The Heidelberg Innovation Forum will bring researchers together with investors and industry decision-makers on October 20, 2009. This year’s focus is on business concepts and research results in visualization and simulation. The event addresses a current growth field: visual computing is considered one of the emerging technologies with the greatest potential. Concepts and business ideas can be submitted now.
The Heidelberg Innovation Forum gives researchers, developers and start-ups a platform for presenting business concepts and research findings in visualization and simulation technology to potential cooperation partners and investors. Organized for the eighth time by MFG Baden-Württemberg and the European Media Laboratory, the matchmaking event will take place on October 20, 2009, at its traditional venue in the studio of Heidelberg’s Villa Bosch. Applications for the forum are open until June 1, 2009.
By focusing on visualization and simulation technology, the Heidelberg Innovation Forum is addressing a subject likely to interest investors and corporate decision-makers even during difficult economic conditions. Visual computing is a cross-disciplinary technology with many applications: car manufacturers design new bodies in virtual space, physicians plan surgery using 3D graphics, urban planners simulate traffic flows, and filmmakers create 3D visual effects. A contemporary survey by the FAZIT research project found that these technologies could produce substantial cost savings while improving companies’ overall development processes and product quality. Around 75 percent of the surveyed companies expected the strategic importance of visualization and simulation technologies to increase.
The Heidelberg Innovation Forum has connected IT researchers and market participants during early innovation phases since 2005. It aims to support technology licensing and start-up financing while improving cooperation between research institutions and companies. At previous events, more than 250 inventors and developers from ten countries presented their ideas. According to the organizers, more than half established promising contacts with investors and industry decision-makers.
To encourage consistent use of forward-looking technology, MFG Baden-Württemberg also initiated the “Visual Computing Baden-Württemberg” cluster. Its network of 22 universities, higher-education institutions and institutes, plus more than 130 software-development and service companies, is intended to accelerate innovation.
