Tech Search-and-Rescue Solutions Contest FREE STUDENT ARCHITECTURE COMPETITION

Every year, thousands of people get lost in the wild. It takes a hundred of rescuers to find one missing person. Forests prove to be the most complex environment for life brigades, who need state-of-the-art equipment and devices to be able to address tough search conditions. Last week, ITMO University gave the floor to the representatives of the ‘Sistema’ charity fund, who unveiled the public program of the ‘Odyssey’, the first research project in Russia aimed at using tech for dealing with social problems. The ‘Odyssey’ is a series of contests, the first of which is dedicated to new-generation search and rescue technologies and will span 18 months with the prize pool of 75 million roubles. Participants are set the challenge of finding an ideal tech-based solution to ease the search of people lost in the woods.

Launched by ‘Sistema’, one of the biggest charity funds in Russia, the ‘Odyssey’ is a large-scale initiative aimed at pooling researchers’ efforts for developing novel search-and-rescue methods. Contestants have to come up with a technology able to find a missing person within the space of ten hours and 10km radius regardless of light and weather conditions and with no mobile communications involved (it is envisaged that a rescuee doesn’t have a mobile phone at hand). Engineering teams, tech companies, nonprofits, universities, and research centers staff, technology specialists and enthusiasts, as well as everyone ready to think of out-of-the-box solutions are invited to take part in the project. Possible solutions include infrared spectrum detectors, transmission technologies, local communication devices, geological information and control and navigation systems, mapping techniques, artificial intelligence, as well as all forms of remotely piloted patrols or any other devices the inventors would want to put forward.

Contestants will work in teams comprised of no more than six people aged over 18 years old. Engineers, programmers, developers, entrepreneurs, scientists, students and PhD researchers are invited to take part. Each team should include at least one tech specialist to qualify. There will also be a special contest track for solo participants. If a contestant doesn’t have a team or a full-fledged solution to offer but still wants to take part, they can be accepted to the solo track by explaining to the jury the value of their ideas. Teams can take on solo participants should they find them suitable; likewise, solo contestants can unite in separate teams. The developed solution rests in a team’s property until it decides to pass it onto a major stakeholder such as the state or big companies offering to perfect and implement the invention.