The 4th TU Austria Innovation Marathon at the Technology Symposium of European Forum Alpbach has officially ended by the gong going off once again at 9:00. All teams have successfully presented their pitches in front of the company representatives and the audience. They all deserve a good sleep now. :) Great job guys! We hope you enjoyed the 24-hour challenge and hope to meet you again some time. :)

Finally we have entered the 24th hour! There is excitement in the room as the teams present their prototypes to the company representatives for the first time. After discussing the solutions which they have come up with in the last 23 hours, it is time for the big show. There are two important rules for the presentation: 1.) no PowerPoints (or any kind of slideshow) are allowed, 2.) the teams have exactly 2 minutes to make their pitch during the show. Though, huh? The audien

The prototypes are ready to be showcased at the stage rehearsal! At 5 o'clock in the morning the rehearsals start. For now without the sponsors and the audience, but receiving the constructive but critical feedback from the other teams and the Coaches. The diversity of the pitches is endless: there is live music, singing, oversized prototypes, great story-telling and more... but you can see for yourself! :) Don't miss out on the live streaming of the final show at 8:30. To jo

After the coffee machine has been reloaded, there are no obstacles in the way of a successful ending of the Marathon! :) The atmosphere has been surprisingly relaxed and the teams have spent most of the time in a good mood. Just before midnight the teams stepped over to the prototyping phase. This is when most of the teams got really energised - after the long understanding, analysing and ideating phases finally they got to the 'doing' part of the process. The students receiv

C is for Crazy... oh, I mean Coaches. :) As in the past years, this time the teams are supported by our experienced Innovation Coaches, members of the Austrian Patent Office and by our wonderful coordinator, Mario. Stefan, Julia and Christina are innovation consultants at Integrated Consulting Group and Roland is the leader of a small but powerful innovation team at Philips, so I dare say innovation runs in their veins. But wait... what exactly are they doing as Innovation Co

We have reached half-time!!! :) From 19:30 the teams had 1.5 hours of free-time. Some used it to go on with their projects, some of them participated in the yoga session offered by Christina, one of our multidisciplinary Innovation Coaches, and some of them went for a relaxing walk. Then the room has filled up again and it was time to reload the batteries with a fun energizer. What else could it be than the year-after-year favourite of our participants: the CUP SONG! :) I th

In innovation diversity is key. That's exactly why we are so proud of the diverse background of the participating students, and also of the wide variety of the projects brought by the partner companies. Some facts about the diversity of our teams: This year we received almost 170 applications from students for the 40 available places. There are more than 20 countries represented amongst the participants. These are: Albania, Austria, Belarus, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Ethio

The TU Wien publishing team is working hard to make the event accessible and well-documented on several sites. They are frequently posting photos and videos during the 24-hour challenge, so it's worth checking out! :) So here's where you can follow the event besides our blog - just click on the links below: On facebook The official page of the Innovation Marathon The offical page of the three Austrian Universities of Technology: TU Wien TU Graz TU Leoben On twitter TU Wien on

The teams still have 17 hours to go, and we're back with another four of the challenges. :) Altogether there are eight topics brought to us by the partner companies: ams, Constantia Flexibles, Energie Steiermark, Hilti AG, LIEBHERR, LOGICDATA, PALFINGER and Philips. On the cover photo you can see a lovely picture of the company representatives participating in the event. In the previous post we have introduced four of them, and now we are coming with the other half of the pac

After 3 hours of the teams individually analysing the topics and their business context, the company representatives are back! Now the students have the opportunity to briefly present their understanding of the situation and maybe eves share their first ideas. This year's challenges are brought to us by eight partner companies: ams, Constantia Flexibles, Energie Steiermark, Hilti AG, LIEBHERR, LOGICDATA, PALFINGER and Philips. But what exactly are these challenges? Let's see