noac is the world’s first exoskeleton using intelligent motion tracking to support surgeons in any desired position at the operating table. A team made up of engineers Harald Rager and Alexander Strobel, electronics and software developers, and medical practitioners developed this innovative high-tech product with its numerous patents that enables surgeons to operate without fatigue creeping in, even if procedures last several hours. This feat was accomplished in the record time of just 15 months – despite the coronavirus pandemic. Based in Wannweil, in the district of Reutlingen, the company even also briefly manufactured face visors for doctors and nursing staff when supplies of personal protective equipment were completely exhausted. However, Hellstern medical GmbH then once again focused its full attention on noac. “It’s a big success for us as a start-up and for business development in the region,” says Sabrina Hellstern. The company has made 3.2 million euros – even though, as Hellstern emphasises, only just over five percent of female company founders in the medtech sector generate more than one million euros. noac is now available on the market and is helping not just surgeons, whose efficiency and precision are measurably better, but also patients, who are now benefiting from optimum operations.

Users who don the SensoRun set with its various sensors want to avoid an operation if at all possible! The mobile measuring device analyses the way runners move and determines the biomechanical stresses directly on their legs. This enables stresses and malalignments to be identified early on. Initiator Dr. Steffen Hüttner is, amongst other things, CEO of HB Technologies AG and is helping to pioneer digitalisation in the medtech and biotech sectors. The long-distance runner from Tübingen is the founder of SensoRun GmbH & Co. KG. He and his team have developed an artificial intelligence solution that interprets running data in a way that means professional athletes and amateur runners can carry out lab-style analyses to avoid injuries and ensure pain-free movement. Now available from a major mail order company selling sports goods, the SensoRun set is soon likely to become a standard piece of kit on running tracks and jogging routes.

In 2012, for instance, Dr. Sebastian J. Schultheiss was amongst the winners. At the heart of his prize-winning idea was technology that enables particularly high-quality analysis of DNA sequence data. Today, Computomics GmbH in Tübingen – with Schultheiss at the helm as Managing Director – is celebrating its tenth anniversary. And the company is growing just as reliably as the seeds it analyses, because its technology platform is in global demand when it comes to cultivating new varieties of rice, maize and grain. Even the world’s largest beer group, AB InBev, obtained support to cultivate brewing barley that combines the ability to withstand the challenges of climate change with outstanding quality for malt production. Based on machine learning, the Computomics technology processes all available data – such
as genotypes, phenotypes, climate details and soil conditions – to ensure the Belgian brewer can cultivate ideal varieties for beers in the future, too. 

One area that Variolytics GmbH is involved in is linked to the ultimate result of drinking beer! Amongst other things, this Stuttgart-based start-up’s analysis platform, with technology developed at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology (IGB), enables operators of sewage treatment plants to save energy and cut emissions of environmentally harmful gases. Following their successful market launch, the measuring devices with patented real-time analytics for monitoring the emissions of sewage treatment plants are providing targeted help in limiting the generation of greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide and methane in the aeration tanks of such plants. AI-based control not only significantly reduces undesirable gases, but also the amount of energy and chemicals used.