First Annual Smart City Challenge Selects Winners of Nine Awards After Feb. 25 Live Pitch Competition

Fairfax County has announced that it will capture the entrepreneurial lightning sparked by the 2021 Smart Cities Challenge and explore the possibilities with two of the Challenge entrants on projects within the county

The first organization the county will consider is WishKnish, a Fairfax County woman-owned blockchain technology company founded in 2016.  Their product, KnishKits, creates a virtual marketplace where local organizations directly reach consumers and could be utilized to assist businesses recovering from the pandemic. The second, “History through AR”, which employs state-of-the-art augmented reality technology (AR) as an innovative way to create awareness could showcase the County’s historical sites. The two entrants were selected because offer unique opportunities to county residents and businesses.

These two organizations were among the 49 teams from across the country entered the Challenge. hosted by Refraction, Fairfax County, Smart City Works, Girls in Tech DC, Virginia Tech, and The Universities at Shady Grove. Eleven finalists won nine awards following the February 25 live pitch competition. The winning entrants were selected based on innovation, regional and sector impact, practicality, and equity by six judges and covered a wide range of high-impact solutions addressing the toughest smart city challenges in housing, transportation, health, broadband, energy, water infrastructure, and public safety.

The five Smart City Challenge winners are:

• Autonomous Incident Response System
• Databuoy
• TRAXyL
• VIA
• Haven (student team)

The prize for each award is $12,000 in cash, $10,000 in Amazon Web Services credits, seven months of free membership at Refraction and free access to entrepreneurship programs at George Mason University.