Innovation Labs 2020: 28 teams join the program in Bucharest

Following the Innovation Labs Hackathon that took place at the Central Library of the POLITEHNICA University of Bucharest, that meant 30 hours of intense work for over 220 participants, 28 teams based on technical innovations were selected to enter the 10-week mentorship program.

The Innovation Labs 2020 Bucharest Hackathon participants covered three categories, based on the members' experience: teams formed exclusively from students, teams working on spin-offs from university research projects and teams formed from students and experienced entrepreneurs. The present startups showcased projects in one of the seven business verticals of the program: Agriculture, Cyber–Security, Fintech, Health & Lifestyle, Retail, Smart Cities și Smart Mobility.

In the research spin-off category, supported by Orange, 4 teams qualified to take part in the program: Correct Networks (Packet Cloud), Iccguard, OGOR and Mindloop.

The teams that qualified for the Innovation Labs 2020 Bucharest mentoring program are:

Correct Networks (PacketCloud) - Spin-off
PacketCloud is a virtualization solution for 5G networks that allows users and companies to run fast and secure applications, optimizing in the same time the processing resources and energy footprint for the network operators. PacketCloud productizes 5 years of prolific research in the virtualization and security domain, in the Netsys laboratory of the Faculty of Automatics at the POLITEHNICA University of Bucharest: the Unikraft project (Linux Foundation) is one of the results.
PacketCloud is developed by Correct Networks, a spin-off from the Faculty of Automatics of the POLITEHNICA University of Bucharest. The financing for PacketCloud is provided by the Horizon 2020 - Unicore project, where Correct Networks is a partner alongside Orange Romania, UPB and other companies and universities.

OGOR - Spin-off
OGOR is an agriculture-tech start-up for farmers that uses satellite imagery to build a "live" journal of agricultural practices that have taken place on farmers' land in the last three years. The purpose of the product is to translate Big Data information about the agricultural conditions of a land in an accessible form to farmers. This start-up helps farmers make data-driven decisions to reduce costs,increase production, and improve soil's natural fertility.

Mindloop - Spin-off
Mindloop offers a brain process visualization device based on MRI and EEG that supports researchers, physicians and other experts interested in neuronal imaging.The process is more accessible, cheaper and faster than current versions,connecting MRI information with EEG, facilitating both medical and research efforts.

Iccguard - Spin-off
Iccguard is an IDS solution for optimizing cyber-attack detection. The solution is based on scientific research in the field of cybersecurity, collecting web application logs and looking for indicators of compromised security. Unlike competitors, Iccguard, being specialized in web applications, brings a series of new algorithms that improve existing solutions. Its Intrusion Detection System contains several innovative components, which increases the efficiency of web attacks detection.

KidsFinance - Scale-up
KidsFinance offers a Duolingo for financial education associated with a prepaid card for children. Currently, financial education is not a priority for parents or schools, and young people risk being unprepared in dealing with financial aspects.The product offers a prepaid card for children associated with financial education lessons. Parents may see children's history of transactions, set up activities that can be remunerated, and control children's learning activity. Kids, in turn, solve problems given in order to obtain gamified and financial rewards.

Salya - Scale-up
Salya is a platform that generates videos and animations based on the quantitative information of a user, facilitating data interpretation and overview. It is addressed to companies that work with databases - offering a functionality that facilitates the way the information is presented to the client. The platform targets the banking sector.

RFindit - Start-up
RFindit is an IoT system based on NFC technology that monitors the physical assets of a company in order to detect their disappearance or loss. This team proposes an NFC type label that is placed on the important goods of an organization and offers the security and the control of the storage and their transport. In this manner, Rfindit helps organizations reduce their financial losses caused by poor management of physical assets.

Retrics - Start-up
Retrics streamlines the selection of candidates for a particular job by identifying people with the ideal profile sought by the organization with the help of psychometric games. Retrics will radically simplify the current heavy recruitment process by gamifying the measurement of relevant skills and traits of potential employees with the help of Machine Learning.The product is complementary to the recruitment interview.

iCheck - Start-up
iCheck is a visitor registration application that automates and simplifies the process of collecting the data needed for access to office buildings, hospitals, or other types of buildings that require visitor registration at the entrance. The application reduces the waiting time of visitors and optimizes their flow in the building.

Homadify - Start-up
Homadify is an application for remote users. The app facilitates the connection of digital nomads with local communities, making them feel like home. With Homadify, people who work and travel can access familiar and useful services much faster. Homadify offers a digital marketplace that connects nomad accounts with local community accounts.

GreenOn - Start-up
GreenOn helps users monitor and reduce their carbon footprint. The application records user's behavior regarding daily activities that can generate pollution and gives them tips on how to reduce this aspect in the long term. The application recommends both environmentally friendly habits and products or services that help reduce the carbon footprint. GreenOn works on a gamification basis. At the same time, the product is also addressed to companies by optimizing the budgets allocated to reduce the carbon footprint.

Themis - Start-up
Themis offers a customized platform for mass recruitment of employees, aiming to become a UIPath for HR. The product includes tools that facilitate the recruitment and retention of employees. The problem it addresses is that the hiring process takes too much time from the employers' perspective. This platform radically simplifies several stages of the recruitment process: telephone interviews, emails, screenings and tests, as the platform reaches all these stages through an optimized online path. Thus, employers will have much more information at hand when the potential employee comes to the interview.

ESENCA - Scale-up
Esenca is an application that calculates the individual measures of the human body to provide the user with the opportunity to purchase made-to-measure clothing without the need for a tailor's visit. Using AI and Machine Learning technology, Esenca contributes to the protection of the environment, both by using quality materials to produce clothing products and by enforcing the rules of fair labor in their production. In this manner, the application encourages user accountability,stimulating the user to limit their purchases only to products that suit them perfectly.

Actevanzarimasini - Scale-up
Actevanzarimasini offers a platform that automates and facilitates the process of car selling, standardizing the flow of information, increasing transparency of transactions, and digitizing the process of completing the necessary documents.

Myprecious - Scale-up
Myprecious offers a platform where celebrities can sale their clothes to fans,whether we're talking about global or simply local celebrities. Current and potential fans will be able to explore and purchase desired and fascinating items from celebrities' wardrobe, satisfying both their clothing preferences and protecting nature, by reducing pollution associated with the clothing industry, as well as reusing clothes.

Family banking - Start-up
FamilyBanking offers parents the opportunity to give their children a card that they can use for vouchers in exchange for gifts or goods. The product is a mobile application that generates limited-time virtual cards and a limited number of uses,enhancing children's sense of autonomy and decision-making and giving parents control over their financial flow and transactions.

Carsen - Start-up
Carsen develops a solution for car insurers that creates drivers' profiles and facilitates the calculation of the risk factor according to their individual behavior,thus stimulating the preventive behavior in traffic. In this manner, the application allows the establishment of insurance policies at a variable cost, using real data on the drivers' behavior as opposed to conventional socio-demographic indices.

Tire2Tire - Start-up
Tire2Tire is a hardware device that uses sensors and a high-speed camera to monitor the footprint of trucks. Tire2Tire processes the captured images to automatically check the pressure of the wheels and their degree of deterioration.By using a machine learning algorithm, Tire2Tire catalogs the viability of truck tires and sends the data to those responsible for their maintenance (truck fleet managers).

Smart Rides - Start-up
Smart Rides is a mobile application that helps the employees of a company who have common routes, to share trips home. The application connects two types of users - drivers and passengers. The application helps to create new connections between employees, to optimize work-home travel duration, but also to improve urban traffic.

Agro-Future - Start-up
Agro-Future is a web application for planning the production of farmers associated with a cooperative. The product uses data on farmers' production and existing demand to centralize and provide predictions about future demands. In this manner, Agro-Future streamlines the activity of the agricultural cooperatives by reducing the time allocated to planning the activity.

Brainy - Start-up
Brainy is an educational platform that helps children learn in alternative ways.Initially started as a product that addresses the needs of children with dyslexia, the team behind Brainy quickly realized that the methods used are applicable among a larger population. Using elements of gamification and a technology of translation between speech and writing, Brainy stimulates children's creativity and provides the necessary help to overcome any learning problems.

DietX - Start-up
DietX offers personalized nutrition plans based on your favorite foods, as well as the ability to work with a nutritionist. The innovative element consists in the possibility of choosing the foods that the user usually consumes, the users having the ideal quantity that they must consume in order to reach their goals. The platform also facilitates communication with nutritionists, in case users need professional help in validating their choices. DietX is a B2C but also a B2Bapplication: fitness centers or corporations could integrate this service into their facilities. DietX is based on an AI algorithm that calculates, based on specialized studies, the optimal quantities needed for each consumer profile.

Exigo - Start-up
Exigo is a personalized and automated exo-skeletal support, made by 3D printing,which helps in treating conditions given by muscular atrophy, paralysis or accidents. Unlike traditional devices that can be found only inside the clinics/hospitals, Exigo is a portable component that facilitates the recovery of the patient at home. The Exigo component is intended for the treatment of upper limbs. The configuration of the product is personalized, with the help of a doctor,according to the patient's profile. The product can be purchased or rented through a medical unit.

I Chef - Scale-up
I Chef is a platform that brings the chef and the necessary food ingredients to your home. This team offers a new culinary experience through the delivery of specialized personnel who can cook customer's desired food. I Chef allows chefs to apply for different job offers created by customers and to cook at their home. The platform also provides the necessary ingredients for a delicious meal, as well as mechanisms for validating chefs, building their reputations and strengthening away of doing business.

Medical Glove - Start-up
Medical Glove proposes a hardware system meant to help people who have suffered hand and wrist injuries. The product automates physio-therapeutic and physical therapy exercises to reduce patient's recovery costs. This product uses a series of engines and flexibility sensors that allow more efficient and less costly injury recovery.

Vatis Tech - Start-up
Vatis Tech offers a search engine for podcast, video and audio content. This product gives users the opportunity to accurately identify terms in this type of content. Based on speech recognition algorithms and machine learning algorithms,Vatis Tech provides users with a shortcut to the information they seek and provides the opportunity for content creators to better understand their audience.

Talk.rs - Start-up
Talk.rs is a framework that attempts to solve data security and update issues in smart device networks. The functionalities are applied through a website from which IoT devices can be monitored and updated in real time. The product is intended for companies that want to create high-performance, secure and easy-to-monitor products, supporting long-term user confidence.

TunnelPeer - Start-up
TunnelPeer is a VPN service based on a decentralized network. With it you can easily unlock unavailable digital content in a foreign country. The service facilitates access to favorite sites that would not be available in a destination location due to blocking by censorship or other restriction policies.

Innovation Labs 2020 is a program organized by the Tech Lounge Association in partnership with Orange, Carrefour, BRD Groupe Société Générale, OMV Petrom, Atos as well as the The Romanian–American Foundation as strategic partner, and with the support of Adobe, Bearingpoint, Eximprod Grup, Ericsson, Fitbit, IXIA (a Keysight Business), Medicover, NXP, Ortec, Pentest-Tools.com, PSS Prosoft Solutions, Softbinator Technologies, Windsoft and the Romanian Employer's Association of the Software and Services Industry (ANIS) together with the academic partners in each city.