On June 29, the time had come - the award ceremony of the largest Upper Austrian ideas competition took place. Numerous guests took part to select the best ideas in Upper Austria.
The EDISON ideas competition received the coveted gold, silver and bronze awards in the "Technology", "Innovation" and "Creative Industries" categories. Special prizes were also awarded for "Social Entrepreneurship" and "Sustainability". The "Special Award for Diversity/Female Empowerment" was also presented for the first time to honor the commitment to diversity and female empowerment in entrepreneurship.
The best inventions were sought in three categories as part of the Upper Austrian ideas competition "EDISON". Around 60 applications were received by the organizers tech2b, TECH HARBOR, the University of Art and Design Linz and the Creative Region. With the support of various partners and sponsors, the innovative ideas were sought out in an intensive process, coached and ultimately evaluated by top-class juries.
"With EDISON, we want to highlight and recognize outstanding business ideas. Our aim is to motivate as many people as possible in Upper Austria to turn their good ideas into business start-ups," explained Provincial Councillor Achleitner.
We were impressed by the quality of the submissions," emphasizes Raphael Friedl, Managing Director of tech2b Inkubator GmbH. "The special Diversity/Female Empowerment award is directly related to our ambition to create an inclusive ecosystem for founders of all cultures and ages. By awarding this special prize, we want to raise awareness of the importance of diversity in the startup scene and at the same time encourage female founders in particular to pursue their entrepreneurial ambitions," emphasizes Friedl.
Friedl also emphasizes, "We are firmly convinced that start-up projects with a climate and environmental focus play a key role in shaping a sustainable economy. With the special sustainability prize, we want to emphasize the importance of sustainable entrepreneurship and encourage founders to implement their ideas for a better and healthier environment."
"The idea generators of today are the entrepreneurs of tomorrow. With the EDISON ideas competition, we are making an important contribution to strengthening Upper Austria as an innovation hotspot and making the location even more competitive," concluded Provincial Councillor Achleitner
The winners in the "Technology" category:
The golden EDISON Prize 2023 went to Eva Doviak and her team (Linz) for their project "DIAMENS. As endometriosis can usually only be diagnosed by surgery after a very long period of suffering of 6-12 years, Eva Dovjak and her team are developing an inexpensive rapid test for detecting the disease from menstrual blood that can be carried out at home.
Holger Plasser and his team (Wels) received silver for their project "voidsy 3D V-ROX" - the world's first compact and smart photothermal tomography solution, which enables fast and contactless 3D imaging of material and component defects. The bronze trophy went to Sebastian Ludwig and Grabner Valentin (Linz) for their project "Respory", a technology for acquiring and analyzing movement flows in high-traffic areas, which improves retail sales and derives an optimized interior design to ensure a better customer experience.
The prizes, worth 6,000 euros, were provided by greiner AG and KGG // UBG.
The winners in the "Innovation" category:
The golden EDISON 2023 in this category went to Jürgen Secklehner (Scharnstein) and his team for the "Seccon" project. Seccon - or the patented Seccon process - uses the waste heat from industrial plants to recover valuable raw materials from the ever-growing mountains of waste with the help of incineration/pyrolysis, to clean them and thus make them more recyclable and completely CO2 neutral.
Ibrahim Sagerer-Foric and his team (Vöcklabruck) won silver with "BergWind". BergWind offers the unique opportunity to use cable cars as power plants outside of their operating hours by attaching wind turbines to the haul rope of ski lifts, raising them to the desired height and using them to generate electricity. This innovative technology increases the sustainability and profitability of ski resorts and mountain tourism without the need to build reinforced concrete towers and without additional soil sealing.
Bronze in the Innovation category was awarded to Ronald Roither and his team (Ampflwang) for their invention "Squirell". With their online platform, they make it possible to create and amend a will immediately, legally secure and checked by a lawyer.
The prizes, worth 6,000 euros, were provided by Siemens AG and the SCCH - Software Competence Center Hagenberg.
The winners in the "Creative Industries" category:
The EDISON 2023 in gold went to Ursula Dürr and her team (Linz) "Bundre". The waistband clasp is a product patented in February 2023 that finally makes it possible to wear any bottom part that is too wide at the waist. This, without the need for belt loops, concealable and without restrictions in terms of the thickness of the fabric. Since Bundre is size-adjustable, it is possible to make the waistband up to 3 dress sizes tighter.
Silver went to Dominik Berger and his team (Linz) for their idea "Project Eye". There are hardly any training options for visual field loss. They have designed a program for commercially available VR glasses that can be used to evaluate and train the areas where vision is impaired in order to achieve better and faster rehabilitation.
The third prize in this category was awarded to Martin Hausleitner (Linz) and his team for their idea "Nochba". The Nochba project is a social media app that aims to promote social connections and cohesion in urban neighborhoods by enabling users to seek or offer help, overcome language barriers with a translation function and facilitate communication between neighbors.
The prizes worth 6,000 euros in the "Creative Industries" category were sponsored by hali GmbH.
Special prize for "Social Entrepreneurship": (Sponsor Sparkasse Oberösterreich)
The special prize for Social Entrepreneurship was presented by Johannes Pracher (Head of Startrampe powered by Sparkasse Oberösterreich) to Martin Hausleitner (Linz) and his team for their idea "Nochba". The Nochba project is a social media app that aims to promote social connections and cohesion in urban neighborhoods by enabling users to seek or offer help, overcome language barriers with a translation function and facilitate communication between neighbors.
Special prize for "Sustainability": (Sponsor WKO Upper Austria)
The special prize for digitalization was presented by Robert Leitner (Head of the Economic Policy and Foreign Trade Department of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber) and went to Jürgen Secklehner (Scharnstein) and his team for the "Seccon" project. Seccon - or the patented Seccon process - uses the waste heat from industrial plants to recover valuable raw materials from the ever-growing mountains of waste with the help of incineration/pyrolysis, to clean them and thus make them more recyclable and completely CO2 neutral.
Special prize for "Diversity/Female Empowerment": (Sponsor Poloplast GmbH & Co KG)
This year, the special prize for Diversity/Female Empowerment was awarded for the first time. Alice Godderigde (CEO Poloplast GmbH) presented the prize. The winner of the special prize was Eva Dovjak (Linz) and her team for the "Diamens" project Since endometriosis can usually only be diagnosed after a very long period of suffering of 6-12 years by means of an operation, Eva Dovjak and her team are developing a rapid test for detecting the disease from menstrual blood that can be carried out at home and is inexpensive.
Photos: Richard Haidinger / Eder Stefanie
More photos on: Cityfoto.at
