PS-02Climate, Water & Circularity
CoolRoute
Heat-Aware Safer Routing and Exposure Reduction
SDG 3SDG 11SDG 13
The challenge
The fastest walking, cycling or outdoor-work route is not always the safest during extreme heat. Heat exposure can change with time of day, surface temperature, shade, traffic, humidity, route duration and access to drinking water or rest points. Design an AI-assisted route planner that estimates relative heat exposure across possible routes and recommends a practical lower-risk option. The system should explain why one route is safer, update recommendations when weather changes and avoid presenting a single city-level temperature as if it represents every street.
What a working submission needs
Create a map-based prototype for one selected campus or city zone.
It should compare at least two routes using a transparent heat-risk score, display shaded/rest/water points, show the trade-off between travel time and heat exposure, and reroute when a simulated condition changes.
Stretch goals
a worker-mode with rest scheduling, crowdsourced shade verification or short-term microclimate prediction.
Optional. A working core counts for more than feature count.Suggested stack
Web/mobile application, AI/ML models, a mapping or dashboard interface, and open APIs as appropriate to the problem.
Scope and responsibility
Healthcare, safety and public-sector challenges are decision-support tools, not autonomous clinical, legal, emergency-command or enforcement systems. Name your prototype’s limitations in the demo. Judging weighs a working core, justified use of AI, technical quality, real-world impact and responsible design above feature count.
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