10 smart ideas at the MCI Creativity Award 2024

Date 2024-06-10

Innovative business concepts from students | Enormous potential and promising market opportunities

Every year, the Entrepreneurial School® honors the best business and product ideas of its students with the MCI Creativity Award. The popular business competition is aimed at all MCI students who want to realize their innovative and promising ideas and take on economic and social responsibility. This year, a total of 68 students demonstrated their creativity, entrepreneurial potential and founding spirit with 39 exciting individual and team submissions.

The business concepts were assessed by a jury of internal and external experts in a demanding multi-stage selection process based on criteria such as the degree of innovation and impact, benefits for customers, potential, and unique selling point. Seven ideas were nominated for the final round, with the five best concepts being awarded prize money. A special prize was also awarded for the best concept for implementation. All finalists also received subscriptions to the daily newspaper "Die Presse".

The winners and their ideas:

1st place: VINtech

(Stephan Behrendt, Hannah Erdmann, Dominik Seidel | Master Industrial Engineering & Management)

The VINtech team strives to improve the quality of non-alcoholic wine through innovative process engineering to make it more socially acceptable.

2nd place: Drinkon

(Lukas Köchl, Lukas Kuprian, Andreas Lechner | Master Food Technology & Nutrition | Bachelor Business & Management)

Drinkon is a beverage portioning machine that can produce a variety of drinks in an innovative and simple way, aiming to reduce the environmental footprint.

3rd place: MediHub

 (Samuel Peer, Andreas Thöni | Bachelor Mechatronics, Design & Innovation)

MediHub is an innovative way of reducing the workload of the already overworked nursing staff in intensive care units through an automation solution by centralizing the medication-related accounting, ordering, and billing process into one system.

4th place: PillTrain

(Meno Dittrich, Jonas Kreiner, Elisa Leusmann | Master Medical & Sports Technologies)

The PillTrain is a technical solution for senior citizens that helps to fill pill boxes in order to increase independence, relieve care staff and relatives, and minimize the risk of incorrect medication intake.

5th place & “Concept for best implementation”: Wingover

(Philipp Graf, Lukas Harasser | Bachelor Management, Communication & IT)

Team Wingover produces a natural and sustainable energy drink from a waste product of coffee production.

 

For the first time, six student teams from HTL Anichstraße also took part in the MCI Creativity Award 2024, three of which presented their entrepreneurial idea to a panel of experts. The student team "AlpenPro" emerged as the winner.

The MCI would like to thank the sponsors and partners of the Creativity Awards 2024 for their support: Startup.Tirol, the Federation of Austrian Industries Tyrol, aws and the daily newspaper "Die Presse".

V.l.n.r.: Michael Kraxner (MCI), Michael Mairhofer (IV Tirol), Hannah Erdmann, Stephan Behrendt, Lisa Spöck (Startup.Tirol) und Johannes Waldner (MCI) © MCI / Aaron Heimerl
From left to right: Michael Kraxner (MCI), Michael Mairhofer (IV Tirol), Lukas Kuprian, Lukas Köchl, Andreas Lechner, Lisa Spöck (Startup.Tirol), and Johannes Waldner (MCI) © MCI / Aaron Heimerl
From left to right: Michael Kraxner, Michael Mairhofer (IV Tirol), Andreas Thöni, Samuel Peer, Lisa Spöck (Startup.Tirol), and Johannes Waldner © MCI / Aaron Heimerl
V.l.n.r.: Michael Kraxner (MCI), Michael Mairhofer (IV Tirol), Meno Dittrich, Jonas Kreiner, Elisa Leusmann, Lisa Spöck (Startup.Tirol) und Johannes Waldner (MCI) © MCI / Aaron Heimerl
V.l.n.r.: Michael Kraxner, Michael Mairhofer (IV Tirol), Philipp Graf, Lukas Harasser, Lisa Spöck (Startup.Tirol) und Johannes Waldner (MCI) © MCI / Aaron Heimerl
V.l.n.r.: Christine Pirhofer (MCI), Anita Zehrer (MCI), Lisa Spöck (Startup.Tirol), Michael Mairhofer (IV Tirol), Paul Ullmann (aws), Barbara Frick (Cemit GmbH), Johannes Waldner (MCI), Benjamin Suitner (MCI) und Michael Kraxner (MCI) © MCI / Aaron Heimerl
The participants of the HTL Anichstraße in Innsbruck © MCI / Aaron Heimerl
<p>From left to right: Michael Kraxner (MCI), Michael Mairhofer (IV Tirol), Hannah Erdmann, Stephan Behrendt, Lisa Spöck (<a href=Startup.Tirol), and Johannes Waldner (MCI) © MCI / Aaron Heimerl

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From left to right: Michael Kraxner (MCI), Michael Mairhofer (IV Tirol), Hannah Erdmann, Stephan Behrendt, Lisa Spöck (Startup.Tirol), and Johannes Waldner (MCI) © MCI / Aaron Heimerl

<p>From left to right: Michael Kraxner (MCI), Michael Mairhofer (IV Tirol), Hannah Erdmann, Stephan Behrendt, Lisa Spöck (<a href=Startup.Tirol), and Johannes Waldner (MCI) © MCI / Aaron Heimerl

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