IDC Season 9: Smart Cities, Digital Farming, & More

Starting in October 2024, Accedia’s Innovation Development Center (IDC) Season 9 brought together 23 people from across the company to rethink how technology can support smarter living. In just four months, participants took on IDC projects alongside their day-to-day roles to test ideas and build demo-ready applications.

The projects tackled real challenges like overwatering plants, tracking medications, monitoring energy use, and improving nutrition transparency. The development combined connected devices, microcontroller integrations like Arduino-powered measurements, and real-time analytics. Teams also explored AI technologies, using voice cloning with Eleven Labs and image generation with Stable Diffusion. Together, they turned ambitious ideas into working solutions:

• MAIA 2.0 - A returning favorite, now with new capabilities. The updated storytelling platform generates personalized children’s stories, combining AI-generated illustrations with lifelike narration through voice cloning. It continues to explore how technology can make learning more creative, accessible, and engaging for kids. 
• Pillr - Six teammates reimagined how we manage medications. Pillr tracks usage, expiry dates, and medicine disposal. With smart alerts and recycling guidance, it promotes healthier habits and less waste—combining real-time data with a sustainability mindset. 
• Garden Irrigation Automation - This application is a smart way to stop over- or underwatering your plants. The team built a web-based system that automates garden irrigation using connected devices. It lets users create custom watering schedules, manage everything remotely, and monitor water usage in real time. 
• ScaleSmart - Designed to make nutrition information as accessible as the food itself, this tool helps fast food restaurants calculate and display real-time nutritional data. It connects digital menus with ingredient data and in-kitchen measurements, helping both businesses and customers make more informed choices. 
• SmartFlow - This project helps families and businesses see where their energy goes and what they can do to reduce waste. It combines real-time data with practical suggestions, offering control over electricity use through a connected app. 

Season 9 brought five very different concepts to life, each rooted in building something useful, accessible, and relevant. That’s what defines IDC. Different skills, one direction: forward. 

About IDC 

IDC is a skill-sharing initiative that supports the realization of team members’ innovative ideas into actual software solutions. The program is designed to celebrate individual talent, ideas, and entrepreneurial skills while fostering teamwork, collaboration and encouraging learning from one another. Want to take part in IDC Season 10? Make sure to keep an eye on our open positions.