Young TACC Entrepreneurs visit AVL in Graz

TACC - Training for Automotive Companies Creation is an academic program developed by the Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE) and focused on entrepreneurship and innovation in the automotive industry. It is part of the Academy for Advanced Technologies in High-Performance Vehicles and Engines of UNIMORE. Since its first edition in 2018, AVL supports this unique and challenging program thought for students who want to develop an entrepreneurial spirit and innovate the mobility of the future. As AVL, we work together with startups through our Creators Expedition - an AVL initiative in order to generate innovation by creating partnerships with young companies. Therefore, we are very happy to support and foster students to starting their own companies and leaving their own contribution to the development of the mobility sector.

40 students from UNIMORE together with their professors Bernardo Balboni, TIZIANO BURSI and the project manager Valeria Di Luzio visited Graz and AVL on 19th of January for a productive long day. The day started early in the morning with an AVL company tour, where students had the change to look closer into AVL’s different departments and on-site facilities such as simulation and testing. It was an interactive tour between the students and our tour guides which tried to explain and answer all their questions regarding AVL.

Software Defined Vehicles by @Katrin Moser

Afterwards, the students were welcomed by Professor Helmut List, CEO of AVL, who emphasized the importance of the collaboration between AVL and UNIMORE by forcing the thought that together we are contributing to the revolution in the automotive sector. The day at AVL headquarters was followed by two presentations regarding Automotive Sustainability by Martin Rothbart and Software Defined Vehicles by Katrin M.

TACC students working on their pitch

After the visit at AVL, the students were hosted by Unicorn - Startup & Innovation Hub where they had a tour organized by the CEO, Bernhard Weber and then a pitch training workshop by Jasper Ettema. During the Unicorn tour, students got an insight about services offered at the startup community at the Unicorn, met with diverse startups and had a chance to exchange thoughts and ideas on different topics. Then, they got an overview of pitching and together with Jasper worked on developing pitches for their business ideas. Each group got some feedback and insights into their own business ideas and pitch preparation. At the end of the workshop, each team pitched their business idea in a small competition organized between them and startups in the Gründungsgarage program in Graz. Car-In from TACC program won the first prize, an ultra speaking coaching session with Katrin M.; Beyond Touch from TACC program won the second prize, a branding coaching session with Rafael Auferbauer; and Ski Instructor from Gründungsgarage program won the third prize, a ‘How to deal with change’ coaching session with Alexander Ulz.

Pitch competition winning teams

The day was closed with a networking event where students and representatives from the TACC program exchanged ideas and projects with the teams from Gründungsgarage and with Creators Expedition. We are looking forward to seeing TACC ideas grow and develop further into established business ideas at the end of the program and wish them all the best luck in this exciting process.