The
Roscongress Foundation’s Innovation Space project held a pitch session as part
of the Russian Engineer Congress that was organized by Bauman Moscow State Technical
University. Students and graduates from the university presented their startups
to an expert panel in the format of five-minute speeches. The three best
projects earned the right to be presented at Russia’s main congress and
exhibition event – the 27th St. Petersburg International Economic
Forum, which will take place on 5–8 June 2024.

Each project was evaluated based on three
criteria: the content of the presentation, the convincingness of the answers to
the panel’s questions, and the potential willingness of experts to invest in
the development of the project.

The winners of the competition were the SMDuka
laboratory, which produces kits to teach children and adults the basics of
microelectronics, the Cyclop predictive video analytics system, and the
MalevichArm online service, which can be used to sell paintings generated by a
neural network and painted by a robot artist.

The pitch session proved to be a real
springboard for other projects as well. In particular, the creators of the
Bauman acoustic microphone camera system and Addon software (which is used to
teach people how to work on industrial equipment) earned the right to attend the
III Young Scientists Congress, which will be held on 28–30 November 2023 at Sirius
Park of Science and Art. The ROSA cardiac diagnostic system will be presented
at the Healthy Life Forum, which the Roscongress Foundation will organize in
2024, while solutions developed by Bauman students to clean firearms will be
presented at the Goodwill Games in September next year.  

“The startups presented at the pitch session
are part of different areas and are at different stages. Some of them already
have a real product that can be offered to the market, while others are only at
the initial stage of development. Nevertheless, all the projects are very
interesting. We were pleasantly surprised by their quality and the energy of
the teams, so we tried to make sure that all the kids had the opportunity to
further develop. This is the goal of the Innovation Space: to create favourable
conditions for young high-tech Russian companies,” said Dmitry Sryvkov,
director of the Roscongress Foundation’s Department for Relations with the
Innovation Sector.

“Based on the results of the pitch session, we
must admit that we have gone beyond the traditional format of this event. In
the style of a super-short ‘elevator pitch’ presentation, the team speakers were asked tough business questions by
prominent experts from the venture industry – the [Internet Initiatives
Development Fund], Roscongress Foundation, and Skolkovo. Sometimes it seemed
like the questions were tearing the startup’s entire business model to shreds.
But then, outside of the pitch [session], the same experts actually
brainstormed, generated new ideas for the teams, and recommended product
positioning and partners for collaborations in order for their development to
take off. I believe that this particular result was the most valuable for the
teams and I express my gratitude to the leadership and specialists of the Roscongress
Foundation for organizing and holding this event and for their proposals on further
joint initiatives,” said Pavel Drogovoz, vice rector for science and digital development
at Bauman Moscow State Technical University.

Thus, all
the startups received high praise, and most importantly, valuable
recommendations from the professional members of the expert panel.

The
projects were evaluated by Roscongress Foundation Deputy CEO Grigory Velikikh, Head of the
Roscongress Foundation’s Department for Relations with the Innovation Sector
Dmitry Sryvkov, Director of the Centre for the Development of Technological
Entrepreneurship at Bauman Moscow State Technical University Viktor Malinin,
Vice Rector for Science and Digital Development Pavel Drogovoz, Director for
Operations of the Skolkovo Foundation’s Biological and Medical Technologies
Cluster Vladimir Egorov, Investment Director of the Fund RC-Investments Sergey
Bolshakov, and Development Director of the Internet Initiatives Development
Fund Yevgeny Borisov.

The event
was moderated by CROS Vice President for Strategic Communications Maria Yarina,
an expert in PR, GR, and anti-crisis communications.