Cohort 2017/18

Problem

Japan's ageing society changes ANA's customer base. The airline wants to appeal to senior travellers, including the retired businessmen who flew with it for decades.

What they built

ANA tomo knows the passenger's flight and location and gives live navigation to the boarding gate, plus timely, personalised cues throughout the airport journey.

Impact

Elderly travellers find scattered information in one place and feel less time pressure. ANA can locate lost passengers and speed up boarding.

Problem

How can humans and machines communicate emotionally? People are busy and struggle to build deep emotional connections.

What they built

BIBO starts with random moves and learns commands such as come here or turn left through interaction. It senses the user's emotions from touch patterns and responds.

Impact

User tests showed people liked BIBO a lot. The project gave the sponsor practical insight into AI applications.

Problem

Optimise end-to-end shopping transport in food retail, from the moment a customer needs something to the purchase arriving at home.

What they built

Flip carries products inside and outside the supermarket, slides into the boot and folds. Two detachable, collapsible baskets adapt to different boots and ease loading and storage.

Impact

Less loading, unloading and lifting for shoppers. SONAE MC improves the shopping experience and strengthens its brand presence.

Problem

Every year 140,000 people move to Switzerland and face hurdles around visas, permits, housing and insurance. Online information is vast and too generic.

What they built

After five questions, Swissify generates a personalised timeline covering visa, permits, apartments, customs, insurance, banks and telecoms, plus events for the Swissify community. It is free and lead-generation funded.

Impact

Newcomers save time and money and know which documents each step needs, without their data being sold to third parties.

Problem

Design a fully circular and sustainable knit garment product with competitive production costs.

What they built

Infini replaces fossil-based fibres with bioplastic, which is recyclable, compostable and lower in CO2, combined with cotton leftovers, while staying cost-effective.

Impact

Triwool can produce fast fashion that is ecological and sustainable without compromising quality or production costs.

Problem

Understand what it is like to live with relapsing-remitting MS and improve quality of life beyond treatment.

What they built

A wearable collects patient data effortlessly, a mobile app serves patients and an online platform gives healthcare providers and researchers access to aggregated insights.

Impact

Holistic health monitoring for patients, who can also contribute to MS research and patient-centric care innovation.

Problem

How might Plansee create the best prototyping experience for key customers and employees by redesigning the onboarding of new projects?

What they built

During a new prototype request, the chatbot Jana acts as a personal online assistant, analyses the input and connects the customer with the relevant expert.

Impact

Transparency through shared data, simplicity through a natural interface, and efficiency gains as the process improves with use.