Mystone voted winning project and receives the Best Business Idea Award
29/11/2013
First prize was awarded to MyStone, a tool which allows for faster identification and classification processes of kidney stones. The device can offer, under the guidance of a urologist, the most adequate foods and medical treatment needed according to the type of kidney stone. The device was developed by researchers Francisco Blanco, Montserrat López-Mesas and Manuel Valiente from the Group of Separation Techniques in Chemistry (GTS) from the Department of Chemistry, and Joan Serrat and Felipe Lumbreras from the UAB Computer Vision Centre.
The second prize went to the Celifast project, a biosensor for the fast diagnosis of coeliac disease, presented by researchers Ona Illa, Jofre Ferrer, Jean-Didier Marechal and María Isabel Pividori from the Faculty of Science. The team developed a biosensor which diagnoses coeliac disease quickly, as a solution to the slowness of current diagnosis procedures. The biosensor consists of a digital analytic measurer of coeliac which works with a reactive strip to test gluten with a drop a blood. It offers results in real time and is 100% reliable.
The winners of the third prize were Enric Vidal and Ferran Sala, researchers from the Animal Health Research Centre, who presented the SESC project. This project offers support to the diagnoses services in abattoirs, which offer integral management services that identify diseases which could affect public health and the health of the animals. SESC provides tools, through telematic and laboratorial consultations, that help conduct these diagnoses and improve the efficacy of veterinary inspections.
The winners received 2,500 Euros and a six month stay at the Eureka Building. Second and third prize winners received 1,500 Euros and 1,000 Euros, respectively. A jury of experts in charge of evaluating the business ideas chose the winners from a total of six projects which had reached the final stage of the competition.
According to Buenaventura Guamis, Director General of the UAB Research Park (PRUAB), "these awards acknowledge the technological and economic viability of the projects, in addition to other factors, such as the degree of innovation, state of development, business model, team, market needs, and the quality of the presentation. It aims to help our researchers take the last step needed to reach the market, guiding them in the transformation process from a research into a business project.”
The previous edition of the programme brought about the creation of two new technology-based businesses: Mass Factory, creator of the application for blinds OntheBus, and Visual Tagging Services, which has created a software which aids in buying the products that appear on a television screen or on the internet.
Finalist Projects
The rest of the finalists were the 3D Endoscopy Navigation, an image processing software for clinical applications, from the researchers Débora Gil, Jorge Bernal, Carles Sánchez and Raúl Alcaide at the Computer Vision Centre; Virmon, a portable device for early detection of viral infections, from the researcher Marc Masa, from LEITA, and Núria Busquets, from the Animal Health Research Centre; and the In-Situ industrial bioenergy, a proposal for industrial organic residue management, from researchers Sergio Ponsá Salas, Joan Colón Jordà and Francisco Javier Lafuente Sancho at the BIO-GLS of the UAB School of Engineering.
Generating Ideas Progamme
The Generating Ideas Programme, an initiative by the UAB and the PRUAB, aims to contribute to encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation culture, and help UAB researchers to shape their ideas. This year's edition was aimed at the bio-sector. The previous edition, directed by PhD graduates at the School of Engineering, helped start 12 projects, two of which have become companies which continue to be running today.
The programme is aimed at PhD students and researchers who wish to generate and develop business ideas from their research. The programme, which lasts for 7 seven weeks, is divided into phases, consisting in several creative sessions to generate ideas, business training sessions for the participants and, finally, a contest between the different projects taking part.