Projects in the master's

In the year 2022/23 28 students started working on their projects. In the fourth year we had two collaborations with industry partners.

Entrepreneurship projects

Four student teams have been formed to work on business ideas that were proposed by students:

• REKAPD (Winner of the Strascheg Award 2023): Four students from Uzbekistan, Nepal, and Germany have created a platform, REKAPD, to assist parents in meal planning for their children who are just starting to eat solid food. With REKAPD, families can easily access information about suitable food choices, receive personalized recipes based on expert advice, and have the food delivered to their homes with a one-click solution. This not only saves them time but also ensures high-quality nutrition for their children.
• FYN: FYN, a financial learning app crafted by four students from India and Germany, leverages AI to create engaging content, visuals, and level designs. The mission is to enhance financial literacy and inspire individuals to confidently start their investment journey. The app features an integrated investing game where users can simulate real-life investment scenarios, practicing and learning in a risk-free environment. Additionally, users can enrich their financial knowledge through finance-related content available on FYN's social media channels. After using FYN, individuals will feel confident and prepared to step into the real world of investing.
• Energywise: Energywise, a project by five students from Germany, Peru, and India, introduces a user-friendly platform for electric vehicle (EV) owners to find ideal charging stations. This innovative tool assesses unique needs, recommends charging providers and electricians for installation, and offers a comprehensive hub for information. With a commission-based revenue model and plans for subscription services, Energywise aims to boost EV adoption and support charging infrastructure growth.
• CARIU: A team of five students from Iran, South Korea, Azerbaijan, and Germany identified urban mobility challenges, honing in on the underserved senior population. Their project, "CARIU," tackles the limitations of existing micro-mobility services for seniors. Focused on senior homes, CARIU presents a user-friendly platform for seniors to easily book rides on personalized rickshaws. This solution offers a safe, convenient, and enjoyable transportation alternative, empowering retirees to handle their mobility independently. Whether running errands, spending time with loved ones, or enjoying leisure activities, CARIU provides seniors with new and straightforward opportunities to fulfill their mobility needs on their terms.

Intrapreneurship projects

In 2022/23 two student teams started working on two challenges of companies.

• KUKA: In collaboration with KUKA, a leading global provider of robotic automation, a intrapreneurial project was undertaken by a team of five students hailing from India, Egypt, Botswana, Pakistan, and Kosovo. Addressing the challenge faced by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in adapting to rapid technological advancements in automation, the project aimed to develop an innovative digital solution. Building on earlier concepts, the team introduced the Virtual Innovation Lab (i-Lab), an online platform designed to enhance accessibility and feasibility of automation for SMEs. Through principles of gamification and collective intelligence, the i-Lab fosters creative thinking, problem resolution, and the generation of innovative ideas, ultimately promoting transformation in the automation domain for general industries.

• Fresenius Medical Care: In an intrapreneurial collaboration with Fresenius Medical Care's (FMC's) global digital products team, five students from Australia, Pakistan, Brazil, Russia, and Nigeria joined forces. Their goal was to develop a solution enhancing preventive care for pre-dialysis patients, streamlining healthcare professionals' efforts. Therefore, they have created 'KidneyTrack,' a Web Application. KidneyTrack empowers early-stage chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients, providing autonomy over health plans and improving patient monitoring for healthcare professionals. By addressing early-stage CKD needs, utilizing data analytics, and fostering collaborations, KidneyTrack strengthens FMC's portfolio, empowering patients and enhancing clinical decision-making in proactive kidney health management.

Please note that an idea contributed by one student will be developed equally by all other team members. This means that the developed idea belongs to all team members. The details are regulated in a team contract.

In the year 2021/22 23 students started working on their projects. In the third year we had two collaborations with industry partners.

Entrepreneurship projects

Three student teams have been formed to work on business ideas that were proposed by students:

• SPORTANA: The team of five from Bosnia, Germany, India, and Kyrgyzstan developed and implemented a social app that helps sports enthusiasts find sports partners and activities in the neighbourhood. With Sportana, users can easily create sports events, book sports venues, and participate in all the sports activities taking place. The overall goal is to bring structure to the fragmented recreational sports market and offer different solutions to encourage people to do more sports and connect with others.
  
• Weddle: Weddle makes all your alpine wedding dreams come true! This startup, founded by five students from Germany, the USA, Russia and Afghanistan, aims to provide couples with a unique alpine wedding experience while revolutionizing the wedding planning process. Our online toolkit and resources allow engaged couples to fully customize and flexibly plan their personalized dream weddings in the Bavarian, Austrian, or Swiss Alps all from their computer screens. At Weddle, we make planning a wedding as easy as clicking “Add to Cart!”
  
• COTTA: Five students from Germany, Italy and Pakistan created an interactive and tailored cooking platform called COTTA. Tailoring the instructions to the user’s skill level reduces frustration and adds a sense of personalisation. The focus laid on teaching how to cook rather than instructing is solved with a gamification approach showing the users what level of cook they are. Also, the use of Video snippets allows for highly efficient Video production and repurposing of content for newly added recipes.

Intrapreneurship projects

In 2021/22 two student teams started working on two challenges of companies.

• Linde (now the start-up GasVisor): GasVisor started as an intrapreneurship project during the master’s in close collaboration with Linde Gase GmbH and transformed itself into a start-up with three students from Germany and Mexico. With over 6.5 million companies requiring bottled CO2 cylinders on a daily basis, it’s the aim of GasVisor to shape the hospitality supply chain towards a more sustainable and cost-efficient industry. The lack of precision measurements and digitalization leads to increased costs, dissatisfied customers, and carbon emissions. Therefore, GasVisor aims to holistically automate, digitize, and simplify the ordering process for CO2 gas cylinders with its own patented smart Device for its target group in the EU and US.
  
• Fresenius Medical Care: Five international students from Brazilian, Germany, Uzbekistan and Australia conducted an intrapreneurial project with Fresenius Medical Care. This research aimed to understand how to best offer emotional and mental support to help chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients undergoing in-clinic dialysis. In their solution, the student team focused on involving gamification, rich multi-medium e-learning, expert-curated mental health-related content and the feature to exchange personal with a kidney disease specialist (in form of a one-on-one coaching session) to educate patients in the early stages of CKD.

Please note that an idea contributed by one student will be developed equally by all other team members. This means that the developed idea belongs to all team members. The details are regulated in a team contract.

In 2020/21 26 students started virtually working on their projects. In the second year we had three collaborations with industry partners.

Entrepreneurship projects

Two student teams have been formed to work on business ideas that were proposed by students:

• Swavy: The team of six from Germany, Turkey and Indonesia focus on washing machines that are among the biggest consumers of electricity in the home: a medium-sized coal-fired power plant in Germany runs just to supply all the washing machines in the country with electricity. The washing machine Sways are going to build can draw its heating power in advance, when there is no laundry in the drum at all and use the heat hours or days later during the next wash cycle. A small, Internet-enabled control computer makes it ready for the smart grid of the future.

• INNOMIND: Six students from Germany, Italy, and Ghana address an issue that is well-known in academia: how to find sufficient participants for answering research questions and obtain statistically relevant results? Since many participants are likely to expect an incentivation, the team has developed a user-friendly platform for people who need participants with specific criteria to answer their surveys for scientific research. At the same time people who are interested in contributing to modern science can earn or donate money by answering surveys.

Intrapreneurship projects

Siemens: The largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe introduced the students to the topic of social manufacturing in an unmanned Makerspace. This topic has been getting more and more important, also due to the unprecedented situation of a global pandemic. Thus the industry partner asked: how to develop remote training and safety knowhow to handle e.g. 3D printing device?

Verizon: The American multinational telecommunications conglomerate addressed the very real and important question how the future of work is changing due to new technologies but also because of dramatic events such as the current global pandemic: How can we turn the "threat" into an opportunity and create ideal work environments that allow for collaboration and recreation?

IABG: The Munich-based analysis and test engineering company provides technical and scientific services for private and public customers in the main business fields of e.g. automotive, mobility & energy, aeronautics, and more. One question raised by the industry partner as a project challenge was: Which of our services are suitable to be launched as a digital online offering?

Please note that an idea contributed by one student will be developed equally by all other team members. This means that the developed idea belongs to all team members. The details are regulated in a team contract.

In 2019/20 two student teams worked on own business ideas submitted by individual students.

Entrepreneurship projects

• Rewards: The team of students from Uganda, Ukraine, Iran and Germany developed a customer centric loyalty program that promotes financial services for banks and sales for merchants through a simple and effortless digital reward collection for customers. The team Rewardy has uniquely designed a customizable B2B marketing solution to build customer loyalty. It helps businesses to emphasis on their brand recognition and customer satisfaction.

• Easy Walk: Six students from Equador, Iran, and Germany have built a donation-app that converts every recorded walk of dog-owners and their dogs into donations to animal shelters. Since compassion alone does not serve as a proper value proposition, the team, now named Pupcoin, integrated monetary rewards into their business idea concept: dog-owners walk for digital currency that can be used to buy sponsored products.

In 2019/20 three student teams started working on two challenges of companies.

Intrapreneurship projects

• Metafinanz: Starting point of this collaboration was an important question raised by our industry partner, a renowned Business & IT Consulting company based in Munich: how to realize self-organized home care as an example for a distributed data economy in health care? At the same time data protection issues needed to be addressed as well.

• Stadtwerke München: The biggest German municipal utility continuously invests in the development and integration of innovative solutions in areas such as mobility, energy-efficiency, or construction. The implementation of new smart products and services is being experienced and tested in SWM's own quarter (M-Quartier) that serves as a Smart City testing field. So one important question in this company challenge was: How can SWM create a measurable added value to the usage and experience of its own and new products and services in the daily life of the residents and external parties?