A successful evening for start-up projects from science. These are the words to describe the 26th NUK Business Plan Competition, which took place in Cologne at the beginning of May 2021. The two teams ClingTechBionics and RecaPen, with members from the University of Bonn and closely supervised by the advisors from the Transfer Center enaCom, won first and second prize. Their business plans and highly competent teams convinced the jury. RecaPen also won the audience award for the best pitch.
How can modern components such as electric motors, rechargeable batteries or cell phones be manufactured ever faster, more energy-efficiently and with higher quality? One key tool from physics is high-power lasers, which help to process various materials. With their innovative technology to individually adjust the beam shape of the laser to the respective process, physicists from the University of Bonn have now won a highly endowed competition: The start-up project "Midel Photonics" by Dr. David Dung, Dr. Christian Wahl, Dr. Christopher Grossert and Frederik Wolf was selected for the "EXIST Research Transfer" funding program of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the European Social Fund. The funding of around 750,000 euros is intended to help the founders transfer their promising approach from research to industrial application.
On April 1, the University of Bonn will launch the "U BO GROW" project, which is funded by the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalization and Energy with 3.2 million euros. The project, funded until the end of 2024, is intended to significantly advance start-up activities from within the university.
How do laser beams get the right shape? A question that occupies not just some fantasy heroes, but also physicists at the University of Bonn. In the course of their research, three of them have found a solution to the problem that is so practical that it has aroused the interest not only of the scientific community, but now also of industry experts: The start-up project "Midel Photonics" by Dr. David Dung, Dr. Christian Wahl and Frederik Wolf is one of twelve start-ups selected this year for the state-wide "HIGH-TECH.NRW" program.
The Transfer Center enaCom of the University of Bonn is slowly filling up: Two of the start-up teams that emerged from the university have recently settled in the co-working space. The start-ups neuro11 and kiresult, supported by enaCom's start-up consultancy, are the first teams to use the new office space at Brühler Straße 7.
Someone else orders expensive things on the Internet in someone else's name - and at someone else's expense. An unknown person has access to private photos in a cloud. Digital identity crime has many faces and causes not only financial but also psychological and social damage to those affected. It is often based on a leak, i.e. the publication of stolen data. Two worldwide action days will soon be drawing attention to the problem: "Check your Password Day" on February 1 and "Safer Internet Day" on February 9. Researchers at the University of Bonn are also working intensively on the issue: a team from the computer science department has developed a "leak checker" that allows users to protect themselves and easily check whether personal data is contained in a stolen record.