Special meeting on Innovative startups and entrepreneurs
Objective
- entrepreneurship financial and institutional supports, importance of ethics in technology;
- some examples of successful startups.
The first panel will focus on entrepreneurship supports for success. Funding, organization, management, business strategies and planning, incubators, guidance, mentorship, and institutional supports will be discussed. A presentation of the recent advancement in the P7000 standard will describe the process for addressing ethical concerns during system design.
The second panel will present some examples of successful and innovative startups with accent on challenges at time of pandemic and with illustration of best practices, problems encountered and solutions.
Program
14:20 – 14:30
Welcome to participants
- Tiziana Tambosso – IEEE Italy Section Entrepreneurship Committee
- Vincenzo Piuri – IEEE R8 Director-Elect
Panel 1: Entrepreneurship supports
Moderators: Vincenzo Piuri and Tiziana Tambosso
14:30 – 14:45 Joanne Wong (General Partner | REDDS Capital) - IEEE Entrepreneurship (https://entrepreneurship.ieee.org)
14:45 - 15:00 Giulia Zanotti - Invitalia Government funding and support services for startups in Italy (https://www.invitalia.it/eng)
15:00 – 15:15 Angelo Giuliana - Meditech Competence Center (https://meditech4.com)
15:15 – 15:30 Filippo Ammirati - ENEA Direzione Innovazione e Sviluppo – Divisione Sviluppo Tecnologico ( https://industria.enea.it/, http://een.portici.enea.it/ )
15:30 – 15:45 Roberto della Marina – Venture Factory - Startup and Venture Capital: fostering innovation (https://www.venturefactory.tech)
15:45 – 16:00 Ali Hessami – Ethical Considerations in System Design (https://standards.ieee.org/project/7000.html)
16:00 – 16:15 John Matogo & Mohammad Zidan – IEEE R8 Action for Industry & IEEE R8 Entrepreneurship Initiative (https://www.facebook.com/IEEER8Entrepreneurship)
16:15 – 16:35 Q&A time
Ten minutes break
Panel 2: Successful startups
Moderator: Roberta Albanese – Business/startup Consultant
16:50 – 17:00 Flavio Farroni, CEO - Megaride (https://www.megaride.eu)
17:00 – 17:10 Antonio Caraviello, CEO – Sophia High Tech (http://www.sophiahightech.com)
17:10 – 17:20 Domenico De Luca, CEO – Tolemaica (www.tolemaica.it)
17:20 – 17:30 David Cezon, CEO – Imok (https://www.imok.fr/en/home-english/)
17:30 – 17:40 Ernest Vlacic, Founder - Danieli Systec (https://danieli-systec.com)
17:40 – 18:00 Q&A
In the following appendix you can find speakers Short BIO and summary of the speeches.
IEEE programs to support entrepreneurships
Summary
The mission of IEEE Entrepreneurship is to foster entrepreneurial engineering and technological innovation for the benefit of humanity. This presentation will cover IEEE Entrepreneurship programs that support engineer entrepreneurs from Ideation to Commercialization. These programs include – Powered by IEEE, Founders’ Office Hours, Demystifying Videos, etc.
In 2022, IEEE Entrepreneurship will be adding new programs to support deep tech startups and women entrepreneurs.
Speaker:
General Partner | REDDS Capital
2021 Member at Large & 2020 Vice-Chair, Investor & Industry Activities
https://reddscapital.com/Joanne Wong is General Partner of REDDS Capital, a Californian-based VC firm investing in global early-stage & seed level IT startups. She is Director of Commercialization Strategies at STAR Associates, providing financial and technical advisory services to help startups (seed to Series A) in emerging space technologies go to the next level. Wong has worked with IBM, HP, SAP, and Cisco in multiple technical, market development, and strategic investment positions. She is a mentor / advisor for multiple startups.
Joanne is Co-Founder / CEO of a health startup, scioshub, providing bioinformatics data and project management platform for life science researchers. She was Executive Director of a healthcare charity startup, The SuperComputer for Cancer Research, providing free green access to high-performance computational resources for cancer researchers. Wong has had startups in 3D simulations for learning.
Joanne is a 2021 Member at Large and 2020 Vice-Chair, Industry & Investor Activities on the IEEE Entrepreneurship Steering Committee. Wong is 2019 to 2021 Secretary, IEEE TEMS Executive Committee and Board of Governors.
Government funding and support services for startups in Italy
Summary
Invitalia is the National Development Agency, with the mission to boost the country’s economic growth focusing on strategic sectors for development and employment. It is committed to support entrepreneurship and innovation as key drivers for economic growth.
There are a wide range of funding schemes to address different needs of the entrepreneurs and Invitalia offers free support, advice and guidance to access funds, strengthen entrepreneurship skills and networking.
The presentation will cover:
- Smart&Start Italia: the financial scheme for innovative and technological startups
- Smart Money: grants for pre-seed and seed startups
- ON- Oltre nuove imprese a tasso zero: loans and grant for new business founded by young or women
Speaker:
Giulia Zanotti
Senior Business Analyst / Invitalia – Italian Development Agency
https://www.invitalia.it/eng
Giulia Zanotti in 1996 has received her Master of Science in Economics at the University of York, United Kingdom and her degree in Economics and Business Studies at “La Sapienza” University of Rome, Italy. She’s a Business Analyst and Project Manager with Invitalia - the Italian Development Agency owned by the Ministry of Economy - where she’s currently responsible for promotion of financial schemes for startups, one-to-one support to entrepreneurs and the design of new schemes to support women entrepreneurship.
Her technical expertise includes access to public funding, business plan review, project management on enterprise creation, innovation and technology transfer.
Over the years she has managed entrepreneurial animation and technology transfer projects in collaboration with universities and business incubators throughout Italy, local development projects and services for SMEs. She has had many experiences in the design and management of initiatives aimed at specific purposes such as the birth of new innovative companies, innovation in the tourism sector -FactorYmpresa Turismo, development of businesses in the creative and cultural sector.
From 2005 to 2010 she was a Member of the Board of Directors of the Italian network of Business Incubators - Bic Italia by also representing Invitalia (Sviluppo Italia) with the European Business Innovation Network (EBN).
How Competence Centers can sustain SMES and startups
Summary
The presentation will address how a Competence Center can support the digital growth of the SMEs and startups through specific business support programs helping them in their digital maturity path; providing the digital instruments, the enabling technologies and the fab-lab facilities, without forget the most appropriate financial support to support their digitalization progress.
Speaker:
Angelo Giuliana
General Manager of Meditech Competence Center
Graduated in physics in 1982, he has a long experience in commercial development and sales in IT companies of international scope where he has held increasing managerial roles up to dealing with EMEA sales management. Long experience in R&D he has been a consultant to the European Commission for H2020 projects and has been involved in innovation for some time. His vocation for technology transfer leads him to be a founding member of some innovative startups both in the ICT and manufacturing sectors. He currently plays the role of General Manager of the MISE Competence Center for the South Italy – Meditech.
European Programs to support sustainable transition of SMEs
Summary
The presentation will illustrate the opportunities to foster innovation and sustainable transition of European SMEs and Startups present in the European Green Deal and in the new "HEU" research and development program to promote the sustainable transition of SMEs.
Speaker:
Dr. Filippo Ammirati
ENEA Innovation & Development Direction
Officer responsible for the management of ENEA's participation in the Enterprise Europe Network, for the Southern Italy area since 2008. In this field he cares for the managing the actions for appraising research results and assisting innovation processes in SME situated in Southern Italy regions, by stimulating connections to National and International Networks for technology transfer
Previously, from 1990 to 2001 as Chief of the Integrated Energy Consulting Centre of ENEA he has been in charge of:
- Consulting Public Administration, Industry and Service Sectors aimed at the definition and analysis of energy saving actions and the utilization of renewable energy sources.
- Energy diagnostics, feasibility studies and designs.
Startup and Venture Capital: fostering innovation
Summary
The presentation will address the financing of the initial stages of a company with a strong innovation content: equity based financing vs debit will be addressed in the proper context and market, features and “behind the scene” suggestions be given. A quick glance to the venture capital market in EU and US will wrap-up the presentation.
Speaker:
Dr. Roberto Della Marina
Managing Partner, Venture Factory Srl, Milano, Italy.
Operative Partner & Member Investment Committee,
Vertis Venture 3 Tech Transfer Fund, Vertis SGR
https://www.venturefactory.tech/
After one decade of experience mostly in Switzerland at CERN (Geneva, CH), CSEM SA (Neuchâtel, CH) and Colibrys SA (Neuchâtel, CH), where he started working as a researcher and then moved to managerial positions, in 2003 he accepted the position of VP Business Development and Director of Technology Innovation of Olivetti I-Jet SpA (Ivrea, TO). In 2007 he became General Manager of the Cluster in Molecular Biomedicine of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, a public-private initiative focused on linking together research centers, companies, institutions and financing bodies in the field of personalized medicine. From 2010 till 2017 he worked as Partner of AlAdInn Ventures Fund, Friulia Veneto Sviluppo SGR SpA, as well as Deputy Chairman of AREA Science Park - an Italian National Research body dedicated to Technology Transfer – and as GM of Innovation Factory, its first mile company incubator. In 2016 has been nominated Chairman of the Board and GM of BIC (Business Innovation Center) FVG, a company incubator and accelerator based in Trieste.
Today he continues to serve as Board Member in several companies and foundations, among those, the Bruno Kessler Foundation in Trento, Italy. He holds a Laurea cum laude in Physics from the University of Trieste (I) and a Ph.D. in Physics from ETH Zürich (CH), is co-author of more than hundred scientific papers and he keeps teaching finance and innovation in some universities and institutions in Italy. In 2015 he won the AIFI-EY “Claudio Dematté Price – Private Equity of the Year” for the best Italian Early Stage operation.
IEEE R8 Action for Industry activity for supporting entrepreneurship
Summary
This presentation will give an overview of the Action for Industry Committee and its objectives and go into more details regarding the activities supporting entrepreneurship.
- Summary of the IEEE Action for Industry (AfI) Objectives.
- What AfI is doing to support entrepreneurship & innovation.
- Opportunities for collaboration
Speaker:
John Matogo
Chair for the Action for Industry sub-committee in Region 8
John Matogo is the Global University Programs Leader for IBM Africa. John joined IBM in Sept 2014 bringing with him vast experience from the academic community in East Africa. His role involves leading IBM academic programs with universities in countries in the Sub Saharan African region.
He has been instrumental in forging collaborations for IBM with numerous institutions of higher education and ministries of education in the African region. The outcome of the programs initiated so far include having over 1000 certifications and over 5000 trained students and faculty members on the new and emerging technologies including cloud computing, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, Internet of Things, data science, cyber security and many more.
Prior to joining IBM, he was the founding Manager of @iBizAfrica, the business innovation center at Strathmore University and a faculty member in the Faculty of Information Technology at the same institution, teaching software engineering and computing courses. He was instrumental in coordinating the first ever e-readiness survey of over 50 universities in East Africa while working with KENET. He is interested in the application of technology in educational environments and developing digital skills among young professionals. His research interests include: ICTs in education, ICT4D, Free & Open source software and Innovation & entrepreneurship.
His contribution to the local technology community was recognized at the iHub Tech Community Award ceremony on 8th March 2015.
He is an active volunteer with IEEE in Region 8 (EMEA region) and is serving as the current Chair for the Action for Industry sub-committee in Region 8. (EMEA region). He served as Chair for the IEEE Kenya Section 2014-2015. John is a former board member of AfriLabs (2012-2015), which is the umbrella body for innovation hubs on the African continent.Ethical Considerations in System Design
Summary
This presentation will cover the latest advances on technology ethics and the IEEE SA P7000 standard under development as a basis for raising awareness and providing a systematic framework for the innovators, researchers and technologists as well as small and large enterprises involved in technology innovation and development. The main focus is on Autonomous and Algorithmic Decision Making Systems.
Speaker:
Prof A.G.Hessami
Chair, IEEE P7000 Standard
Vice Chair and Process Architect, IEEE Ethics Certification Program for Autonomous and Intelligent Systems
A.G.Hessami@IEEE.org
Ali Hessami is currently the Director of R&D and Innovation at Vega Systems, London, UK. He extensive track record in systems assurance and safety, security, sustainability, knowledge assessment/management methodologies and has a background in design and development of advanced control systems for business and safety critical industrial applications. Ali represents UK on CENELEC & IEC safety systems, hardware & software standards committees. He was appointed by CENELEC as convener of a number of Working Groups for review of EN50128 Safety Critical Software Standard and for update and restructuring of the software, hardware and system safety standards in CENELEC. Ali also a member of Cyber Security Standardisation SGA16, SG24 and WG26 Groups and started and chairs the IEEE SMC and the Systems Council Chapters in the UK and Ireland Section.
During 2017 Ali joined the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE SA) initially as a committee member for the new landmark IEEE P7000 standard focused on “Addressing Ethical Concerns in System Design”. He was subsequently appointed as the Technical Editor and later the Chair of P7000 standard. In November 2018, he was appointed as the VC and Process Architect of the IEEE ‘s global Ethics Certification Programme for Autonomous & Intelligent Systems (ECPAIS).
IEEE R8 Entrepreneurship Initiative
Summary
The presentation will cover a brief of the IEEE R8 Entrepreneurship Initiative, our goals, flagship projects for entrepreneurs in the region.
Summary of content will cover:
- Who we are and our goals.
- Flagship projects & initiatives.
- Talkspreneur: series of talks by successful entrepreneurs and founders in the region. As entrepreneurs, you can benefit by accessing the expertise of others or sharing yours with a wider audience.
- IEEE Entrepreneurship Week: successful editions in 2019 and 2020, where we focus on sparking innovation and entrepreneurship in the region. 2021 edition upcoming and you can participate by being an ambassador and organizing local entrepreneurship events.
- IEEE Pitch competition: the event where the best of the best of the entrepreneurship week compete for the regional title. The first edition took place in the 2020 and 2021 edition coming up. Winners get support to attend any major entrepreneurship Pitch event like WebSummit
- Mentorship: IEEE Entrepreneurship global started the "Founder office-hours" and it is an amazing opportunity to get that extra boost for your startup.
Summary and our objectives in the future.
Speaker:
Mohammad Zidan
Public Relations Coordinator | IEEE R8 Entrepreneurship Initiative
IEEE Al-Balqa Applied University SB | Jordan Section
Mohammad Zidan is a Mechatronics engineer with 4 years of volunteering in IEEE and one of the executive committee members at the IEEE region 8 entrepreneurship initiative. He is the CEO and Co-Founder at Easimple-3D, focused on innovative curriculums in 3D printing and Artificial intelligence that are supported by augmented reality, as an improvement to the educational methods helps in utilizing a handy 3D learning kit to develop educational curricula and keep students up to date with technology. Also, he is the founder of Doctory, a telemedicine platform connecting patients with doctors for free, especially in the Covid19 pandemic period.
Dr. Flavio Farroni is Applied Mechanics assistant professor at University of Naples, founder and CEO of its spinoff MegaRide, and works as academic advisor in vehicle dynamics with several companies and racing teams.
He works on the development of physical models for the optimization of vehicle performances in motorsport and smart mobility scenarios,cooperating within an international research network.
He has been awarded during TireExpo 2015 as "Young Scientist of the Year", by MIT Technology Review among "Italian Innovators Under 35" of 2018 and the start-up MegaRide as "Italian Startup of the Year" in 2020 at IMSA.
Antonio Caraviello (born on 26/11/1986) graduated cum laude in Mechanical Engineering (2011) and he received his Ph.D (Technologies and Manufacturing Systems) in 2016 at University FEDERICO II, in Naples.
From 2011 to 2013 He worked on Airbus Programs (A400M and A350), in a German Company. In 2013, He founded SÒPHIA HIGH TECH (www.sophiahightech.com), the Company in which he covers the role of CEO. SÒPHIA is an innovative company operating in the aerospace and defense fields. He is responsible for the tactical execution of the company’s marketing communications initiatives, of the business strategy, market goals and organizational objectives.
Davis Cézon has over 15 years of experience in digital transformation with a strong Background in marketing and communication, already founder of Startup in the field of B2B Saas software.
He has worked in several French agencies in the field of digital transformation and in the implementation of marketing strategies following prestigious customers in various sectors such as the financial market (Monte dei paschi di Siena, AXA, Sodexo, BNP paribas) the sports market (Orange sport. OCS, Paris Saint Germain) and the retail market (Unilever, Nespresso, l'Oreal, Louis Vuitton).
David Cézon in I’m OK is COO and Head of product and is responsible for product development, user experience and technical relationships with customers. He’s the leader of the Italian office, in Napoli.
Ernest Vlacic, PhD, MBA, university and college professor. After 15 years of corporate management and leadership experience mostly with DANIELI SpA, he has founded the RTDI organization NOVAMINA CIT which deals with conceptualisation, development and commercialisation of technology based products and services. He also acts as a president of Thematic Innovation Council in Energy and Sustainable Environment and member of National Croatian Innovation Council in Republic of Croatia. His research and teaching work is focused on the areas of Strategy and Innovation Management, as well as national innovation industrial policies.
His career begun as a development engineer and corporate manager (DANIELI S.p.A). In 1997, he founded his first start-up SYSTEC DANIELI, nowadays a high-tech company with approx. 300 employees. He continued his career at the Naval Institute of Croatia as Change Manager on the World Bank project.
As a co-founder and co-director in 2008, he launches the R&D organisation NOVAMINA Center for Innovative Technologies, cooperating with more than 300 EU partners as academic and non-academic organizations aiming to design and develop close to market technological innovation projects. The organization has so far successfully participated in 35 R&D projects (with a budget of more than 30MEUR) on highly competitive funding instruments such as EU FP7, Horizon 2020.
Through his scientific work, Dr. Vlacic focused on the areas of innovation, innovation policies and strategic management, and delivers as professor at higher education institutions. He continuously mentors and guides student projects of social and technological innovation through the triple-helix principle.
Scientific work of Dr. Vlacic is focused on the analysis and quest for solutions in technological innovation of enterprises, with particular emphasis on the transfer of knowledge from the academy to the economy, as well as the institutional conceptualization, i.e. strengthening of national innovation systems.
Speaker:
Domenico De Luca
CEO – Tolemaica (www.tolemaica.it)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/domenico-de-luca-58501074/
Domenico De Luca, graduated in Economics from the Federico II University of Naples, is an entrepreneur who took his first steps in the workplace with an internship at Nissan Italy, to then set up the first real estate development company in Italy and abroad and subsequently of software solutions. He acquired the title of inventor thanks to the international patent of the IAC (Instant Automatic Certification) technology. Thanks to this technology it is possible to certify the date and place, instantly and automatically, any data collected by smartphones and other devices such as drones, action cameras, satellites, tablets, etc. He is the founder of the startups Tolemaica and Cyber Management of which he is CEO and Project Manager, today suppliers of Terna, ASI, SKY Italia and participated by NttData and CDP Venture Capital. He has collected numerous awards including the "Innovation Award" at the SMAU in Milan and "Supernova Challenge 2020" at the GITEX in Dubai, finishing first among 1,100 competitors.