SensUs Newsletter
September

With 8,000 people voting and 15,000 website- and live stream users from all over the world, the SensUs Organization 2020 is proud to announce that the first online SensUs Event has been a success.

The switch to a fully digital event required a lot of adjustments so that the 15 participating Teams with 150 students were able to present their innovative conceptual biosensors to the experts and the public. Every year, SensUs challenges international Teams to create an innovative biosensor for a socially impactful disease. The challenge of SensUs 2020 is to develop biosensors for measuring an anti-epileptic drug in order to control epileptic seizures.

Due to COVID-19, this year’s Event was organized in a fully digital manner. Nevertheless, visitors from all over the world were able to join the Event from home and contribute by voting for their favorite Teams. The Teams demonstrated their biosensors and pitches through Microsoft Teams. Accordingly, they were judged by an international, multidisciplinary jury, on Translation Potential (the probability that the concepts will make it into society) and Creativity (the novelty of approach and used techniques). A third award was given to the Team that received the most votes and appreciation from the public: the Public Inspiration Award.  

The awards

With a nerve-racking photo finish, Trusense from Zhejiang University China won the Public Inspiration award 2020. With only 14 votes removed from the winning Team, AUsense (Egypt) is the well-deserved runner-up. Team EpiSense (Belgium) won the Translation Potential award. Team LxUs from Portugal became runner-up in this category. Furthermore, Team T.E.S.T. from Eindhoven received first place in the Creativity award and UppSense (Sweden) was the proud number two. 

To give the Teams and Partners of SensUs 2020 an opportunity to meet, network, and learn, an online Meet the Partners Event was organized. Each participating Partner prepared a case study for the students to learn about the challenges their company faces. Afterwards, the network drink was a perfect way to discuss the case studies and learn more about the Partners. 

A whole new concept this year is the express Venture Building Program (VBP) powered by HighTechXL. This week-long program on how to build a start-up was filled with online workshops, feedback sessions, and contact with biomedical experts. The participants were all very positive about this first edition of the express VBP and presented their ideas to our Partners and Teams during the Meet the Partners Event!

Now we are preparing for SensUs 2021 where we will focus on viral pandemics. The challenge of the international teams will be to develop biosensors for the rapid measurement of influenza virus in saliva. SensUs 2021 will take place from August 30 until September 3.

Thanks to all universities, partners, healthcare professionals, and the public from all over the world for making SensUs 2020 a success, and we look forward to seeing you in SensUs 2021! 

Photos of the SensUs Event 2020 can be found via the following link and the summary of the live stream can be found via this link