News
BeeSense’s remarkable contribution to virus detection
Student teams BeeSense and AlgO are among eight teams nominated for the third edition of the Dutch 4TU Impact Challenge. The finals took place in Helsinki on 30 November prior to the start of Slush, the world’s largest start-up event that connects investors and start-ups. The jury was impressed by BeeSense’s idea of using bees to recognise viruses such as COVID-19. This idea earned them second place.
Smart combination of nature and tech
The smart and innovative combination of nature and deep technology impressed the jury. Sri Bening’s strong pitch convinced them further: “I learned so much about how to pitch and what elements in our story and approach are relevant to investors.” Sri Bening and Saptarshi Mukhopadhyay form together the BeeSense team, which is part of Wageningen start-up InsectSense.
An Eindhoven Technical University (TU/e) start-up Hable was pronounced the winner. This start-up makes smartphones accessible to the blind and sight-impaired to keep them connected to society.
Global impact
4TU challenges students to find solutions for the global issues we face: energy transition, sustainable healthy nutrition, preventive health care, and the transition towards a circular economy. WUR Director of Valorisation Sebastiaan Berendse: “The student teams that entered the 4TU pitch competition all have fantastic concepts with solutions. Some are still in the concept stage. Some are already a start-up. How applicable and scalable are these ideas? How can they create a global impact? We challenged the teams to present their ideas at Slush in Helsinki. Being there, amongst over 8000 other start-ups and investors will reveal how they can achieve global impact.”
Many other spin-offs are present at Slush. Form the national Circular Technology (TTT) programme, for example. There, they can see and show how they may make a difference to the world.
Wageningen student Dan Macken of Team Algo was exceptionally enthusiastic about the week in Helsinki: “This has been such an amazing week! We were inspired by great speakers and start-ups, and we expanded our network with investors who provided us with very useful insights. It’s been a steep learning curve and will definitely help to grow our innovation from concept to market!”
Team Algo develops a mobile system to extract nutrients from waste streams in the food and beverages industry.
Dutch 4TU Impact Challenge
The Dutch 4TU Impact Challenge’s mission is to unite the smartest minds from the four Dutch technical universities and provide them with a platform for entrepreneurship. During the preliminary rounds at the various universities, the two best ideas were selected and were offered help from a partner network of businesses, non-profit organisations, government and academics in overcoming the first obstacles entrepreneurs face.
About 4TU
The Netherlands’ four technical universities are united in the 4TU Federation. 4TU aims to fortify and collate technical expertise to contribute to a resilient, healthy and safe society.