Freelancer announces winners of the AMPS Challenge
$150,000 USD was awarded to four winners of the Automated Maintenance of Protection Systems (AMPS) Challenge final phase
SYDNEY, Australia – Freelancer.com (ASX: FLN, OTCQX: FLNCF), the world’s largest freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace by number of users and jobs posted, today announced the winners of the final phase of its Automated Maintenance of Protection Systems (AMPS) Challenge.
The two-phase global challenge, ran in collaboration with Arrow Electronics, the Bureau of Reclamation, and NASA Tournament Lab, aimed to crowdsource ideas that will help improve the reliability of hydropower plant generation by automating safety equipment testing and reducing plant downtime.
Originally announced in March 2021, Phase 1 required solvers to submit a whitepaper detailing their solution, which awarded seven winners the chance to create and present a prototype to a judging panel of experts. Prototypes of the solutions were required to demonstrate automated protection systems testing without requiring plants to be off-line and that are not labor intensive.
Phase 2 awarded four winners with prizes for their respective prototypes. The top solution tied and the grand prize of $100,000 was split to two winners – engineer Andres Quintanilla from Lund, Sweden and a brother duo – Seyed M Rahavi and Reza Rahavi – from British Columbia, Canada.
The Rahavi brothers were also awarded a Benchmark prize for Relay Event Files and Quality of Output Reports, adding up to a total prize of $57,500.
Matthew Wolter from Massachusetts, United States, supported by his team member Jonathan Bliss, were awarded four Benchmark prizes which saw them take home a total prize of $40,000. Machine learning software company MultiSequence from Virginia, United States, was also awarded a Benchmark prize for Costs, totalling $2,500.
“The AMPs Challenge brought together the best of the best from around the world to help solve the complex issues presented by the Bureau of Reclamation. Each prototype awarded in Phase 2 of the challenge brought a unique perspective that will shape approaches to automating testing of power plant protection systems,” said Matt Barrie, Chief Executive at Freelancer.com.
Winners – Automated Maintenance of Protection Systems (AMPS) Challenge Phase 2
Top Solution Prize (Tied), Benchmark Awards: Relay Event Files & Quality of Output Reports – winning a total of $57,500: Seyed Mohammadhadi Rahavi (Team Lead) from British Columbia, Canada, supported by his team member Reza Rahavi.
The team presented an advanced SCADA solution developed based on SEL hardware and LabView as the software development platform. In this solution, all critical challenge requirements were addressed properly and many additional features were developed professionally.
Top Solution Prize (Tied) – winning $50,000: Andres Quintanilla from Lund, Sweden.
Andres is an experienced engineer on programming PLCs and integration of systems into SCADAs at large scale facilities with a passion for automotive and green energy generation. His solution automates maintenance tasks and integrates data for electrical protection systems at power plants.
It is a PLC-based system with top-notch hardware, coding that follows international standards and that both combined makes the system robust, expandable, reliable and easy to use.
Benchmark Prizes for: Innovation, Ease of use, Additional Test or Features, and Instrument Transformer Burden Test – winning a total of $40,000: Matthew Wolter from Massachusetts, United States, supported by his team member Jonathan Bliss.
The team developed a 2-part system consisting of 1) edge-processing Power System Probes with parallel processing for monitoring up to 12 protective relays/meters at once and a 2) Command-and-Control server with custom software for comprehensive test monitoring, system configuration, and data management.
Benchmark Prize for Costs – winning $2,500: MultiSequence Inc. based in Virginia, United States
MultiSequence provided a smart solution to monitor device settings for automating the maintenance of protection systems. The solution utilized a modular platform along with the custom developed Smart Server and Smart Terminal units.
About Freelancer.com
Twelve-time Webby award-winning Freelancer.com is the world’s largest freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace by total number of users and projects posted. More than 60 million registered users have posted over 21 million projects and contests to date in over 2,000 areas as diverse as website development, logo design, marketing, copywriting, astrophysics, aerospace engineering and manufacturing. Freelancer owns Escrow.com, the leading provider of secure online payments and online transaction management for consumers and businesses on the Internet with over US$5 billion in transactions secured.Freelancer also owns Freightlancer & Loadshift, enterprise freight marketplaces with over 550 million kilometers of freight posted since inception. Freelancer Limited is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange under the ticker ASX:FLN and is quoted on OTCQX Best Market under the ticker FLNCF.
