouraged over 4 years of #Y4PTHackathon projects to address these challenges.

 

Defining Healthy Mobility is more perilous than it seems. In the transport world, it conjures a sea of bicycles and scooters – sometimes carrying joyful travellers on the crest of its wave, and sometimes filling the depths with heaped-up detritus of battles for growth. Outside the transport world, it raises the spectre of our aging future as we try to avoid picturing ourselves bent stiffly over walking frames unable to read the bus times on tiny phone screens.

 

Mobility is movement, and the possibility of movement. The ease and peace of movement – being able to travel as we please, to move our bodies as we please. When it is at its healthiest, it is smooth, clean, unobstructed. But when it is not healthy, the grinding obstruction obliterates all else. Pain, frustration, delay; being stuck, and the looming fear of destination nowhere.  

 

 

For mobility to be healthy, the power lies in the nurturing of health itself. The health of our bodies, our emotions, and of our whole planet home.

 

As we approach our 3rd Global Finale at the 2019 UTIP Global Transport Summit, Stockholm, we reinforce our commitment to a connected, holistic, collaborative approach to creating and building on healthy solutions to our most pressing global transport issues.

 

“I think that the biggest challenge is to really integrate in our world and stop destroying it, not only for nature but also for ourselves, to live a healthier life.” – Vreixo González Caneda, Software Developer, Y4PT Hackathon participant and winner.

 

Healthy Mobility has been embedded in our approach throughout the Y4PT Hackathons, spanning two UITP Summits and approaching our third. During the 2015 UITP Summit Milan, we endorsed Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign, and Jamie Oliver’s “Food Revolution” movement as multipliers of global voices sharing healthy visions for our new generations stepping up to become creators of future mobility. By the 2017 UITP Summit in Montréal, we were reinforcing ideas in practice, with Wellbeing Instructor Yasmina Ravyse bringing leadership in movement, meditation and massage to our participants and mentors, enabling physical and mindful awareness to become part of the creative process for new technologies.

 

“I want to be part of an organisation inspired by the idea to make the world a better place, especially young people, they are the future”  – Yasmina Ravijse, Wellbeing Instructor, Y4PT Mentor

 

As our Y4PT Global Hackathons continue to develop, this integrated practice is growing, with dedicated rooms for physical workshops and treatments in Moscow showing priority of maintaining our fitness; while in the rural mobility hackathon in Menden, group cookery and meditation built awareness of nutrition, and the value of new shared skills and experiences. Participants are creating solutions in nurturing contexts of health and awareness.

 

 

This approach is clearly reflected in the projects created. From “Walkarama” (Dubai) enabling worldwide walking via smartphone, to the piezoelectric tiles of Milan and Dubai winners “Walkee” allowing these active travellers to generate sustainable electricity, this season’s participants have created a powerful network of interconnected projects and ideas across the borders of geography and experience.

 

“My hope is that technology will not become a goal [in] itself, but a tool to give back public space to people and green spaces [..]. This means a balanced mobility system primarily based on walking, cycling, public transport, Mobility as a Service/Sharing Systems for daily use; and that the self-driving car will not look like a car but a comfortable and functional space on wheels!

My fear is that “we” (people/cities/politicians) forget to tell car manufacturers our wishes for how an accessible and liveable city should look in the future, and that they have to come up with solutions contributing to our wishes. If we leave the transition to smart & healthy mobility/cities to the technology & automobile sector and short term political agendas the benefits to society of this transition will be minimal [..].

If we create an appealing vision of what our cities can be in the future from a human perspective, and put this central in our discussion and choices we make, I’m hopeful.”

– Geert de Leeuw, Urban Geographer / Lecturer Built Environment / Y4PT Hackathon Mentor

 

To take a lead in creating healthy mobility for all requires the courage to act, and the sensitivity to listen. The welcoming exposure to diverse perspectives and needs during a Y4PT hack builds a deep understanding that different people have different mobility requirements. Everybody must be able to experience their healthiest mobility, whoever and wherever they are.

This means supporting projects in challenging locations, such as the Syrian demand-responsive transport project “SPNR”, pitched in Berlin, providing adaptable travel where access to health requires access to a vehicle. And it means making accessibility standard rather than an annoying add-on; not everybody is able to walk the last mile, or ride a bike. Rightly celebrating walking and cycling as healthy transport options does not mean shaming or ignoring those of us with other needs. A truly healthy mobility ecosystem should always make the most appropriate mode readily available, safe, and welcoming.

Y4PT Hackathon teams, as always, rise to this challenge. The autonomous pods of “Independent Rapid Transit”, pitched in Menden, were designed to be fully accessible and included bathrooms. A simple addition, yet left out of so many proposals for autonomous transport. The moving walkways of Dubai winners “Namshi” make journeys on foot easier and faster for many, including opening up this mode to those with limited ability to walk long distances. For this team, consideration is second-nature:

 

“Whenever you have the choice to be nice to another person, please do make that choice.” – Mariam Khalifeh, UI, Designer, Project Manager, Biz Dev, Communicator. Y4PT Hackathon Participant and winner

 

Considering diverse needs builds better, more scalable, more sustainable and more adaptable products. Without this consideration, any change will be shallow and fleeting.

 

“I hope that active mobility will be the predominant mode of transport in city. I fear that electric and autonomous vehicles will simply replace diesel vehicles, but the attitude of the people will not change…” – Riccardo Scarinci, Algorithm Designer, Project Manager, Biz Dev. Y4PT Hackathon Participant and winner.

 

 

And this attitude must change. We cannot continue to live, work and create at the expense of our own health and that of our planet. As we learn to prioritise respect for ourselves and each-other, that respect and care naturally extends to the environment we are an integral part of. Whether measuring pollution (“Air4”, Montréal), incentivising sustainable travel (“BeMyGuide”, Dubai), or creating it (“2MyPlace”, Milan), Y4PT Teams are consistently creating projects that put the health of our planet first, without compromising on quality or business potential.

 

We do not need to repeat the mistakes of previous generations. We can build better.

 

“There is [a] statement that children are smarter than their parents, and this also happens with young generations. New generations might solve current problems by learning from the mistakes in the past years or decades, and for humanity there is a big opportunity to make a greater world!” – Marija Satibaldijeva, Spatial planning student, Artist, Y4PT Hackathon participant and winner.

 

True to their potential, Y4PT Hackathon Participants are not only creating their own chosen futures, they are also inspiring and laying the trail for the generations that follow. Many Y4PT Participants, such as Urban Geographer Geert de Leeuw go on to become mentors, or to set up their own hackathons. And many create projects incentivising future generations to take action and choose Healthy Mobility from the start.  As we choose and share a healthier way, we make it easier for others to follow.

 

2017 Global Finale Winning app, “Ditch”, inspired children to take the lead in encouraging their parents to make the modal shift towards healthy and sustainable transport, by putting the choice in their hands.

 

The app’s youngest creator, Kim Smulders, pursued her own education journey following the Summit, with new understanding that her voice already has power and relevance; her skills and work can make a difference in the world right now; for her own, for younger, and for older generations with the vision to pay attention.  

 

“I received a super rare 10/10 (straight A) score for this paper and am super proud of it 😊. We have been thinking about sending this paper to our government to help improve our highways.” – Kim Smulders, Student, Design, Y4PT Hackathon Participant and Winner.

 

Have those of us with the power to act welcomed this paper? Are we active enough in seeking out the insights of our youth?

 

Do you feel the pull to learn alongside these young voices? To share the power of hope assembled into action? You are welcome on this journey. We must travel together: those who will create our future, and those who are providing the platforms, tools, technologies, resources and opportunities of today.

 

We do not yet know what will be created during the 2019 Global Finale at the UTIP Global Transport Summit, Stockholm, but we invite you to be among the first to experience the next generation of Healthy Mobility, and to share your own knowledge and experience with our unique, brave, thoughtful and talented teams.

 

 

“Many positive and innovative things are happening around the globe. We have to keep sharing them, learn from them and apply them in our daily practice! More and more people start realising that improving your street, neighbourhood, city, country or world starts with yourself, by the choices you make!” – Geert de Leeuw, Urban Geographer / Lecturer Built Environment / Y4PT Hackathon Mentor

 

This better world we are seeking is our world, in our time. We do not have to wait; in fact, we cannot afford to set this as some distant destination. We must step into our hope, right now, and make it real. In undertaking this journey together we are already travelling through this landscape of possibility, shaping it with boldness, kindness, cleverness and togetherness. This journey is that better world; move with us.

 

– Laura Trevail; Berlin, Brussels & Southend. March 2019

 

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Team “Walkarama”, Dubai: Ignacio O’Mullony [Designer, UK, Spain], Vreixo Gonzalez [Software Developer, spain]

Team “Walkee”, Milan, Dubai: Giuliana Maugeri [Project Manager/Business Development, Marketer/Communicator, Italy];Pietro Percudani [Project Manager/Business Development, Marketer/Communicator, Italy]; Ana Lombard [User Interface/Graphic Designer, Argentina]  

Team “SPNR”, Berlin: Ahmad Houri [Software Engineer, Germany, Syria], with UX Consultant Falk [Germany].

 

Team “Independant Rapid Transit”, Menden: Tristan Helmstaedt [Idea Generator, Germany] Lara [Technical drawing, Idea Generator, Germany], Max [Presenter, Idea Generator, Germany].

Team “Namshi”,  with Alessandra Gorini – Dubai: Facundo Di Giacomo [Software Programmer/Coder, Project Manager/Business Development. Argentina], Simon Carpman [Software Programmer/Coder, Hardware maker. Argentina], Riccardo Scarinci [Algorithm Designer, Project Manager/Business Development. Switzerland], Mariam Khalifeh [User Interface/Graphic Designer, Project Manager/Business Development, Marketer/Communicator, Mentor, Dubai]

Team “Air4”, Montréal: Massimo Santi [Mechanical Engineer, Italy]; André Borges [renewable energy engineer, Portugal]; Julius Mugaga [Biomedical Engineer, Uganda]; Marco van Nieuwenhoven [software/electrical engineer, The Netherlands]; Seydou Konate [software developer, mali]

Team “BeMyGuide”, Dubai: Dafne Medina [Software Programmer/Coder, Mexico]; Diego Cardenas [Mexico]

 

Team “2MyPlace”, Milan: Thiago Soares Figueira [Innovatore, Italy]; Maddalena Boscolo [Architecture Student, Italy]; Monica Giordano [Mathematical Engineer, Italy]; Enrico Gallo [Engineering Student, Italy]; Alberto Gerri [Engineering Student, Italy]; Roberto Monti [Urbanist, Italy]  

 

Team “Ditch”, Montréal: Maria Kaimaki, [Nanotech, UK]; Thomas Hepner [Software Engineer, Chile]; Igor Georgioski [UX/UI designer, business modeler, Macedonia]; Kim Smulders [Design, The Netherlands]; Juan Sebastian Canavera Herrera [Designer, UK]; Thomas Michem [Information Architect, Belgium]

“Yes, an adventure. Every Y4PT encounter is a true surprise, as we do not know how energies and minds will combine.” – Alessandra Gorini, Y4PT Founder

The year is no longer new. The urgency of January’s bright resolve has shifted footing to brace against February’s demands. And already February has drawn to a close, the pattern of the year following its familiar route; the desire-line of our lives scuffing and shaping a dusty track through our sleek vision of 2019.

The very new feels clean, perfect. Anything is possible. But after that first breath – of the year, of the season, of the day – must come another, and another.  And the air we breathe is rarely clean. The routes we take are rarely perfect. Our new-ness meets the challenges of the world it inherits, and it is changed.

For Y4PT, and all of us in Transport innovation, this is not just a thought to entertain at the shifting of a season, but the practical, complex, living territory we work within – and work to shape. We build a shared future, together, one new event at a time. Fresh faces, fresh cities, fresh ideas, fresh supporters, fresh challenges. Every time new, and every time changed; through collaboration, and a race to create real solutions to local and global problems. What does it really mean to be, to speak and to create “new”?  

We may all strive to build successful, healthy, brave and lasting new solutions, but how do they develop and thrive? The answer may lie in the way they are created, something the Y4PT fellowship seeks to foster in every engagement.  

“Creativity is about mixing two or more components in a new and different way. In order to create something completely new, you need to put in contact ‘components’, and the more different these components are, the more revolutionary the potential ideas that can be born from these connexions will be.” – Ignacio O’Mullony, Designer, Y4PT participant and winner.

Participants are drawn to each Hackathon from diverse backgrounds. Young mobility professionals form teams with coders, planners, designers, creatives, engineers, entrepreneurs and business developers. High-level students of multiple fields including sciences, humanities, arts and engineering join forces with professionals to combine cutting-edge research with specialist knowledge and experience in ways many think-tanks and forums seek, but never reach. Mentors in business, technology, policymaking, social science, arts and research lead workshops, introduce tools and provide feedback throughout the development of each idea.

In the Global Hackathons, and increasingly at even the Local Hackathons, participants and mentors arrive from many countries. Travel carries fresh approaches, experiences and skills from one place to another with these people, and carries the people to fresh approaches, experiences and skills of their own; which in turn carry onwards. Arriving in each new location, we experience the immediate reality of mobility challenges and opportunities, in the context of new languages, foods, smells, dreams, and dances; along with new technologies, techniques and team-mates. The ideas are created in an atmosphere of change – not just resilient to it, but thriving.

“Each one of us lives different experiences depending on where we live, and Y4PT Ring is unique in creating the environment for talent to merge, introducing passionate people that otherwise would have never met.” – Ignacio O’Mullony, Designer, Y4PT participant and winner.

The value of this growing community of ideas, teams and talented individuals is recognised by participants, mentors and partners alike, with long-term and transformative benefit travelling beyond the event into lives and careers.

“Since the hackathon, my job did change […] innovation became a much bigger part of it. I co-started an “innovation lab” at our company, where we do small “hackathons” to try new things and build new and exciting things. With the whole company, we also had a hackathon (60 people joining in) where last year we built chatbots and this year we’ll explore AI and streaming data. I also try to be involved in public hackathons as well, sometimes as coach, sometimes as participant.

I’m leading a team of 5 people, where we deliver services around ‘analytics & insights’, where we use modern data engineering, analytics & visualisations to help companies understand and make use of their data.

In the way we work, I use what I learned at the Y4PT hackathon a lot!” – Thomas Michem, Information Architect, Y4PT participant and winner.

Y4PT participants arrive with the active skills and adventurous, committed spirit that brings them to the event in the first place, already setting them apart from the crowd. Through participation they gain unique, shared, global experiences. Rich with adaptable insight into challenges and successes beyond the borders of familiar locations, disciplines, sectors and technologies, they create connections that bring them into the heart of mobility transformation.

“[I] gained contacts to 2 local municipal entities, that are interested in making cities and traffic better. So we’re testing a pilot project with IoT sensors for monitoring noise to be able to send notifications of unexpected noise directly to police. […] One of the municipal contacts I mentioned put a trust in us with the pilot project because of the success on hackathons. I write hackathons, because 2 months after the Montreal hackathon, my colleagues went to another local basically regional one oriented on transport and they also won. So I believe Montreal triggered a long term reaction…” – Tomáš Kouba; Biz Dev, UX, Marketing, Y4PT Hackathon participant and winner

 

Sponsors, supporters and partners are increasingly proactive in valuing and supporting the talented teams and fresh solutions emerging from the Hackathons; providing much-needed resources to bring them to the next level.  

“After the hackathon we’ve been invited to E-Lab, a 4 months acceleration programme hosted by Polihub (startup incubator at PoliMi), which helped us giving a more solid structure to our business idea. Next steps we achieved were to build our website, create a first business plan and design the early version of our smart lock. Right now we’re looking for funds to start production of prototypes and to develop our mobile app.” – Gianluca Geneletti, Energy Engineering student, Y4PT Hackathon participant and winner. Hoc Founder.

These events bring established operators, planners and organisations together with new mobility professionals, willing and capable of making real solutions that others only talk about. The future of mobility, walking straight from a Hackathon into work right now. Picking up tools and building what is needed, rather than what is expected.

“We are [now] currently in Moscow Metro and working on mobile app […] We fully reinvented current mobile app and made a big work of changing UX and UI [and] there are a lot of other activities. […] I’m developing clickable future subway scheme and 2 mobile ipad apps (poll, feedback and so on) for Metro`s exhibition. Vladislav [is] working with documentation. […] Nikolay has finished developing official Moscow metro book website […]. Also we are working on software for new subway info screens – with route planning and other stuff.

Also I didn’t mention FIFA World Cup and our activities during [the] tournament. Our team […] developed integrated special module named «FIFA» – live broadcasts of matches just inside app, live and past results, upcoming matches, info for fans, 7 languages and special accredited taxi with permission to stadium entrance. Just inside this module, sounds crazy ;)” – Rimikhanov Guseyn; IOS Developer, Manager, Y4PT Hackathon participant and winner.

Participating in, supporting or working on Y4PT Hackathons provides a unique experience of the new. It is the most extreme, most shimmering example of new-ness every time – collaborators, countries, technologies encountering each-other for the first time. Hackathons are short – they are intensely new, competitive, then they are over. Then they are new again.

It is the “again” where things get interesting.

Y4PT has been running now for fourteen years. It has presented over one hundred events in over fifty locations worldwide, each time iterating, improving, and sharing this learning. Y4PT builds unique experience in discovering, creating and developing the full potential of the new.

A particular element of a Y4PT Hackathon is the balance between competition and collaboration. Each event is competitive, seeking a winning idea to develop, and talented team-members to invite to the finale. But the reason behind the competition, the speed and the high-stakes challenge is clear. The problems to be solved are urgent and global, and the stakes are our lives. What is accelerated here may be businesses, may be careers and may be technologies, but the real momentum to provide clean, accessible, healthy mobility can only be built together; pushing each-other on, sharing and improving at each iteration, and always aware that what is created in each of these moments can make a real difference.

“I’ve attended many hackathons, but I have never felt the same spirit of co-operation and energy to create new things that can make a change in the world” – Ignacio O’Mullony, Designer, Y4PT participant and winner.

However carefully we may plan for the future, desire-lines will always criss-cross our expected routes. But what if those desires are for the health of each-other and our planet? What if those desires are for a thoughtful, adaptive, welcoming world? What if we walk that track together?

What if by doing, we choose the shape of the new?

 

— L H Trevail, Southend On Sea, UK, 28/02/2019