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Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
The IT Incubator at Saarland University has selected a prominent membership for its supervisory board. In addition to leading figures in Saarland computer science and politics, experts from the international entrepreneurial community now support the incubation managers as well. Among them are Professor August-Wilhelm Scheer and one of the “German Stars in Silicon Valley.” The IT Incubator was founded by Saarland University and the Max Planck Society and began its operations in 2014. It is intended to make research results from computer science at Saarland University and the Max Planck Society market-ready, so that they can be used to create products and businesses in the region.
“In the IT Incubator we identify research results that have high market potential. Since these are usually at a very early stage, we develop them further in a market-oriented manner and look for an attractive business model, so that they can either become the basis for a start-up, or be licensed to an established company,” explains Axel Koch, Managing Director of the IT Incubator. It has long been the idea that the IT Incubator should have a board that would provide oversight of its strategy and activities, according to Koch. He explains that “after three years of operational activity, our incubation managers now have the experience needed to engage in dialogue with such a board.”
Professors Hans-Peter Seidel and Philip Slusallek belong to the eight-member board as representatives for research. Professor Seidel has been Director at the Saarbrücken Max Planck Institute for Informatics since 1999. In 2003 he was awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, which is considered the most important and most highly endowed research prize in Germany. Professor Slusallek is Scientific Director at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DKFI).
Professor August-Wilhelm Scheer bridges the gap between science and industry; a few days ago, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of German Research. This places Scheer among 20 laureates to date, of whom nine are Nobel Prize winners. Internationally, Scheer is known especially for his ARIS method and the corresponding software for business process management. Another member is the Sirrix founder and and former CEO of Rohde & Schwarz Cybersecurity GmbH Ammar Alkassar—one of the most important German entrepreneurs in the area of IT security.
Andy Goldstein and Thomas Arend also bring entrepreneurial experience to the panel. Having been a successful serial entrepreneur, Goldstein is now leading the Social Entrepreneurship Akademie and the Entrepreneurship Center of Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. Thomas Arend, CEO and co-founder of the “Savvy” one-on-one e-learning video platform, has already in worked San Francisco (in the so-called Silicon Valley) as Head of International Product at the online lodging marketplace Airbnb. Previously, he held positions in the software firms Google, Mozilla, and the short message service Twitter. This led the news magazine Focus to name the Saarlander as one of the “German Stars in Silicon Valley.”
A strong link to the investor scene is Dirk Middelhoff, who brings his expertise in corporate finance as a managing partner of the consulting firm Clairfield International GmbH. Policy is represented by Susanne Reichrath, the Minister-President’s Commissioner for Science, Higher Education and Technology.
Background: IT Incubator GmbH
Partners of the IT Incubator include Max Planck Innovation GmbH as well as Wissens- und Technologietransfer GmbH (WuT: Saarland University’s knowledge and technology transfer company). Along with rooms, equipment, and the network, the four employees of the IT Incubator handle financial support and access to the expert network, so that entrepreneurs can find financial and industry partners as early as possible. The incubator is financed through the state chancellery out of state resources, as well as through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
Background: Saarland Informatics Campus
The Department of Computer Science forms the core of the Saarland Informatics Campus at Saarland University. In the immediate vicinity, seven further world-renowned research institutes do research on campus. Along with the two Max Planck Institutes for Informatics and Software Systems, these are the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, the Center for Bioinformatics, the Intel Visual Computing Institute, the Center for IT-Security, Privacy and Accountability (CISPA) and the Cluster of Excellence “Multimodal Computing and Interaction”.
Questions can be directed to:
Axel Koch
Managing Director
IT Incubator
Tel.: +49 681 302-64913
E-mail: a.koch@univw.uni-saarland.de
Editor:
Gordon Bolduan
Competence Center Computer Science Saarland
Saarland Informatics Campus
Tel.: +49 681 302-70741
E-mail: bolduan@mmci.uni-saarland.de
http://itinkubator.de/
http://www.uni-saarland.de/pressefotos
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