New start-ups from the ranks of the Deggendorf Institute of Technology (DIT) are not long in coming: the university is currently supporting the start-up “Vourus”. A company that wants to gain a foothold in the field of IT security. In particular, companies that process sensitive data can benefit from the start-up’s services.

The founders behind Vourus are Nicolai Roider and Sebastian Schreiner. Already as teenagers, they worked together on various projects in the technical field. Very quickly, they recognised the increasing relevance of data security and decided to set up a company together. Nicolai Roider studied business administration in the commercial area and Sebastian Schreiner is an IT specialist for application development in the technical area. At DIT they have the chance to put their plan into practice with a start-up scholarship. They are supported by the DIT Start-Up Campus, the Hans Lindner Foundation and Prof Dr Thomas Geiß as mentor.

The idea of the Vourus founders is to make the exchange and transfer of data more secure. To this end, they have developed an encryption system that is intended to offer the highest possible security. It ensures that only authorised people can access sensitive data. It immediately recognises whether files are in their original state or have been changed after being sent. Another advantage over conventional systems is that users can be deprived of decryption rights afterwards. The young founders have already concluded the first partner contracts with software manufacturers. The start-up is therefore planning to expand its resources, especially by adding staff in the areas of development and sales.

Since August 2020, four students at the Deggendorf Institute of Technology (DIT) have been pursuing the vision of developing a vegetable robot for hobby gardeners with their start-up SEPP. SEPP is funded by an EXIST start-up grant from the German government and supervised by the DIT Startup Campus team. The first milestone was the interim presentation to the SEPP start-up network on 15 December 2020. The team presented the results of the business plan preparation as well as the current development status of the prospective start-up.

The team around Andreas Stockinger - Martin Seidl, Martin Leitl and Sandra Eichenseher- was able to realise a first prototype in the last few months thanks to the funding provided. The start-up’s vision is a vegetable robot for Smart Efficient Plant Production (SEPP). The aim is to make it easier for hobby gardeners to grow vegetables in their home gardens by automating the vegetable patch. Thus, even those who previously had little time for gardening can enjoy the benefits of self-sufficiency in vegetables. They were supported in this by their mentor Prof Dr Wolfgang Dorner and the Startup Campus of DIT. By the upcoming gardening season in 2021, the team would like to be able to build a functioning robot. Automated watering and weeding should then be possible outdoors for the first time. The young founders plan to enter the market in spring 2022.

The Deggendorf Institute of Technology (DIT) has been working for several years to ensure that great business ideas from students do not simply disappear into a drawer. Students who would like to set up their own business can rely on the university’s Startup Campus team and a network that has grown considerably in the meantime. The university’s central information event is the Start-up Day. This year, it took place on 18 November as a virtual event.

In several lectures more than 180 participants got to know the contact people of the university, the Hans Lindner Foundation, the Digitalisation Start-up Centre Lower Bavaria and the Digital Start-up Centre Rottal-Inn Freyung Grafenau. All of them offer their support and competence on the way to independence. Time for exchange and networking among students was also planned for the Founders’ Day. Five start-ups presented their ideas and some of them were still looking for fellow entrepreneurs. At the end of the event there was still knowledge about brand management and the opportunity to ask questions in small groups.

Students who would like advice or would like to contact other start-ups can always contact the Startup Campus team. Prof Dr Thomas Geiß, Alfons Weinzierls and Alexander Böckl are available for initial contact via e-mail at startupcampus@th-deg.de.

A new founding idea is currently gaining momentum at the Deggendorf Institute of Technology (DIT). It is about digitalisation in tool and mould making. The companies in this sector are usually very well equipped in terms of technology. However, full utilisation of their resources is not always possible. Three students at DIT now hope that their idea will optimise the process chain from incoming orders to quality management in such a way that capacities are fully utilised and costs and time can be saved at the same time.

Tool and mould making is essential for any series production. However, the production of tools and moulds, i.e. unique specimens, can still be optimised. The start-up “ti4f” has developed a strategy in cooperation with the Application Laboratory Industry 4.0 of DIT in order to digitalise the process in tool and mould making throughout. Especially the processes of the highly complex one-off production can then be analysed and shortages can be detected. With the help of a self-learning knowledge database working in the background, strategies for process optimisation can be generated. Constantin Vogel, Thomas Brunner and Radoslaw Korek are the founders of the “ti4f” start-up. Their product is designed to such an extent that they can integrate it step by step into the consulting process. They are already in contact with the first test customers. This step serves to evaluate their know-how and enables them to gain new experiences. The next steps planned are the development of the “ti4f” brand, the founding of the company and the search for further beta customers.

Constantin, Thomas and Radoslaw came up with the founding idea while studying for a Master’s degree in Technology Management. In the lectures and practical courses in the Industry 4.0 application laboratory, they had debated a lot about the future of industry. They also discussed the problems of single-part production under the direction of Prof Dr Gansauge. “ti4f” is supported by the DIT Startup Campus and an EXIST start-up grant from the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy. The major goal is to have an MVP for all digital applications by the end of the scholarship period in September 2021.

With its new incubator programme "Kickstart", the Startup Campus of the Deggendorf Institute of Technology (DIT) promotes unique projects and further expands the start-up culture at DIT.

The new programme "Kickstart" refers to the pre-founding phase and prepares students, employees and alumni of DIT and EXIST start-up grant in six months. Thanks to the programme funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the "Kickstart" projects can count on support of up to € 7,500 for the construction of a prototype. In addition, participants will be given access to the creative working environment in the new DIT Startup Lab and coaching by the experts of the Startup Campus Team.

With the first "Kickstart" project "fx-drones" by Daniel Fuchs, a 360° video drone is promoted, which is especially designed for indoor recordings. At less than 250g, the drone is so light and manoeuvrable that it is able to fly through small openings, windows or shelves and also over sensitive places near people without any problems. For example, it can fly past the athletes at sporting events and even between the feet of the dancers at dance events. With this concept, Daniel Fuchs is one of the first people in Germany to receive funding from the programme. 

With the "scob" team, a second project has already been included in the "Kickstart" incubator programme. This is a career platform based on Artificial Intelligence, which helps companies and potential trainees to find each other and achieve the "perfect match" on the job market, so to speak. 

The newly created incubator programme "Kickstart" is aimed at all founders of tomorrow and once again underlines the pioneering role of the DIT Startup Campus in the start-up scene. Further information on the programme can be found at: https://th-deg.de/en/students/career/startup-campus.

The start-up “Easy2Parts” from the ranks of the Deggendorf Institute of Technology (DIT) is on course for success. After 18 months as a young entrepreneur, the founding team convinced the BayStartUp investor network. Several investors are providing funding because they believe in the idea of “Easy2Parts”. The team of the university’s start-up campus has supported the start-up from the very beginning and is eagerly following the next steps.

A supply chain platform that intelligently links buyers and suppliers and automates parts procurement in industrial production. That is the idea behind “Easy2Parts”. The founders Robert Hilmer, Sebastian Freund and Michael Neuhauser came together through the university. Robert Hilmer studied business management while working part-time, while Sebastian Freund first studied industrial engineering and then went on to study general management in an MBA programme. Michael Neuhauser is a graduate of the Applied Computer Science programme. The team of the DIT Start-Up Campus, especially Prof Dr Thomas Geiss, offered a contact point and personal support. Together they developed the business model for “Easy2Parts” and prepared an idea paper for the application for their first financing package, the EXIST start-up grant. With the start-up grant, a steep upward trend began in March 2019. Five other employees are now part of the “Easy2Parts” team, they have found their office space in the ITC1 start-up centre in Deggendorf and they have successfully completed the Business Plan Competition “Ideenreich 2020”. Seed financing, i.e. start-up capital from companies that see the future potential of Easy2Parts, will enable Robert, Sebastian and Michael to get off to a completely different start. They can also count on the support from DIT. The founding team was and is supported by two professors of DIT as mentors: Prof Dr-Ing Ludwig Gansauge, who has been researching the networking of manufacturing companies for more than 20 years and also has extensive knowledge and networks in mechanical engineering. And Prof Dr Herbert Fischer, who supports the founding team with regard to software development, ERP systems and data protection, among other things.

Software for IT security may soon come from Deggendorf. The Deggendorf Institute of Technology (DIT) is currently supervising the start-up company XENTEC. Financed by a scholarship, the two-member founding team wants to build up an IT security company. Initial product tests with pilot customers are already underway.

Nicolai Roider and Sebastian Schreiner want to create maximum IT security in all areas of the software industry and their own company. Their first product is to be a software with which other software manufacturers can protect their product. The mission is to set a new standard in data encryption and data protection.

They are supported by the DIT Start-up Campus, the Hans Lindner Foundation and by an EXIST start-up grant from the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy. The two founders have already achieved quite a bit in their first half year as scholarship holders. The first Xentec product is patent pending. Initial tests have shown a positive response from pilot customers. Their feedback is currently flowing into the further development of the software. Anyone looking for Xentex on the Internet will have to be patient a little longer. The development work currently requires the full attention of the two founders.

The team of the DIT Start-up Campus is always open for innovative ideas. If you would like to become a founder, you can contact us via e-mail startupcampus@th-deg.de.

Founding team of the Startup Campus of the Deggendorf Institute of Technology (DIT) receives an EXIST founding grant of € 117,000 for the idea of the agricultural robot SEPP.

The idea is simple and ingenious: a robot that takes care of the domestic vegetable garden. The useful helper will make it easier for garden owners who do not have the time to regularly water or weed their garden. This is the vision of Andreas Stockinger and his two founding colleagues Niklas Rohne and Martin Seidl. With this idea, the team approached the DIT's Startup Campus and, with its support, received an EXIST start-up grant.

Supported by the scholarship in the amount of € 117,000, the prospective founders now have twelve months to turn the vision of the agricultural robot SEPP into a marketable product. During the development of the robot, the construction of the first prototypes up to the planning of a serial production, the founding team can count on the support of DIT and its Startup Campus, no matter if it is the solution of technical problems or the production of single metal components. If everything goes according to plan, home gardeners can hope for a significant reduction in workload because of SEPP for the 2022 gardening season.

The founders will be supported by their mentor Prof Dr Wolfgang Dorner and the DIT Startup Campus. The team of founders will move into the Startup Lab of the Startup Campus as their workplace during the funding period. The DIT's Startup Campus supports students, employees and alumni of the university in all phases of a business start-up.

The EXIST founding scholarship is funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy and the European Social Fund. In addition to students, the scholarship also supports graduates and scientists who want to implement their founding idea with a business plan.

Nothing we wear on our bodies is more contaminated with viruses and bacteria than our mobile phones. "CuCase", a start-up from the Deggendorf Institute of Technology (DIT) launched a smartphone case that addresses this very problem. The special thing about it is that the copper alloy used is also effective against the SARS-CoV-2 corona virus.

Antibacterial mobile phone sleeves are already available. No surprise! We touch our smartphones up to 2,500 times per day, on wich an average of 100 different types of bacteria are found - not counting viruses. A market with growth potential. "Our phone case consists of a special copper alloy," explains Dennis Gerdts, inventor of the product and responsible for research and development at CuCase. "Copper," says the 24-year-old, "is one of the most effective materials in the fight against pathogenic germs. It eliminates more than 99% of bacteria." And it eliminates other microbes like the corona virus. Previous products do not have this important feature. Besides, their antibacterial effect diminishes over time. Due to the so-called halo effect of copper, which leads to up to 70% less microbes (viruses, bacteria and germs) settling in the immediate vicinity, the touch screen is also less contaminated when using a CuCase.

The Deggendorf-based company CuCase is still the only one in the world to pursue this approach - almost. Because the competition never sleeps. "At Vanderbuilt University in the USA are three students who are as far advanced as we are," reveals Gerdts. That's why we have to hurry. On 15 July, the distribution is finally supposed to get under way. For the market entry, most Apple iPhones will be covered first. However, other models are to follow soon. You buy the cases via the website of the Deggendorf start-up (www.cucase.de) and a few weeks later also via Amazon. Compared to conventional cases, the prices are in the middle segment. There is a special offer for the market launch. Also interesting: with every purchase of a CuCase you support Ärzte ohne Grenzen (Doctors without borders) in the fight against corona.

Besides Gerdts, Anton Dobler (25) and Marco Jülke (28) are also shareholders and managing directors of CuCase. Dobler, a prospective Master's graduate at DIT in Technology Management, is the Marketing and Sales Manager and sees himself as an interface between the economic and technical areas. Jülke, a graduate in Economics, is responsible for finances, administration, production and logistics. All three can look back on numerous practical experiences in renowned industrial companies and on well-known internet platforms.

The Deggendorf Institute of Technology (DIT) is intensifying its foundation work. The thematic focus on start-up and start-up culture is to be expanded and the range of courses on offer, which up to now has mainly addressed students, is to be expanded. The team of DIT's Startup Campus has had almost € 900,000 at its disposal since April. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research supports the university's plan to promote entrepreneurial talent.

The Startup Campus team wants to create more start-ups and thus up to 1000 more high-tech jobs in the Deggendorf area in the next 10 years. Alfon Weinzierl says: "The work of the Startup Campus has so far been a cross-sectional function for many players in addition to their actual jobs and has been performed on top. With the successful project award we now also receive the necessary means and resources to take the DIT's start-up culture to the next level". According to Weinzierl, in comparison to the current situation, the Startup Campus will not only supervise the start-up and entrepreneurship teaching and student teams, but will also become a university-wide institution that is a contact point and home for founders at a central location and radiates into the rural region via the Technology Campuses. In future, the team will also be available to employees of the university. True to the motto "Wake up the founder in you!", everyone is invited to contact the Startup Campus team and develop their founding idea.

Many individual measures will now be implemented step by step. As a first necessary step, the team of DIT Startup Campus sees the development and renting of suitable premises close to the university to create a Startup Lab. Furthermore, it is planned to initiate a university incubator programme for the pre-foundation phase for university members, with which the university can then also financially support projects.

Since 2002, the university has successively built up its profile as a start-up university. Over the years, numerous successful business start-ups, activities and qualification offers have resulted, so that in 2017, the team of Startup Campus was finally formed from the Institute for Business start-ups of DIT as a central contact point. In the recently published WURI ranking, the university has attracted positive attention, particularly because of its start-up culture. The university can further strengthen its activities through the StartupLab@FH funding measure "Entrepreneurial thinking and scientific entrepreneurial spirit - freedom for research and start-ups at universities of applied sciences" of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

The most recent participants of the Silicon Valley Program of the Deggendorf Institute of Technology (DIT) began their exciting nine-month journey in mid-July. They want to bring a business idea to the market and learn how to do it with help from the Silicon Valley Program. The role model is the Silicon Valley start-up scene in California, where the journey will continue for a week at the end of the certificate programme.

The eight groups laid the foundation for marketing their projects during the introductory week. Each project group got to know their mentor from Santa Clara University in Silicon Valley, California, via video conference. The American elite university has been a partner in the certificate programme since the beginning. Over the next nine months, the project groups will contact their mentors once a month via video conference and present the progress of their work. Prof Peter Schmieder, founder of the programme, and Alexander Dorn will support them in this process. In addition, the participants will be provided with working documents online via a learning platform.

The airm of the programme is to make the teams or their business ideas eligible for investment. The participants will be supervised until the final pitches, which will take place in March 2021 at Santa Clara University if the corona situation allows it. Often, howver, is is only then that the participants really get started. If investors are found when their business plans are presented, the dream of their own company could quickly come true, like it has for many previous participants. 

Die Startup Community wächst – Gründertag an der TH Deggendorf

05.12.2019 | THD-Pressestelle - An der Technischen Hochschule Deggendorf (THD) interessieren sich immer mehr junge Menschen für eine berufliche Selbstständigkeit. Rund 50 Teams werden derzeit von den Experten des THD Startup Campus betreut. Alle verfolgen die Absicht, sich selbstständig zu machen oder haben den Schritt bereits gewagt. Passend zur bundesweiten Aktion „Gründerwoche Deutschland“ fand Ende November eine Infoveranstaltung an der Hochschule statt, um noch mehr Studierende auf das Thema Selbstständigkeit neugierig zu machen. Das Motto des Gründertags lautete „Wecke den Gründer in dir“.

Zum vierten Mal fand der Gründertag an der TH Deggendorf statt und mit einem gefüllten Hörsaal B004 nahmen rund 150 Studierende an der Veranstaltung teil. Welche Unterstützung ein Startup an der THD erwartet, erfuhren die Studierenden vom Team des THD Startup Campus, von der Hans Lindner Stiftung durch Christian Schläger und vom ITC1/GZDN durch Thomas Keller. Zum Beispiel wurden kürzlich zwei Startups (Dalion, Lumoo) mit dem eXIST Gründerstipendium ausgezeichnet berichtet Alexander Böckl vom THD Startup Campus: „Die Bewerbung für das Stipendium läuft in Kooperation mit der Hochschule. Wir beraten und betreuen die Studierenden dabei. Während des gesamten Förderzeitraums bleiben wir regelmäßig miteinander in Kontakt.“
Zeit zum Austausch und Netzwerken unter Studierenden war beim Gründertag ebenfalls vorgesehen. Fünf Startups präsentierten ihre Ideen und suchten zum Teil noch nach Mitstreitern:

• OMNIA (Justen Deifel) - Digitale Identitäten Speicherung in der Blockchain
• Grünblatt (Waldemar Meier, Manuel Wedler, Nikunj Mathukiya) – Aquaponic, Autarkes Gemüsebeet mit Fischen für die Nährstoffversorgung
• Cucase (Dennis Gerdts, Marco Jülke, Anton Dobler) - Antibakterielle Handyhülle
• Dalion (Markus Zaglmann) - Neuartige Sicherheitsbindung im Wassersport
• Hackroboter (Andreas Stockinger) - Unkraut-Hackroboter namens HacklSepp

Studierende die sich beraten lassen oder Kontakt zu den genannten Startups aufnehmen möchten, können sich jederzeit an das Team des THD Startup Campus wenden. Prof. Dr. Thomas Geiß, Alfons Weinzierl und Alexander Böckl stehen per E-Mail unter startupcampus@th-deg.de als Erstkontakt zur Verfügung. Unterstützt wurde der Gründertag vom Career Service der Technischen Hochschule Deggendorf.

Bild (THD): Hochschul-Präsident Prof. Dr. Peter Sperber begrüßte die Studierenden beim Gründertag. Er betonte die Wichtigkeit des Themas Selbstständigkeit und dass die THD weiter in dieser Richtung unterstützen wolle.