From pancake-making robots to city care technologies, teams innovated at the Tech_Champ 2024 hackathon

This weekend, Tech-Park Kaunas turned into the capital of innovation – more than a hundred participants, with the help of mentors, created “medtech” and “digitech” concepts for their startup products and services at the “Tech_Champ 2024” hackathon. Among the participants were not only already experienced startup developers, but also students and schoolchildren who boldly presented their ideas to the commission.

All winning teams

For three days, the hackathon became a platform for people cooperating with each other: startup creators consulted with mentors from Lithuania, the USA, and the Netherlands; experts forged new partnerships with representatives of corporations; corporate representatives had the opportunity to interact with scientists and investors.

Open speeches were given by the leaders of world-class start-up ecosystems: Mentor of the Sandbox Innovation Fund program of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US investor, entrepreneur Feng Chi Wang and international business presentation (pitch) coach, creator of The Pitch Canvas© David Beckett.

“We decided to participate in the hackathon for two related reasons: firstly, a good hackathon, due to its intensity, exceptional mentors and strong teams, forces every participant to go beyond their comfort limits. We managed to create a “legaltech” solution, the value of which was also noticed by representatives of the investor community”, says Tautvydas Vaičiūnas, the leader of the Gudrūs team, which performed most impressively. The participants presented a platform that will help small and medium-sized companies to adapt more effectively to the ever-changing legal environment.

Second place went to the AATD team, which offers a more efficient hospital patient registration solution. Other participants were also evaluated, such as “Inosportas”, which is changing the sports rehabilitation sector, “Doctor Stone”, which developed urban maintenance technologies, and “Avocado”, which demonstrated the impact of educational technologies in improving the lifestyle habits of children and teenagers.

“Although we had the idea to develop such a platform for the formation of healthy lifestyle habits before the hackathon, mentors and professionals in their fields conveyed their experience and helped to form not only the basics of the product, but also to refine the value”, observes Avocado representative Medeina Šeškevičiūtė. This team was awarded an incentive prize by the “Nordclinic” clinic in Kaunas.

“Saulės Blynai” received the most sympathy from the audience for its innovations in the field of food production. The market potential of applying such a solution in public spaces during mass events was noticed by the committee of investors and entrepreneurship experts who evaluated the presentations.

“By participating in such an event, we want not only to present an innovation to the public, but also to encourage young people to create similar innovative solutions that would change food production processes, using robotics to make work more efficient,” says Tomas Kasiulynas, manager of “Saulės Blynai”.

Commissioners pointed out that such a decision would be very useful in airports, where restaurants and cafes close quite early. The current prototype is able to pour pancake batter into the pan by itself, close the top of the pan, cook the pancake and take it out in time to prevent it from sticking and repeat the same process as many times as desired. In the future, it is planned that the robot will be able to mix pancake batter by itself.

More than 20 teams from the IT and medical technology sectors developed ideas in the hands-on workshop. The organizers of the event emphasized that the hackathon is important not only for the prizes, but also for the opportunity to solve real market problems.

“Participants focused a lot on social impact. It feels like the new generation is concerned about the impact of technology on the environment. The purpose of such events is to grow future business leaders and make Kaunas an attractive city of deep technologies both in Lithuania and Europe. The Kaunas startup ecosystem is gaining experience from the US Silicon Valley and is getting stronger. We are ambitious and we have all the conditions and tools for that,” says Tech-Park Kaunas manager Paulius Nezabitauskas.

The hackathon was sponsored by famous Lithuanian companies and organizations, among them “NFQ”, “Ignitis grupė”, “Nando” and LSMU Kaunas hospital, which presented challenges to the teams. This not only demonstrated the strong connection between industry and academia, but also helped young developers understand how their innovations can be applied in the business world.

Feng Chi Wang, an American investor who advised the teams and came to Kaunas from Texas, admired the participants’ determination to develop innovations: “What really inspired me during this hackathon in Lithuania is the motivation of the participants to create solutions and attract the attention of investors,” says F. Chi Wang.

The organizers invited all participating teams to the next stage – the pre-accelerator of the Tech-Park Kaunas “Startuolio” program. For almost 4 months, startups will develop their innovative products and services even more intensively together with finance, marketing, product development, business strategy and development, and innovation experts. Later, the participants of the program will have a meeting with investors who will evaluate the teams’ work and the market potential of the products and services they develop.

This program will be repeated in cycles for three years: in 2025 and 2026, the selection of startups for the hackathon will take place again, the pre-accelerator will operate and the presentation of products and services to investors will be organized.