EIT Digital Master School students will bring to market a COVID-19 solution with support from EIT Digital, the European innovation organisation. The solution, a 3D printed remote monitoring device can measure vital signs of corona patients which enables nurses to safely monitor multiple patients at the same time. The support entails a total investment of €500,000 coming from EIT Digital and partners.
Under the umbrella of "DATA against COVID-19", EIT Digital launched an extra innovation activity call to support innovators developing digital innovation solutions in the battle against Corona. This call resulted in 87 proposals from all across Europe, of which 9 got rewarded with EIT Digital support. Selected activities receive a co-investment from EIT Digital, with a return on investment expectation.
EIT Digital Master School students sent in a proposal for such an innovation activity, encouraged to do so after winning the EUvsVirus award in April. Mandatory to any EIT Digital Innovation Activities is working together with multiple EIT Digital partners. The students’ team found ELTE-Soft, MOHAnet and Eötvös Lorand University from Hungary and InnoTractor from the Netherlands interested to work with them in this innovation activity. The total funding for this project is 500.000 euro coming from the partners and EIT Digital.
Peter Lakatos, who is graduating from the dual degree EIT Digital Master School programme Data Science at the EIT Digital partner universities Eindhoven University of Technology and KTH, is now officially the activity lead of the solution and the new startup Entremo. And he is happy. “We were really happy that we got it, it is an exhilarating opportunity. This is going to be the first real adventure that has received funding. We are happy with the partners we have found, and we are going to learn so much!”
Besides one team member, motion graphic designer Kristóf Nagy, the other team members also study at the EIT Digital Master School. These include the second year students Márton Elodi, also co-founder of Vern Insurance Technologies, who studies Human Computer Interaction and Design at the EIT Digital partner universities Aalto University and KTH, and Miklós Knebel who studies Autonomous Systems (Technische Universität Berlin and Aalto University). The other two EIT Digital Master School students are in their first year of study: Levente Mitnyik (Embedded Systems, KTH and Eindhoven University of Technology) and Peter Danos (Visual Computing and Communication, KTH and Aalto University).
Solution
Within the coming six months Entremo is tasked to develop a Minimal Viable Product (MVP). Lakatos says the MVP should be tested in real life scenarios in hospitals and clinics. “Our goal is to have our first customers by end of 2020 and having secured partnerships with for example hospitals and governments.”
Currently, they have a prototype of a 3D printed remote monitoring device that measures key values which nurses regularly need to check on corona patients. The measured data will be available via a platform to track progress. “Instead of one patient, nurses can then check about hundred patients at the same time from a safe distance using less protected gear”, explains Lakatos in a video about the prototype.
To get to a MVP, the solutions will be built up from scratch again, says Lakatos, who is also co-founder of the startup SpotYet. They want to take into consideration all the feedback they received from medical experts after their first prototype and talking to the new partners. The device the team is planning to create is going to be developed for broader medical purposes than just the Covid-19. “COVID-19 will hopefully go away, hence we also want to satisfy the need for remote monitoring beyond this virus.”
Educate, innovate and accelerate
Roberto Prieto, Chief Education Officer of EIT Digital says to be very proud of the Master School students’ team. “We are very proud that we can support these Master School students with the further development of their COVID-19 solution. These students illustrate exactly the goals of EIT Digital: educate, innovate and accelerate. They are turning their technical know-how into a business solution that is addressing a huge societal problem.”
EIT’s Crisis Response Initiative
As part of the EIT’s Crisis Response Initiative, this activity directly contributes to the European Union’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
