The IQ Innovation Award Magdeburg 2020 went to the start-up project Smela from Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg. Their innovation is a compact electric drive that makes automated production more efficient and sustainable. In production, things have to be moved, fixed or shifted. Normally, this is done by tappets that are operated with compressed air. The system developed dispenses completely with compressed air and relies on an electric drive. The powerful device is up to seven times smaller than previous systems and consumes 75 percent less energy than its predecessors.

Due to the current situation, the award ceremony was held on Thursday evening for the first time as a virtual live event. This resulted in a separate TV broadcast in which the winners were selected live. Award winners, interested parties and award sponsors also got together in smaller groups for their own public viewing events and followed the events on the screens together. During the online award ceremony, the winners from the five Central German clusters, the winner of the overall IQ award and the winners of the local IQ competitions in Leipzig, Halle (Saale) and Magdeburg were announced. The entire award ceremony can be viewed here: www.iq-preisverleihung.de

With the IQ Innovation Award Central Germany, the European Metropolitan Region Central Germany promotes novel, marketable products, processes and services in five industry-specific clusters. In the European Metropolitan Region of Central Germany, structure-determining companies, cities and districts, chambers and associations as well as universities and research institutions from Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia are committed to the common goal of sustainable development and marketing of the economic, scientific and cultural region of Central Germany.

Further information: http://www.iq-mitteldeutschland.de/iq-magdeburg/aktuelle-preistraeger/