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TU/e Contest, a collaboration between the TU Eindhoven, youth marketing agency Soapbox and more than 20 leading companies and organizations from the Brainport region, enters its fourth edition under the wings of Innovation Space. The TU/e Contest challenges students of the Eindhoven University of Technology to further develop their innovative idea, prototype, business plan or research project within the network of the TU/e. The network consists of companies such as ASML, Philips, Thermo Fisher Scientific, KPN, Medtronic, Océ, TBI and more.

Read all about previous editions of TU/e Contest here.

The TU/e Contest is designed in such a way that students get to know the network around the TU/e Contest, are linked to the right partner companies based on technical clusters and, together with coaches of these partners, further develop their unique innovation. For example, chat sessions, training and workshop days are organized, participants can work out a business plan and are optimally prepared to give a great pitch during the final event on May 22nd in the Eindhoven University’s Blauwe Zaal.

Lex Lemmens, Dean of the Bachelor College, is the founding father of the TU/e Contest: “We think it is important that our students, in addition to their studies, are challenged to be innovative, creative and enterprising. The TU/e Test is extremely suitable for this.” In 2018, the TU/e Contest will continue under the banner of the new TU/e Innovation Space. Isabelle Reymen, Scientific Director of TU/e Innovation Space and herself also a winner of a High Tech Peak Award, is pleased with the possibilities offered by the TU/e Contest: “Students get the opportunity to become acquainted with entrepreneurship in an accessible way and at the same time they can easily connect with the network of business partners.”

In the past editions, a number of students have grown into serious entrepreneurs. Willem Brekelmans and his team won the ASML Makers Award last year for their project ‘Ares Analytics’. The TU/e Contest was a perfect way for us to become known to business partners of this innovation competition. Here we received specific coaching from Thermo Fisher about how you can reliably perform measurements. Now we are supervised by a team of ASML in project management and setting up a good research plan.”

With her project ‘Soil Optimizer’, Eline van den Haak won the first edition of the TU/e Contest in 2015. The Soil Optimizer is an innovative soil analyzer that helps farmers to determine exactly how much fertilization and chemicals are needed to grow their crops optimally. “I’ve had a lot of business contacts after participating in the TU/e Contest, and a nice cheque, so I made a flying start with my company Haak Innovations”, she says. After winning the TU/e Contest, Van den Haak also won the High Tech Piek Award, was in the final of the Philips Innovation Awards and has been in Silicon Valley to market her product.

Registration for the competition is possible until Thursday 12 March 2018 via www.tuecontest.nl.