Technion 3DS
Israel has grown quite a name for entrepreneurship and startups in the last couple of years, ultimately named as the startup nation. The Technion, without any doubt, is the place where Israel’s top technological brain power gathers to study and research the next boundaries of science across its many facets. On the first weekend of June, an event called Technion 3 Day Startup was held aiming to bring the two worlds together allowing students from the different faculties of the institution to form groups and start their startup journey.
The inaugural event at the Technion is the latest addition to the many other 3DS events held at top educational institutions worldwide. 3DS was founded by students at the university of Austin Texas four years ago to provide a platform for students to meet and cooperate with like minded students from different faculties. With more than 70 events held to date and 30 plus companies formed that have raised more than 11 million dollars, it can be said that 3DS has found the right formula to spot entrepreneurs and allow them to create winning teams.
The event was setup by Dr. Daniel Freedman, a new faculty member at the Electrical Engineering department, and Shai Haim, an alumni of the same faculty who now works in the venture capital industry. “Having seen the strength of the event in the USA and Beijing and hearing about the Israeli attitude toward creating new ventures, it was only natural to me to setup the platform at the Technion as the leading Tech institution”, said Daniel. “We wanted to allow these top notch students to interact with disciplines and issues outside their comfort zone, something that I personally was missing as a student here” added Shai.
The organisers have reached out to all Technion faculties for support in advertising and setup within campus. “Responses were remarkably positive enabling to quickly spread the word among students” said Daniel. 120 students applied and after a rigorous screening process, 38 were chosen representing 13 different faculties. “To allow the event, we had to have not only the best students, but also great sponsors with the Technion brand we managed to get top notch backers” said Shai. The event was endorsed by Startupbootcamp, a leading startup acceleration program, Microsoft R&D center, IBM labs, Wix, GKH Law, the law firm behind the Waze deal, and BDO Israel.
The event began with participants pitches of their ideas to their colleagues. After selecting the best ideas, they formed groups and began working. Along each and every point of their work, participants enjoyed the advice of the best professionals ranging from Waze’s founder and president through founders of huge semiconductors companies such as Zoran to professionals from GKH and BDO.
The wonderful setting has allowed students to establish eight exciting new ventures:
(1) InMyShoes:
A platform that aims to connect people seeking professional advice and people who have the knowledge from experience. For example, a South African student seeking to study in London Business School will be able to chat with a person with the exact same profile.
(2) SeeCare:
A system that actively alerts parents when their baby is about to crawl out of the crib.
The system aims to utilise sophisticated movement analysis to be the active figure on guard.
(3) CheckCity:
An innovative mobile application that will cater people with a tight travelling time constraint. The application will suggest them with the best activities to pursue within the allotted timeframe.
(4) L&B (Lend & Borrow):
A marketplace for lending and borrowing of equipment. While market penetration will go through exchanging articles for free, the platform will also allow to rent selected items. Founders believe the timing could not have been better with so many market undergoing financial crisis, thus making people to look for other methods on cutting /changing their buying habits.
(5) Groopiez:
Feeling the pain of students trying t collaborate together over a wide offering of services, such as Dropbox, Skype and GDrive, Groopiez aim to give an easy to setup, without a login, environment for collaboration that will include all the necessary features of files sharing, chat and so on.
(6) ProTect:
With 100 incidents worldwide of underwater data cables being torn by fishing boats, ProTect has suggested an innovative and patentable solution for the prevention of these incidents. A completely low tech solution that can save billions of dollars to the telecommunications companies.
(7) Verify.me:
In an era where 67% of internet users state trust as their main barrier to use the social networks, Verify.me will verify users using a sophisticated algorithm that takes a new approach compared to current solutions.
(8) BackVision:
700 cyclists die yearly in the US alone. Of which two thirds die on the highways BackVision’s device will alert cyclist of vehicles approaching them on a collision course, giving them the needed time to take preventive action.
