R² Data Labs Responsible Growth Hack

Overview

Is it feasible to get a real time indication of the heat wave and provide a warning?[a similar system for Tsunamis exists here 7]”. This would be the first step to build an interpretable energy supply chain model with simulation capabilities. Using data, we can understand regions in India that are prone to heatwaves. These can indicate the expected demand fluctuations and will help to prepare an availability of energy across regions and time, coupled with an understanding of the ‘fuel availability mix’ thus allowing for an optimization framework. Fuel can include renewable resources, non-renewable resources, and emerging energy sources, like hydrogen for example, with their own efficiencies, availability, potential, and challenges.

Background

Recorded heatwave globally

Heat waves are often called a silent killer and have become even more important as recent studies suggest that heat waves have become the second most devastating extreme weather event with respect to human deaths and losses. In 2022, India recorded its hottest March. The State of India’s Environment Report 2022 stated that heat-wave-like conditions prevailed across 16 states of India from March 11 to April 24, 2022.

The heat waves that occurred during the summer of 2022 had a far-reaching impact. The extreme temperatures were accompanied by droughts that severely affected Europe and even the Yangtze River basin in China. The extremely high temperatures and severe drought also contributed to massive wildfires across Europe, North America, and Asia.

Heat waves impact the human body

As the intensity of heat waves increase, it raises the risk of wet-bulb temperatures (combination of heat and humidity) also going up. If this happens, it will push some heat events into "unsurvivable" territory, experts say.

When the wet-bulb temperatures exceed the normal temperature of the human body sweat cannot evaporate and humans can no longer cool themselves down. This can be fatal to the human body and lead to catastrophic events in large numbers across populations. 

The link to power

Air conditioning and ventilation would be a potential solution to the increasing heat waves. Across the world, as per IEA, of the 44% of the population that is exposed to the hot climate, only 35% have access to air conditioning. In India, 12% of India’s 1.4 billion citizens have access to air conditioning. This means that here are hundreds of millions of people who will simply be unable to cool themselves when their bodies reach the point of heatstroke in the event of a heatwave.  

These climate change-induced droughts affect hydropower and lead to power shortages in some areas. Wildfires due to heat waves can destroy infrastructure for power generation and distribution. Severe imbalance in power usage has also led to grid events which can cause power outages, further aggravating the problem.

Moreover, increasing power demand, if fulfilled by fossil fuel energy sources, would lead to increasing climate change thereby creating a negative feedback loop.

Tech stack

• Open to all
• Use cloud services for project deployment

Submission guidelines

These components must be available in your final submission:

• Project description (mandatory)
• Repository link (Github link, mandatory)
• Demo video of the project
• PPT and related documents of the project (mandatory)

Overview

Identify new route opportunities in the emerging markets by tracking macro-economic activities and data from other means of transport. The focus is on tier II cities from India / APAC region.

Another area of focus is which drives the transition from narrow body traffic to wide body traffic in the aviation network in APAC region. Which factors matter more for narrow body and which factors matter for wide body?

Through this study, we will try identifying various data sources, and carry out background study to see what kind of patterns are there between macro-economic data and number of air travelers, at city/region level?

Background

Aviation sector is showcasing intriguing growth rate in the emerging economies like India and other APAC nations. Due to various government initiatives, new aviation infrastructure is being developed in India. There is a push to provide affordable air travel for wider population. In addition, the economic growth of India is leading to distribution of economic activities across tier-II cities, which wasn’t necessarily the case in the recent past. Hence, many air-travel routes between metro / tier-I cities and tier-II cities have come up. This trend will continue where demand for more such routes with direct connectivity between tier-II cities will come up. Further, with increasing global involvement from Indian industry and diaspora, the long haul traffic is also
primed to increase. This means opening up of newer routes in both narrow and wide body segments.

The demand of air-travel from any city/region could be linked to economic activities like goods/services trading volume, proximity to nearest metro city, availability of other modes of transport, average income, and many other macro-economic data.

Can an analytical model be built that takes macro-economic data and identifies potential market of people who will opt for air-travel from tier-II cities? What kind of metrics will define spending trends, and macro-economic development? How these metrics evolve and represent the need to have an airport / a new route to another tier II city. Is the same trend observed in other APAC countries?

Tech stack

• Open to all
• Use cloud services for project deployment.

Submission guidelines

These components must be available in your final submission:

• Project description (mandatory)
• Repository link (Github link, mandatory)
• Demo video of the project
• PPT and related documents of the project (mandatory)

Overview

Be creative and build a unique problem statement and devise a solution. There is a lot of room for innovation here so we are looking forward to your unusual, out-of-the-box idea. Put on your thinking cap and submit solutions and features that you believe in.

Examples

• Sustainable growth in transport/mobility solutions
• Digital solutions for the engine (or aircraft) operators related to operations, maintenance, financing of fleet, and supply chain for critical parts availability
• Safety and security of cloud-based digital solutions
• Optimization of engine component usage to maximize life or reduce OPEX cost by leveraging digital transformation
• Social responsibility: ensuring a healthy and safe environment for personnel working ground operations, and maintenance, repair, overhaul facilities

Tech stack

• Open to all
• Use cloud services for project deployment.

Submission guidelines

These components must be available in your final submission:

• Project description (mandatory)
• Repository link (Github link, mandatory)
• Demo video of the project
• PPT and related documents of the project (mandatory)