The Illinois Technology Association (ITA), a non-profit organization based in Chicago, this week is hosting their Sixth Annual IoT Summit, including honoring their first annual winners of the Midwest IoT Innovation Awards.
Nominated and selected by the ITA’s IoT Council, the awards were designed to highlight leaders in the Midwest IoT community, award excellence in the development and adoption of IoT innovations and Midwest IoT ecosystem.
“The ITA has long held the belief that the Midwest is uniquely positioned to take a leadership role in IoT,” said Julia Kanouse, CEO of the Illinois Technology Association. “These awards provide an opportunity to recognize the companies that are leading the way in our region and driving IoT forward.”
The 2018 Midwest IoT Innovation Award winners include:
IoT Innovation – Rising Star
This award recognizes a new company pushing the boundaries of IoT Innovation through new technology and/or product development or application. Strong candidates in this category will exhibit ingenuity and new value propositions leveraging IoT with the promise of growth and sustainability. Winner: HAAS Alert
HAAS Alert streams information to drivers and connected cars via in-vehicle systems and smartphone apps when emergency vehicles are approaching and on-scene.
Drivers, emergency crews and roadway workers use the information to avoid collisions and reduce traffic delays. To learn more, visit www.haasalert.com.
IoT Innovation – Lighthouse
This award recognizes a company that is expanding the development and application of IoT. Strong candidates in this category will have well-established products and services that make the most of IoT and have a visible market impact. Winner: HERE Technologies
HERE Technologies, the Open Location Platform company, enables people, enterprises and cities to harness the power of location. By making sense of the world through the lens of location we empower our customers to achieve better outcomes – from helping a city manage its infrastructure or an enterprise optimize its assets to delivering drivers to their destination safely. To learn more about HERE, including our new generation of cloud-based location platform services, visit http://360.here.com.
IoT Transformation
This award recognizes a company from a traditional industry (manufacturing, automotive, healthcare, etc.) that is leveraging IoT to transform the heart of their business. Strong candidates in this category will have adopted or be in the process of adopting IoT solutions to change not only the technology of their company but also their processes and culture. Winner: Caterpillar
For more than 90 years, Caterpillar Inc. has been making sustainable progress possible and driving positive change on every continent. Customers turn to Caterpillar to help them develop infrastructure, energy and natural resource assets. With 2017 sales and revenues of $45.462 billion, Caterpillar is the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives. The company principally operates through its three primary segments - Construction Industries, Resource Industries and Energy & Transportation - and provides financing and related services through its Financial Products segment. Website https://www.caterpillar.com
IoT Advancement
Government/Academia/Non-profit: This award will go to a public sector organization that is enhancing our IoT ecosystem either through the development of IoT solutions or their implementation. Strong candidates in this category will be pushing the envelope of IoT itself or applying IoT to public sector process to drive better outcomes. Winner: The Array of Things
The Array of Things (AoT) is an urban sensing project, a network of interactive, modular sensor boxes that will be installed around Chicago to collect real-time data on the city’s environment, infrastructure, and activity for research and public use. AoT will essentially serve as a “fitness tracker” for the city, measuring factors that impact livability in Chicago such as climate, air quality and noise. Array of Things is an urban-scale “instrument” that will enable the City, urban planners, residents, and researchers to monitor and examine Chicago’s environment, infrastructure and activity, including detecting trends and changes over time. Ultimately, the goal is to measure the city in sufficient detail to provide data to help engineers, scientists, policymakers and residents work together to make Chicago and other cities healthier, more livable and more efficient. https://arrayofthings.github.io/faq.html
IoT Ecosystem Growth
This award recognizes an organization that is making an impact on the IoT skills and resources needed to make our ecosystem flourish. Strong candidates for this award could be organizations building strong internal or external IoT training programs or organizations that are accelerating the development and adoption of IoT in the ecosystem. Winner: Lab 651
Lab 651 is your Advanced Product Design Lab. Using our customer centric product development approach, we dared to ask the question, why must companies hire multiple organizations to build their connected / IoT product? At Lab 651 we work around YOU by bringing our highly experienced team of Mechanical, Electrical, Software and Data Engineers to your product. With over 1,000 projects under our belts, there isn't anything we haven’t seen. From helping to build your first or next generation of connected products to training your team for execution on the Internet of Things, our clients continue to challenge us and we continue to discover and deliver solutions. Website http://lab651.com
The Illinois Technology Association (ITA) scales Illinois tech companies. With innovative resources that allow members to collaborate with each other, build their talent networks and elevate their local and national presence, ITA is the region's strongest advocate for fostering innovation and growth. Annually, we hold conferences like the Sixth Annual IoT Summit Chicago to enhance awareness around technologies, such as IoT, that are driving the industry forward and have found their epicenter here in the Midwest.
Edited by
Ken Briodagh
