ITECAM (Industrial Technology Centre of Castilla-La Mancha) brought together around thirty professionals and companies at the AI4RURAL Ideathon, an event held in Tarancón (Cuenca) as part of the European project PoliRuralPlus. Thanks to this initiative, aimed at fostering sustainable, balanced, and inclusive development in the Sierra and Mancha Conquense region, innovative ideas were presented across the three proposed challenges: smart rural tourism; smart forest management; and digitalisation of cultural heritage. In all of them, viable ideas were showcased that leverage the potential of artificial intelligence and advanced digital technologies, thus meeting the project’s objectives.
The first prize was awarded to Frédéric Fyon, participant in the “Smart Forest Management” challenge, thanks to the presentation of an innovative initiative that improves community composting in rural areas through the integration of wireless sensors and artificial intelligence systems capable of remotely monitoring processes and providing automated guidance to comply with European regulations.
The AI4RURAL jury considered aspects such as: the clarity and appeal of the idea; its alignment with the selected challenge’s objectives; the feasibility and applicability of the proposed idea; the economic, social, and environmental impact of the initiative; the final presentation; and the use and integration of PoliRuralPlus tools. Particular value was placed on the winning proposal’s contribution to strengthening community collaboration; supporting economic development and innovation in rural areas; fostering local entrepreneurship; and bridging the gap between rural and urban areas—key aspects of this project.
The winner received a €1,000 prize, as well as technical support to develop a pilot project based on the proposed idea. In this way, Frédéric’s proposal will make it possible to manage multiple composting points remotely, improve sustainability in rural environments, and obtain high-quality compost for agricultural and environmental uses in the Sierra and Mancha Conquense region, as well as in other territories with similar characteristics.
In addition to the development of the ideas submitted to the competition, alongside expert mentors in each of the challenges, the event also featured several success stories and technological showrooms, such as: “Artificial Intelligence applied to rural wine tourism”; “Monitoring of reforestation through multispectral drone imagery”; and “Smart digitalisation applied to cultural heritage”. A technical opening session was also held on AI applications in rural environments.
This event received funding from the PoliRuralPlus project, financed by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101136910.
