IEEE Entrepreneurship STARS Judges @ Viva Technology | 2022 PARIS, FRANCE
Photo: IEEE Judges at Viva Technology 2022.
Mohamed El Dallal, 2022 Vice-Chair – Programs on the 2022 IEEE Entrepreneurship, and Andra Keay, IEEE Standards Association attended Viva Technology (VivaTech) to identify competition candidate ventures with an engineering function at their core.
Mohamed El Dallal | Vice-Chair – Programs | IEEE Entrepreneurship Stars Judge
Andra Keay | 2022 Team Lead – Deep Tech Core Team | IEEE Entrepreneurship Stars Judge
What is Viva Technology?
Publicis Groupe and Groupe Les Echos have co-founded VivaTech, a four-day event that brings together the world’s most innovative startups and business leaders to explore transformational ideas globally. Collaboration, networking, pitching, inspiration, and showcasing innovations bring entrepreneurs, executives, investors, students, and academics together.
IEEE Entrepreneurship Star judges were on-site at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles to identify competition candidate ventures with engineering-driven innovation at their core that align with the IEEE core purpose to foster technology, innovation, and excellence for the benefit of humanity.
From left to right – Mohamed El Dallal, Andra Keay
In startup pitching, what did you look for?
We judged the start-ups based on 6 criteria:
- Innovation: What has the company figured out that others haven’t?
- Market: Can the startup demonstrate that the market is interested in this product?
- Product: Can the product solve the problem/address the opportunity identified by the startup?
- Traction: Can you demonstrate future demand?
- Team: Does the team have the right makeup to successfully bring the product to market?
- Mission: Is the company’s mission to advance technology for humanity?
Based on these criteria, how many did you select?
There are two phases. First, we scored startups on innovation and mission, and 16 startups were selected out of 30. The second phase involved meeting the 16 startups physically and based on the above criteria and we were able to select 4 out of 16.
Mohamed El Dallal at Viva Technology 2022
What were the winning fields?
Automation, Robotics, Sensors, Space, MedTech were the main fields for the winners.
IEEE Entrepreneurship Stars Judges identify competition candidate ventures with engineering-driven innovation at their core, that align with IEEEs core purpose to foster technology, innovation, and excellence for the benefit of humanity.
IEEE Entrepreneurship Stars selection occurs in collaboration with industry partners at large-scale technology start-up competition events.
IEEE Entrepreneurship recognizes the following companies as IEEE Entrepreneurship Stars:
Touch Sensity develops Sensity Tech technology, a true innovation in the intelligent materials field which makes objects and materials sensitive to physical interactions, such as pressure, traction, deformation, and internal damage, without sensors and in real-time. The entire surface, whether solid, flexible or even liquid, is used as the measuring instrument.
Acwa Robotics provides robotic solutions to help water utilities across the world map out and assess the conditions of their water supply network. The revolutionary autonomous robot solutions travel long distances in-line without disrupting water distribution and collect data, including visual defects, residual thickness, corrosion zones, and leaks, to help water utilities decide when and where to renew/repair or rehabilitate at-risk sections of the network.
Mission Space is developing the first private satellite-based space weather nowcast and forecast system to help satellite operators solve the problem of data deficit and lack of warning tools to mitigate the effects of geomagnetic storms and coronal mass ejections. The company launches instruments to orbit and grants access to its cloud decision support tool to mitigate the effects of solar storms.
Brightskies provides high-quality services in the High-Performance Computing and Code Optimization fields and the Embedded Software Development space. The company covers a diverse geographical footprint ranging from the US and Europe to the Middle East and Africa.
Biped.ai is a smart and discrete harness worn on the shoulders, with wide-angle cameras working like a pedestrian-level self-driving car, that uses self-driving technology to guide blind and partially-sighted people with 3D sounds. Biped.ai generates intuitive 3D sounds to warn you about the position of obstacles, vehicles, pedestrians, or urban elements based on the risk of collision.
Flux Robotics’ robotic tools can be utilized by clinicians in order to improve their surgical dexterity, shorten intervention durations, and result in higher positioning accuracy of disposable instruments inside the human body. Flux Robotics started as a prototype, called the ARMM system (Advanced Robotics for Magnetic Manipulation).
