CEST takes part in start-ups for gamification of the Internet of Things

CEST takes part in start-ups for gamification of the Internet of Things (IoT)

The international net Games for Change selected through its Latin-America Festival of December 2014 four start-ups with projects focused on the gamification of the Internet of Things (IoT).

The pitching was represented by CEST-POLI, the Brazilian Forum of Competitiveness in the Internet of Things (IoT), and the research group City of Knowledge (ECA), among other partners of the academy and the business world, and supported by Broota Brasil, a start-up company also focused on the equity crowdfunding market.

More than fifteen gamification and Internet of Things businesses were presented and those selected by the judging committee are:

Seed-Idea Category:
Think&Play – educational game about politics,
Project #AJogada – movement for the gamification of the culture of the office;

Prototype Category:
GameSquare – platform for Games in Public Squares,
Deborah Game – serious game for teaching History of Accounting.

The selected business will be mentored for raising funds granted by Broota Brasil and supported by a net of mentors associated to the movement Games for Change, as well as have the opportunity of being incubated by CIETEC, the incubator of USP.

For CEST researcher Romero Tori, who participated in the Festival as a lecturer at the Symposium and as a member of the judging committee of the pitching, the most impressive was the quality level of the competing projects. “It shows that the market and the learning institutions of Brazil have already reached a maturity level so as to have companies and start-ups focused on a market niche still relatively emergent in the world, such as the internet of things, taking part in competitions”.

With the support of CEST, the Games for Change and Broota Brasil have developed a specific tool for the pitching and the after-reward period. The specific tool for the member of the jury and partners of the Games for Change allowed the analyses of the projects and also the beginning of the mentoring process for the selected ones. This will be the basis for moving on to the next step, in 2015: raising funds for more mature projects, considered as great potential by the judging committee. “We reinforce our belief in the power of the games to achieve social transformation, and we are looking forward to the next year, when we intent to carry out the innumerous initiatives that came up as a deployment from this selection process edition”, declared Frederico Rizzo, director of Broota Brasil.
Further information about the Festival is available at www.gamesforchange.org.br, where the content of the Symposium can be found.