On April 28th, 200 students from 16 countries gathered at the University of Luxembourg, in Belval and competed in the third edition of the MorpheusCup. The event, created in 2015, aims at bridging the gap between young European talents, their needs, and some of the biggest companies looking to attract them. Since its creation, the MorpheusCup has been supported by the European Commission.
Even though she couldn't be in Luxembourg on the day of the Cup, Marianne Thyssen, Europan Commisioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, insisted on delivering a message to all competitors: "The MorpheusCup is a great opportunity for you to showcase your skills and show the employers what you can offer". She sees it as a joint venture between education and business, promoting sills and entrepreneurship, which are essential in today's labour market. "The new skills are at the heart of the EU's agenda, notably through the Youth Guarantee program which helped 10 million people over the last three years" she concluded.
From life insurance to creative content
The event started with a series of 40 multiple choice questions on culture and general knowledge dealing with topics such as social media, asteroids, sports, logic and so much more. Then, Philippe Burdeyron, Deputy CEO of AG2R La Mondiale Europartner, took the stage to introduce the challenge: students had to image the design of website allowing the life insurance company to attract talents. The challenge was won by The Oxonians, University of Oxford. The third challenge was entitled "Robots Rights Constitution". As Members of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Robots, competitors had to imagine and write the 10 pillars of Robots Rights Constitution. Talents then had to choose an innovative topic to be discussed in BEAST Magazine and write an abstract. Finally, the ICT Spring challenge ended the morning session: talents first had to explore the opportunities offered by social media and then had to tweet about the event in order to promote.
After a well-deserved lunch break and a networking session with bold brands such as PwC Luxembourg, RBC Investor & Treasury Services, Vodafone, Abalone, SES and Telindus, each offering a great unique experience, students had to choose a category to compete in. Telindus challenged them with a one-of-a-kind Cybersecurity game which was won by MyCobot from exia.CESI. GreenBCN from EU Business School Barcelona won the Design Games by creating an innovative Maserati watch. Accenture proposed a Gamification Game to the students, won by NoIDea, from Haute Ecole Robert Schuman. Great Place to Work Luxembourg asked the young talents about its 6th dimension. The winners are Mannheim Business School. The Business Games, Digital Marketing Games – created by Call Me Tender – and Engineering Games respectively saw teams The Oxonians, ITeamS (from IESEG School of Management) and MyCobot took the gold back home.
Then, the overall winners of the Morpheus Cup were announced. This year's winners are the three members of Mannheim Business School who won many gifts and 10,000€ in cash!
Students presented their projects to a jury of HR professionals and entrepreneurs
Prior to the event, students were invited to send their Morpheus Prize projects in several categories, depending on their specialties. The best team for each category was then invited to pitch in front of a jury composed of seasoned professionals: Emese Bekessy (Executive VP HR, Cargolux), Francois-Xavier Moutel (Founder, Abalone), Vicky Hapuc (HR Business Partner, Accenture), Karl Burns (Head of HR, Vodafone), Nancy Wendt (Project Manager, LIST) and Roger Lampach (CEO, LuxConnect).
• The Life Prize went to ProDIGIES, from the University of Luxembourg for their innovative parking solution.
• Talent 4.0 Prize sponsored by Abalone, was won by tempemp, from the EU Business School of Barcelona.
• Dominic Dives won the Science Prize. He comes from the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and invented a new design for prosthesis.
• The LIST sponsored New Materials Prize which went to Exotrail from the Ecole Polytechnique de Cambridge for their new approcah of the nanosatellites market.
• The Finance Prize went to smartin from the EU Business School of Barcelona, who created this time a digital tool to connect investors and startup inventors.
• For its cooling solution for datacenters, Zenko, from the ESMT of Berlin won the Green Tech Prize, supported by LuxConnect.
• MöTE-LITI from the University of Oxford took the Marketing Prize home. The team created a full business plan to create a new app for fashion retailers.
• The Data Analytics Prize sponsored by the LIST went to Datazonia from the INSEEC BS Bordeaux who invented a market place for personal data.
• The LIST also supported the Circular Economy Sponsored, which was won by Circular Sens from the Chaalmers University of Technology. The students had the idea to apple circular economy to Volvo wheel loaders.
• HealthyMind from EM Strasbourg won the Tech Innovation Prize, sponsored by SES, from its therapeutic virtual reality solution.
• The Business Prize went to Copelican from a mixed team representing HEC / ENSIIE / CentraleSupelec with an uberisation of the delivery solution.
• ProDIGIES also won the Logistics Prize Sponsored by Cargolux.
• The IoT Prize supported by Vodafone goes to Meyko from Polytechnique Nantes.
The Special Jury Award, went given to ProDIGIES, after a long jury deliberation. The three members from the University of Luxembourg were rewarded with 10,000€ in cash, to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams.
The event was supported by the European Commission, the University of Luxembourg, Abalone, Accenture, AG2R La Mondiale Europartner, Cargolux, LIST, LuxConnect, PwC Luxembourg, RBC Investor & Treasury Services, SES, Telindus & Vodafone.
Alexandre Keilmann
Photos: Dominique Gaul
