Startups shine at Altice Innovation Awards
A startup project iLoF was one of the Portuguese startups which was distinguished at the 3rd Altice Innovation Awards.
The technology company that is working on a way to fight Alzheimer through Artificial Intelligence and photonics was awarded a €50,000 prize at a vital time in which the startup is taking on staff to meet its expansion plan.
iLoF – Intelligent Lab on Fibre founded by CEO Luís Valente, was one of over 90 candidates submitted for the awards.
It will now have the chance to carry out a pilot with Altice. The startup’s project uses algorithms and AI applied to Big Data to boost the success of clinical trials on neurodegenerative diseases, namely in Alzheimer patients, with a view to slashing costs and to a more effective selection of patients.
The startup which was founded in Porto and is incubated at the Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadors, Technologica e Ciência (INESC TEC) has also received €2 million from an acceleration programme.
The best project from among the academic finalists (Masters and PhDs) was the project Neural Motor Behaviour in Extreme Driving which walked away with prize money worth €25,000.
This project explores the cross referencing and analysis of information collected on neuro-cognitive and neuromotor reactions so as to evaluate and predict human performance under extreme driving conditions so as to use this information in developing autonomous driving (driverless vehicles).
The initiative also benefitted for the third year running on a partnership with ANI (National Innovation Agency) which handed out a Born from Knowledge (BfK) prize of €5,000 to the iLoF project.
The CEO of Altice Portugal, Alexandre Fonseca said: “The Altice International Innovation Award distinguishes innovation derived from knowledge and boosts Portugal’s position in developing innovation, creating the conditions to promote national talent and broadcast it overseas” adding that all the innovations from the finalists meet the current needs of today.