TUM strongly represented among the best "Innovators under 35".

Honors for young start-up founders

Michael Baumann (30) studied Mechatronics and Information Technologies at TUM and recently earned his doctorate at the TUM Chair of Automotive Technology. Research visits took him to the University of California Berkeley and TUMCREATE in Singapore, a research platform for the improvement of public transportation operated jointly by TUM and Nanyang Technological University (NTU). Baumann was supported by TUM start-up consultants and took part in the incubator program UnternehmerTUM XPRENEURS and the Climate-KIC accelerator before joining forces with Dr. Stephan Rohr to found TWAICE. The start-up has developed software that uses computer simulations referred to as "Digital Twins" to analyze the condition and capacity of lithium ion batteries.

Miriam Haerst (32) studied Mechanical Engineering at TUM and earned her doctorate at the Chair of Medical Materials and Implants. Together with her colleagues Alexander Henhammer, Stefan Fischer, Stefan Leonhardt and Sebastian Pammer she began developing a PEEK 3D printer at the Chair in 2015. "PEEK" (Polyether ether ketone) plastics are an economical high-performance alternative to metal in implant design. The researchers founded Kumovis and brought their product to market readiness with the support of TUM start-up consultants, the entrepreneurship stipendium Manage&More and the incubator program XPRENEURS at the UnternehmerTUM Center for Innovation and Business Creation as well as the EXIST research transfer program.

Daniel Metzler (27) was still studying Aviation and Astronautics at TUM when he and his fellow students Markus Brandl and Josef Fleischmann founded Isar Aerospace. The start-up is a product of the student space flight working group WARR and develops drives for small launch vehicles. The drives employ a combination of hydrocarbon mixtures such as kerosene and liquid oxygen. The start-up thus makes it possible to eliminate the use of the conventional but toxic rocket fuel hydrazine. The founders took part in TUM start-up consulting and benefited from financing by UnternehmerTUM Venture Capital Partners (UVC).

Maria Sievert (29) studied Civil Engineering and Business Engineering at TUM. In 2017, she founded Inveox together with Dominik Sievert. The start-up develops systems for digitalization, automation and networking of pathology laboratories. The two met in the Manage&More coaching program and assembled the first prototypes for containers and an automation platform in the MakerSpace at the TUM Garching campus. They received additional support from TUM start-up consultants and an EXIST grant. This year the company became a member of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and has over 80 employees from 20 countries.