Smart Technologies: Innovation for Better Life Contest winners: DeepOnco, PlatoBots, VRSTEPS

​​​​​​​The concluding event of the second multi-disciplinary competition in Israel, Smart Technologies: Innovation for Better Life, took place June 6, 2018.

 Also called BGU Smart, the Competition was created with the understanding that every life-changing technology begins with people from different disciplines. The competition is a joint Ben-Gurion University of the Negev initiative led by the Bengis Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation of the Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management GGFBM, the GGFBM and the Faculty of Engineering Sciences.

 From the opening speed-date event in early January, 2018, over 150 students from around Israel, met and grouped into teams working rigorously on their projects to utilize life-improvement technology and management. Teams were required to contain at least one management student and one engineering student among them. With the support and accompaniment of devoted mentors, every team submitted an impressive project.

 Awards for the projects placing first, second and third were NIS 25,000, NIS 15,000 and NIS 10,000 respectively, intended for use in furthering their ideas into forming actual start-up companies.

 This is the first multidisciplinary contest in Israel. Initiated in 2016, with a launching event in January 2017 including “speed dating" for the entrepreneurial students to find and form their teams, winners astounded the judges with their originality and creativity: CYou, MelaShield, and BabyRoo.

 Winners were:

First Place

DeepOnco, offering an algorithm-based solution that will plan out optimal treatment through precise imaging, for cancer patients.

 Partners: Dr. Hen Giladi, Deep Learning expert and excusive marketer for one of Israel's top radiotherapy companies, also currently completing his post-doc in physics and mechanical engineering at BGU. Alon Oring, Deep Learning researcher with an MBA from Tel-Aviv University. Prof. Dror Alezra Chief Medical Physicist and Unit Manager at Tel Hashomer Medical Center. He is also chairperson of the Israel Medical Physics Association and the science consultant to DeepOnco.

 Second Place

PlatoBots makes raw food beautiful. Our robots carve watermelons into beautiful and edible works of art that bring prestige and decadence to any event.

The basic bot design is based on a robotic arm that is equipped with a scalpel that accurately carve a watermelon into magnificent shapes. The fascinating part is that the PlatoBots use an industry entry-level bots in order to introduce an attractive price point to small and medium businesses. We have plans for stage 2 and 3 bots that will allow the company to scale out to higher end businesses such as cruise ships and hotels. The market is fresh and currently uses no technology whatsoever in this field. There are bots that help with peeling or sorting but none currently shaping forms of fruit.

Partners: Dr. Hen Giladi (above), Elad Asulin MBA student at the GGFBM in the entrepreneurship and high tech track.

 Third Place

VRSTEPS is an innovative solution for rehabilitation of limb amputees based on VR environment connected to real-time muscle sensor over Bluetooth connection. 

 Partners: David Drabkin, CEO and CTO of VRsteps, BSc in Software Engineering from SCE and MBA from the Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management BGU;

Polina Ovras Software Engineering student at SCE, experience in 3d modeling and material design. Victor Sinaniev Software Engineering at SCE and certified practical engineer in electronics; Maor Hadad, BSc in Software Engineering from SCE and 4 years of experience in Android development

The committee of judges was made up of Dr. Mosi Rozenboim, Chair of the GGFBM Department of Management, Prof. Avi Levy, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering Sciences at BGU, Dr. Stav Rosenzweig of the GGFBM Department of Management, Maya Hoffman-Levy, Director of the Dell EMC Development Center in Beer Sheva, Tali-Heiruti-Sover, editor of the employment market, management, entrepreneurship, career section of TheMarker, and Oleg Brodet, Director of the R&D Department of Deutsche Telekom Innovation Labs Israel.​