The search for the most innovative start-up
Evolonic is winning FAU team – students will now participate in European competition
Virtual exhibition spaces, a personalized bra for treating breast cancer or an app that improves physiotherapy treatments were just some of the ideas from the eight teams who recently presented their start-ups at the Zollhof Tech Incubator in Nuremberg. The winning start-up, Evolonic, will travel to Pisa in December to represent FAU at the European EELISA Start-up Demo Day. FAU students, staff and alumni were invited to apply to participate in the Start-up Demo Day. The event was organized by the EELISA team at FAU and the Digital Tech Academy.
During a three-minute pitch, the teams presented their ideas and business models to a jury of leading figures from science and industry. They included Christoph Heynen, Head of FAU’s Start-up Service, Anna Werner, CEO of Medical Valley and Prof. Carolin Durst, co-founder of ITONICS and Professor of Digital Marketing.
The start-up Evolonic won first place. The students in the team have developed a drone that can supply more precise data and cover larger areas of ground than a satellite due to its special design. In conjunction with students from the Innovation Lab at the Machine Learning and Data Analytics Lab and Erlangen Fire Department, they have fitted the drone with sensors capable of detecting forest fires at an early stage and that can forward the information to the emergency services. As the winning team, Evolonic will participate at the EELISA Start-up Demo Day in Pisa in December. Each EELISA partner university sends a start-up team to the competition, which means nine teams from seven countries are taking part.
Phymed Innovation and Excav Pilot came second and third respectively. To improve radiotherapy treatment for patients of breast cancer, three FAU students, Lara Delevic, Ana Bojic und Akshat Sharma, founded the start-up Phymed Innovation. They are working on a personalized bra whose precise fit makes it possible to provide more accurate radiation therapy. This not only makes the treatment more efficient, but also protects the surrounding tissue from radiation.
The sensors in Excav Pilot, founded by Emanuel Sizmann, speed up excavation work – one of the first steps in construction. The system speeds up everything from excavating the foundations, levelling the ground and laying pipes. The top three teams received coaching worth 1,000 euros each.
From blockchain to teaching materials
The start-ups Cryptolight, fyzo, Tiny Classroom, arfinity and INVRTUAL also presented their business ideas.
Cryptolight develops software with a user-friendly interface that allows people to use blockchains without any prior knowledge. Fyzo hopes to improve physiotherapy for patients. The team wants to simplify the bureaucracy involved such as appointment scheduling and documentation as well as improve treatment for patients using digital training plans and videos. The Tiny Classroom team is developing a platform for detailed teaching materials based on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. INVRTUAL aims to provide virtual showrooms for online retailing. Companies can use them to display products from their online shops. arfinity is also working on a system for displaying products virtually. By using augmented reality, exhibitors at trade shows will no longer need to transport all their exhibits. Instead, visitors will be able to view the products virtually from all sides using 3D glasses.
Further information:
Melanie Viebahn
FAU EELISA
melanie.viebahn@fau.de
Lisa Drescher
Consulting services for start-ups
lisa.wittenzellner@fau.de