Falling Walls Lab India 2020

Falling Walls Lab is a unique competition that provides young researchers and entrepreneurs a platform to present their research project business plan or social initiative. The challenge is to present this in just 3 minutes!

Students, entrepreneurs, early-career researchers, & academics of all disciplines.

1. Falling Walls Lab 2020 Winner

–       Compete with Falling Walls Lab winners (100 International winners!) from across the world at the global Lab finale that takes place in Berlin in November.

–       Ticket to the prestigious Falling Walls Conference in Berlin where leaders from science, industry and policy-making meet.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Conference will take place online this year. 

2. DAAD Entrepreneurship Prize 2020 winner

–       Opportunity to participate in the Innovation Week, a 5-day entrepreneurship boot camp in Germany organised and hosted by the DAAD (Research in Germany) together with TU-9 Universities.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Innovation Week will take place online this year. 

The trip to Berlin (under usual circumstances) is financed by the DWIH New Delhi.

Pitch-Presentations by the Finalists

Award Ceremony

Information on Start-ups and Entrepreneurship in Germany

Learn more here.

Director
DWIH New Delhi / DAAD

Dr. Katja Lasch joined as the Director of the German Centre for Research and Innovation (DWIH) New Delhi in October 2019 and is responsible for its strategic management. At the same time, she heads the DAAD Regional Office in India.  Prior to her work in India, she headed the DAAD’s International Research Marketing Division at the head office in Bonn and the DAAD Information Centre in Bucharest (Romania). Previously, she has also worked in international cultural exchange. Her professional focus and interests lie in the field of international university and research cooperation as well as entrepreneurship.

Katja Lasch holds a doctorate in history. She has studied Eastern European history, political science and Romanian linguistics and is also qualified in business administration.

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Dean of Research and Development
Professor, Dept. of Electrical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

A. R. Harish received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from IIT Kanpur, Kanpur, India. He was with Com Dev Wireless, Dunstable, U.K. and was a Visiting Faculty at The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and the Dean of Research and Development at IIT Kanpur. His current research interests include antenna analysis, microwave measurements, microwave circuits, radio frequency identification, and computational electromagnetics.

Project Lead
GINSEP

Julian is the project lead of the German Indian Startup Exchange Program (GINSEP) based in Berlin since 2018. Before that he worked in the field of SME Consulting of European companies in India for five years. He is passionate about startups, entrepreneurship and private sector development in emerging markets and holds and Masters in European Studies from RWTH Aachen University.

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Co-Head Innovations
Invest India

Himanshu is a startup enthusiast and currently assumes the role of a senior leader in Invest India where he helps innovative startups find commercialisation routes under the aegis of AGNIi Mission of the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to GoI. He is an ex-founder of a food-tech venture and also has over a decade of leadership experience in Real Estate and the Financial Services industry. He holds an Executive Education from IIM Calcutta and is a finance graduate from Sukhdev College of Business Studies, Delhi University.

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CEO and Director
Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP)

Dr. Taslimarif Saiyed is the CEO and Director at Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP), an initiative of Dept of Biotechnology, Govt. of India, initial training has been in neurosciences, where he received his PhD from Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research, Germany and followed it up by postdoctoral training at University of California San Francisco (UCSF). At the same time, he also underwent training in management for Biotech and Innovation from QB3 at UC Santa Cruz, UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco. In the bay area, he also served as a Management Consultant with QB3 New Biotech Venture Consulting and in an individual capacity, he also consulted for many biotech firms in the US.

Dr. Saiyed is also an Adjunct Faculty at Amrita Institute – School of Biotechnology and working on Neurodegeneration. He also heads the Discovery to Innovation Accelerator program at C-CAMP. He is actively involved in promoting innovation in life sciences/healthcare by supporting translation of discoveries to application, entrepreneurship and technology development.

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Founder and CEO
Mentesa

Tina studied computer and communication sciences at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich and started her career at Microsoft. Afterwards she enrolled for her MBA in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management at TUM in 2007 and founded her start-up GymZap in 2009. She successfully managed the company until the birth of her second daughter. From 2011 to 2015, she earned her doctorate in Innovation Management at the University of Sofia (Berkeley & Intel Cooperation Program), taught entrepreneurship, and worked as an independent start-up coach. Her journey led her next to the Fraunhofer Venture as Program Manager TechBridge and to the municipal start-up center Werk1 as Head of Startup Programs. Currently, Tina Ruseva is founder and CEO of Mentessa, a community platform for professional mentoring and agile collaboration, speaker and initiator of the decentralized Big & Growing New Work Festivals,. Her first book “Big Heart Ventures: Purpose-driven Entrepreneurship for the next Age of Technology” was published in March 2019.

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Science Counsellor
Embassy of Federal Republic of Germany

Philipp von Ritter is Head of the Science Section at the German Embassy, New Delhi. In this capacity, he coordinates higher education and research cooperation between India and Germany and promotes bilateral programmes and initiatives in this field. Previously, he worked in the Middle East Unit of the German Foreign Ministry, in the European Commission, and in a Catholic Aid Organisation. He studied politics and economics at Sciences Po Paris and St Andrews University.

Director
CSIR-Central Electrochemical Research Institute (CSIR-CECRI)

Dr. N. Kalaiselvi is presently holding the post of Director, CSIR-CECRI. She has more than 25 years of research experience in the fields of Electrochemistry, Energy, Materials Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Nanomaterials Chemistry & Electrochemical Power Sources.

Dr. N. Kalaiselvi has published 116 research publications, handled 18 scientific projects, published 2 RSC publication book chapters and has authored/edited 2 other books. She holds 6 number of patents which includes one U.S. Patent. She has guided 9 Ph.D Scholars and 5 more scholars are pursuing research currently under her guidance. She is a recipient of INSA Visiting Fellowship; Brain Pool Fellowship of Korea; Raman Research Fellowship; Award on INSA-NRF Exchange Program of Scientists, MRSI award; Most Inspiring Women Scientists and Engineers award and C.V. Raman Mahila Vijnana Puraskar.

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