With the IdeAward, the Technical University of Munich honors the best business ideas from its researchers. This year, the awards went to ORBEM, m-Bee, and Woodchicken.
The first place at the TUM IdeAwards 2018 was secured by the team of ORBEMUsing their AI-driven imaging technology, the award-winning researchers determine the sex of poultry embryos while they are still in the egg. The technology is based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Eggs can be examined contactlessly and automatically sorted according to their fertility status and the sex of the chick. This prevents the killing of so-called day-old chicks and allows examined unfertilized eggs to reach the market instead of being discarded.
In second place is m-Bee with innovative power electronics for battery storage systems. Highly dynamic circuits generate a true alternating voltage. These active battery modules can reduce overall costs and the risk of failure and enable the full utilization of batteries' storage capacity.
Third place goes to a mushroom-based vegan meat substitute. Woodchicken produces this from the sulphur polypore, which is also called “Chicken of the Woods” due to its fibrous structure and chicken-like taste.
Winners of the IdeAward receive 37,500 euros in prize money
Since 2012, the Technical University of Munich, the UnternehmerTUM and the Zeidler Research Foundation present the TUM IdeAward. The prize is intended to motivate scientists to develop their inventions into marketable products. The winning teams receive a total of €37,500 in prize money from the Zeidler Research Foundation and coaching sessions with the TUM Start-up Advisory Service and UnternehmerTUM. This year, 50 teams submitted their concepts; the ten most promising were presented at the awards ceremony, and the three best received prizes.
