UPC Poland’s Digital Imagination Challenge
Our inaugural Digital Imagination Challenge, hosted by UPC Poland in 2017, was a huge success. With 50 high-quality entries to review, all from entrepreneurs committed to using technology to make a positive social impact, our judging panel had its work cut out.
The challenge began with a public online debate, kicked off by UPC to discover what the public considered to be some of the country’s most pressing social issues. The hottest topics – smart living, healthcare monitoring and lifelong learning – then formed the basis for the challenge and the nation’s top innovators got to work perfecting their proposals around these themes.
The winner – Findair – was a great example of how connectivity and technology can have an immediate impact on those suffering from asthma: a smart inhaler that not only helps asthma sufferers monitor progress but also identifies the causes of attacks and maps high-risk locations.
According to EUROSTAT, 9% of Poland’s population lives with asthma but this locally conceived solution has the power to make a positive impact on a global scale. Having demonstrated the idea is implementable, scalable and backed by a strong business model, our winner is now receiving additional advice and professional support to further develop the project.
“We are very happy with our victory in the Digital Imagination Challenge program. We believe that this will increase the awareness of asthma and ways to fight its limitations. The UPC award will help us in further product development and will allow us to reach an even wider audience.” – Tomasz Mikosz, Co-founder of Findair.
