AEInnova receives best business idea award from the Generating Ideas Programme

The AEInnova project, a microelectronics system used to recover residual heat which is lost and transform it into electric energy, won first prize in the third edition of the Generating Ideas Programme, organised by the UAB and the Research Park.

28/11/2014

This year's edition of the Generating Ideas Progamme organised by the UAB and the Research Park has selected its winners. The three projects were selected due to their capacity for offering market solution in the environmental and energy sustainability sectors.

The AEInnova project, created by researchers Raúl Aragonés, Carles Ferrer, Roger Malet, Joan Oliver, José Antonio Molina and Roger Nicolás, received first prize. These researchers from the UAB Department of Microelectronics have created a technology able to capture low and medium intensity residual heat and reuse it as energy.

Their system is based on the use of Peltier cells, which capture residual heat through differences in temperature and generate electric energy. Traditionally, these devices were used for cooling, for example in refrigerators, but researchers verified that they were reversible and could be used to achieve the opposite effect. With this technology, therefore, residual heat can be put to good use in heating devices for homes, factories, thermal power stations and vehicles.

The first prize consisted in 2,500 euros, an assessment programme offered by KicInnoenergy and six months of incubation at the Eureka building of the UAB Research Park in order to develop the idea further and turn it into a profitable business opportunity.

The second prize was awarded to the Blue Human Photonics project, which focuses on the intelligent management of LED lighting through Smart Bluetooth control. The team working on this project is formed by the students Juan de Dios Sirvent, Jun Lian, Alfonso Martínez and lecturers from the UAB Optics Group Jordi Mompart and Todor Kirilov.

At present, the only solution offered by companies distributing or selling LEDs for the intelligent and remote control of the lightings is based on controllers operated using WiFi technology. In some cases, the cost of producing such WiFi controllers can be as expensive as the lights themselves. That is why researchers at Blue Human Photonics designed a universal Smart Bluetooth controller which only costs five euros, consumes 1000 times less than a WiFi controller and can auto-recharge. Researchers were awarded 1,500 euros in cash, an assessment programme offered by KicInnoenergy and three months of incubation at the Eureka building of the UAB Research Park.

The winners of the third prize, worth 1,000 euros, were Naroa Uria, Óscar Castillo and Francesc Xavier Muñoz from the BioMEMs group of the Barcelona Microelectronics Institute (IMB-CNM CSIC). Their project, given the name of OnaSensLife, is based on a system of rapid detection of Legionella which is efficient, portable and easy to use, which integrates all the treatment and measurement processes of samples in one only device.

The three projects were chosen by a jury of experts in the assessment of business ideas, formed by Ramon López Roldán, Director of Innovation at Aqualogy; David Tapias, Director of R&D at Fluidra; Jordina Belmonte, Director of the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology; Glòria González, Vice Rector for Quality, Teaching and Employability of the UAB, and Joan Pau Sánchez, investment analyst of Caixa Capital Risc.

The jury mainly recognised the technological and economic viability of the projects, as well as other factors such as degree of innovation, the state of development, the business model, the team, market needs and the quality of the presentation. “The objective is to help researchers take the step separating them from the market, and to guide them in the process of transformation from a research to a business project”, highlighted Buenaventura Guamis, Director of the UAB Research Park, during the awards ceremony.