Prizes for innovative ideas at the Best Idea Cup 2022

For eight years now, Rhine-Waal University has been awarding students (and employees for the first time this year) for their innovative ideas and projects with start-up potential a part of the project StartGlocal - Global Spirit for Local Start-ups. On Thursday, October 27 this year's best ideas were selected on the Campus in Kleve. Around 90 visitors attended the event, and saw eleven teams presenting their ideas.

The top three ideas chosen by the jury were:

1st place: "Your Outfit!" by Christian Moreth, Sustainable Development Management student: Calculating the environmental impact of clothing using lifecycle assessments and presenting the results in a clear and simple form for consumers.

2nd place: "Kelp Karpet" by Kazi Eham, employee in the Faculty of Technology and Bionics:
Erosion control and renewable energy generation by attenuating river currents using a canopy of artificial kelp.

3rd place: "Bluetec Horizon" by Deepanshu Pandey, Industrial Engineering student:
Harnessing the potential of wind energy in urban areas by using a vertical axis wind turbine.

This year´s jury was composed of representatives of the sponsoring associations, the Kleve Technology Center and regional business development agencies and was joined by Dr. Oliver Locker-Grütjen, President of the university, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Peter Kisters, Vice President for Research, Innovation and Transfer, and Dr. Gerhard Heusipp, Head of ZFIT. They were particularly impressed by the diversity of the proposals submitted and the creativity of the participants.

The potential of the ideas is enormous, even if not every idea will become a successful start-up. A very large proportion of the entries reflect the will to develop solutions for a more sustainable way of living and doing business in order to meet the challenges of our time, for example in the area of climate protection. This encourages us as a university to focus even more on transformation and sustainability goals in research, teaching and knowledge transfer.

Thanks to sponsoring associations

The first three places were awarded 2,000, 1,500 and 1,000 euros, a trophy and a certificate. The university would like to thank all StartGlocal Best Idea Cup participants, the mentors and experts, and especially the three sponsoring associations - Campus Cleve e.V., Campus Camp-Lintfort e.V. and the university's sponsoring association - for providing the cash prizes.

The winning teams will continue to receive intensive support and guidance from the StartGlocal project to develop the market maturity, design a prototype and also to connect them with the regional business community.