ClimateLaunchPad is the world’s biggest green business competition powered by Europe’s leading climate innovation initiative, EIT Climate-KIC. This year, ClimateLaunchpad received over 1,100 applications from around the world. Multi Use Medical Devices (MUMD) has been selected as one of the top three ideas from Switzerland. The medtech startup is revolutionizing healthcare by introducing reusable medical devices that significantly reduce waste, cut emissions, and promote a circular economy. Their flagship product, a reusable balloon inflation device for vascular intervention procedures, can be reprocessed and used over 20 times. Upon finalizing the validation process and receiving approvals, the company plans to launch in 2025.
The second prize was bestowed on to Dual Energy, which develops smart photovoltaic trackers specifically engineered to provide the best condition for crop growth, by optimizing the amount of irradiation on the field. CarDust secured third place for its specially equipped vehicles that intercept tire wear before it reaches the ecosystem to help free the planet from microplastics. The Swiss national winners will proceed to the European regional Semi-finals, which will take place on Monday 7th October 2024. The teams will pitch on an international stage, competing for a place in the grand European Final on 14th October 2024.
3PI competition awards three ETH Startups
Organized by ETH Zurich, 3Pi pitch competition is an annual event designed to showcase and support innovative projects from the ETH Pioneer Fellowship program. The 3Pi competition features 10 start-ups and spin-offs that pitch their projects in exactly 3.14 minutes (Pi minutes). The 9th edition was held on 23 September with four fellow standing out. The three winners won a ticket for the Open-i Forum in Zurich.
Iwan Haechler from Solabs Nanotechnology took home the 1st prize and Audience Award. The company is developing solar-powered durable antifog coating. The nanoscopically thin coating selectively absorbs the invisible part of the solar spectrum, therefore retaining transparency, while it simultaneously heats up to prevent fog formation.
The second prize went to Edoardo Pezzulli, co-founder of ETH spinoff Sustain, the provider of a unique and affordable monitoring software for engineering firms to monitor the evolution of their CO2, Heat or Hydrogen storage operation. The software leverages geomechanical data, which is currently overlooked by the industry, yet it contains valuable information regarding the evolution of pressure and temperature in the reservoir. Sustain combines advanced geomechanical simulators, probabilistic inversion algorithms, and site-specific geological models to robustly and autonomously characterize the reservoir during the injection operation in real-time.
The 3rd place went to Giuseppe Antoniazzi with FibroTech Solutions, which focuses on developing a chemical probe – FibroDetect Probe – for the early diagnosis and monitoring of fibrosis, enabling clinicians to make informed diagnoses and assess the effectiveness of anti-fibrotic drug.
(RAN)