The Junior Achievement Foundation and the University-Business Foundation launch the XI edition of Startup Program, the largest inter-university entrepreneurship competition in Europe. The main Spanish universities participate in this program in which, in these 11 years, more than 1,300 students have been trained and more than 780 professional volunteers have acted as mentors, advising a total of 538 entrepreneurial projects.
The XI edition has had the participation of more than 260 students from 22 universities, who, advised by 88 professional volunteers from multinational companies such as PwC and Equifax, have developed, among others, the business plan and viability of a total of 86 entrepreneurial projects.
The 15 best teams have been selected to participate in the national competition with which this XI edition of the Startup Program has been closed. Yesterday, at the Rafael del Pino Foundation, young people defended their entrepreneurial ideas, opting for the nomination of the different awards and the winner of the Enterprise Challenge. This morning, at the Fundación Botín, the winners were announced.
SyTaCa, a project carried out by students from the Francisco de Vitoria University, aimed at meeting the needs of people with a chronic disease, has been the winner of the Prize Enterprise Challenge that will allow you to participate in the European competition Junior Achievement Europe Enterprise Challenge 2019 which will take place on June 24 and 25 in Norway.
SyTaCa has also been the winner of the Madrid Science Park, which allows them to have free accommodation with access to business support services in one of the PCM incubators for six months. lend, from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, has received the ASCRI to feasibility, which consists of a provision of 1,000 euros and advice from ASCRI staff or another partner related to the project. Dream, from Nebrija University, has collected the Award City of Madrid, consisting of a reduction in the public price of up to 3,000 euros for accommodation in the network of business incubators. AUGA, from the European University, has received the equifax, which consists of an endowment of 1,000 euros, and ARAX Drones, from the Carlos III University, has collected the Prize PWC Foundation, which consists of an endowment of 1,000 euros and a counseling session by the PwC Foundation.
SyTaCa is a technological-health startup aimed at covering the health needs of all people with chronic diseases. It has three main tools: an artificial intelligence system capable of identifying different situations and proposing six specific and measurable health objectives based on the pathology and condition of each person; a medical chat to attend emergencies; and the third tool is a social network, the SyTaCa Community that connects people in the same situation to get advice and motivation.
The team in charge of developing SyTaCa is made up of the Nursing student Pedro García Colmenero and the Computer Engineering student Pablo Guinea Benito, representing the Francisco de Vitoria University of Madrid.
The idea of SyTaCa was born from a personal experience of Pedro García. "We wanted to create a startup that would have an impact on people's lives and just at that moment my father suffered a heart attack with many complications," explains this Nursing student. "At that time my father had to learn a series of skills and abilities to take care of his illness, and we realized that there were more people in his situation."
"A person can know exactly what their disease is like, but they often don't know how to apply this knowledge in their day-to-day life," says engineering student Pablo Guinea. "The objective of our startup is for people to know in a concrete way how they have to take care of themselves without acquiring great knowledge or great skills," adds Guinea.
Patients interested in SyTaCa will be able to access this startup's application through medical insurers and the public health system. "Right now we are in the financing search phase," says Pedro García. "We have the finished prototype and we need financial support to help us complete the artificial intelligence algorithms."
With respect to The Junior Achievement Europe Enterprise Challenge to be held in June in Norway, Pedro García and Pablo Guinea confess that they are “very motivated and very proud because we represent the Spanish healthcare scene”. The team made up of these two Nursing and Computer Engineering students is confident that the prestige of the Spanish health system "adds a lot of weight to our project".
In addition, the two students wanted to show their gratitude to the Francisco de Vitoria University and, in particular, to the project's tutor, Begoña Viejo. "They have given us enormous support and have passed on many skills to us as a result of the various meetings we have had with them," the two students conclude.
Dream, award winners City of Madrid, is a mobile application that helps people with visual disabilities in their day to day when it comes to moving around the streets mainly, although we also work indoors.
Jaime del Corral and Carlos Nieto are the two Nebrija University marketing students who created this mobile application that captures bluetooth signals, emitted by devices called beacons, and translates them into voice messages and/or vibration patterns. In this way, visually impaired people can be warned sufficiently in advance of the architectural barriers that are in the way.
In the same way that architectural barriers are marked, information points can be marked inside buildings, facilitating the administrative tasks of the disabled or their mobility through them. It can also be incorporated into scooters or bicycles, which circulate on public roads and in this way the disabled can know in advance the passage of one of these vehicles. Even indicate traffic lights, level crossings, etc. In short, "we will go as far as we dream".
Startup Program is sponsored by PWC and Equifax, with a subsidy from the Madrid City Council, through the General Directorate of Commerce and Entrepreneurship, and the collaboration of ASCRI (Spanish Association of Capital, Growth and Investment), the Science Park Foundation Madrid, Botin Foundation and Rafael del Pino Foundation.
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