Winner of the Fulda University of Applied Sciences ideas competition has been announced

With her concept for a savoury, protein- and fibre-rich snack ball, Anna Kocis has secured first place in this year's Fulda University of Applied Sciences ideas competition. She received prize money totalling 1,000 euros for her product idea "DraffBite". The snack passes natural ingredients and spent grains, a by-product of beer production. Draff passes mainly from the insoluble components of malt. It is already used in the kitchen for vegetarian fillings, baked goods or as a breading.

The product is intended to fill a gap in the market, as most protein-rich snacks are sweet, according to the concept. DraffBite should taste as savoury as a classic meal, be filling for a long time and support health-conscious nutritional goals. The student's target group is primarily "busy professionals" aged between 25 and 40 who live in urban areas and have a busy professional life.

Anna Kocis will now expand on her idea, which she developed in the Innovation Management module in the Food Technology department, as part of an EXIST Women scholarship. The aim of this funding is to support women in the phase before starting a business, in particular in the development of their entrepreneurial personality and the further development of their start-up idea.

Simplifying and automating rehab applications

Maxi Florentine Siebert, a Master's graduate from the Department of Health Science, took second place with a prize of 750 euros. With her idea "Reha4You", she aims to reduce bureaucratic hurdles for rehab applicants and advisory services. Users are managed through all the necessary steps and entries are automatically checked for completeness, plausibility and probability of success. At the end, the application is sent directly to the authorities in charge.

With her idea, Maxi Florentine Siebert wants to support the creation of equal opportunities in terms of health. She explains in her concept that many people who are in urgent need of rehabilitative services: benefits are denied to them - not because of missing personal conditions, but because they fail to complete the highly complex applications.

Recognising hearing impairments at an early stage

The third prize, worth 500 euros, also went to a Master's graduate from the Department of Health Science. Romina Jasmin Frenzel developed the idea of "SnailKids", a hearing screening device specially tailored to laypeople, with which educational professionals in day-care centres and primary schools can carry out a simple and effective hearing test so that hearing problems can be detected and treated at an early stage. All too often, hearing impairments in children are only recognised late or inadequately - with significant consequences for their linguistic, cognitive and social development.

In addition to specially developed software and hardware, the tool comprises a comprehensive training programme and a virtual counselling platform and could also be used in developing countries.

A total of eight teams presented their ideas at the award ceremony on Thursday of this week (13 February) at the Fulda University Transfer Centre. As usual, the audience was able to award their own prize in a live vote. They chose the "Talkothek", a meeting place for international students for language exchange and the funding of intercultural dialogue.

Fulda University of Applied Sciences organises the ideas competition once a year. The aim is to encourage students to think about start-ups. In addition to the product idea, the submitted project outlines must also convincingly present their benefits and provide initial approaches for marketing and sales. A total of 10 EXIST Women scholarships were also awarded at the awards ceremony.

The winners at a glance

Jury prizes:
1. DraffBite - savoury snack ball made from upcycled spent grains (Anna Kocis, Department of Food Technology, €1,000 prize money)
2. Reha4you - platform that simplifies and automates the application process for rehabilitation services (Maxi Florentine Siebert, Department of Health Systems, 750 euros in prize money)
3. SnailKids - hearing screening device for use in day-care centres or primary schools (Romina Jasmin Frenzel 500 euros in prize money)

Audience Award:

Other ideas that were presented:
Nutrinail - app that uses pictures of fingernails and AI to infer mineral intake (Rahul Paul Abraham and Amela Hasanagic, Nutritional, Food and Consumer Sciences department)

MoVo - app that enables enterprises to give their employees bonuses for tracking health data (Nils Hesse, Nutritional, Food and Consumer Sciences department, Nele Jostock and Mathilda Allmacher)

Win Tomorrow - platform for supporting political candidates, (Abbas Abbas, Shinu Donney, Department of Applied Computer Science, and Jonas Martin, Department of Business)

Automatic head-washing device - aid for elderly or impaired people (Afra Ranvankhah, Department of Electrical Engineering)

Talkothek - meeting place for international students, where language exchange and intercultural dialogue are supported (Katharina Khang Ling Low, Department of Social and Cultural Sciences)