New Ideas for the Industry

At the Future Tech Bootcamp 2023 of Industry Meets Makers, solutions to concrete questions of the industry were developed in a co-creation process over the space of four days. Makers, free developers, hobbyists, students, and representatives of start-ups as well as small and medium-sized enterprises all participated in the format of the Digital Makers Hub. This year, the bootcamp was held simultaneously at the St. Pölten UAS, at GEMINI in Salzburg, the INN.Kubator in Passau, and online.

The special event format features industrial companies presenting current technological challenges. The participants are then invited to come up with the first solution approaches together with the companies within four days. Technology partners, local maker spaces, and experts support the teams with infrastructure and profound know-how.

“For me, it is always fascinating to see how the development of future-oriented solutions can be accelerated with the help of proficiently designed open innovation processes. If we want to remain competitive in the medium and long term, we ought to rely even more on instruments such as these in the future, also in the industrial environment”, explains Sandra Stromberger from Industry Meets Makers.

From Battery Management and AI to Smart Plant Care

This year, the topics submitted by companies covered a broad spectrum of entrepreneurial topics including sustainable battery management systems, image processing, artificial intelligence and machine learning in glass processing, a business service centre for the city of Amstetten, data use in photovoltaic systems, smart plant care at the state garden exhibition “INNsGRÜN 2025” in Schärding, augmented reality storytelling for exhibits at Belvedere Palace, the development of learning spaces for the Clean Tech Club for children and adolescents, and the recycling of electronic waste.

Once more, this short period yielded extremely impressive results. For example, groups of pupils from the Andorf Technology School in Passau developed several smart raised plant beds with innovative service functions for automated plant care. Representatives of the start-up Protovation and the Open Land Lab from Southern Burgenland designed a Kelvin generator model for the Energy Trailer of the Open Tech Club at the University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt. They demonstrated on an experimental basis how a plant fuel cell works.

With the support of the start-up Meshmakers from Salzburg, students of FH Salzburg and the St. Pölten UAS as well as 50 pupils from the secondary school HAK Liezen developed open source apps that can autonomously read and control in-house solar energy systems. The start-up ‘bee produced‘, in collaboration with an AI student, showed how machine learning can be used to identify microchips in electronic devices in order to effectively recycle them. Students of the St. Pölten UAS used the AR app Artivive to design a creative story for the historical painting “Samsons Rache” (Samson’s revenge), while the start-up AITAU – together with a student of the University of Passau – demonstrated the potential in the field of modelling and analysing synthetic data.

Innovation as a Necessity for Survival

“The Future Tech Bootcamp makes it possible to combine current challenges of the industry with fresh ways of thinking. This year, companies and the participants of the bootcamp jointly came up with innovative solutions to problems faced by companies once again. In many cases, this required creative out-of-the-box thinking, something that is rarely given enough room in everyday working life”, explains IV NÖ President Thomas Salzer.

He also emphasises the importance of events such as the Future Tech Bootcamp that promote innovative spirit: “Without innovation, in terms of both processes and products, companies can no longer survive in the European and global markets nowadays. Therefore, innovation is one of the fundamental factors for success for the international competitiveness of the Lower Austrian industry.”

Innovation Café and Summer Party

There were several other events that took place alongside the bootcamp of Industry Meets Makers, among them an Innovation Café in cooperation with the E.I.N.S Open Innovation Hub, the WTZ Ost, and the Digital Makers Hub on the topic of “Creative Industries & Digital Media”.

“The Café was an opportunity to give centre stage to researchers and their latest insights and to bring them together with company representatives in a relaxed setting as these find the insights helpful for their day-to-day business and economic success”, says Thomas Moser, Head of the Institute of Creative\Media/Technologies at the St. Pölten UAS which supported the Future Tech Bootcamp and the Innovation Café.

The bootcamp was concluded with the #IMM2023 Summer Party at the St. Pölten UAS.

Creative Media Summer School

In parallel with the Future Tech Bootcamp, the St. Pölten UAS hosted the Creative Media Summer School for its students who had the opportunity to acquire and deepen knowledge and skills within the framework of workshops and discussions. Internationally renowned speakers and workshop leaders provided high-quality training.

“The focus of the Creative Media Summer School is on artistic practice, creative processes, technical realisation, and theoretical reflection on various topics in the context of media and digital technologies”, says Franz Fidler, Head of the Department of Media and Digital Technologies at the St. Pölten UAS.

• Future Tech Bootcamp, 26/06–29/06/2023

The Future Tech Bootcamp 2023 is an innovative event format by Industry Meets Makers which is organised in the Digital Makers Hub with the support of IV Niederösterreich, GEMINI Startup Base, Innovationsraum 3, INN.Kubator, and further partners.

• Creative Media Summer School, 26/06–30/06/2023
• Innovation Café, 27/06/2023