The UCreate Fall 2023 Cohort
In the autumn semester of 2023, no fewer than 40 projects are supported by the HUB. We also support non-program projects that are residents of the Villanova. These project leaders reflect the new generation of actors of change at UNIL who are working towards a sustainable future.
Congratulations to all of them for their determination, their creativity and their ability to carry out these projects in parallel with their studies, research or professional activity !
Would you like to take part in the next UCreate cohort ?
The UCreate Fall 2023 Cohort
In the autumn semester of 2023, no fewer than 40 projects are supported by the HUB. We also support non-program projects that are residents of the Villanova. These project leaders reflect the new generation of actors of change at UNIL who are working towards a sustainable future.
Congratulations to all of them for their determination, their creativity and their ability to carry out these projects in parallel with their studies, research or professional activity !
ATEK
Currently, websites and applications (restaurants, shops, hotels, activities,...) don't take into considerations users personnalities and tastes.
How might we propose users looking for online recommandations options suiting their taste, personnality and individual preferences ?
Bactaille
Games have received particular attention in recent years due to the growing number of studies that consider these strategies beneficial at different educational level. However, it is difficult to find educational tools for young children on science-based topics.
How could we offer parents, looking for educational games, a game for young children about microbiology?
BioHeatShield
The central problem addressed is the increased vulnerability of crops to extreme temperature variations due to climate change. This problem is particularly pressing for small-scale farmers who do not have access to advanced technological solutions.
How might we offer small-scale farmers loosing agricultural yields due to heat waves, an accessible, effective and inexpensive solution ?
CON2FOR
In the context of the current climate and ecological crises, forest conservation is a top priority on the global political agenda. However, there are a number of little-known challenges that could undermine the effectiveness of conservation initiatives. For example, the impact of extreme climatic events or conflicts and violence around commercial agriculture on the forest frontier.
How could we help forest conservation organizations develop a better understanding of the local context so that they can refine their initiatives and measure their progress?
Conseils et solutions en genres et inclusion sociale
Gender equality and equity are growing issues in our societies, as is the inclusion of diversity in the broadest sense, i.e. people who find themselves at the intersection of several factors of discrimination or exclusion. The obstacles to the inclusion of diversity and gender equality are often structural.
How could we help businesses identify and deliver realistic, achievable and effective equality and equity solutions, to create real impact in their organization?
Dalati
Currently, in French-speaking Switzerland, we observe a lack of professional support structures for musicians wishing to develop locally or internationally, despite the undeniable talent of its region.
How can we support these French-speaking Swiss musicians in their activities so that they can develop locally or internationally?
Debout
Generalized anxiety disorders (GAD) are still unknown from a majority of persones and can affect anyone at any time of life. It is difficult for someone not sufering from it to realize the impact it can have on a daily basis.
How could we raise awareness about these GADs and help and inspire those affected?
Diabète Même pas peur
Every day, many families face the colossal challenge of managing type 1 diabetes (T1D) in their children: an incurable and fatal disease with no cure that requires constant vigilance. This perpetual tension and the resulting exhaustion can have devastating consequences for parents: divorce, job loss, burn-out. At the heart of this social distress: the stress and mental burden caused by the fear of entrusting one's child to someone unfamiliar with the disease.
How can we enable anyone to acquire, in less than 30 minutes, the knowledge and confidence needed to manage T1D in children?
🏆 Diabète, Même pas peur ! wins the Pitch'N'Bar at GEW 2023. Find out more about it here.
Discover their website here : https://www.memepaspeur.ai/
E-mobility Working Center
Currently, professionals are lacking options to reduce their carbon footprint in the workplace.
How could we provide a solution for professionals allowing them to travel and work with a low carbon footprint?
ECO-PAK
Plastic packaging creates a real problem of waste accumulation, and most of it cannot be recycled.
How could we implement a solution allowing users to be aware of the ecological impact of the plastic packaging they buy and help them make more ecological choices?
Ecrins d’étoile
Exposed to a multitude of expectations and social pressures linked to the development of young children, parents and early childhood professionals are often disoriented by the scattered nature of the support on offer. What's more, the support systems are overburdened, and their operations are becoming increasingly complex and fragmented, leading to a loss of meaning in the care provided and to general exhaustion.
How can we help caring adults to refocus on caring for developing toddlers, rather than watching helplessly as difficulties arise that require the intervention of multiple specialists?
Espace Léman Vivant
The inhabitants of the Leman Lake catchment area are not really involved in protecting it. It seems important to be territorial, in terms of our supplies, our struggles and our relationships with others.
How might we make the inhabitants of the Leman Lake active in its protection ?
Foozam
Every day, many expired or forgotten food items are unintentionally thrown away in the households around the world, compounding environmental and financial problems.
How might we help households decrease their food waste and save money ?
Hotei
Financial insecurity particularly affects students, who often cannot consume sustainably.
For people with medium and low incomes who want to escape overconsumption and fight against precariousness, how can we help them become a sustainable player while improving their purchasing power?
Iloko Madagascar
Artificial dyes have a considerable environmental impact, while the natural pigments and dyes currently on the market are limited by production costs and physico-chemical properties.
How can we promote Madagascar's biodiversity to offer a range of natural pigments and dyes to cosmetics, food and textile professionals?
JumpNest
First of all, it is difficult for exchange students to find short-term accommodation. Secondly, it is difficult for students to travel on budget.
How might we enable exchange students looking for affordable accomodation to easily find short term accomodations on budget ?
LUDIC
Parents of young children in Switzerland can quickly feel isolated. They lack places to go with their children and meet other parents to share experiences, exchange ideas and learn.
How might we help these young Swiss parents who wish to meet and interact with other parents in their free time and share a moment of play and culture with their children?
Lutte anti-contrefaçon
Counterfeiting is an organized crime with economic, health and safety repercussions. Law enforcement agencies are implementing repressive measures, but the problem is far from being eradicated. Actions are planned reactively once the crime has been committed, but not proactively to anticipate it, especially at the level of a VSE or SME.
How might we raise awareness and support these VSEs and SMEs in protecting themselves from counterfeiting by strengthening the security of their products?
Mini-format de diffusion des connaissances scientifiques
Scientific and medical disinformation spreads at high speed on social networks, which presents a significant societal problem for democracy.
How might we fight against scientific misinformation and make reliable scientific information accessible to the public?
Mycelium Use in Personal and Sexual Health Care Products
Most female menstrual pads and diapers are plastic-made. As we all know, plastic is bad for many reasons, from the environment to personal complications such as serious skin lesions. In the case of condoms, one of its components is latex; given the scale of global demand, latex extraction poses serious problems for deforestation and for local communities.
How might we propose people who want to reduce their personal impact more sustainable sanitary products ?
NaviSanté
The Swiss socio-health system is complex, with a multitude of actors and a lack of overall coordination. 74% of the Swiss population experiences difficulties navigating teh Swiss health system, even more socially precarious people with a low level of health literacy and/or allophones. However, understanding the system and its organization is essential to ensure you have access to services adapted to your needs.
How could we help the people living in Vaud looking for information on the socio-health system by providing them reliable and easily accessible information ?
Next-Generation Male Contraceptive
Currently, only 2/16 of the modern contraceptices available are targeted for men, including condoms (the only reversible option) and vasectomy. Male condoms can be used on-demand, protect again STIs and are widely available. However, they can be very uncomfortable, reduce sensation and are not as effective when consider common use. So, in the absence of STI, sexual partners rely on female contraceptives, based on hormones for most of them. There is a growing need for a new male contraceptive.
How might we provide another male contraceptive to avoid relying mostly on female contraceptive ?
PlagiLex
Swiss faculties face difficulties to detect plagiarism, the two major problems stumbling blocks being plurilinguism and restricted access to private law database.
How might we help those Swiss faculties wishing to detect plagiarism do it ?
ReCrate
To date, there are no durable, reusable and resistant shipping containers (other than cardboard) on the market. Yet far too many cardboard boxes are being produced.
For delivery companies, who want to reduce their impact, how might we provide a cost efficient and eco-friendly alternative ?
Retr’aide
At present, due to the demographic situation, there are not enough opportunities for our senior citizens to be cared for in suitable structures (EMS, supervised flats, etc.). What's more, opening such facilities has become complex, due to the number of criteria that have to be met and the fact that these institutions are limited at cantonal level. Another way of thinking about this is to increase the independence of elderly people at home as much as possible. This is a social problem, but it also has personal and family implications when the situation arises.
For elderly people who need assistance at home and their families who need support for taking care of them: how might we release the mental charge for families by supporting elderly people needs at home?
Roomieswap
On the one hand, some students have difficulty traveling because of their tight budget. On the other hand, especially during university holidays, most foreign students return to their families, leaving many apartments empty in large university towns.
For students who want to travel on a limited budget, how could we valorize these empty apartments to offer a lower cost travel alternative?
S.E.E.D
On one hand, SMEs do not have the internal resources or the budget to conduct life cycle analyzes and understand the environmental repercussions of their activities. On the other hand, many students aspire to contribute to sustainable initiatives, but encounter difficulties related to reconciling their volunteer commitments with their academic and professional responsibilities.
How can we raise awareness and encourage local SMEs to adopt more sustainable practices while providing students with the opportunity to contribute to these sustainable initiatives?
Safe to Eat
30% of people have food allergies and other have food preferences/restrictions (e.g. pregnancy, diet, vegan, vegetarian). Those persons waste time and energy to find suitable and/or safe food products and they usually buy the same products over and over.
For people with food allergies or restrictions, how might we help them select "safe food" while avoiding wasting their time & energy when doing groceries ?
Scan Pill
It is frequent that a pill is “free of identification” which means that it has been moved out of its packaging, its blister, or put into a pillbox. The difficulty in pill recognition may be problematic to many healthcare professionals, including pharmacists, physicians, nurses, paramedics, family caregivers and patient. It becomes risky and may led to an administration error.
For healthcare professionals, how might we help them avoiding loosing time trying to identify a "free of identification" pill or throwing it away ?
ShareSport
Sport helps reduce daily life stress. However, some students with no/low income cannot access some sports requiring expensive equipment, when others have this equipment available and could share it. In addition, not having a team or a partner in sport is a barrier to do sport (lack of motivation).
For students who want to do sport but lack motivation or equipment, how could we create a sport community encouraging students to do any sport they like ?
Super Appui
Parents of children with academic difficulties are facing difficulties finding tutors. Many students are looking for a job alongside their studies, but have difficulties finding one with flexible hours.
For parents of children with academic difficulties looking for tutors and for students looking for student jobs with flexible hours, how could we facilitate the process of meeting and organizing rehearsal sessions for children?
Sustainable Science
Two major problems have been identified in UNIL's laboratories. Firstly, a problem of communication between UNIL's scientific departments: when a research group leaves UNIL, a professor retires or a new generation of instruments is purchased, these instruments, which are still in working order, are no longer used and are thrown away. Secondly, there's a storage problem: some departments don't have suitable storage space for these instruments, so when space becomes insufficient, these instruments, which are still in working order, are no longer used.
How can we help to reduce the number of functional instruments thrown away at UNIL?
TOCx
People with OCD and their families experience a real challenge every day and have difficulty finding support and help due to a shortage of doctors specializing in this area. In addition, few practical resources are available to these people to help them manage these OCDs.
How might we help people with OCD and their families, who have difficulty finding specialist doctors, to be able to manage their OCD independently?
Tralala.ch
Many parents have a cellar overflowing with clothes that are too small or other almost new items that they store or end up throwing away even though most of them are almost new and unused. In addition, many parents want to buy their baby/child items second hand, for economic and/or ecological reasons.
How could we help parents of young children free themselves from their children's belongings and be able to easily find new ones?
Trésors Perdus
After 6 months and for logistical reasons, airports and delivery companies destroy suitcases and packages whose contents could be of value to countless people.
For people looking for second-hand items and with a concern for recycling, how could we value these objects intended to be destroyed?
Une excursion pour moi
There are many high-quality tourism products and infrastructures in Switzerland, and a wide variety of information. However, it takes a certain amount of experience to use these sources, because they imply certain skills that not all visitors have. To organize an excursion, however ambitious, requires preparation, which can be laborious if you want to venture into uncharted territory.
For people wanting to organize a sightseeing trip to the region, how could we make all the existing experiences easily accessible and make it easier to define their route?
Venom factory
Venom is essential for the production of antivenoms and the search for bioactive molecules for fundamental research and drug discovery. Traditional methods of extracting venom involve confining animals in cages and inducing their expulsion by electrostimulation. This approach is particularly problematic for venoms from rare or small animals, resulting in little yields and elevated costs.
How could we produce venom in large quantities and inexpensively avoiding animal caging & 'milking' ?
Volt
There is a lack of equestrian education programs in Algeria, particularly for coaches and especially for women. The Algerian equestrian community is aware of this, and despite several requests, the federation offers no resources or help to remedy the situation. There are cases of people who have illegally left Algeria in search of opportunities in Europe.
How could we promote female equestrian education in Algeria?
