Up Great Safe mode on: winners announced

Up Great – organizer of technology contests to develop solutions to world challenges – announced the results of the contest of ideas “Up Great Safe mode”. It’s goal was to create conditions for a safe return to usual formats of communication and to design so called “Clean areas” during a pandemic. A panel of judges selected 3 winners out of 55 registered participants to get a money prize.

The contest was held as part of the National technology initiative, which is a long-term program to create conditions for new high-tech markets to appear.

Up Great Safe mode was launched to collect and consider ideas of technological solutions that could help us to see possible ways to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and to return to a comfortable and safe way of life. Solutions could be related to the incoming control of people and goods, disinfection of visitors, logistics of human flows, microclimate control, etc. The contest included three tracks: public transport (buses, fixed-route taxis, metro, etc.), industrial spaces (factories, warehouses, etc.) and concert halls (venues for cultural events, including theaters, cinemas, concert halls, stadiums, etc.).

The participants had to present a project for organizing a "clean area" at the selected facility, as well as describe the mechanisms, measures and technological solutions that will prevent the spread of the infection.

During the contest the judges examined 55 applications from 19 regions of Russia and selected 3 winners in each track.

“Public transport”: winner from Moscow with the project called “System of digital remote automated disinfection of mobile devices with the ability to integrate into the Smart City system”. The proposed solution makes it possible to make the traditional mode of disinfection of public transport less time-consuming, costly and laborious.

“Industrial spaces”: winner from Moscow with the project called “Anticyclone - air disinfection device”. The concept assumes disinfection of air at work locations due to the contact interaction of the airflow and the disinfectant. Moreover, the disinfection process does not require additional spraying devices.

"Concert halls": winner from Moscow with the project called “Catalytic air filtration due to the complete decomposition of organic substances, including viruses, to carbon dioxide and water on the catalyst surface”.

“In this contest we collected a number of interesting applications, especially in terms of design of air filters that provide cleaning of indoor air and transport. I see that this is quite a representative result, as it is the airborne transmission of the new coronavirus COVID-19 that makes it so dangerous. Despite all the safety measures we are used to - masks, hand washing, social distancing - truly effective prevention of infection is impossible until we rethink public spaces to reduce viral load through the airborne canal, and without good filters it is impossible, - says Yury Molodykh, a member of the panel of judges and the Up Great development director".