Photo: ManagePlaces

[Via Satellite 11-06-13] ManagePlaces was the UK winner of the European Satellite Navigation Competition at a global awards ceremony in Munich. The runner up in the UK Category was TeamSurv, another crowd sourced system, which draws data from hundreds of ships and maps to chart large inadequately surveyed portions of the ocean.

The tool ManagePlaces created is used by wildlife park managers to host geo-tagged uploads from mobile devices and sensors in convseration work. “Whilst never intended as a conservation tool, since going to market we have had many different industries approach us with a need that we can now cater for,” said Georgios Michalakidis, founder of ManagePlaces.

The overall competition winner was Kinexon, who specializes in the development of smart wearable devices and embedded systems geared towards applications in the healthcare and professional sports sector. The start-up received a cash prize of €20,000 ($27,536) as well as the chance to realize the awarded idea as part of a six-month incubation program.         ManagePlaces will receive £5,000 ($8,044) in cash and the same amount again in business support including office space, patent advice, and introductions to industry partners and funding opportunities.

Judging the entries were key representatives from the UK arm of European Satellite Navigation Competition (UKSNC) organizer the University of Nottingham, and competition sponsors the Satellite Application Catapult, the Technology Strategy Board, the UK Space Agency, CGI, EADS Astrium and the ESA Business Incubation Center at Harwell.

The UKSNC is part of a global competition aimed at stimulating new innovations in satellite navigation for use in technologies like smart phone apps and location-based services. 722 business ideas from around the world were put before judging panels in over 25 countries, of which 93 were from the UK.