Once again, students in the Innovation & Creativity class (summer semester) broke records in a nationwide Open Innovation Challenge. Four teams out of the nine finalists of the STIHL Cutting Edge Award were from this class. KU ended up as the only German university with more than one team in finals. Finally, one of our teams, “Refurbished by STIHL” won the GAME CHANGER Award from STIHL for the most sustainable innovation. Congratulations to our superb students!
A total of 14 teams from the “Innovation & Creativity” master's course participated in this open innovation competition by STIHL as part of their class project. Apart from presenting the project in class, teams had the opportunity to submit their project to the STIHL Cutting Edge Award. More than 350 students from 40 universities and colleges took part in this competition.
Students had to submit their concept via a pitch deck, develop a website, and a pitch video. In the end, nine teams were selected by STIHL as finalists. Four of these teams were from the Innovation & Creativity class, a record for most teams from a single university. Each of the finalist teams was mentored by a STIHL manager for over ten days prior to the final competition. Of the three awards presented by STIHL, one of our teams, Refurbished by STIHL ”won the GAME CHANGER award for the most sustainable innovation.
“Our students prevailed against many other teams and proved that they are among the best and most innovative minds in all of Germany. Both this year (STIHL) and last year (EDF, a French company), our university sent more students to the finals of an open innovation competition than any other university. In both years one of our teams won a grand prize. " - Prof. Dr. Shashi Matta.
Join us in Congratulating the teams that made it to the finals, including the prize winning team, Refurbished by STIHL -
Team: Refurbished by STIHL
Milena Grasl
Hanns-Florian horn
Marthy mats
Andrea Schmidl
Sarah Thiele
Team: STIHLrupters
Jan Gutzeit
Sophie Haidl
Lena Müller
Leopold Polonius
Team: STIHL drone service
Raphael Klepmeier
Larissa Novotny
Lisa Schwarz
Yakop Tolunay
Team: Pathfinders
Kai Baunacher
Vera Betz
Julian Kehrer
Sophia Mauler
Franziska Scholler