Ericsson has announced the Lebanese American University team as one of the semi-finalists in the Ericsson Innovation Award (EIA), which will take place in Stockholm, Sweden. Under the theme “Reclaim the Future”, the global competition that offers university students around the world the chance to develop new, innovative ideas with support from Ericsson experts.
The Lebanese team, Cedars, has developed a small chip integrated inside the trunk of the tree to mitigate and limit the spread of wildfires. Wildfires are ferociously destructive and are considered one of the major causes of deforestation. The main goal of this solution is to detect the percentage of carbon dioxide emitted once a tree starts burning. This solution aims to improve the early response times, allowing swifter and timelier action to be taken and preventing far-reaching and severe impacts on the planet.
In relation to this year’s “Reclaim the Future” theme, Ericsson research shows that Information and Communications Technology (ICT) solutions have the potential to improve energy use in industrial operations, minimize negative environmental impacts, and enable a reduction of global carbon emissions by up to 15 percent by 2030.
Saad El Zein, Assistant to the President for Special Projects and Head of LAU Fouad Makhzoumi Innovation Center says: "The prestigious Ericsson Innovation Award marks the importance of making a real impact through innovation and action. This year’s theme centers on addressing current and future climate challenges and focuses primarily on how ICT can provide radical climate change mitigation. Our connected trees solution, that can detect wildfires, demonstrates how innovative technology can affect real world change and take environment conservation to the next level.”
Semi-finalists – scored by a jury of global Ericsson experts in innovation and the competition theme –receive five weeks of mentorship from a group of assigned Ericsson Expert Mentors, experts in Innovation and Business who can help the team further develop their ideas. With the mentors’ support, semi-finalists will submit a new set of deliverables, which will represent a more rounded version of their original idea.
Roland El Hage, Country Manager of Ericsson Lebanon says: “Innovation is at the core of our company and these awards embody our purpose to create game-changing technology that is easy to use, adopt, and scale and innovate on top of. This year’s EIA challenges some of the best and brightest students sharing our passion for innovation to demonstrate how technology can support climate action. The results from the brilliant minds participated in this competition have been inspirational.”
Ericsson’s challenge for 2020 is to support a new generation of innovators to find solutions to the current climate change crisis focused on how ICT/technology solutions can provide radical climate change mitigation for consumers and industry alike.
