Esri Canada Centres of Excellence (ECCE) have announced the winners of their fifth annual App Challenge, and a University of Waterloo team have taken first place.
Esri is the largest geospatial software developer and industry leader in the geographical information science (GIScience) industry, and their app challenge is a way to promote education using their ArcGIS software.
This year, teams were asked to develop an app centered on United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities. Teams were given a week to create an app and sales pitch to be evaluated by a panel of judges.
SpectaculAR, an interdisciplinary team of four master’s students from the University of Waterloo Faculty of Environment and Faculty of Engineering, developed the mobile app SMART (Sustainable Management in Augmented Reality Technology) for the competition. SMART uses augmented reality (AR) and geographical information systems (GIS) to help visualize urban development plans with the stated goal of increasing public engagement. Visualizing developments in AR before they are built allows stakeholders to get public consultation and feedback in order to understand how the finished development will look and how it could transform neighbourhoods.
“Using SMART, community members are not only more involved in the planning of sustainable urban development initiatives where they live, but they can also provide feedback through the app”, says SpectaculAR’s lead engineer, Jaydeep Mistry. “Developers can also use SMART to gauge public interest in their projects, and quickly share that information with the public or a governing body when they are trying to get building approvals, or to interest potential renters or buyers.”
Having placed first in the competition, team SpectaculAR will be heading to the Esri User Conference in San Diego, California, later this summer.
The SpectaculAR team:
- Jaydeep Mistry (Lead Engineer) is completing his master's in Geography at the University of Waterloo, working with GIS and Open Data. His expertise is in GIS systems and app development, which has allowed him to use bleeding edge technology to develop this AR app.
- Juan Carrillo (Project Manager) is currently completing a Masters in Computer Software at the University of Waterloo, his research focuses on Software Development and Machine Learning for applications in the Geospatial field.
- Fraser King (User Experience Designer) Fraser completed his undergraduate degree in Computer Science at the University of Waterloo as well and is now working towards a Masters of Science degree at the University of Waterloo, specializing in remote sensing of Arctic snow.
- Manpreet Singh Chahal (Lead Researcher) has completed his undergraduate degree in Biology and Environmental Science with a minor in GIS at McMaster University. He is now working towards his Masters in Geography, working with Crowdsourcing and Public Participation GIS at the University of Waterloo.
Visit the SpectaculAR project page or watch the SMART app demo video.
