2008 Intel + Berkeley Technology Entrepreneurship Challenge Participating Teams

3DBazar - Tomsk State University, Russia
A software technology that provides quick and simple conversion of object pictures into 3D images, represented as a flash file that can be placed on website without difficulty.  Imagine, how much more effective your e-shop will be, how much more informative your website will be. Our service will dramatically impress e-shop owners, and the purchase process will become more visual and enjoyable for customers. This capability is achieved through our 3D scanner internet based service. Our technology allows e-shop owners to make their site a more efficient tool for product promotion.

ACT - Kyoto Institute of Technology, Japan
Braided fabric is one of Japanese traditional textile for shoe lace, tying or decorating something, and etc. The braided fabric reinforced composite pipe is not only light and strong but also be able to achieve different unique properties according to the requirements by using braiding technique. The composite is very useful for the equipments of sports, the structural materials and so on. First of all, our target is to establish the venture company for designing and fabricating the custom-made braiding hockey stick and golf shaft. After that, other braiding structural materials will be sold.

Alkem - Universidad Federal de Espirito Santo, Brazil
The business plan consists in a wastewater treatment plant, based on Electro Flocculation and Forced Flotation. The invention is an improvement of electrolytic waste water treatment where general efficiency was increased. An extreme compact equipment which can be moveable was developed; water contaminants are removed in up to 30-40 minutes; sludge dries in a couple of days; raw material can be recycled and water can be reused in process or  sludge energy content can be recovered with gasification equipment associated, with more sustainability. Commercial opportunity is developing countries that have a huge demand for low investment solutions with high efficiency.

APEIRON - National-Louis University, Poland
Apeiron is a Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS) spin-off and a seed-stage chemical company established to commercialize break-through olefin metathesis catalysts developed and patented by scientist at Institute of Organic Chemistry, PAS. The company's goal is to commercialize that knowledge by introducing various kinds of catalysts for production of high-value specialty chemicals (drugs, cosmetics, pesticides, etc.) and advanced polymers (automotive, biomedical and biotechnology sectors).

B.C. Tech - Tsinghua University, China
B.C.Tech  develops Active Rehabilitation Apparatus for Brain Injury (ARABI), which is the core product of B.C.Tech based on research achievements of Tsinghua Univ. Neural Engineering Institute. This device can help reducing suffers from brain injury to rehabilitate their motor functions by imaging limb movement actively.

C-Cap - German University in Cairo, Egypt
Microorganisms resistance to antibiotics/antiviral is one of the most challenging healthcare problems that faces the globe nowadays. Many M.O. Developed strains that are resistant leading to worldwide problems in diseases as AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.   One of the most successful approaches to overcome this problem would be “Fixed Dose Combinations” where more than active ingredient “Drug” is co-administered in the same formulation, however this approach proved to be challenging since most of the active ingredients would have physical/chemical interactions.  C-Cap is an innovative idea for Pharmaceutical capsule formulation. The idea is based on the capsule equivalent of the layered tablet , having all the advantages of capsules over tablets beside being more efficient in layering as there is a physical barrier between the layers of the dosage form (zero interaction). Its potential comes from its simplicity; just an extra cap is filled and added to the lower end of a conventional hard gelatin capsule.

Citewalk - Instanbul Technical University, Turkey
Citewalk is a TUBITAK (Turkish Association of Science and Technology Research) granted mobile location-based service that integrates user generated multimedia content and physical location of the mobile user seamlessly on web. It enables mobile user to easily retrieve and post content about her active location and access her multi-media posts anywhere with Internet access. For the very first time multiple low-cost location detection technologies are seamlessly integrated into a user generated multi-media content service. Citewalk works as an information aggregator that collects all forms of content from various web sources and delivers this location based content on demand. In addition it offers targeted location based advertisement.

Critical Perfusion, Inc. (CPI) - Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Mexico
The Impedance Spectroscopy Monitor (ISMO) is a novel medical device conceived for monitoring critically-ill patients within intensive care units (ICUs). It consists of a minimally-invasive nasogastric probe and an electronic monitor that enable to measure the electrical properties of the gastric mucosa. The device has been successfully tested in 173 patients over three clinical studies. ISMO is expected to be launched in the US through a spin-off based in California: Critical Perfusion, Inc. Potential US market includes more than 6,000 ICUs, caring for 55,000 patients per day. Projected annual revenues will exceed $50M USD in 2013.

Dhama Apparel Innovations - National Institute of Design, India
Outdoor workers, military personnel, and sports enthusiasts’ often perform in harsh weather conditions and they are often subjected to heat stress. Extreme temperatures lead productivity and morale loss. Dhama Apparel Innovations has come up with products that aim to provide comfort and increase productivity in harsh weather conditions. Our products, ClimaGear-jacket/vest, ClimaNeck-neck accessory and ClimaMet-helmet, either heat or cool the user depending on the need, regardless of external weather. They work on patent pending technology developed by Kranthi Vistakula and he holds the complete IP Rights. Our products are light weight, easy to use and have no moving parts. 

Echo Music - Centro Universitario SENAC, Brazil
Our company, Echo Music, will focus on manufacturing and distribution of eco-friendly stringed instruments, including acoustic, electric and bass guitars. Our main goal is to supply consumers all around the globe with high-quality products, promoting culture and respect for the environment.      All of our sustainable methods of production and raw-material were selected based on the results of a life cycle analysis and assessment, and will comply with the cleaner production standards, that have recently been applied to all manufacturing sectors. Therefore, echo music will innovate as the greenest company of the musical instruments industry, supplying to a growing world-wide demand.

Fluorescent Nanoscope - Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Russia
Our new generation microscope gives researchers an opportunity to see living cells as they are with resolution of up to 2 nm. It enhances fundamental research in life sciences and gives new opportunities for drug discovery and tailored treatment. Technology is patented in Russia and patents are pending in all major countries. We are seeking an investor interested to provide $6.9 M to build prototypes, production models, start promotion via a lighthouse customer and package our IP for other promising markets.

Gelomatrix - National University of Singapore
Gelomatrix manufactures a biodegradable implant that is used to repair damaged articular cartilage at the knee. The technology allows for extracted human stem cells to be embedded onto a nano-fiber scaffold implant which provides the environment for the cells to regenerate and grow into healthy cartilage tissues.

Grippity - Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Israel
Grippity's mission is to become a leading provider of input technology to electronic device manufacturers around the world, and  to bring comfort and health to the daily interaction of people with electronic devices. The company has developed the Backtype technology which permits a handheld device to include full QWERTY keyboard operated by conveniently 10 fingers.

Nano Precision Medical - University of California, Berkeley & San Francisco
Nano Precision Medical is developing a novel technology called NanoFlow which enables the high-precision and low-cost delivery of a wide variety of therapeutic molecules—improving patient outcomes and lowering side effects.  Our first product in development is an implantable device that can deliver precise doses of Interferon-alpha over many months to treat chronic hepatitis C (HCV).  With an addressable HCV treatment market size estimated at $1.2 billion and expected to double in the next 5 years in the U.S. alone, HCV treatment represents an extremely attractive opportunity.  Furthermore, substantial evidence exists to suggest that continuous delivery of IFN-α will both increase effectiveness as well as decrease the debilitating side effects compared with current delivery methods that leave the patients in a severely debilitated state.

NeuroMOD Technologies - National University of Singapore
NeuroMOD Technologies (NeuroMOD) is a development stage company that designs, develop, manufacture, and market implantable medical devices for patients suffering from neurological disorders. Our initial product, the NeuroMOD Epilepsy Control System (NECS), focuses on epilepsy, a neurological disorder which affects more than 50 million people in the world today.

PetroWise - Nanjing University, China
PetroWise is a "technology transfer" corporation dedicated to the research and production of a high-quality fuel-substitute. Aiming to ease the current situation of energy shortage in China, PetroWise designs petrol-substitutes for fuel-consuming companies, and provides professional technology services and related additives.  The high-quality fuel-substitute, COS, is to replace combustible petroleum and serves to significantly save cost for fuel consumers.

Polyskin - National Institute of Immunology, India
Affordable solutions for burn wound management has been lacking in India having over a million patients annually. Existing solutions are expensive and require specialized skills for administration, limiting their reach. Polyskin uses a patent-pending process to formulate membranes out of drug encapsulated polylactide (PLA) particles. These are sent in bulk to hospitals who use our simple process to prepare membranes to treat the wounds. PLA, a USFDA approved, bio-compatible polymer has been in use for sixty years clinically. Preclinical trials have been completed and the company seeks $ 0.75 M for commercialization. Our process can be used for newer drug delivery systems for treating tumors and for tissue engineering applications.

SAOptics SPb – Saint Petersburg State University, Russia
SAOptics SPb has developed and continues developing a new technology which allows producing holograms that possess new consumer properties, i.e. high quality, large-sized, deep holograms. The unique technology generates an effect of a deep (up to dozens cm) image while its sharpness remains high. All in one, the technology supports print size of any typographical format and makes it possible to replicate cheap copies.

SCU Panda Park - Sichuan University, China
With the advanced technique support from the key laboratory of leather chemistry and engineering of education ministry, Sichuan University, we use the new clean leather technology----“the tannery method in which takes the carbon dioxide supercritical fluid as reaction media” to replace water in traditional process by carbon dixoide supercritical fluid, to provide environmental protection, ecological quality leather technology. In the world, the technology can be realized only in the skin into leather wet in the course of almost non-operation of water, thereby eliminating the source of tannery waste water.

SnipClip - Technical University Munich, Germany
On the platform SnipClip users can legally buy and trade video clips of their favourite movies, TV series and sports teams. The license owners of the video content act as sellers and offer their clips in the context of scrapbooks. The users can individualize the scrapbooks and present them on Facebook, MySpace & Co. SnipClip charges a commission on each sale and resale. In the long term, SnipClip will become the leading platform for creation, administration and sale of virtual goods in social networks.

VALTEC - Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria, Chile
The mining industry has some processes that are critical, this means that any malfunction on them will cause a downtime. These downtimes will cause great production losses, depending of their duration they will cost between US 30.000 - US 1 Million each hour. VALTEC is a Chilean company which created SUSY, a specialized monitoring system which helps to detect quickly, the most probable causes of the failure. This is an information service, which provides an integral solution to reduce the time of a downtime, allowing to companies produce more.

VirtuOR - University of Quebec, Montreal, Canada
With proven technologies and new advances in networking that emerged from the Université du Québec à Montréal and the Université Pierre et Marie-Curie of Paris, VirtuOR aims to impact the data communication industry through the introduction of the next generation of network equipments bridging the gap between market reality and business feasibility.  VirtuOR is able to supply today the first open virtual router solution on the market, providing the capability to run multiple networks from different operators on the same physical infrastructure.  It will allow businesses to transparently share and transport network nodes, dynamically creating temporary or permanent dedicated virtual network elements over existing VirtuOR routers.