Pedal to the Medal: Students Chart Course for New Mobility Solutions
May 06 2016 - 8:00AM
Business Wire
Toyota and Net Impact Announce National
Finalists in Next Generation Mobility Challenge
Meeting neighborhoods’ needs through Mobile Community Centers.
Turning car trunks into moving mailboxes. Customizing navigation
systems for the blind. These are the innovative concepts from the
three finalists in the Next Generation Mobility Challenge, a new
competition from Toyota and Net Impact to inspire millennials to
develop solutions for critical mobility needs in local communities
and around the world.
This Smart News Release features multimedia.
View the full release here:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160506005104/en/
Students develop solutions for critical
mobility needs during the Next Generation Mobility Challenge, a new
competition from Toyota and Net Impact. (Source: David Schmitz)
The public is invited to view videos created by the finalists
about their projects starting today at this link and vote for their
favorites. A panel from Toyota and Net Impact selected the three
finalists, based on their project design, feasibility and social
impact, from the winners of 15 Net Impact events at universities
across the country.
- University of Oregon - Carolyn
Taclas, Keala Verigan, Sydney Quinton-Cox and James
GreisenTaking a page from the food truck craze and the
mini-communities that spring up around them, the team conceived the
Mobile Community Center. The customized trucks would park in public
transit hubs, like Park-n-Ride lots and bus stations, and offer a
range of services to meet community needs.
- Northwestern University and
University of Illinois - Maria McKiever, Szymon Gluc and
Shangyanyan LiWith a new take on the sharing economy, this team
created a system that would allow drivers to offer their car trunks
to others for hire as mobile mailboxes, potentially minimizing
congestion and driving time.
- Babson College, RISD and Olin
College - Esther Kim, John Mathai, Ayush Singhal and Niklaus
SugiriHelping to map the way, this team created StreetSmart, a
mobile application that leverages existing technologies such as
location services and voice recognition to create a navigation
system for the blind and visually impaired.
“At Toyota, we’re committed to addressing mobility issues around
the world so that more people can go more places and live better
lives. We are thrilled by the ingenious solutions that the students
developed during the Next Generation Mobility Challenge,” said
Latondra Newton, Group Vice President and Chief Social Innovation
Officer, Toyota Motor North America, Inc. “Our partnership with Net
Impact reflects our approach of combining our know-how with the
expertise of others, so that working together can lead to something
greater than going at it alone.”
“Transportation choices have major ramifications on
the environment, society, and health,” said Liz Maw, CEO, Net
Impact. “For this reason, students across the country have
been excited to partner with a leading innovator like Toyota to
define the future of mobility.”
The judges will factor in the public vote when determining the
winning team, which will be announced by May 31, 2016. The winning
team will be considered for a Toyota Mobility Foundation grant and
have a chance to incubate their ideas during a summer internship
within Toyota’s network of mobility innovation partners. The team
will also showcase their solution at the 2016 Net Impact Conference
in Philadelphia this November.
About the Next Generation Mobility Challenge
Launched in 2015, The Next Generation Mobility Challenge is a
competition from Toyota and Net Impact to inspire millennials to
develop solutions for critical mobility needs in local communities
and around the world. Held at fifteen university campuses across
the country, the challenge invites multi-disciplinary teams of
students to participate in half-day design sprints to develop
solutions for mobility issues that address community, connectivity,
or sustainability. Local transportation and technology experts from
Toyota and universities provided feedback and real-world
perspective to the students’ concepts.
Toyota is executing the challenge through Toyota Motor North
America and the Toyota Mobility Foundation (TMF), which was created
by Toyota in 2014 to help more people go more places – safely,
easily and sustainably – so they can live better lives no matter
where they are.
About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM), the world's top automaker and creator of the
Prius and the Mirai fuel cell vehicle, is committed to building
vehicles for the way people live through our Toyota, Lexus and
Scion brands. Over the past 50 years, we’ve built more than 30
million cars and trucks in North America, where we operate 14
manufacturing plants (10 in the U.S.) and directly employ more than
44,000 people (more than 34,000 in the U.S.). Our 1,800 North
American dealerships (1,500 in the U.S.) sold more than 2.8 million
cars and trucks (nearly 2.5 million in the U.S.) in 2015 – and
about 80 percent of all Toyota vehicles sold over the past 20 years
are still on the road today.
Toyota partners with philanthropic organizations across the
country, with a focus on education, safety and the environment. As
part of this commitment, we share the company’s extensive know-how
garnered from building great cars and trucks to help community
organizations and other nonprofits expand their ability to do good.
For more information about Toyota, visit
www.toyotanewsroom.com.
About Net Impact
Net Impact is the world’s best training ground for the next
generation of change agents. Our programs—delivered from our
headquarters in Oakland, CA, as well as globally through our 300+
chapters—connect our members to the skills, experiences and people
that will allow them to have the greatest impact. With over 100,000
members, Net Impact takes on social challenges, protects the
environment, invents new products and orients business toward the
greater good. In short, we help our members turn their passions
into a lifetime of world-changing action. Visit
www.netimpact.org.
View source
version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160506005104/en/
For ToyotaStephanie Anderson,
646-805-2064Stephanie.Anderson@finsbury.comorNet ImpactCatherine
Muriel, 415-495-4230 x314cmuriel@netimpact.org
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