The teams of M4D, CERTH and CDXi stood out once again, responding with great success to the challenges set in the Confluence Challenge – Driving Innovation Together. They were among the top positions of the competition, winning four prizes.
Confluence Challenge – Driving Innovation is an open innovation program bringing together corporations looking for innovative solutions to industry chal-lenges, with entrepreneurs and researchers working at the forefront of tech-nology. The final event took place on Monday, December 4, 2023, at the Cen-ter for the Dissemination of Research Results of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
The goal of the program is to transform the open (collaborative) innovation into a tool for tackling complex technological problems and make it available to modern industry. Aiming at the substantial strengthening of the innovation ecosystem in Greece, the action enabled eighteen start-ups and dozens of researchers to create synergies with corporate partners. The international industry was represented by the multinational companies of ISOMAT, ALUMIL and KLEEMANN, who invited the participants to propose solutions to the placed challenges.
Driven by innovation, CDXi solutions, in collaboration with researchers from the M4D group of CERTH/ITI, presented 4 solutions to as many challenges:
The M4D vision team presented a solution related to the identification of aluminum ingots in furnaces using multimedia in response to the related challenge of @Alumil and won the Confluence Incubation Services Award.
The PROMISE team presented a solution for the calculation of scrap in profile designs scheduled to enter production, in response to the related challenge of @Alumil and won the Confluence Technology Innovation Award.
The CargoWatch team presented a solution related to the optimization of product planning, transportation and tracking processes in response to the @Kleemann challenge and won the Confluence Incubation Services Award.
The EcoMateria team presented a solution related to the improvement and automation of the production planning process in response to the relevant challenge of @ISOMAT and won the Confluence Incubation Services Award.
The planning and implementation of the action was carried out by the two Competence Centers and the companies Atlantis Consulting, Anthology Ventures and Ideas Forward.
The action was supported by the Association of Greek Industries (SBE), the National Center for Research and Technological Development (EKE-TA), the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the University of Macedonia and the Alexandria Innovation Zone. Finally, the EKETA Spira Technology Transfer Office exclusively contributed to the relevant training for the protection of intellectual property rights.
