The winners of the 21st edition of the “My Idea for Business” competition have been announced
167 applications and 29 business plans - the jury of this edition of the competition had a lot to choose from. The jury gave 13 awards and 6 distinctions for the most innovative ideas, which at the same time are ready plans for starting a business.
The official announcement of the results and the award ceremony took place at the Student Creativity Centre in Gliwice with the participation of the University authorities and the Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education, Prof. Marek Gzik. More than 20 years ago, Prof. Gzik and his colleague neurosurgeon developed a new idea for a microsurgical site, taking third place. A year later, he stood on the top of the podium presenting the idea of interactive rehabilitation toys together with Prof. Tejszerska, Prof. Damian Gąsiorek and Prof. Wojciech Wolański.
– “This competition was for me first of all an opportunity to gain experience and to supplement knowledge about what is related to a business venture” – emphasized Prof. Marek Gzik, Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education. – “In this edition there were many interesting works, mature ideas, which I hope will have a chance to be commercialized.”
The awarded works are related to various industries. Oskar Forreiter, a student of the Faculty of Automatic Control, Electronics and Computer Science who took second place, developed a system of soil monitoring using drones and a SaaS platform.
“Thanks to the fact that drones regularly monitor soils, farmers gain a tool that enables them to make informed decisions about whether to irrigate the soil or use the right amount of plant protection products,” Oskar explained. “I came up with the idea together with two colleagues, we wanted to do something to use drones in agriculture, this is a particularly important area of the economy, especially in these days when climate change is affecting farmers,” adds the laureate.
In turn, a group of students from the Faculty of Organization and Management developed an idea for a business related to the handling of events.
“We came up with an idea for company, which will decorate rooms for various occasions, we have designed a website where the client, after uploading photos from a given room, with the help of artificial intelligence, will be able to visualize the effect he wants to achieve,” explained Bianka Miałkowska, a logistics student at the Faculty of Organization and Management representing the team that won the first place.
The “My Idea for Business” competition has been promoting entrepreneurship and creativity among the academic community of the Silesian University of Technology for over 20 years. Many of the winners put their ideas into practice.
– “The award in the competition allowed us to establish a company.” – said Dr Eng. Tomasz Stenzel from the Faculty of Materials Engineering, winner of the first place in the first edition of the competition in 2002. - “Our idea, which was very innovative at the time, was a personal inspection robot, our company implemented nearly 90 HEXOR class robots, also for institutional clients such as universities, where they served as teaching aids or for research purposes”.
The competition teaches entrepreneurship through courses organized for participants, it also develops soft skills, because the winners have the opportunity to present their ideas to a wide audience during the announcement of the results.
“It was a very important competition in my life, it gave me a good start,” said Professor Anna Chrobok, Vice-Rector for Student Affairs and Education, who won the second prize in the third edition of the competition for the idea of producing ecological solvents in the chemical industry. – “Thanks to this, I noticed that while conducting my scientific work and research I can focus on the needs of industry. This was successful, because today I run many projects together with industry, and the results of my team’s research are implemented into industrial practice” – added the Vice-Rector encouraging students to participate in subsequent editions.
