First round of judging for the "Idea Contest," a program for fostering digital working adults, was held!

　As part of the Digital Society Human Resource Development Program, the first round of the Idea Contest was held on Sunday, November 13 for students who participated in the digital course to work on solving social issues in West Shinjuku.
　Applications to participate in the idea contest began on September 26, and eight groups took part!

Digital Society Human Resource Development Program

Outline of Preliminary Screening

　Outline of the event
　　Date and Time Sunday, November 13, 2022, 13:00-16:30
　　Place: Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, 5th Floor, Conference Hall

　Judges
　　Ms. Fumiko Kato, CEO and Representative Director, WAmazing Inc.
　　Mr. Yukinori Kaku, Representative Director, Waikuru Inc.
　　Mr. Hiroyuki Akagi, General Manager, Network Promotion, Digital Services Bureau, Tokyo Metropolitan Government
　　Kiyonori Murakami, Director, Network Development, Digital Services Bureau, Tokyo Metropolitan Government

　Contents
　　5 minutes: Presentation
　　10 minutes: Q&A and feedback from the judges to the students

　■ Recruitment details
　　The participating students had about a month to prepare for the event and chose one of the following five themes and one other theme (free theme) as an idea to solve a problem in Nishi-Shinjuku with the power of digital technology! 　　The students had about one month to prepare their ideas for solving issues in Nishi-Shinjuku using the power of digital technology!

1. 　　(1) Ideas for creating local attractions
   
2. 　　(2) Ideas to increase awareness and community involvement
   
3. 　　(iii) Ideas for improving the mobile environment
   
4. 　　4) Ideas for establishing new work styles
   
5. 　　(5) Idea to develop a common infrastructure for the area
   
6. 　　6) Others (free theme)
   

First round of judging

　Each group (8 groups in total) presented their thoughtful ideas.

Group 1: N-SEC "N-SEC" by N-SECers

　With the aim of creating local attractions, the group presented the idea of installing a digital bulletin board in the elevator to effectively utilize the time spent in the elevator and to provide users with information on the local Nishi-Shinjuku area.

Group 2: patapata "Trip in AR in Nishi-Shinjuku

　With the aim of creating local attractions, the idea was to provide parents and children visiting Shinjuku Central Park with an AR version of bird-watching experience by representing birds in an augmented reality world in the park's rich natural environment through AR technology.

Group 3: Chick group "Making the 'Tokyo Kosodate Switch' app more useful

　With the aim of improving the mobile environment, we presented an idea to improve the existing application on "Tokyo Kosodate Switch," the official application of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, so that it can carry a lot of necessary and accurate information, and support childcare that reduces the time and effort for families raising children to search when they are out or in an emergency.

Group 4: Team Seasoning "Nishi-Shinjuku AR Link Project (tentative)

　With the aim of raising awareness and encouraging participation in the community, we presented the idea of setting up the entire Nishi-Shinjuku area as a field on the AR game application and providing quest content that encourages people to explore the city and discover new attractions of Nishi-Shinjuku.

Group 5: Nishi-Shinjuku Cat Islandization Plan Executive Committee "Nishi-Shinjuku Cat Islandization Plan

　With the aim of creating local attractions, we presented an idea to have a cat placed on the AR space guide visitors to attractive spots in Nishi-Shinjuku, so that visitors to Nishi-Shinjuku can reach their destinations while being comforted by the cat.

Group 6: Buruburu "Aptouch

　In order to improve the mobility environment, we presented an idea to develop an application that notifies people with children living in Nishi-Shinjuku of approaching bicycles through "tactile" rather than auditory or visual senses, in order to solve the problem of difficulty in detecting bicycles approaching from behind, thereby enabling people with children and others to safely move around the Nishi-Shinjuku area.

Group 7: 6 (Six) "A community service exclusively for students that leverages the power of IT and Shinjuku community"

　With the aim of raising awareness and encouraging community involvement, we presented ideas for a social networking service exclusively for students that would allow students who want to interact with others to join a new community through the application and make friends that they could meet in real life.

Group 8: Group 25 "Smart Glass for Making Nishi-Shinjuku an Attractive Area"

　With the aim of creating local attractions, the project presented an idea to develop smart glasses that would glamorize the scenery of Nishi-Shinjuku and provide information on restaurants and free spaces in Nishi-Shinjuku, as well as disseminate local information.

Results of the first screening

　All eight groups presented excellent ideas.
The secretariat and judges felt that there was much to be learned from each group's presentation.
The high level of presentations and ideas made the deliberations difficult, but as a result, the following five groups were selected to participate in the first round of judging.
Group 1: N-Sexers
Group 2: patapata
Group 3: Chickens
Group 5: Nishi-Shinjuku Cat Island Project Executive Committee
Group 7: Six
The five groups that passed the final screening will now work on their ideas and prototypes for the "second round," which will be the final screening.

Participant's Voice

　Participating students had the following to say about the event.
Through the idea contest, my understanding of digital technology has deepened, even if only a little.

I hope that we can continue to adopt digital technology to solve social problems in the future.

'When we actually repeated the fieldwork and collected user feedback, I became more motivated to solve problems and also to see the potential of digital.'

(Excerpt from the post-implementation questionnaire)

At the end of the event, a photo was taken with the judges as well.

Upcoming events

November-February: Prototype production
January: Interim feedback meeting
February 19 (Sun): Second round of judging
March: Results debriefing*.
*Presentation of the winning idea, etc. is scheduled at the results debriefing session of the Consortium.