Awards for TEK students at this year's Startup Night
Three talented startups each received a prize of DKK 50,000 at this year's Startup Night at Videnbyen in Cortex Park, including two companies that emerged from the Faculty of Technology.
A few hundred people participated in SDU's annual Startup Night, culminating in the Best Startup Award presentation. The award went to Oceanwide Seaweed, made up of students from the Faculty of Engineering who specialize in cultivating seaweed at sea.
The company has a large experimental area in the Limfjord and is working on developing seaweed to taste like bacon. Oceanwide Seaweed has, among other things, Goretex as a partner and impressed the judging panel with their presentation.
Two additional prizes of DKK 50,000 were also awarded, sponsored by Møllerens Fond. Aris Robotics - also from the Faculty of Engineering - won the Climate Hero award for their robotic solution that sorts waste better than humans.
"First of all, it was great with the recognition. We are all passionate about sustainability and motivated to go to work every day and build the company. It's great that others can also see the importance of what we work with and want to honour us - the fact that a big check comes with it doesn't matter either," says Aris Robotics' founder and director with a smile, Sina Pour Soltani, who studied robotics.
Soltani says that the company is currently involved in two pilot projects. A project with a municipal recycling site to help visitors sort better, put a project in collaboration with a construction site, to provide data on waste and give a real insight into the trash that is produced in real-time and 24/7.
"It can be used to optimize processes, ensure that more materials are recycled, rather than buried or burned, at the same time that the data can be used in ESG reports, which will be a requirement from the new year."
Aris Robotics is so busy that, so far, there has yet to be time to celebrate the award at the SDU Startup Night.
"It didn't amount to more than a high five on the evening itself and then back to work. On the other hand, we have set a date in the calendar when we will celebrate the award and, most importantly, our efforts in the recent period," says Sina Pour Soltani
Nordic Phantoms received the Society Hero award for their solution for simulating internal bleeding. All award recipients intend to use the money to develop their businesses further.
Among the prominent guests at the event were Denmark's "Mr Wind Power", Henrik Stiesdal, who gave a speech, and super entrepreneur Thomas Visti, who chaired the judging panel. The judging panel also included Nina Movin from the Otto Mønsted Foundation, who donated 50,000 kroner for the most distinguished prize, the Best Startup Award.