UNIVERSITY RESEARCH-BUSINESS: MEDIATE ROBOTICS AND ABZERO, STARTUP FIRMS BY SANT’ANNA SCHOOL, RANKED FIRST AND SECOND AT START CUP TOSCANA 2017
The Start Cup Toscana 2017 sponsored by the Tuscany Region authority awards prizes to support technology entrepreneurship initiatives and the creation of new high-tech business.
This year, the business plans of MEDIATE Robotics and ABzero created by Sant’Anna School, and SIENA Imaging created by the University of Siena, have been ranked first, second and third among all Tuscany universities.
These regional prizes of € 5000, 3000 and 2000 to the three winners were awarded by the Tuscany Region authority on the recommendation of the Selection Committee, in recognition of their highly innovative research.
Winners of Start Cup Toscana will compete in the National Innovation Award – PNI which was established by the Italian Incubator Network (PINCube) and FS Italiane as an open competition to recognize high technology and innovation enterprises. WEART, another start up firm by the University of Siena, which ranked fourth, will also participate in the competition.
MEDIATE Robotics and ABzero were started in Sant’Anna School Institute of Biorobotics: the former developed robotics platforms to support robotic applications in healthcare (assistive and service robots) and in industry (collaborative robots to maintain safety); the latter created software solutions for transporting blood products and medical supplies by drones, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 40 km maximum distance.
SIENA Imaging developed a magnetic resonance imaging application to evaluate the Alzheimer and MS diseases progression.
WEART developed wearable robotic interfaces to be used in rehabilitation treatments using virtual reality environments (based on serious games in immersive virtual reality with haptic feedback).
The Start Cup Toscana 2017 competition was organized by the University of Siena, Sant’Anna School, University of Florence, University of Pisa, Scuola Normale, IMT Alti Studi Lucca and IUSS Pavia. The Start Cup Tuscana, with the support of Tuscany Region authority, represents a regional phase of the National Innovation Award.
Photo: the Start Cup Toscana 2017 winners
