by Exosite, on October 21, 2015
Congratulations to Exosite's Will Charlton and his team Soundscout, for taking first place honors at the second annual IoT Hackday on October 17, 2015, in Saint Paul, MN. IoT Hackday brings together IoT engineers and technologists to solve everyday problems by developing IoT connected products to improve our world in just 12 hours. Other team members include Daniel Feldman and Tony Nault.
The gathering attracted more than 70 of the region's most innovative minds to demonstrate their creativity, knowledge, expertise, and collaboration skills to showcase and foster the broad universe of IoT protocol in a variety of industries.
The hackathon, held at Minnetronix, consisted of team collaborations where ideas were brainstormed and developed - stimulated by adrenalin and lots of coffee. After 12 hours of hacking, the teams presented their projects. To determine the winning projects, spectators voted to select their favorites. Prizes from sponsors, including Gold Sponsor Exosite, were given to the top three teams.
The Winning IoT Hackday Project | Soundscout
Powered by Exosite's IoT platform, team Soundscout developed a product that hopes to provide accurate noise pollution data for neighborhoods plagued by aircraft noise disturbance. This innovative, scalable IoT connected product could improve our neighborhoods, not only as a noise monitoring system, but also as a public health monitoring IoT solution.
According to Embedded Systems Engineer and Team Lead Will Charlton, neighborhoods near large airports suffer from aircraft noise pollution, which Will knows first-hand living in close proximity to the Minneapolis - Saint Paul International Airport.
"I drew inspiration from my own predicament," says Will. "With airplanes flying overhead, I have to physically call MAC (Metropolitan Airport Commission), use their automated calling system, and then place my complaint with no proof my call is registered or considered...it's very frustrating," he says.
Will continues, "Soundscout continuously monitors when an airplane flies over a neighborhood and sends an automated noise complaint to MAC about elevated aircraft noise. This enables citizens to save time and headaches while creating accurate and detailed noise reports for airport management, who can monitor, analyze, categorize, and respond when noise restrictions are reached. Ultimately, this IoT monitoring system could greatly improves how MAC reacts and responds to noise reports, thus making neighborhoods quieter and free from the harmful effects of noise pollution. It also provides accurate information for third-party monitoring."
Soundscout is powered by Exosite's IoT platform; Exosite was a Gold Sponsor of the event. Check out IoT Hackday's website or visit the project submission page for full project descriptions. Wondering how Exosite can fuel your entrepreneurial IoT solution development? Contact Us.
Read Will's full project description and see the list of proposed projects at IoT Hackday's submission page.