A big congratulations is in order for Christian Grinling who won Keyloop’s second annual Dealer Tech Competition and took home the grand prize of £10,000!
Originally from Spain, and having moved to the UK 8 years ago, Christian is a 20-year-old second-year student at King’s College London majoring in Electronic Engineering.
Christian’s proposed mobile phone app, named Coast, is an easy-to-use app that provides online service bookings, real-time tracking and push notifications. It brings together a number of disjointed current solutions into one simple unified platform, enabling customers to search for and book a service online, whilst providing them with information on how much it will cost and how long it will take. It not only offers real-time updates to the consumer whilst the work is being done, but will also send them reminders when the next service or MOT is due. The innovative app will also make it easier for dealerships to secure new aftersales bookings and build consumer trust which could help to maximise the workshop efficiency.
Commenting on his achievement, Grinling said: “I have an immense passion for software engineering and developing mobile apps! The competition allowed me to take a new and innovative product for the car servicing industry from initial conception through programming, tackling both the technical and business aspect of its design. I wanted to get a feel of what taking a product from start to end in a real-life environment was like and how my idea could help benefit consumers. I gained invaluable experience from this competition and am very grateful to Keyloop for the opportunity.”
At the international final on 9th March, six winning teams competed against each other to win the grand prize of £10,000.
Below are the six finalist teams and their interesting ideas:
King’s College London – Dealer Tech International Award 2022
- Winning team: Christian Grinling
- Team members: Christian Grinling
- The idea: A mobile application that allows the consumers to book, track and engage with their car servicing, as well as allowing the garage to monitor their upcoming and current service orders and effectively update the consumers on the car repair/service status.
The University of Bath – Dealer Tech Innovation Award 2022
- Winning team: Tom Christensen
- Team members: Tom Christensen
- The idea: A platform for consumers to compare and recommend the most suitable electric vehicle based on their typical daily routine.
The University of Exeter
- Winning team: ExeTerminators
- Team members: Barnaby Gill, Ryan Storey, Oskar Oramus, Isaac Cheng
- The idea: A web application that provides insights into people’s travel habits, including suggestions to reduce environmental impact.
The University of Warwick
- Winning team: The Testroyers
- Team members: Sai Kommuru, Lukasz Stanaszek, Laurence Reynolds
- The idea: A platform that allows consumers to book and then manage their test drives quickly and easily online with all relevant information about the vehicles that consumers want to buy.
The University of Manitoba
- Winning team: EasyCar
- Team members: Leon Stetefeld, Jared Rost, Omar Bileha, Joseffus Santos, Tanvir Ahmed
- The idea: A search engine to compare and recommend potential new cars for customers by using a matching algorithm.
Munster Technological University
- Winning team: REVVV
- Team members: Eoghan Boyce, Domonkos Peter, Alana Neenan, Shri Charan Kandhasamy Saravanakumar, Ajeet Kanojia
- The idea: A mobile application that shows customers a personalised vehicle service history (visually) with price breakdown and allows them to prepay before collecting the car at their preferred time.
Find out more about the competition here and if it something you are interested in, you could take part next year!