Announcing Hackster Impact Award 2023 Honorees

Marco Uras, CEO & Co-Founder at WiData, recognized as the 2023 Hackster Impact Award winner for his work as a chief collaborator in the Cagliari Smart City project, a project that addressed the challenges of urban heat waves and mitigated the heat island effect in Cagliari, Italy.

“I would just say thank you because this is a very honorable award and we are very proud to be here in front of you and the Hackster community,” Uras said at the Hackster Impact Award ceremony during Impact Summit.

The Hackster Impact Award recognizes a team or an individual who represents a significant contribution in using technology to make the world a better place. Aligning with Hackster Impact Summit’s theme of sustainable and resilient cities, Hackster recognized three technologists who have made a significant impact with their various initiatives.

• Hackster Impact Award 2023 Winner: Marco Uras, CEO & Co-Founder at WiData, for the Cagliari Smart City project
• Hackster Impact Award 2023 Honorable Mention: Katie Neeley, Central New Mexico Community College, for her solar-powered Smart Park Bench in Albuquerque, NM
• Hackster Impact Award 2023 Honorable Mention: Cesar Jung-Harada, Associate Professor of Design at the Singapore Institute of Technology, for his innovative work with ocean technology and education in Indonesia, Philippines, and other ASEAN regions

“I am excited to see the quality of nominees for this year’s Impact Award. Hackster Impact aims to inspire innovation where technology can make the biggest impact and accelerate the #techforgood narrative,” Hackster CEO Jessica Tangeman said. “One of the honorees started as a class project that was uploaded to Hackster.io and now it’s been implemented by their city. It’s such a strong example of how engineers across the world take an idea from prototype to impact to implementation, and we love seeing and sharing their stories.”

The city that was directly impacted by Hackster’s Impact Award recipient Marco Uras is Cagliari, Italy.

Cagliari, a southern Italian city with a metro population of 477,000, wanted to address urban heat islands by collecting relevant data at a city scale in ways that could not be addressed with their previous strategy of airplane sensor monitoring.

Urban heat islands exist in most cities around the world due to the dense concentration of surfaces that absorb and retain heat such as pavement and buildings and the lack of green spaces and natural land cover. The effects of urban heat islands increase energy costs (i.e. air conditioning and other cooling techniques), air pollution levels, heat-related illnesses and hospitalization, and mortality.

According to a study published earlier this year, more than 4% of summer mortality in European cities is attributable to urban heat islands.

Uras’s nominator wrote that “WiData and Abinsula's work in the Cagliari Smart City Project directly aligns with the theme of resilient and sustainable cities. By addressing urban heat waves and mitigating the heat island effect, they contribute to the long-term sustainability and resilience of urban environments.”

The Municipality of Cagliari launched the Smart City Project with telecommunications company Fastweb and software development companies WiData and Abinsula. WiData specifically contributes to developing a software and hardware platform for data collection and system control together with Abinsula. WiData deployed 528 Seeed Studio SenseCAP sensors and wireless data modules on light poles and rooftops at 314 sites, covering an area of 85.45 square km. The sensors deployed include Seeed Studio’s SenseCAP 10-in-1 Weather Sensors, Light Sensors, Air Temperature & Humidity Sensors, and Data Loggers.

The deployment of SenseCAP LoRaWAN sensors demonstrated their commitment to scalable and cost-effective solutions. The LoRaWAN technology facilitated long-range and low-power communication, enabling a large-scale sensor network across the city. This allowed for comprehensive coverage and valuable data insights.

Uras’s nominator explains that “through the deployment of SenseCAP sensors, they (WiData) enable real-time monitoring of weather conditions and provide data-driven insights for targeted interventions in building color and green space planning. This approach promotes sustainable urban development by reducing surface temperatures, improving air quality, and enhancing overall livability.”

“Additionally, their community engagement efforts empower citizens to actively participate in building resilient and sustainable cities. By raising awareness and involving the local community, WiData and Abinsula foster a sense of ownership and collective responsibility towards creating more sustainable and livable urban environments. Their scalable and cost-effective solutions further support the implementation of sustainable practices on a city-wide scale.”

Watch as Marco Uras receives his Hackster Impact Award and all of the sessions from the 2023 Impact Summit.

Next up for Hackster and sustainable and resilient cities is the Microchip Future of Resilience contest. Submissions are open until February 29, 2024.