Wingcopter one of nine winners of German Smartdevelopmenthack

Wincopter was announced as one of nine winners of the German smartdevelopmenthack hackathon, and event that was sponsored by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The BMZ ” is calling for innovative digital solutions to tackle the challenges caused by the coronavirus outbreak in low- and middle-income countries”

Under the patronage of the BMZ together with “Team Europe” partners from the EU Commission, other EU member states, tech-companies and civil society, the hackathon was included as a portion of the upcoming German Council Presidency.

Wingcopter emerged as one of nine winning teams of the hackathon, and their video pitch can be viewed here:

From the hackathon’s website:

“The drone solution ensures an efficient health supply chain in remote areas and moreover maps pre- and post-COVID-19 impacts. The project will establish a “multi-purpose” drone network with local graduates to enter professions such as pilots, project managers and safety and maintenance workers. This solution does not happen in isolation but in an innovative ecosystem with the necessary legal and governmental infrastructure to support it.”

Wingcopter created an approach to combating the longer lasting effects of COVID-19 by establishing societal frameworks for infrastructural implementation – going beyond the requirements for physical infrastructure, but considering how the people portions of the business were going to operate.

Wingcopter’s methodology has a potential for use amongst the aerial mobility industry, as the transportation of people will, in a large regard, rely on that same approach of implementation for societal frameworks: the people side of the operation and the industry are just as crucial as the hardware and engineering themselves. One of the aerial mobility industry’s core competencies will be to transport many people daily, safely, over congested and highly populated urban areas. Accordingly, passenger approval, comfort, and confidence in the service that they’ll be utilizing on a day to day basis is paramount to only the safety of the aircraft operations themselves.

Why it’s important: Wingcopter, and the board who judged Wingcopter’s submission to the smartdevelopmenthack event, both placed substantial value in the human centered approach for drone aid to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 in Africa. The Aerial Mobility Industry should also follow suit in appreciating the value of such approaches.

Source // smartDevelopmentHack