Swiss Platform for Innovation

As part of Open-i, ZHAW called on its students to take part in a design sprint. "A place where students can work on real business problems and develop promising solutions," says ZHAW manager Roman Schöneboom, describing the Sprint. Interdisciplinary teams worked on real challenges from retail and logistics – this year's challenge owners were Migros Industrie and Planzer. Students presented the final concepts on stage to the entire conference audience.

Team Groundswell has developed an AI-supported platform to protect the coffee supply chain against climate risks. Using satellite data and blockchain technology, the solution enables harvest forecasts 3-6 months in advance and creates a closed ecosystem between Migros Industrie, producers, and farmers. Team Metroflex has developed a "digital logistics" approach for Planzer, transforming the company from a traditional logistics provider into an ecosystem operator. Two peer-to-peer platforms (shared storage and shared transport) are used to monetize unused capacities, make urban logistics more efficient, and reduce CO₂ emissions. The vision is for this to be the market standard for sustainable urban logistics in the DACH region by 2035.

Members of Zurich UAS Racing presented one of their cars at the Conference Expo and provided details about their work. Over 70 motivated students from various degree programs are involved in Zurich UAS Racing and are pursuing the same goal – optimizing the racing car and continuously developing the student association. “It's not every day you get the chance to be part of such a huge event. It was a great pleasure to represent ZHAW with our racing car, simulator, and wind tunnel model,” concluded Lea Schenk, COO of Zurich UAS Racing.