HHU Ideas Competition 2024

Something that doesn't exist yet: Students and researchers at HHU have amazing ideas and want to realise them. This year's ideas competition organised by the Centre for Entrepreneurship Düsseldorf (CEDUS) demonstrated this once again. The grand finale on July 11th saw the winners: An AI-supported template for improving dialysis treatment, a process for more efficient food freezing with Ice Nucleation Proteins, the use of chicken feather keratin as a sustainable fertiliser, a digital pathology platform for faster tumour diagnosis, an AI framework for classifying zooplankton and a digital health application for treating somatoform disorders.

The Center for Entrepreneurship (CEDUS) organised the HHU ideas competition for the thirteenth time. Over 100 startup ideas from the two categories of study and research were submitted and assessed by an expert jury in terms of feasibility, degree of innovation and potential for success.

The award ceremony took place on July 11th at the CEDUS Coworking Camp. The six nominated teams pitched live in front of a large audience. The first to third places in the ideas competition were then awarded in the two categories of students and researchers and prizes totalling 4.200 euros were presented.

In addition, the Heine-Center for Sustainable Development (HCSD) special prize for sustainability was awarded for the second time. Traditionally, the audience decides directly and live at the award ceremony which concept was best received.

First place, endowed with 1.000 euros, went to "Dialyseschablonen", second place with 600 euros to "SnowSeed" and third place with 300 euros to "Refeather". The money can be earmarked for start-up and project-related expenses.

1st place: Dialysis template
AI and 3D printing technology will be used to produce a customised template for the buttonhole technique for dialysis patients. This template ensures that the needles are always inserted in exactly the same place and at the correct angle. This promotes the formation of a stable puncture channel, minimises the risk of complications such as shunter renewal and reduces patient pain.

2nd place: SnowSeed
This idea addresses the disadvantages of freezing food, such as the high energy consumption, logistics problems due to the cold chain and damage caused by ice crystals in food. The team wants to use Ice Nucleation Proteins (INPs), which already lead to ice formation at higher temperatures. The INPs are to be extracted, processed into powder and added to food.

The team also received the prize from the Heine-Centre for Sustainable Development for the most sustainable idea and thus participation in the Utopia Conference on the campus of Leuphana University (including train journey and overnight stay) for two people.

3rd place: Refeather
This research project investigates the use of hydrolysed chicken feather keratin as a sustainable fertiliser for agricultural production. Chicken feathers, which consist of 92% keratin, are rich in polypeptides, sulphur and nitrogen and are therefore a promising candidate for fertilising fields. The hydrolysis process breaks down the disulphide bridges so that the keratin can be absorbed more efficiently by the plants.

1st place and 1.000 euros in prize money went to "HORUS", 2nd place with 600 euros went to "DeepLOKI" and 3rd place with 300 euros went to "kaarlo".

1st place: HORUS
HORUS supports digitalisation in pathology. Tumour tissue is to be displayed as a 3D model from a high-resolution scanned sample. Virtual antibodies can be selected and deselected. HORUS is the analysis software that pathologists can use to assess the samples more quickly and precisely. According to the founding team, the various virtual antibodies could also be used to determine the type of tumour, allowing doctors to make faster and more informed decisions about appropriate treatment for patients.

HORUS also won the Audience Award and can also look forward to receiving a gift basket.

2nd place: DeepLOKI
DeepLOKI is an AI-based framework that uses deep transfer learning and a convolutional neural network backbone to classify zooplankton in large quantities of individual images from an Arctic expedition, for example. LOKI stands for Lightframe On-Sight Keyspecies Investigation. According to the founding team, the solution is faster than previous software alternatives, more precise in its classification and runs on standard MacBooks in remote locations without internet access.

3rd place: kaarlo
"kaarlo" is a digital health application (DiGA) that treats the clinical picture of functional body complaints (somatoform disorders) holistically. The founding team uses a playful learning system to actively motivate patients to undergo therapy, thereby increasing the success of the treatment. In the app on prescription, patients with functional body complaints can carry out cognitive behavioural therapy independently, at any time and in any place, without the support of a psychotherapist, and reduce the stress caused by their complaints. This allows patients to avoid the long waiting times for psychotherapy places and gives them a stigmatisation-free introduction to psychotherapy.

The HHU Ideas Competition is designed to raise awareness at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf of the career options of self-employment and starting a business, and to arouse curiosity about exciting alternatives to the typical work biography. In doing so, the competition supports the goal of creating a creative start-up culture and awakening and supporting entrepreneurial thinking and action among everyone at HHU at an early stage. The ideas competition took place for the thirteenth time in 2024.

The HHU Ideas Competition is organized by the Center for Entrepreneurship Düsseldorf (CEDUS). At the CEDUS, all measures of the HHU in the promotion of start-ups are bundled. Whether during consultation hours, in a classic startup consultation or at one of the numerous events: CEDUS is the contact for all questions concerning self-employment and business start-up.

Authors: Simone Rehrmann / Carolin Grape