UNIKAT awards for answers to social challenges

The award winners were announced on Thursday evening (4/28). Employees, students and alumni of the University of Kassel and the students of the Student Research Center North Hesse were called upon to submit their entrepreneurial ideas for products, services and the creative exploitation of research results. The aim of the competition, which is organized by UniKasselTransfer, is to promote the development of exceptional and, above all, innovative ideas from the university environment and thus also the transfer of scientific findings to business and society.

"In this round of the competition, 114 participants submitted a total of 80 idea sketches. This is a great response, although the duration of the competition was still marked by the Corona pandemic. But this did not dampen the creativity of the teams," says Daniel Opper, head of UniKasselTransfer. Accordingly, it was difficult for the jury to choose five winners in the end. "What they all have in common is that they have sought and found concrete answers to current social or ecological challenges," Opper says of the winners.

The 1st prize was awarded to idea "CareCal" by Xinyi He, a student at the School of Art in the Product Design Department. CareCal is an automatic pill dispenser with an integrated calendar function. Using voice instructions, CareCal enables people with early to moderate dementia to maintain a high level of independence and safe medical care. The first prize of 2,500 euros is sponsored by Hübner GmbH & Co. KG.

The jury awarded the second prize of 2,000 euros, sponsored by Kasseler Sparkasse, to the "Wuchshülle" idea by Jan Wagemann, also a student at the art academy. His product idea is an innovative, completely biodegradable growth cover for young trees. In addition to providing protection from wildlife damage, this offers optimal climatic conditions to support the growth of a young plant. Thanks to its physical design, the growth cover increases the growth rates of freshly planted plants and thus makes it possible to reforest damaged and open areas efficiently and sustainably.

The 3rd prize of 1,500 euros, sponsored by the Unternehmerverband Nordhessen e. V., was awarded to the idea "LiSe" by Anja Kellner, also a student of product design at the art academy. LiSe warns blind and visually impaired people in good time of sources of danger such as door edges, walls or protruding objects, thus avoiding everyday accidents. A small shaking motor triggers vibrations that remain perceptible better than a warning tone, even in the presence of background noise. LiSe works with time-of-flight sensors, a technology familiar from autonomous driving.

The Special Research Transfer Award, given for innovative product and service ideas based on direct, personal research results, goes to the idea "Smarticipation" by Nicole Raddatz, a research assistant and currently a doctoral student in the Department of Architecture, Urban and Landscape Planning. Her idea is a participation app that leads to improved participation practices in public planning projects. The focus is on a "participation tracker" that maps the previous, current and future planning steps and shows a variety of participation options. In addition, opinions and comments can also be sent directly to the responsible planning offices or municipalities via the app.

The university awards the special Social Entrepreneurship prize for innovative product and service ideas that solve current social challenges and thus offer added value for society as a whole. This year, the prize went to "Profil-System" by Johannes Kastner. The art school student has developed a solution for reducing plastic waste in Africa. His tools can be used to produce functional objects from plastic waste that can be used in schools, startups and companies, for example.

The annual UNIKAT ideas competition serves to support the culture of ideas and start-ups at the University of Kassel. A network of more than 100 experts evaluates the submitted ideas every year. In addition to well-founded written feedback, participants receive access to the Kassel start-up network and advice from the UniKasselTransfer Incubator, the university's central start-up support service. All participants, regardless of their ranking, will also receive a wide range of support services for their implementation after the ideas competition. Due to the pandemic, the festive closing event and award ceremony at Science Park Kassel will not take place this year. The awards will be presented in the coming weeks at bilateral meetings with the respective award sponsors.

All information on the UNIKAT Ideas Competition: www.unikat-ideenwettbewerb.de
Entries 13th Ideas Competition: www.uni-kassel.de/go/Jahrbuch  
Support services UniKasselTransfer Incubator: www.unikat-kassel.de

Contact:
Sandra Wilhelm
University of Kassel
UniKasselTransfer Incubator
Tel: 0561 804-7252
E-mail: sandra.wilhelm[at]uni-kassel[dot]de