User Group: Start-up

  • Research meets gaming

    Research meets gaming

    The games publisher Square Enix, the venture capital firm IT-Farm, and Cyber Valley are launching AI GameDev, a competition for start-ups and scientists who think their ideas could contribute to, or whose work focuses on, developing the most exciting artificial intelligence (AI) technologies for the entertainment and gaming industry.

    AI GameDev is Europe’s first competition that aims to facilitate technology and knowledge transfer from European AI research to the many possible applications in game development. “AI can help improve video games in many ways, for instance by creating better, more realistic virtual environments or scenarios”, says Michael J. Black, Director of the Perceiving Systems department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and Cyber Valley speaker. “We want to make the full potential of the European AI research and start-up scene visible and reward the best ideas.”

    The event partners have launched the www.aigame.dev website, where start-ups and AI researchers can submit their ideas by September 26, 2021 in the form of a pitch deck, a video, or a scientific paper. The application process will officially start on August 11, 2021. The best ten ideas will be selected for the competition, and their creators will be given the opportunity to present their concepts at an award ceremony on December 2, 2021. While Cyber Valley will honor the most promising scientific performance, IT-Farm will present the Audience Award. The Main Award will go to the most innovative AI solution. Sponsored by Square Enix, the prize includes a trip to Tokyo, Japan.

    “In the realm of gaming, AI technologies show great promise and could potentially lead to fundamental changes in terms of game design,” says Youichiro Miyake, Lead AI Researcher at Square Enix Co., Ltd. “Combining AI technologies with game design is the key to the future of digital games. I hope many young people and new companies will rise to this challenge.”

    Shinya Kasuga, Partner at IT-Farm Corporation, says: “Gaming and interactive entertainment are the frontier markets for technologies that capture, model, discover, enhance, and render the interaction between human beings and the world. It’s all about the ‘world’. The automotive sector, smart cities, healthcare, manufacturing, agriculture, education, and many other large sectors are now leveraging gaming and entertainment technologies to innovate their core business. In the AI GameDev contest, we are truly excited to meet with and support the AI entrepreneurs who are addressing the world’s major challenges.”

  • Cyber Valley adds five shooting stars to its Start-up Network

    Cyber Valley adds five shooting stars to its Start-up Network

    “We’ve noted consistent and growing interest among start-ups in Baden-Württemberg in joining our network,” says Michael J. Black, Director of the Perceiving Systems department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and Cyber Valley speaker. “While we are eager to expand, we are very selective when it comes to accepting new members. The profiles of these five new member start-ups speak for themselves: each of them has a strong team, deep technology, and offers highly innovative AI-based products that are very competitive in their respective markets.”

    Aleph Alpha is an AI R&D company based in Heidelberg that researches, develops and operationalizes large generalizable artificial intelligence models for text, vision and strategy to ensure the digital sovereignty for public and private sector partners.

    DeepScenario is an AI start-up based in Munich that provides highly accurate real-world traffic data for the development of automated driving. The company’s product helps automotive industry customers train, test, and validate their self-driving algorithms in critical scenarios.

    MARKT-PILOT is a start-up from Esslingen am Neckar. The company provides market, competitive, and price transparency for mechanical engineering companies worldwide. With their Software as a Service solution (SaS), they offer an automated pricing system based on intelligent algorithms that provides insight and a paradigm shift from cost-plus to competition-oriented pricing of spare parts for mechanical engineering companies.

    NODE offers plug-and-play software solutions for autonomous intralogistics. The focus is on driverless transport vehicles and mobile robots, which are turned into multi-vendor, autonomous and collaborative fleets by our software solutions. In so doing, the start-up from Stuttgart provides the basis for the widespread use of autonomous mobile robots (AMR) in production and intralogistics.

    FreshIndex, powered by the Stuttgart-based company tsenso, is a B2B hardware cloud solution for food producers, traders, and retailers to rapidly assess the true quality, freshness, and shelf-life of food. Using a digital twin approach combined with uncertainty quantification, the properties of single individual food units, packages, or pallets can be reliably evaluated.

  • AI in Social Innovation & Impact

    AI in Social Innovation & Impact

    In dieser Veranstaltung zeigen unsere Referent:innen Ansätze und Möglichkeiten auf, wie KI-Expertise in diesem Kontext genutzt werden kann und präsentieren Beispiele, wie KI-Forschung in innovative Bereiche oder sogar einem Start-up integriert werden kann.
     

    Sprecher:innen für dieses Event sind:

     

     

    Lorena Jaume-Palasí
    Founder and Executive Director,The Ethical Tech Society


    Lynn Kaack
    Researcher ETH Zürich, Chair and Co-Founder of Climate Change AI


    Raphael Menges
    Postdoc Associate University of Stuttgart and Founder Semanux


    Jörn-Philipp Lies
    CEO & Co-Founder eye2you


    Zhijing Jin
    Ph.D. student MPI-IS, Empirical Inference

     

    Wissenschaftler:innen, Gründer:innen, Studierende und alle, die sich für dieses Thema interessieren, sind am Donnerstag, 15. Juli, von 14:00 bis 15:30 Uhr herzlich eingeladen!

     

    Registrierung

    Bitte hier registrieren. Das Meeting findet via Zoom und in englischer Sprache statt.

     

    Kontakt

    Oliwia Gust – Cyber Valley Event Manager
    Telefon: +49 7071 601 1554
    Mobil: +49 151 4075 6302 
    E-Mail: oliwia.gust@cyber-valley.de

  • “Clusters4Future”: TheranosticValleySTR reaches second round

    “Clusters4Future”: TheranosticValleySTR reaches second round

    Please find the full article below in German.

    „Clusters4Future“: TheranosticValleySTR erreicht zweite Runde

    BMBF verkündet Finalisten für Zukunftscluster

    TheranosticValleySTR (STR = Forschungs- und Wirtschaftsraum Stuttgart, Tübingen, Reutlingen) stellt das Konzept für ein innovatives Zukunftscluster dar, um Diagnose und Therapie von Krebs-, Infektions- und neurologischen Erkrankungen nicht nur fundamental zu verbessern, sondern auch – durch einen Paradigmenwechsel und neuartige Präventionsstrategien – zu einem wesentlichen Teil zu verhindern.

    Dabei sieht das Zukunftscluster vor, bestehende exzellente Strukturen, Forschungsverbünde und Unternehmen in der Region im Sinne einer modernen Innovationspipeline zusammenzuführen. Hauptakteure sind die Universität Tübingen mit ihren drei Exzellenzclustern (CMFI, iFIT, ML), das Max-Planck-Institut für Intelligente Systeme Tübingen-Stuttgart (MPI-IS) und das Naturwissenschaftlich Medizinische Institut an der Universität Tübingen (NMI). Ziel ist es, nicht nur hochinnovative personalisierte Therapien, sondern eine auf die Therapie abgestimmte Diagnostik zu entwickeln – sogenannte Theranostics. Die präzise, mittels Methoden der künstlichen Intelligenz (KI), aufeinander abgestimmte Diagnostika und Therapien – Theranostica –, basieren auf innovativen kleinen Molekülen, Biologicals, zellulären Systemen oder neuartigen Mikrorobotern. Durch deren kombinatorische Anwendung bilden sie den nächsten Meilenstein der personalisierten Medizin.

    Mit dem Wettbewerb „Clusters4Future“ des Bundesministeriums für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) startet eine neue Generation dieser Innovationsnetzwerke – die Zukunftscluster. Im Februar 2021 verkündete Bundesforschungsministerin Anja Karliczek die ersten sieben Zukunftscluster. Nun wurden die Finalisten der zweiten Wettbewerbsrunde ausgewählt: Aus insgesamt 117 eingereichten Wettbewerbsbeiträgen hat eine Expertenjury 15 Vorschläge für die Förderung einer Konzeptionsphase empfohlen, darunter das TheranosticValleySTR.

    Der Auswahl der bis zu sieben Zukunftscluster je Wettbewerbsrunde, geht die Förderung einer sechsmonatigen Konzeptionsphase voraus, die mit bis zu 250.000 Euro gefördert wird. Auf Grundlage des Votums der Jury werden dann die Zukunftscluster der zweiten Wettbewerbsrunde Mitte 2022 ausgewählt. Diese können in bis zu drei Umsetzungsphasen über jeweils drei Jahre ihre Konzepte realisieren. Pro gefördertem Cluster und Jahr sind Fördermittel in Höhe von bis zu fünf Millionen Euro vorgesehen.

  • HR and Talents

    HR and Talents

    Wissenschaftler:innen, Gründer:innen, Studierende und alle, die sich für dieses Thema interessieren, sind am Donnerstag, 17. Juni, von 14:00 bis 15:30 Uhr herzlich eingeladen!

    Speakers

    Sophie Bieber

    Talent Attraction Experience Manager, SAP

    Nadine Roth

    Head of Talent, MARKT-PILOT

    Naureen Mahmood

    CEO, Meshcapade

    Registrierung

    Bitte hier registrieren. Das Meeting findet via Zoom und in englischer Sprache statt.

    Kontakt

    Oliwia Gust – Cyber Valley Event Manager
    Telefon: +49 7071 601 1554
    Mobil: +49 151 4075 6302 
    E-Mail: oliwia.gust@cyber-valley.de

     

  • AI in Production & Logistics

    AI in Production & Logistics

    Speakers

    At this event, exciting speakers incude:

    Marco Huber

    Professor at University of Stuttgart and Head of Center for Cyber Cognitive Intelligence at Fraunhofer IPA

    Marcus Müller

    Co-Founder Smart Site Solutions GmbH

    Felix Müller

    Co-Founder plus10

    Gitte Bedford

    Vice President at Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH

     

    Registration

    Please register here, the meeting will be held in English on Zoom.

     

    Contact

    Oliwia Gust –  Event Manager for Cyber Valley
    Phone: +49 7071 601 1554
    Mobile: +49 151 4075 6302 
    Mail: oliwia.gust@cyber-valley.de

  • Women in Tech Entrepreneurship

    Women in Tech Entrepreneurship

    In Germany, only 15 percent of all start-ups have at least one woman on the founding team, and just four percent of tech start-ups were founded by women only. In the AI & Robotics start-up scene, the numbers are even lower, and female founders and scientists can face gender bias.
     
    At this event, women will share their experiences and talk about female tech entrepreneurship. 

    Vivian Chu, Ph.D.

    Co-founder and CTO, Diligent Robotics

    Ksenia Keplinger, Ph.D.

    Group Leader, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Group: Organizational Leadership & Diversity

    Katherine J. Kuchenbecker, Ph.D.

    Director, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Department: Haptic Intelligence

    Co-founder and Chief Science Advisor, Tactai, Inc.

    Eva Wolfangel

    Science Journalist

    Registration

    Please register here, people of all gender identities are welcome. The meeting will be held in English on Zoom.

    Contact

    Oliwia Gust –  Event Manager for Cyber Valley
    Phone: +49 7071 601 1554
    Mobile: +49 151 4075 6302 
    Mail: oliwia.gust@cyber-valley.de 

     

    The event is taking place in the context of International Women's Day on March 8.

  • Cyber Valley Start-up Network continues to grow

    Cyber Valley Start-up Network continues to grow

    “With their software services, GaussML and Smart Site Solutions demonstrate the wide range of applications that AI-supported service solutions now offer,” says Michael Black, Director of the Perceptive Systems Department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and Cyber Valley speaker. “Both start-ups are pursuing approaches that can significantly improve production processes. This makes their products interesting for small and medium-sized companies, among others.”

    GaussML: Optimization for a wide range of applications

    Based in Stuttgart, Gauss Machine Learning GmbH (GaussML) offers a solution for improving industrial plants and processes, for example in the mechanical engineering sector or the pharmaceutical industry. The software is designed for easy use and integration into existing processes. With its support, the parameters of various processes can be intelligently optimized.

    “At GaussML, we aim to bring machine learning to the masses through easy-to-use solutions so that everyone -– especially small and medium-sized companies – can benefit from this technology,” said Edgar Klenske, CTO of GaussML. “With the help of intelligent parameter optimization, production times or material usage can be reduced, for example. This protects the environment and saves companies money.”

    Smart Site Solutions: Better logistics in road construction

    Smart Site Solutions from Nürtingen also focuses on optimization. Its cloud-based system is used to improve logistics in road construction. For predictive, dynamic transport and paving control, Smart Site Solutions relies on AI. “We coordinate material production in the mixing plant with just-in-time transport and the paving processes on the construction site,” said Marcus Müller, founder and CEO of Smart Site Solutions. “This helps our customers – from medium-sized road construction companies to international construction groups – to digitally control their processes, thus ensuring quality and saving costs.”

  • Legal Forms & Business Models

    Legal Forms & Business Models

    Schedule

    • Welcome 
    • Legal forms
    • Business models
    • Business models in the software industry
    • Breakout Sessions
    • Closing Remarks

    Details below | Please register here.

    Welcome

    Julia Schmaus

    Innovation Manager

    		  
    Introduction of the topic

    Alex Diehl

    Senior Advisor Cyber Valley
    Legal Forms

    Florian Beilhack

    Max Planck Innovation
    Q&A  
    Business models

    Marcel Werle

    University of Stuttgart
    Q&A  
    Business models in the software industry

    Marcus Rübsam

    Entrepreneur und Advisor
    Q&A

     

    		  

    Breakout Sessions

    Legal forms & Business models

    		  
    Closing and final Q&A

    Alex Diehl and Tobias Dürr

    Senior Advisor Cyber Valley
    Innovation Manager
  • NEC Laboratories Europe and Cyber Valley research institutions sign MoU

    NEC Laboratories Europe and Cyber Valley research institutions sign MoU

    The MoU outlines the intent of NEC Laboratories Europe GmbH and Cyber Valley research partners to explore scientific research cooperation and support for regional start-up companies developing artificial intelligence solutions.

    Cyber Valley is Europe’s largest artificial intelligence consortium of industry and scientific partners in the fields of machine learning and intelligent systems. The agreement represents a major achievement for the State of Baden-Württemberg and principal sponsor of Cyber Valley in furthering the consortium’s position as a leader in artificial intelligence research.

    The Memorandum of Understanding was announced at the “Cooperation Event: Baden-Württemberg – Kanagawa” (Kooperationsveranstaltung) on November 19. The virtual event, hosted by Baden-Württemberg International, highlighted scientific cooperation between the State of Baden-Württemberg and the Prefecture of Kanagawa. Baden-Württemberg International is the center of competence of the State of Baden-Württemberg for international economic and scientific cooperation.

    The agreement between NEC Laboratories Europe and Cyber Valley research partners lays the foundation for strong, diversified scientific growth in Baden-Württemberg. “We look forward to collaborating with NEC Laboratories Europe on AI research and the fostering of start-ups in the region. With Cyber Valley, the MPI-IS, the University of Stuttgart, and the University of Tübingen have developed a globally renowned AI hotspot, continuing to attract some of the brightest talent and leading corporations in this field. This MoU marks another milestone in the further development of this ecosystem,” says Michael Black, Director of the Perceiving Systems Department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and Cyber Valley Spokesperson.

    NEC Laboratories Europe is the European research division of NEC Corporation, global leaders in technology and communication infrastructure and solutions. NEC’s strengths include original research in artificial intelligence and its applied use. For Cyber Valley, NEC’s future research collaboration will provide a global perspective in AI research areas such as biotechnology.

    For NEC Laboratories Europe, the collaboration offers shared scientific insights and the potential for accelerated scientific discovery. Dr. Juergen Quittek, Managing Director of NEC Laboratories Europe explains, “AI is a technology with large potential to transform our society. Still, the technical challenges are so huge that even leading institutions can substantially benefit from working together.”

    Detailed discussions will take place early in 2021 to define the scope and nature of the cooperation with the intent of formalizing the relationship in a legally binding agreement.