The applications were considered under several evaluation criteria, primarily, they were considered under thesame four pillars as any entrepreneurial project atSimula:
- Is it an idea, a good idea, or a great idea?
- Can you build it?
- Will anyone buy it?
- Has anyone already built it?
The board of experts concluded that Voico and Spacemaker stood out in terms of innovativeness, and that these two companies have the potential tocontribute significantly to societal value creation on a national or even international scale. The companies were also thought to have a high chance of seeing the project through to a finished product, and that these technologies are unique in their field.
Noise cancellation and automated architecture
Voico is developing noise cancelation for telephone conversations performed in open plan offices, public spaces and other places with people close by. By reducing noise from the telephone conversations they increase privacy for the speaker and there will be less distraction and disturbance for others.The team at Spacemaker is developing an automated site development tool for early stage real estate development. With the power of the cloud and artificial intelligence Spacemaker explores and draws with a speed and analytical depththat is impossible for architects to do manually. The result is more living space, of higher quality, delivered faster - increasing sustainability as well as profitability.
Charlotte Irene Sørensen, the CEO of Voico, has an MSc in Entrepreneurship from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and has a background as Project Manager for NTNU School of Entrepreneurship and Regional Coordinator of Venture Cup Mid-Norway.
The CEO of Spacemaker, Håvard Haukeland, has a Master of Architecture from the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, and has experience with large-scale architectural projects. The CTO, Carl Christensen has a M.Sc in Computer Science and Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm and a M.Sc. in Business Administration and Economics from Stockholm School of Business (SSB), and has experience with large scale project and product development.
The board
Pinar isa professor and the Deputy Department Head of the Institute for Informatics at the University of Bergen. She is an expert on algorithms and became a professor at 34, as one of the youngest in the country. She has headed several research projects financed by the Research Council of Norway, and is a member of Simula's Board of Directors.
Kathrine is the CEO of Oslo Medtech, which works to improve innovation in the healthcare sector. Her education is in political science with a focus on research politics, and she has many years' experience with the commercialisation of technology and startups.
Founder andCEO of thetech-startup Fabriscale, which develops the next generation fabric manager, Sven-Arne has a PhD and experience as a researcherfrom Simula, and has worked on software development in several leading companies.
Christine is the Director of Digitisation and Innovation in Abelia, a union for researchand technology businesses. Her background is from NRK and Microsoft, and she knows the Norwegian IT sector thoroughly.
Bjørn is the CEO of the tech company Kalkulo, a spin-off from Simula Research Laboratory. Bjørn was education at NTNU, and he has since had a series of central positions in the Norwegian off-shore industry. He was the Director of Research at Hydro, the Senior Vice President ofHydro, and later on the country manager forStatoil in Angola andTanzania.