The winners of this year's "Swiss Technology Award 2024" have been announced
Innovations are the key drivers of progress for the Swiss economy; they secure our prosperity. The Swiss Technology Award supports and promotes this culture of innovation. Every year, outstanding technology-based innovations and developments from start-ups, universities and universities of applied sciences as well as established companies are honored in three categories.
The finalists in the "Inventors" category have achieved a breakthrough in their research or development work and are on their way to demonstrating the functionality of their idea with a prototype. The focus here is on the technology and even less on the business plan.
The "start-ups (rising stars)" have already taken concrete steps to implement their idea with an operating structure. Their product is defined, prototypes ideally exist. They have looked in detail at the financing, production and marketing options and can present a solid business plan.
The top three in the "Industry Innovation" category correspond to an established company with an existing and successful product portfolio. Through their R&D activities, they repeatedly bring new, convincing solutions to the market that offer clear advantages in one or even all dimensions of sustainability.
About the winners:
- Inventors: RoBoa is developing a snake-like robot with growth-based locomotion whose unique maneuverability and safety outperforms conventional methods in industrial inspections and search and rescue operations. This advanced technology enables the robot to autonomously map environments, deliver critical supplies and maintain data connectivity over long distances, setting new standards in safety and efficiency.
- Start-ups/Rising Stars: Oxyle offers the world's first economical, sustainable and permanent solution for the complete removal of PFAS contamination in water, supporting industrial and environmental remediation companies in the fight against water pollution. With 15 times lower average energy consumption compared to other methods, Oxyle is the most energy-efficient and cost-effective treatment on the market that removes PFAS without secondary waste below the detection limit.
- Industry Innovation: Bystronic, a leading global technology company headquartered in Niederönz, Switzerland, specializes in sheet metal processing and offers high-quality solutions for the automation of the entire material and data flow chain in cutting and bending processes. With an innovative technology that integrates sensor and AI-based real-time monitoring to ensure cutting quality, Bystronic increases the autonomy and reliability of laser cutting machines and supports.
About the award ceremony at the new innovation conference Open-i:
The award ceremony took place this year at the new Open-i innovation conference on November 21 and 22, 2024 at the Kongresshaus Zurich.
Open-i sees itself as a catalyst for exchange between start-ups, SMEs, large corporations, investors and thought leaders from science and business. The conference offers a comprehensive program with several stages and over 70 renowned national and international speakers. Open-i is much more than just a platform for knowledge transfer. The focus is also on networking the approximately 1000 participants in order to facilitate cooperation and thus secure Switzerland's leading role as an innovative and successful market.
Source: www.open-i.swiss
