Congratulations to the IoT Innovation Grand Challenge Semi-finalists!

In April 2014, Cisco announced the IoT Innovation Grand Challenge, a global, open competition aimed at recognizing, promoting and accelerating the adoption of breakthrough technologies that will contribute to the growth and evolution of the Internet of Things.  The response was overwhelming with fantastic submissions.

We received over 800 submissions from startups all over the world on a diverse set of topics – from agriculture to Wifi with ble, gps, m2m, rfid and many more things in between.   The top 5 submission categories were: Smart Cities with 166 entries, Healthcare with 123, Retail (98), Education (80) and Transportation (59).

Announcing the Nineteen Semi-Finalists!

After much deliberation, the Cisco judges and the IoT Challenge community have selected the following nineteen semi-finalists:

IDEA TITLE

VERTICALS

Daily Maps by Aerobots | Other Industry/Verticals
Neurio Home Intelligence | Smart Cities
WunderBar, IoT Starter Kit for App Developers | Education
Sedicii-Authentication for the Cloud | Smart Cities
Self-Describing Data Export Mechanism for “The Fog” | Other Industry/Verticals
Securing cars from Cyber Threats -The CAN Firewall | Transportation
Connecting IoT in the Smart City | Smart Cities
Woosh, Smart Urban Water Stations | Smart Cities
Voiceltt, Start Speaking Freely | Healthcare
MedBip, Lighthearted Health | Healthcare
Lesnoy Dozor, System for Forest monitoring and Early Detection of Forest Fires | Other Industry/Verticals
Underwater IoT made Possible by Underwater Network Nodes | Oil and Gas
Smart Parking for cleaner, greener simpler living | Transportation
Bringing IoT to Children’s Toys | Education
Plum Lightpad Smart Dimmer | Energy
Chui Facial Recognition Technology Brought to Consumer Market, Acts as Entry Way to Smart World | Other Industry/Verticals
Waygum.io, the first End-to-End Mobile Platform for IoT | Manufacturing
Landscape Computing: Disruptive Platform for Smart Cities | Smart Cities
Solar Freaken Highways | Transportation

I want to take this opportunity to thank all our contestants, participants and community members for joining us in this exciting challenge.  We appreciate your time and participation.

Next Steps

The 19 semi-finalists will now complete a more complex assignment.  Once submitted, the judging panel will review the 19 assignments and select the final six finalists.  The six finalists will be invited to the 2014 Internet of Things World Forum, an exclusive annual event that will be held in Chicago, October 14-16.  The finalists will have an opportunity to demonstrate their innovations on the convention show floor and to pitch their ideas to the best and brightest thinkers, practitioners, and innovators in the industry.  Three final winners will be announced at the IoT World Forum on center stage and will share $250,000 US in prize money that can be used to jumpstart new and existing businesses contributing to the Internet of Things industry.

Good luck to the semifinalists! I am looking forward to sharing the names of 6 finalists in September.