200 projects, 400 students in this year’s of TU/e’s innovation contest

TU/e Contest – final event with winners Foto: Bart van Overbeeke

EINDHOVEN, 05-Jun-2017 — /EuropaWire/ — On Thursday 1 June the final of the TU/e Contest took place. The TU/e Contest is the innovation contest for students at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and was held for the third time. TU/e organized the event in cooperation with more than 30 leading companies and organizations from the Brainport region. These parties hope that the TU/e Contest will challenge students to go on with the development of their innovative idea or prototype and translate it into a marketable product.

In total, some 200 projects were submitted by around 400 students in all. After a selection procedure by the partner companies – making use of business plans, speed dates and the underlying motivation – the top 20 submissions were shortlisted and assessed in the final in the three categories: ‘best idea’, ‘best prototype’ and ‘student teams’.

During the evening Lex Lemmens, dean of the Bachelor College, officially handed over the TU/e Contest to Isabelle Reymen, director of TU/e Innovation Space. The aim of Innovation Space, which will open in the spring of 2018, is to give entrepreneurial students optimum opportunity to collaborate in multidisciplinary student teams and startups, in addition to education and industry.

Winners
The winner of the best idea, which earns a cash prize and a workplace in Innovation Space, was eMinds, an idea whereby software is developed that uses the mind-mapping method to ensure that knowledge is no longer lost. The prize aims to enable the idea to be further developed by making use of a workplace in the new accommodation.

The prize for best prototype went to Jackx. The concrete application of this system is that visitors to café can clamp their coat onto a device for a small fee. They also won a cash prize and workplace in the new accommodation of Innovation Space.

The FAST student team, which developed a car powered by formic acid, won first prize in the student teams category while the other student team, T.E.S.T., won the audience prize by a vote. The team presented a pitch focusing on cardiac failure, whereby it should be possible to easily monitor the condition of patients by taking just a droplet of blood each day, and so reduce both hospitalization stays and costs of care.

Finally, the ASML Maker Award went to Ares Analytics, a device that indicates both how much and when elite sportsmen and women suffer from hyperacidity during training. 

SOURCE: Eindhoven University of Technology