Videos pre-finalist 2023

The pre-finalists for the Innovation Award, the Amsterdam competition for innovative ideas that contribute to a better world.

Visit the showcase pages to see each pre-finalists showcase their idea through a personal video.

Universities
HvA UvA VU Amsterdam UMC ACTA

Ana Cassanti (VU): VU-UTtual Reality

Ana Cassanti (VU): VU-UTtual Reality for Responsible and Smart Education: the use of Virtual Reality to democratise environmental sciences teaching The VU-Utual Reality for Responsible and Smart Education aims to use virtual reality to democratize environmental sciences teaching. By making use of virtual reality games, students will get a better understanding of environmental scenarios and […]

Barbara Braams (VU): The big Hoe?Zo! Show questions book

Barbara Braams (VU): The big Hoe?Zo! Show questions book a book to involve children in science and teach them scientific skills Children are naturally curious and ask a lot of questions. ‘Why do fish have scales and people don’t?’ ‘Why is it warm during summer and cold during winter?’ Unfortunately, not all children grow up […]

Daphne Gnago and Riccardo Bonazza (HvA): MatSwap

Daphne Gnago and Riccardo Bonazza (HvA): MatSwap – use your mattress to the fullest Many students might experience sleeping difficulties as they don’t have the means to afford quality bedding. In the meanwhile, mattress waste is creating consequent environmental issues as most mattresses are disposed of or incinerated before reaching their intended lifespan. MatSwap is […]

Emitzá Guzmán (VU): Software Revolution

Emitzá Guzmán (VU): The Best Ends by the Best Means: Bringing Ethics into Software Computer software is full of ethical problems. It manipulates voters, discriminates by people’s gender, race or social standing, raises enormous privacy problems and is often designed to be highly addictive. Very slowly, Parliaments and Congresses around the world are catching up […]

Gerben ter Riet (HvA): Urban Vitality Open Science Checklist

Gerben ter Riet (HvA): Urban Vitality Open Science Checklist: No Time to Waste In medical research alone, each year, hundreds of billions of euros are wasted, due to poor questions, poor choice of methodologies, poor reporting and archiving. The Open Science Checklist aims to optimize research projects, from start to end, in order to research waste […]

Hanneke Velthuijsen (HvA): Happy Minds

Hanneke Velthuijsen (HvA): Happy Minds – A high impact stress reduction method for mental & emotional well-being in urban education In today’s society, children are increasingly experiencing stress. They face social-emotional problems more often than ever before. A promising solution to this issue appears to be mindfulness and SEL (Social-Emotional Learning). These practices teach children from an […]

Juan Cruz Tubio (VU): MycoFarming

Juan Cruz Tubio (VU): MycoFarming, domesticating fungi At the root of the Dutch farmer’s crisis, lie far too high emissions of nitrogen in the soil. Nitrogen is a critical element for a plant to grow, but in excess, it’s damaging to the underground and leads to biodiversity losses. By way of developing nitrogen sensors and […]

Katinka Quintelier (VU): CALS-app

Katinka Quintelier (VU): CALS app: an app to Create, Act, Learn & Scale for sustainability The CALS-app, turns individual actions for sustainability into collective actions that have real impact. By using the power of social media, individuals, but also governments and businesses can be motivated to collaborate all on an equal level. An example is […]

Lavinia Bodale (VU): SightShare

Lavinia Bodale (VU): SightShare Imagine you’re missing out on the friendship and on the life experiences that make game nights unforgettable. SightShare is a game changing device that breaks barriers, enabling visually impaired and blind individuals to participate fully in card and board games. Thanks to the help of machine learning, the device recognizes different […]

Pepijn van Rutten (VU): Respira

Pepijn van Rutten and Edcel Salumbides (VU): Respira: a laughing gas breath sensor to reduce accidents on the road Traffic accidents caused by driving under the influence of laughing gas have increased more than ten-fold in the past few years. This leads to more than 100 severe injuries and sadly, more than 20 deaths in […]