14 Jun The BIO-ALL Hackathon paving the way to innovation!
The Bio-All Hackathon, an international event aimed at exploring creative solutions and developing innovative ideas in response to given challenges in the bio-health and pandemic sectors, was held online last 27th and 28th May 2021, addressed to multiskilled working groups from university students to those enrolled in the Post-Graduation Bio-All Program “Advanced Skills for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the BIOHEALTH Sector”
The event was promoted as part of the European Bio-All project and organized by the three university partners, namely Universidade da Beira Interior (PT), Universidad de Granada (ES) and Università Politecnica delle Marche (IT) with the support of the Friuli Innovazione business incubator, which offered prizes for the winning groups. and INOVA + for promotional activities.
Participants had the opportunity to work together with business leaders and mentors from the bio-health sector coming from Portugal, Spain and Italy who accompanied them in the development of their proposed solutions in projects.
The hackathon embraced the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the European Green Deal, the main regulatory and political tools for sustainable development, for this reason, every solution developed had to address at least two SDGs.
The winning team was “ParaHealth”, the project addresses the adaptation of a medical device to multiple hospital procedures using 3D printing. The device proposed helps the medical professional to do procedures, such as the paracenteses, in a more secure way and at the same time helps reducing the infection rate and the medical waste by being able to reuse the device. The idea was addressed to challenge in BIOHEALTH Area, Topic 4. Healthcare 5.0, Challenge B.4.3. “How to create organs, tissues, and answer other patients’ physical needs by using 3d printing, robotics, etc.?” and was awarded the opportuity to develop further their project thanks to Friuli Innovazione and University of Granada prizes.
Friuli Innovazione will provide three months of free access to its coworking facilities in Science and Technology Park of Udine (Italy) and 10 hours of online tutoring dedicated to the validation of the business idea.
BREAKER, the Center for Entrepreneurship of the University of Granada (Spain), will allow a free six-month allocation in its innovative and experimental space. During that time, the team will have full access to UGR’s business facilities, including 30 hours of expert mentoring and assessment and direct access to the Talento Emprendedor program during the 2021/22 period.
Silver medal went to “OverSun”: the project regards a portable electronic device for monitoring UV rays that send an alert taking into account the time of sun exposure. The idea is addressed to challenge in BIOHEALTH Area, Topic 2. Lifelong health and well-being for all, Challenge – B.2.2 How could doctors predict in advance some illnesses, and prevent it?
“Biosensors application food toxicity” was the third classified team. The project’s which main objectives for its development are: select the material to be used as biomediator, characterize the engineered biomediator, manufacture optical and electrochemical biosensors and perform experimental in-field validation. “Biosensors application food toxicity” won the UBImedical award which offers six months of free access to its co-working facilities in Covilhã (Portugal) and 30 hours of tutoring meetings dedicated to the validation and acceleration of the business idea.