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Penguin Labs selected as a finalist for the second year in a row. Passed the first screening of "NEDO Challenge, Satellite Data — Innovating the future of urban infrastructure with satellite data"
Theme 2: Technology development that contributes to disaster prevention and disaster response for infrastructure
Following last year, Penguin Labs is again a finalist in NEDO Challenge, this time on urban infrastructure.
Penguin Labs LLC (Head office: Tokyo; Co-CEOs: Shimpei Akatsuka and Muneyoshi Kajimoto) has passed the first screening of "NEDO Challenge, Satellite Data — Innovating the future of urban infrastructure with satellite data," a prize contest run by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), and has been selected as a finalist.
Last year, Penguin Labs also passed the first screening of "NEDO Challenge, Satellite Data — Updating agriculture, forestry, and fisheries with satellite data!" and advanced to the final judging. At that final judging, the company won first place in Theme 1 and the top prize of the Satellite Data Utilization Award, a double award. Selection in this year's urban-infrastructure program makes two consecutive years as a finalist.
Related news: Double win at NEDO Challenge finals — Satellite Data Utilization Award Grand Prize / Theme 1 First Place
This year's proposal
The entry is under Theme 2, "Technology development that contributes to solving challenges in disaster prevention and disaster response for infrastructure."
The proposal is "Urban Foresight Twin: an urban intelligence platform that combines satellite data, weather, and a global digital twin to read disaster precursors from changes on Earth and look ahead to the next state of urban infrastructure." It connects satellite and weather data with a digital twin of the Earth, and turns that outlook into decisions about what urban infrastructure needs next.
Theme 2 finalists
Finalists for Theme 2 are listed below without honorifics, in application-number order, matching the official announcement.
| Proposal | Organization / representative |
|---|---|
| Urban Foresight Twin: an urban intelligence platform that reads disaster precursors from changes on Earth with a satellite, weather, and global digital twin, and looks ahead to the next state of urban infrastructure | Penguin Labs LLC |
| Development of a disaster-status digital twin and a recovery-support AI agent using satellite data, real-time ground data, and 3D city models | Spectee Inc. |
| An area-wide system that updates liquefaction assessment conditions by integrating satellite InSAR and groundwater observations | Kotaro Okamoto |
| A system that recovers external-force events at erosion-control and forest-conservation facilities without communications, using SAR observations | Core Corporation |
| A watershed digital twin that predicts compound risks of water failure and water disasters — too much water, too little water, and using too much water — and optimizes watershed infrastructure | TerraInsight Inc. |
| OFIN: monitoring in-channel change with satellite SAR and estimating the longitudinal distribution of discharge during floods | Taisei Corporation |
| Development of a GeoAI agent that supports damage assessment and emergency restoration of infrastructure in disasters | RIKEN |
Schedule
The contest proceeds through application, a first screening (document review), system development and mentoring, and a second screening (final judging). Penguin Labs has passed the first screening and will develop the system, with mentoring, toward the final judging in late July 2027.
About NEDO Challenge, Satellite Data
This program is a prize contest run by METI and NEDO. Against shortages of people who maintain infrastructure, aging assets, and more severe natural disasters, it invites technology that uses satellite data and related sources to improve infrastructure management and disaster prevention and response. Theme 2 covers disaster-risk assessment, detection of anomalies and precursors, wide-area situational awareness after a disaster, and visualization combined with 3D city models.
Finalists receive opportunities such as mentoring during the development period. Winners are selected at the second screening, the final judging, in late July 2027. Prizes are 20 million yen for first place, 10 million yen for second, and 5 million yen for third.
Official site: https://space-data-challenge.nedo.go.jp/infrastructure/
Company overview
About Penguin Labs LLC
Penguin Labs is a technology company that uses satellite data, weather data, AI, and related technologies to address challenges in agriculture, the natural environment, and local communities. Through global environmental AI TWINZ Plus and by combining local data with global environmental data, we support decisions that once depended on experience alone, toward sustainable communities.
URL: https://penguin-labs.com/en
Media contact
Penguin Labs LLC, Public Relations
Web form: https://penguin-labs.com/contact/