Light sabres whizz through the air, spaceships dart through space, the attack on the Death Star: a Star Wars film thrives on powerful imagery. But suddenly, the bass cuts out. Instead of an impressive sound experience, all that can be heard is a faint rumble. It was with this scenario that founder Jacqueline Hey opened her pitch at this year’s ‘Tiger der TechBase’ event at OTH Regensburg, immediately capturing the audience’s attention.
The start-up GSS Audio is developing a new generation of bass speakers which, whilst delivering comparable performance, take up significantly less space than conventional systems. This technology opens up new possibilities for space-saving audio solutions, particularly in the automotive sector. The combination of technical innovation, a clear description of the problem and a confident presentation won over the jury and the audience. GSS Audio secured victory and took home the Tiger trophy, specially produced for the competition using a 3D printer.
From neurotherapy to drone defence
The ‘Tiger der TechBase’ is aimed particularly at young founding teams and start-ups in their early stages. The ideas presented were correspondingly diverse. The team from Nox Neuro presented a concept for therapeutic boxing training that combines movement and cognitive tasks and is designed to support neurological therapies. Fieldfix uses artificial intelligence to assist service technicians with fault analysis. Deadalus Defence presented an autonomous drone that independently detects unknown flying objects and safely intercepts them with a net. MyWeddingPlace is a digital platform that brings together all aspects of wedding planning in one place. The start-up Prinity, meanwhile, is developing a solution that enables 3D printing jobs to be processed automatically one after the other using a special printing plate.
The evening was hosted by Tanja Braun, Head of Start-up Support at TechBase, and Pia Endres, Advisor for University Spin-offs at OTH Regensburg. The jury comprised Florian Heitzer (Stadtwerk.Regensburg), Dr Georg Schwab (AVL Software and Functions), Markus Brunnbauer (Infineon Technologies) and Prof. Dr Carina Braun, Vice-President of OTH Regensburg. They were impressed by the thematic diversity of the business models presented and encouraged the teams to put their ideas into practice consistently and swiftly.
A strong start-up ecosystem in Regensburg
As the host of the competition, OTH Regensburg, together with TechBase and the DGO, emphasised the importance of a strong start-up ecosystem in the region. Alexander Rupprecht, Managing Director of TechBase, and Prof. Dr Sean-Patrick Saßmannshausen, Head of the Start-up Centre at OTH Regensburg, highlighted the favourable conditions for young entrepreneurs. Funding programmes, streamlined decision-making processes and a close-knit network help to rapidly develop ideas and turn them into marketable solutions.
“The start-up rocket in the region has been ignited. We benefit from a vibrant start-up culture, strong support schemes and a network where communication lines are short. Above all, however, we are seeing entrepreneurs who don’t spend ages debating, but roll up their sleeves and put their ideas into practice. That is exactly what the ‘Tiger of TechBase’ has impressively demonstrated,” said Prof. Dr Sean-Patrick Saßmannshausen.
Last year’s winner from Mount Memory, Leonie Wagner, presented the trophy to the lucky winning team. During the networking session that followed, it became clear once again that good ideas rarely emerge in isolation. The exchange between start-up teams, the jury and guests may well have laid the foundations for the next generation of start-up projects.
