OREANDA-NEWS. December 08, 2015. ENGIE hosted the first hackathon dedicated to drones at the Ecole 42 IT college. This event brought together more than 200 participants, who submitted 28 projects to develop applications for corporate users.

This Hack the Drone hackathon focused on four key areas essential for corporate users: telemetry, analysis of pipeline corrosion or distortion, controlled drone neutralization, and the development of drone collision prevention systems. A new feature of this contest was the offer of startup incubator support to help award winners convert their concepts into operational reality.

ENGIE employees were also involved: 11 employees took part in this hackathon, with the DSR team winning an award for its testing project to detect pipeline corrosion and distortion.  

 

DEVELOPING A NETWORK OF PARTNERS

ENGIE was supported by a number of partners in making this first drone hackathon such a success: Parrot, the French Air Force Centre d’Excellence Drone (CED), Bordeaux Technowest, the Secrétariat Général de la Défense et de la Sécurité Nationale (SGDSN), the Pégase aerospace competitiveness cluster, the Direction Générale de l’Aviation Civile (DGAC), the Fédération Professionnelle du Drone Civil and Redbird.

All these partners are involved in consolidating the drone industry in France, with particular emphasis on developing corporate applications.

ENGIE AND DRONES

ENGIE has been involved with drones for a number of years, taking particular interest in responding to the challenges involved in monitoring and maintaining its infrastructures and developing security, thermal imaging and topographic survey services for industrial customers and public authorities.

Working through its ENGIE New Ventures investment fund dedicated to providing finance for innovative startups, the Group took a significant minority shareholding in the civil drone data provider Redbird on April 1, 2015.

STIMULATING INNOVATION

Following on from the first smart energy application hackathon in June 2014, this second targeted hackathon focused very intentionally on innovation. This dynamic commitment runs through every part of the Group with the aim of converting great ideas into operational solutions that benefit its customers.

The Group has built a complete ecosystem for innovation in order to identify, incubate or invest in innovative startups developing new solutions in its core business sectors.

About Open Innovation by ENGIE

Open Innovation by ENGIE is a platform designed to promote open innovation in energy. It gives inventors, entrepreneurs and project sponsors the opportunity to put forward their ideas and receive assistance, the possibility of collaboration or even startup incubator support for equity investment.

For more information about innovation at ENGIE: www.openinnovation-gdfsuez.com