DETROIT — Two NextEnergy demonstration programs were selected by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as finalists in the SmartAmerica Challenge. Two teams comprised of NextEnergy and four Detroit-area companies will represent Michigan at the SmartAmerica Expo, in Washington D.C., today.
The SmartAmerica Challenge was created to advance developments in the intercommunication of systems in fundamentally new ways within sectors such as transportation, energy, manufacturing, and healthcare, in order to show how Cyber-Physical Systems can create jobs, new business opportunities, and socio-economic benefits to America.
Since 2002, NextEnergy has partnered with Michigan-based organizations to accelerate innovation in advanced energy technology development and enable public-private partnerships. The SmartAmerica Challenge provided the opportunity to highlight two of its key demonstrations in Detroit. In the first demonstration NextEnergy worked with jacAPPS to develop a mobile app that is the first third-party application to use the US Department of Transportation open architecture. The second demonstration provided a floor-to-floor comparison between a modular, scalable low voltage power and lighting system developed by Nextek Power Systems and TOGGLED at a Bedrock commercial property in Detroit.
More than 60 proposals were submitted to the SmartAmerica Challenge and only 24 were selected as finalists. Other notable finalists include IBM, AT&T and Qualcomm. All remaining teams will come together this week at the Washington, D.C. Convention Center to provide demonstrations and hear speakers from the White House – including a keynote by Todd Park, the US Chief Technology Officer and assistant to the president – various government agencies, and companies and universities from across the U.S.
