A mobile test chamber for small satellites and an AI-supported hairdresser's chair: The two ideas from the Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen (THM), BERT and Hairconomy, impressed in the finals of the "Hessen Ideas" competition, securing the Special Prize and the Audience Award. Thus, the THM emerged as the only university with two award-winning teams. The winners were honored at the awards ceremony in the Marburg Lokschuppen.

The team behind BERT, Yaris Winter Jimenez, Malwin Najmadin, Leon Budimovic, and Jonas Derksen, was delighted to receive the special prize of €2,000, which the jury awards for particularly promising and innovative ideas that are still in an early stage. BERT is developing a mobile test chamber for small satellites that enables small manufacturers in particular to test their satellites under realistic conditions on Earth. The chamber is mobile and, according to standardized procedures, simulates conditions in space, including vacuum, extreme temperatures, and weightlessness. The jury explained its decision by stating that the idea has the potential to set a new standard for sustainable and reliable space travel and thus make an important contribution to Germany's strategic future viability.

The second THMteam, Hairconomy, consisting of Salah Alnachawati, Wafaa Al Nachwati, Arthur Freye, and Osama Nouralddin, won the Audience Award, which was voted on by the audience on the evening of the awards ceremony. Hairconomy aims to combine artificial intelligence with the craft of hairdressing and develop an intelligent and connected hairdressing chair: Their innovative chair detects occupancy in real time, handles appointment scheduling, digitizes processes, and automatically reorders supplies.

This year's first prize, worth €10,000, went to a team of founders from the University of Marburg for their project "MindShift." The team is working on a technology that specifically influences information processing in the brain and is intended to be used particularly in cases of depression and anxiety disorders.

Science Minister Timon Gremmels congratulated the award winners and also offered birthday wishes. For the tenth time, the "Hessen Ideen" competition honored outstanding startup ideas from students, researchers, and alumni from Hessian universities. Therefore, the awards ceremony was embedded in a programme that included a startup fair and panel discussion.

This year, 40 teams from 15 universities were nominated. A jury evaluated the projects, and users simultaneously voted online for the best idea. Thirteen startup teams advanced to the finals, presenting their ideas in 60-second pitches on the evening of the awards ceremony.

"Hessen Ideen" is an initiative of the state of Hesse and the Hessian universities, supported by Hessian companies. The programme's pillars are the "Hessen Ideen" competition, the Hessen Ideen scholarship, the Hessen Ideen university network, and the Hessen Ideen crowdfunding programme. The goal is to discover and promote entrepreneurial ideas at universities.