27 Jan Year 3 Residency Applications Are Open!
Have you been looking for an opportunity to make an impact on city government? CivTechSA is excited to announce the third year of the Residency Program that is hosted in partnership with the City of San Antonio! The Residency Program is a 16-week program where the City invites respondents and startups to solve civic challenges in an effort to foster collaboration and growth. Applications are now open for established vendors, startups, and companies to sign up and submit their proposals for this specific RFCSP. Please be sure to register as a vendor before submitting your proposals by March 13, 2020. Listed below are the five challenges that are open for proposals along with their technological needs and objectives.
Carbon Footprint Calculator for Energy Retrofits
Challenge 1: The Office of Historic Preservation has worked to establish itself as a resource for owners of aging or historic buildings. We frequently receive inquiries on how to make existing structures more energy efficient, especially in our warming climate. Often, the initial thought from property owners is to remove original materials, but research has proven that less invasive retrofits provide a greater return on investment while aiding in efficiency. They are looking for a user-friendly public tool to help empower owners and renters of older buildings to make informed sustainable decisions on energy efficient upgrades, while reducing building material waste. This also prevents the detriments of unnecessary construction waste, which is the largest single-stream waste source in the United States. They are looking for an open access website, app, or tool that calculates the carbon footprint of renovation projects and suggests ways to make an existing or older home greener through adaptation strategies.
Distractive Driving Detection
Challenge 2: The Solid Waste Management Department has 725 employees and travels over seven million miles annually. Of these employees, 485 have a commercial driver’s license. Although there are laws, directives, and departmental policies that prohibit distractive behavior, SWMD have caught employees with their cell phones, reading maps, or eating food while driving. These behaviors place the City of San Antonio at great risk and SWMD is looking to reduce that risk for its drivers. They are looking for a technology, tool, or system that helps detect and identify instances where a driver is taking their eyes off the road.
Automated Waste Ticket Data Capture
Challenge 3: The City of San Antonio’s Solid Waste Management Department collects 1 billion pounds of material each year. The material is collected and taken to various facilities to be recycled, composted, or landfilled. Each truck load of material generates a disposal ticket from the facility. These tickets are provided to the drivers and manually inputted by SWMD staff to document the information. SWMD is looking for a more efficient process and tool to automate the collection of waste ticket data. In turn, this would improve productivity and decrease sunk costs.
Contamination Detection Tool
Challenge 4: The City of San Antonio’s Solid Waste Management Department (SWMD) services approximately 360,000 residents annually with one time a week of garbage, recycling, and organics collection. SWMD is looking for a contamination detection tool that will identify and capture dumped content from garbage and recycling containers. This is an effort to create a pathway towards a more sustainable city, as the SWMD has set a goal to reach a 60 percent residential recycling rate by 2025.
One City Application
Challenge 5: San Antonio residents and customers currently travel to a myriad of siloed websites to pay bills, update personal information, or request services. OISC and ITSD are looking to reduce the need for citizens of San Antonio to access multiple websites or tools to acquire information or services from city entities. They are looking for a mobile solution that allows citizens of San Antonio one access point to all City services.
If any of these challenges seem like something you’re able to solve and want more information, be sure to attend our Q&A session on February 11 at the Geekdom Event Centre. We are looking forward to seeing your innovative solution make an impact here in San Antonio. If you have any questions, please contact us at civtechsa@geekdom.com!