From innovative research to a customer-tailored product
Tensor Solutions, an AI start-up of Ulm University, combines innovative quantum physic research and machine learning.
To develop innovative technology and create a successful start-up out of it is a dream that quite some people have, but only a few go all the way.
Attracting enough funds and being self-employed, just to name two typical challenges, make founding a start-up a risky undertaking, especially if you’re still a student and don’t have the financial means.
Four who did dare, are the founders of Tensor Solutions: Dr. Timo Felser, Dr. Niklas Rach, Marco Trenti and Florian Schinnerling. As a service provider, they offer their customers individual solutions for realizing transparent and interpretable AI technologies. With this spin-off at Ulm University, they are on their way to develop their technology to economic maturity.
From research to product
Timo Felser had the initial idea for Tensor Solutions after his PhD in the field of quantum physics. He wanted to transfer the knowledge gained from his PhD about transparently representing information in quantum systems to machine learning.
For the realization, he recruited Niklas Rach who did his PhD in Informatics with a specialization in machine learning applications and Marco Trenti, the AI-software developer of the group.
Whereas Niklas Rach oversees the start-up’s data science problems, Marco Trenti develops the AI systems for High-Performance Computing and embedded systems. The economist Florian Schinnerling meanwhile takes charge of the financial planning and the organizational procedures.
Together, the team is working towards the goal of bringing their product to different markets. The individual AI projects range from solving engineering problems over data analysis in the financial sector up to supporting management decision-making.
“We had to shift from research which is mainly driven by novelty to a product that is tailored to the needs of our customers“, Timo Felser describes their journey so far.
More than just funding: The advantages of being a university start-up
Since May 2021, the project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) and the European Social Fund (ESF) as part of EXIST, a program intended to support start-up teams at universities and research institutions in the preparation and implementation of technically particularly risky and complex development work.
“The university provides us with a safety net of two years where we are formally employed by the university and are funded by EXIST”, Felser explains.
Besides being formally employed by the university, the start-up is provided with an office and can use the university’s infrastructure, whether for legal counseling or marketing assistance. Recently for example, the university sponsored their trade fair appearance at the joint booth of Baden-Württemberg International at HANNOVER MESSE, the most important international platform and hot spot for industrial transformation.
Currently, Tensor Solutions is finishing the Alpha-Version of their software. “The next step is to develop our software so far that we can provide our customers with a cloud-based solution, so they can use our services fully automated”, says Felser.
Tip: Learn more about Baden-Württemberg’s start-up culture and how to set up your start-up here.
Author: Ewin Özkan