CSEM Digital Journey 2019: finalists

The enterprises, Kokorolingua (NE), Schmid Federnfabrik (ZH), Qualimatest (GE), Vivent (VD) and Vigilitech (AR) are the finalists of the 2019 edition of the CSEM Digital Journey. The judging panel, which was composed of high-level independent experts, were drawn to the strong potential of the proposals, which covered areas of future tech, including: predictive maintenance, precision agriculture, physiological parameter monitoring and early language learning.

Helping Swiss SME’s benefit from Digitalization

CSEM first organized the challenge in 2018 to exclusively help SMEs "embrace" the digital movement. It works as follows: any Swiss company with less than 250 employees, who already generate a turnover can use the digital technologies of the R&D center to propose an innovation. The winner then receives technological support from CSEM up to an amount of CHF 100,000 to make their project a reality.  

2018’s Winners: Application to soon hit the market 

Last year, Soleco, Vela Solaris and Geminise, a consortium of companies from Zurich, emerged as the winners. Throughout the year, they worked with CSEM engineers to develop the digital platform Chrystalball, which optimizes the management of renewable energy in buildings. The launch of their product is planned for 2020.

CSEM will unveil the name of this year’s lucky winner on November 12, during its Business Day, at an event designed to present to companies its latest technological innovations. The event also welcomes scientist Dava Newman, a former NASA deputy administrator, known in particular for revolutionizing astronaut attire.

The Finalists

Kokorolingua (NE): Awarded several prizes, Kokorolingua proposes to create a digital language device to extend its early English learning activities. To do this, it intends to use CSEM’s wireless communication, geolocation and automatic learning expertise.

Schmid Federnfabrik (ZH): Based in Oetwil am See, Schmid Federnfabrik produces springs, which are crucial across many different domains, ranging from automotive to wind power plants. It wants its product to become more "intelligent" in order to allow its customers to monitor wear and tear over time and thus anticipate maintenance or replacement needs.

Qualimatest (GE): By leveraging CSEM's expertise in high-performance intelligent vision systems, Qualimatest intends to launch a "digital guardian" on the market. This digital companion will be integrated into machines to improve industrial processes and for the detection and reporting of anomalies. 

Vivent (VD): Vivent use machine learning to interpret electrophysiological signals from plants. Their objective: To enable farmers to diagnose early - even before visual symptoms - an insect outbreak or fungal attack. Vivent want to combine various digital skills from CSEM to finalize their product.

Vigilitech (AR): Vigilitech wants to develop a solution for monitoring and measuring physiological parameters such as the heart and respiratory rhythms of human beings or animals. To this end, it wishes to exploit CSEM’s recognized skills in advanced algorithms in relation to this high-potential field.

The Judging Panel

President: Georges Kotrotsios, Member of CSEM’s Executive Board, Head of Marketing & Business Development at the center

Silvio Bonaccio, ETH Zurich, Technology Transfer Manager

Nicolas Bürer, Director of Digital Switzerland

Marc Gruber, EPFL, Vice-President of Innovation

Raphaël Rollier, Head of Innovation, Swiss Topographic Office

Robert Rudolph, Swissmem, Member of the Executive Board of Swissmem, Head of the Innovation and Digitisation Division

Christian Wasserfallen, Member of the National Council