This year was quite a special one as it was entirely shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic. While we still had a usual start with our courses and events in early 2020, the fall semester already was all online due to governmental directives and restrictions and of course our own health concerns for students and our team.
Although the situation was difficult, we quickly adapted to the circumstances and managed to provide a great experience for our students and partners. Our lectures and events took off in the digital space and we were welcoming everybody from out screens. Thanks to everybody for coming with us although we were not able to provide you with live events and friendly banter over drinks this semester.
Following we will provide you with more detailed information on our teaching activities, support programs and events.
Education
The last semester we were offering a total of four courses. This included our accelerator style classes MAN 631 Creativity and Entrepreneurship in Practice and MAN 633 Entrepreneurial Spirit. In MAN 631 we had five student teams developing new ideas and setting up their startups. They are HymatSchatz, VirtuAll, MoveUs, KultureEscape, and Farmwan. In MAN 633 five student startups joined the course and developed their ideas further: Stakez, Nutrizzle, YoungMinds, Placeview, and Buero Abstract. All teams completed a huge development over the last months and took a great leap forward in their path to success. They all pitched before an external jury at the end of the semester and convinced the expertes of their idea. Thanks for a great semester and keep on guys!
For a more theoretical perspective on entrepreneurship, we were offering MAN 630 Introduction to Entrepreneurship and MAN 635 Social Entrepreneurship. In our lecture we were delighted to have some inspiring guest talks by Philipp Ortwein (Managing Director & Co-Founder of Instafreight) and Michael Altendorf (CEO & Co-Founder of Adtelligence).
Support
In our Inside the Venture format, that enables students to spend time working on a real-life startup project and contributing to its success, we had multiple projects. In the context of our accelerator course MAN 633 Entrepreneurial Spirit, we had projects with Bacchus Software, FutureNext, Memperience, Opal Analytics, ProAspect X, SaleUp and Tutorspace. The Inside the Venture projects focussed on software optimization at Bacchus Software, business development at FutureNext, Kickstarter campaign analyses at Memperience, improving sales opportunity at Opal Analytics, price finding at ProAspect X, customer acquisition and marketing strategy improvement at Tutorspace.
Also our partner INTEGRA was offering startup projects again this semester with L8Street and Futurenext. The projects were a great success and we are looking foward to many more projects.
Inspirational Events
Our Startup Lounges were still all online during the whole semester. In the first Startup Lounge we enjoyed a presentation of Pro-AspectX. This super exciting startup from Hochschule Mannheim developed a new generation of optical non-contact process sensors for explosion-proof (Ex) areas in the chemical industry. And their prototype is the first "Ex-ready" all-in-one Raman sensor that can be operated directly in process plants.
In the following Startup Lounge there was RoboLog. Their mission is the problem of affordable implementation of automation processes by developing a simple, easy to set up and flexible system for basic intralogistics tasks. The core element is a transport robot. An easy interface extends the functionality and enables various connections and interactions with users.
Then followed Kerith, a tech startup from Aachen. They intend to revolutionize the distribution of energy and so to make it smarter. Therefore, they came up with an algorithm able to show which energy production plant where is the most efficient. By doing so energy production could become more efficient, especially for developing countries who often lack the specific knowledge.
As usual the semester ended with our notorious pitch battle. Various startups from our courses got the chance to present themselves and did an amazing job. We were really flashed by all the not self-evident efforts and inspiring presentations. Discussions in the informal part in the different breakout-rooms went quite long afterwards.
Despite the unusual circumstances we would like to thank all our supporters, partners, and program participants for living the entrepreneurial spirit and making these formats happen! We are already looking forward to the spring semester!!
More news about the MCEI
MCEI intensified our cooperation with the Mannheim University of Applied Science. As they set up a diverse offer of courses and (educational) events we did not hesitate to take part in many of them ourselves to get new ideas about enriching and improving our own offers. Also we invited their students, startups and the whole team to our events. For the upcoming semester we are looking forward to an even closer cooperation.
In the future we will be intensifying our cooperation with the Deep Tech Hub, the University of Heidelberg, and the KIT in our startup support and entrepreneurship but also AI. So stay tuned and we will see you soon!