Over half of the winning projects by ITMO students were submitted in the category Digital Technologies – mainly, these are startups centered around mobile apps, web services, or AI-based intelligent systems. For instance, among the winners is an online platform that develops a personalized antibacterial therapy plan for each user, a mobile app that tracks the driver’s emotional state to prevent car accidents, and an AR painting sales service.
Another 10 winning startups focus on developing new materials or devices. Among them is a project for a sunlight catalyst that will transform light to energy, a smart box for keys, and a washer drone for windows and facades. Other selected projects were submitted in the categories Biotechnologies, Medicine and Health Protection Technologies, and Creative Industries. ITMO students submitted projects for a foot joint in a leg prosthesis, an online school on BIM design for architects and engineers, as well as a test system for antibiotic resistance diagnostics.
This was the fifth annual Student Startup competition held within the federal project Platform for Student Technological Entrepreneurship. The initiative is open to students of Russian universities at any level. This year, 2,000 students secured funding through the competition.
ITMO students have been participating in the competition since its launch. Last year, 25 projects by the university’s students received grant support, with most of them developed by participants of the Business Project as Thesis program, which allows students to present a startup for their thesis defense. In the five years of the competition’s existence, a total of 385 ITMO students were able to win grants to support their projects.
