A new kind of innovation event, the Geospatial Challenge Camp, was officially launched at the end of September. The theme of this year's challenge camp is health and well-being, and the launch event showcased the theme as well as various related datasets, open source solutions and computing environments. The launch event was held at Aalto University in Otaniemi, Espoo.
Over the coming weeks teams of researchers and students will work on solutions to several challenges. The results are presented in early December.
The Challenge Camp is produced by a working group with representatives from University of Turku, Aalto University, the Geoportti community and Location Innovation Hub. Professor Niina Käyhkö from the University of Turku is enthusiastic about the event:
“I am delighted that the Geospatial Challenge Camp is finally a reality and that together we have started a new way to grow and diversify geospatial expertise in Finland.”
The kick-off event highlighted the topic, health and well-being, from various perspectives. The challenge may be related to improving people's quality of life, exploring the health benefits of the environment, preventing injuries and accidents in different environments, encouraging healthy lifestyle, or preventing the spread of infectious diseases. Concrete challenges for the teams will be provided by Varha - The wellbeing services county of Southwest Finland and HealthHub Finland.
“Privacy and security concerns can unnecessarily limit thinking when it comes to health and location data. It was an eye-opener for us to think more broadly,” says Sanna Jokela, CEO of Gispo. Gispo is a partner of Geospatial challenge camp.
“Gispo has done a lot of student cooperation and we are involved in this especially for networking purposes. I believe that working with challenges also increases our own understanding and problem-solving skills. Perhaps we can even find new recruits at this camp,” Jokela says.
In addition to Gispo also representatives from Finnish Geospatial Research Institute FGI, CSC, the Finnish Environment Institute, Geoforum Finland and Telia work as mentors and provide data or test environments for the teams. These organisations are also partners of Location Innovation Hub.
The Geospatial Challenge Camp is a ten-week programme where multidisciplinary teams tackle challenges related to health and well-being. In addition to researchers and students specializing in spatial data, the teams include researchers from the health and well-being sector, as well as experts in coding, data science and digital technologies from different universities. Photo: Bryan Vallejo
During the ten-week challenge camp, teams meet and develop ideas for solutions to the challenges. In addition to researchers and students specializing in spatial data, the teams include researchers from the health and well-being sector, as well as experts in coding, data science and digital technologies from different universities.
"It is important that those involved in the challenge camp gain new skills and have more networks after this experience. I hope that in the future they can generate new ideas and innovative solutions to real-life challenges based on the location data and digital technologies, " says Niina Käyhkö. Sanna Jokela encourages teams to explore the challenges and the available data with an open mind.
“You may have a good idea, but then you find out the data to support the idea doesn't exist. I hope that the ideation process does not stop there. It is not worth waiting for the perfect data - you should be brave and use the available data," Jokela encourages.
The tools provided by the partners and the support of mentors will be available to teams throughout the challenge.
The results of the camp will be presented by the teams in early December. The complex problems are unlikely to be fully resolved in the coming weeks, but the ideas and innovations could inspire decision-makers in the health and well-being sector.
"This is a good opportunity to show health sector organisations the potential of location data. Seeing concrete results may lead to a new way of thinking," Sanna Jokela says.
The aim is for the Geospatial Challenge camp to meet the needs of society by combining research and expertise and become an integral part of the Finnish geospatial industry. The next event is planned for spring 2025.
"We hope that the camp will become a regular event, attracting a large number of participants and partners to work on different teams. Of course, we also want the best ideas from the Camp to find their way to implementation and, in time, the participants to enable the emergence of new location data business soluations in Finland," says Niina Käyhkö.
