Brighter Program 2017: The journey has begun
As you may have noticed, the KTH Innovation Brighter Program 2017 is alive and kicking overseas as we speak. 8 enthusiastic cases have started their journey and we had a chat with Program Coordinator Nicole Forsberg about what the program is about to offer this year.
– The program has evolved over the years based on feedback from participants, and also from the KTH community in Silicon Valley that’s been growing rapidly. I am very excited to see what the week will bring! She says.
Over the years we’ve seen that KTH really has a significant and still growing footprint in Silicon Valley as KTH is one of the world's leading technical and engineering universities with a strong entrepreneurial focus. New for this year’s Brighter Program 2017 is the development of relations with KTH alumni.
– KTH has some very interesting alumni that have achieved great success in the area and hold high-level positions at some of the large tech companies and well-renowned research institutes. Pairing these experienced KTH alumni with our new and hungry KTH entrepreneurs is going to be exciting, and a lift for the program as a whole, says Nicole Forsberg.
Prezi, Yubico and NASA
During the week-long program the participating companies will have workshops and panels but also inspirational visits to several leading tech companies in the bay area. The week’s Grand finale will end with a pitch night at Prezi HQ downtown San Francisco. Prezi, which was founded by KTH alumni Peter Arvai in 2009, is presentation software that helps users to present their thoughts in a greater way and have over 75 million users. There will also be opportunities to have personal Q&A's with other successful alumni such as Stina Ehrensvärd at Yubico, Sebastian Brännström at Lyft, Ludovic Copére at SONY Innovation Fund, and Sagar Behere from Toyota Research Institute. The teams will also visiting the NASA AMES Research facility.
Another new feature of the program is the participation in the Lean Startup Conference, hosted by the Lean Startup Company - which is the core of the educational part of our pre-incubator. Something that will be a great opportunity for the KTH-companies according to Nicole Forsberg.
– What is going to be really exciting is to see the founder of Lean Startup, Eric Ries himself, on stage and to participate in high-level workshops on the topic of advancing the Lean Startup methodology even more in our companies - all aimed at creating fast and long-lasting growth in a smart and risk-eliminating way.
The class of Brighter Program 2017
Airmee
Airmee focuses on last-mile delivery and more specifically the optimization algorithms to make them work. They are not primarily a delivery company, but see themselves more as a supplier of algorithms to delivery companies.
Cryptcert
Cryptcert encrypts and keeps files safe no matter where they are stored. No matter if you store your files on Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Dropbox or enterprise cloud, the cryptcert technology can be used to store and share files safely.
Biovoxel
Biovoxel enables the ink you need to 3D print organic tissue, like human tissue as well as meat. No website yet, more info here , see second winner of the Challenge.
Poki Robotics (no website yet)
Poki develop fully autonomous, electric self-learning robotic systems. Being golfers, their first product is an autonomous ball collector for golf ranges but they see a multitude of application areas for their future systems, in air, sea or on land using drones, submersibles etc.
memoAR (no website yet)
memoAR is creating Augmented Reality software applications for people with light dementia or beginning Alzheimer’s, focusing primarily on orientation, planning and task execution. They are make use of both AR apps as well as AR glasses like Hololens.
Opusplace
Opusplace
is a digital teacher community a for improving teacher motivation and effectiveness. Instead of focusing on the students (like all other edtech companies) Opusplace have developed a tool for the teachers so they can keep learning and stay motivated.
Actimore
Actimore is an event tool for social group activities. No more hassle in finding social activities, creating events and inviting your friends to join.
Tracytrackers
Tracytrackers make wearables for dogs, giving your dog a voice. So much time and money is spent on our pets every year, and a lot is spent unnecessarily them when they are ill. Tracy will be able to detect anomalies and tell you more about how your dog actually is.
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