The International Audience Award by Act in Africa aims to develop skills and drive innovation and entrepreneurship in the space sector.

Four finalists were selected based on the number of approvals they got on the Connect by CNES YouTube channel. 

Astramania Team, Nigeria (4000 likes) 

The Astramania team, a team of five young Nigerians, was declared the winner of the award. 

Their vision is to improve the mobility experience through automobile technology. Astramania Team hopes to achieve this by solving environmental challenges through innovative integration of space and automobile data. The team focuses on harnessing data from cars using an on-board diagnostic system, coupled with space data obtained using the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and the Geographic Information System (GIS). Environmental data would be processed utilising the Internet of Things (IoT). 

The teams’ product would offer a detailed road roughness index and the air quality within a 2km radius which would help drivers make an informed decision while driving. 

Phantom Team, Sri Lanka (1700 likes) 

The Phantom team came up with a user-friendly app with an AI backend to help government bodies and policymakers implement insightful policies regarding their respective regions’ air qualities. 

The Phantom team plans to obtain open data sets from Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) with exceptional exactness and resolution on air temperature and humidity to improve climate expectation. With this data set, the Phantom team would develop a model using convolutional neural networks for each air particle type. 

The team have developed a CNN based deep learning model which could predict various air particle radii with over 80% accuracy.  They have also built a deep learning model that could analyse satellite images to demonstrate the end user’s expected results through the Graphical User Interface (GUI).

Skywatch Team, Morocco (1600)

Skywatch Team developed Skywatch, an application designed to tackle industry experts and regular space enthusiasts’ knowledge gap.

The team focuses on the sustainable development of the United Nations goal of improving the quality of education and expressing the information provided by space agencies and satellite manufacturers in a friendly manner. 

Skywatch is a gamified AR experience for young users through interactive videos, simplified articles, quizzes and tests with prices and certifications. Embedded within the Skywatch is a live feed of AR satellite, detailed information about satellite trajectory and earth observation data. 

Polimi Space Team, Italy (1200 likes) 

The market for data and earth imaging processing is growing at an unprecedented rate, and the network of earth and space-based assets would grow exponentially in the next couple of years. Private companies would strive to create lunar infrastructure, increasing the search for geological, geographical and topological information to combat the moon’s harsh environment. 

The Polimi space team developed Moonsweep, a software that will acquire necessary data from existing satellites which would then be processed using machine learning. Data would also be obtained from the team’s proposed cubesat constellation, which would be deployed into orbit to get real-time data. The rovers’ fleet would then be deployed into space by space ships to assess the soil hardness and composition.

Moonsweep will also be able to make informed suggestions about the type of resources to use for various construction projects, determine the risk level associated with the project while minimising the cost function.

The targeted customers are private companies, insurance businesses, space agencies and governmental bodies.

Act in space is enthusiastic about skill development in youths. It is also an avenue to draw out the business venture soul in them, which is noticeable in their presentation. The main objective is to build a generation of innovators and stir up strong entrepreneurs by empowering both the winners and those who didn’t win with the necessary support to promote their ideas.