AI-Cup
AI-Cup is a Bavarian-French start-up initiative to support the future generation of AI entrepreneurs and establish innovative AI start-ups in Europe. It is aimed at students or doctoral candidates from the academic field across Germany and France, who can demonstrate not only excellent scientific skills in the field of "Artificial Intelligence" but also have remarkable entrepreneurial skills. Successful teams can receive up to € 95,000 support for growing their ideas into innovative companies in Bavaria.
AI-Cup Update
After more than four months of scientific and entrepreneurial competition, the AI-Cup challenge finally reached a milestone with an interesting pitch event on the 13th of September2022. As part of the entrepreneurial challenge, the top ten winning teams of the scientific challenge have pitched their business ideas to a panel of jury, data providers and other experts. After an intensive panel discussion with the experts and partners, the jury have selected eight teams as winners of the AI-Cup challenge. Please find the winners list here. The detailed profile of the winning teams and their ideas will be updated in October shortly before the award ceremony which will take place on 11.10.2022, at Design Office Munich Atlas.
On this occasion, we express our sincere gratitude to our Jury, Technology partner ATOS, Data providers E.ON, Deutsche Bahn, CEA, Centre Borelli, Trading Hub, research partners from ENS Paris-Saclay and Gründerland Bayern for their immense support. Most importantly, our sincere thanks to the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy for the funding support.
We congratulate the winning teams and wish them all the best for a successful start-up journey. We also thank all the participating teams and wish them success on their future endeavors.
François Hoehlinger (La French Tech)
“La French Tech” is our startup scene here in France. It’s also a unique movement bringing together startups, investors, policymakers and community builders to help french startup in their expansion abroad, especially in Germany.
Rosi Keimerl (Bayern Kapital)
We are Bavaria’s venture capital and growth investor for start-ups with innovative technologies since 1995. From the approximately € 700 million investment volume we manage, we finance innovative Bavarian start-ups and technology companies from the seed phase to the expansion phase.
Prof. Dr. Andreas Pfeifer (ONE LOGIC, University of Passau)
Business Angel & Investor
At the launch of ONE LOGIC in 2013, our founder Andreas Böhm shared his vision of building a European AI champion with a home-grown technology platform. Two years later, the launch of the Data Product Builder ONE DATA marked a major step in this direction. Today, we also have ONE DATA Cartography, enabling technology and end-to-end data products that allow our customers to boost their productivity and capabilities. Many global companies now depend on our technology.
Owing to its excellent research output, an outstanding study environment and a tight-knit international network of partners, the University of Passau is a highly visible and highly respected academic and research institution in the heart of Europe. Internationally successful high-technology companies and a vibrant start-up scene, coupled with a rich culture and Lower Bavarian traditions make Passau a city with a high quality of life.
Daniela Rittmeier (Capgemini)
Head of AI Automotive & Thought Leader
As a leading strategic partner to companies around the world, we have leveraged technology to enable business transformation for more than 50 years. We address the entire breadth of business needs, from strategy and design to managing operations. To do this, we draw on deep industry expertise and a command of the fast-evolving fields of cloud, data artificial intelligence, connectivity, software, digital engineering, and platforms.
Prof. Dr. Carsten Rudolph (BayStartUP)
BayStartUP is the Bavarian startup network for founders, investors and industrial players. As the central institution for startup financing in Bavaria, we support innovative founders in building up their companies and in the search for startup and growth capital.
General information about the AI-Cup
Are you interested in playing with data and solving real-time problems through AI-based algorithms? Or you are passionate about AI technologies and want to build an AI-based start-up?
If your answer is yes, then the AI-Cup challenge might be an excellent opportunity for you to turn on the competitive spirit and win price money of up to € 95,000 to found your AI start-up.
The topic of the AI-Cup is "AI for a better world". The data science challenge offers three different streams within which to compete:
The challenge is made of two components:
►Scientific Challenge
The eligible candidates will be provided with data sets accompanied by a scientific question. For example, data-sets will include smart meter data from E.ON, gas usage data from Trading Hub Europe and bus ticketing data from DB Regio.
Note: The scientific competition is carried out via a Codalab platform provided by ATOS under the URL codalab.ai-cup.uni-passau.de. You will receive the login details for the Codalab platform after the successful registration here.
At the end of the scientific challenge, the solutions of the participants will be evaluated, and only the teams/candidates with the best solution will be moved to the entrepreneurial challenge.
Here is the template for the scientific report with the corresponding submission procedures.
►Entrepreneurial Challenge
The candidates with the successful scientific solutions also are expected to present a concept (business plan) describing their idea for creating an AI-based start-up. The future start-up has to bring forward "AI for a better world" and support (for example) in the areas of decarbonisation, smart mobility, people's well-being, etc.
Here is the template for the AI-Cup business plan.
For detailed information regarding the evaluation process of the competition, please check the FAQs page.
Result & reward
As a main result of the AI challenge/competition, up to eight winning teams will be offered mentorship for twelve months along with an average of € 95,000 price money in preparation for their start-up foundation. The future start-ups will need to be established or have a branch in Bavaria.
- The AI-Cup is open to students, doctoral researchers, post-docs and other young scientists at universities and non-university research institutions in France and Germany.
- Participating students who will complete their studies during the course of the competition or the period of the supporting package (mentorship/funding) may continue to participate; the same applies to doctoral students after their doctorate.
- Only pre-founding teams will be eligible for the funding, i.e. their start-up should not exist already. However, the winning teams will have the possibility to found their start-up before their AI-Cup supporting package has expired.
- From 9 March to 29 April, you can apply for the AI-Cup challenge using the online form.
For important enquiries, please write to us: ai-cup@uni-passau.de
The AI-Cup official kick-off took place on 23. October 2021.
University of Passau
The AI-Cup is an initiative led by Prof. Harald Kosch (Chair of distributed information systems) and Prof. Michael Granitzer (Chair of data science), in cooperation with the Transfer Centre of the University of Passau and involving the three hubs of the University of Passau: the Science Hub for Europe, the Digital Hub and the sustainable-development hub.
“The University of Passau is very honoured and pleased to be trusted by the Bavarian State Chancellery and the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy to run this unique AI challenge. We are proud also to have BAYFRANCE, Atos and École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay as very close partners for ensuring the AI-Cup will be a success.”
Ulrich Bartosch, President, Harald Kosch, Vice-President
- Chair of Distributed information systems
- Chair of Data Science
- IRIXYS - International Research and Innovation Center on Digital Intelligent System
- Transfer Centre from the University of Passau
École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay (Research Partner)
ATOS (Hosting Partner)
Atos is a global leader in digital transformation. As European number one in cybersecurity, cloud and high-performance computing, Atos provides end-to-end business solutions across industries in 71 countries.
"Atos is a proud partner of the 2022 Bavarian-French AI-Cup. As a European-based company with dual headquarters in Paris and Munich, we see a perfect cultural and business fit. I am particularly happy that our customers E.ON and Trading Hub Europe generously support our challenge with real-life use cases and datasets".
Udo Littke, Head of Atos Central Europe
Data Providers
- DB Regio AG (Germany)
- E.ON (Germany)
- Trading Hub Europe GmbH (Germany)
- Centre Borelli (France)
- The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission - CEA (France)
Other supporting partners
- BayFrance (Bavarian-French University Center) at the Technical University of Munich
- BayStartUp GmbH
- La French Tech
- HOCHSPRUNG - The Entrepreneurship Network of Bavarian Universities
If you have any questions, please contact us by email at ai-cup@uni-passau.de.
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