Electronic sensors that can prevent blind accidents and save energy in our day to day lives are making homes smarter and safer. These devices take on greater importance amid the spreading coronavirus threat because they can help us take action before the illness spreads further.

In the coming period, traveling, especially by plane, may see the introduction of mandatory health checks in addition to body searches. Devices that instantly measure whether people have a high fever, one of the most common symptoms of coronavirus infection, may be used during these potential health checks at airport security gates.

Sensors reduce human error and accidents in factories and allow employees to instantly receive health assessments. The concept of smart mobility allows us to travel more safely and comfortably. In agriculture, crop fields that use networked sensors mean more fertile harvest and fewer anti-crop agents.

Startups that use solutions from the multinational engineering and technology company, Bosch, and other sensor manufacturers, are introducing solutions like smart home, agriculture, automobile, health contribute to making our lives safer, healthier and more comfortable. When these solutions are combined with the entrepreneurs' abilities, they become life-saving solutions.

Life-saving solutions

Networked sensors make blind accidents more visible. For instance, they allow cars to move with longer battery optimization by reducing the risk of accidents.

It is important to call for help quickly if you have a blind accident at home or while cycling, doing sports and driving a car. For these and other emergencies, Bosch offers a helping angel, called Help Connect. Available as a smartphone app, this connectivity solution transmits life-saving information to emergency services through Bosch service centers. The solution requires the automatic detection of accidents via smartphone sensors or vehicle support systems.

Robots to keep factories running

Perhaps more robots will replace the Chinese factories that have stopped operating due to the coronavirus. However, malfunctions won’t disappear when the robots come.

Nexeed Track and Trace can optimize logistics. It monitors and tracks loads and load-carrying carriers by instructing sensors and gateways to regularly report their location and status to the cloud. This means that logistics specialists and planners know where their pallets or production materials are and whether they will arrive on time.

Quick access to the right spare part, visual object recognition in industrial production or the whole operation can stop when a machine fails. Quick access to the right spare part saves both time and money. Visual object recognition can help with this. The user takes a photo of the defective part with a smartphone, and the app helps to quickly identify the right replacement.

Oven that knows individual tastes

Covering all aspects of Bosch and third-party home appliances, the open Internet of Things (IoT) platform Home Connect is used all around the house, from the kitchen to the laundry room. As of mid-2020, the new Home Connect Plus app allows users to work in other areas of the smart home, including lighting, blinds, heating, entertainment and garden equipment, regardless of the manufacturer.

Ovens combine sensors and machine learning. Bosch Series 8 ovens provide superior results with the help of its patented sensor technology. Thanks to artificial intelligence (AI), some devices can now learn from previous frying or cooking experiences. The more often people in the house use the oven, no matter what is being baked, the more accurately the oven can run its completion time.

Plantation yield increases

Nevonex creates an open and manufacturer-independent ecosystem that provides digital services to agricultural machinery, ensuring seamless connectivity of workflows and machines.

Networked sensors already present or improved on the machine increase the efficiency potential even further in processes such as optimizing the distribution of seeds, fertilizers or pesticides or automating workflows.

Network-connected sensor systems from Bosch help farmers to constantly monitor external influences and respond on time. With Deepfield Connect Field Tracking, users see data like weather and plant growth directly on their smartphones. The Smart Irrigation system helps optimize water use in olive growing. The networked sensors inside the tank allow the Deepfield Connect Milk Tracking system to measure the temperature of the milk so that dairy farmers or tanker drivers can intervene before milk deteriorates.

Another smart sensor system is the Greenhouse Guardian, which allows early detection of plant diseases. Data on factors such as moisture or CO2 levels are collected in the greenhouse, processed with the help of AI in Bosch IoT Cloud and the risk of infection is analyzed.

Late decision leads to cash loss

Many companies that depend on their field staff lose cash if they cannot make instant decisions. Applications like Ekmob save time and money for them.

According to Ekmob, which has developed a Mobile CRM solution for field sales management processes, time is the most important cost in sales. The field teams of companies spend 65% of their time on activities that do not generate income. The monthly cost of a field sales representative reaches TL 15,000. Each sales visit in the field costs the institutions TL 110 on average.

According to Ekmob, a graduate of Turkey's leading information and communication technologies company Türk Telekom’s venture acceleration program, time loss in the field sales activities of the companies leads to cash loss.

Sales teams play the most critical role in creating the revenue stream of companies. However, the most costly teams of the institutions are also field sales teams. Every minute spent outside the sale means that new sales opportunities have been missed, which means that the losses incurred include the opportunity costs as well as the time costs.

Cost increases

Ekmob Founder and CEO Sunay Şener said the monthly cost of each employee for sale in the institutions is TL 15,000. While the cost of a field sales team of 20 people reaches TL 3.6 million, they make 30,000 visits annually. Şener stresses that the cost of each visit is TL 110 according to this calculation.

Stating that despite the mentioned cost, field employees spend 65% of their time on jobs that do not bring sales. He lists some interesting statistics about sales:

Sales representatives spend only 35% of their time on sales activity. They dedicate 22% of their time to social media use and in-team communication, 18% to use the CRM program, 15% to administrative tasks and 10% to report.

Sales managers devote 41% of their time to income-free activities. Managers dedicate 32% of their time to sales team management, 26% to document management, 23% to direct customer communication and 15% to administrative tasks.

A field sales employee using Ekmob gains four hours of reporting per week. Because Ekmob offers monthly reporting automatically with its own system. Besides, the use of mobile technologies for instant data access and planning allows field teams to increase this time up to seven hours.

Bio entrepreneur a must for early diagnosis

The application process has been completed for the fifth of the BIO Startup Program, which is supported by the Investigative Pharmaceutical Companies Association (AIFD) and is managed by ReDis Innovation.

Some 56 applications from 12 different cities, including Van, Kayseri, Şanlıurfa and Aydın, were made to the BIO Startup Program, which aims to contribute to the growth of entrepreneurs in the field of biotechnology.

As a result of the evaluation made, 14 bio-entrepreneurs were entitled to participate in the program. Bio-entrepreneurs, who will first complete the online training program, will be included in the three-day Bio-entrepreneurship Camp, where they will receive mentorship and attend workshops conducted by expert trainers and leading professionals in the industry.

Three bio-entrepreneurs to be identified as a result of evaluating presentations at Demo Day will enter the preparatory camp before going to San Diego to attend the world's largest biotechnology organization, BIO Convention. Bio-entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to work on road maps and participate in one-on-one mentoring sessions in areas such as regulation, patents and communication to have productive contacts with global actors. Besides, BIO Partnering preparations will be made before the BIO Convention.

Bio-entrepreneurs, who will start the U.S. program with Bios Entrepreneurship Boot Camp, which is the BIO Convention's exclusive program for startups from all over the world, will meet with different actors of the international ecosystem, such as investors, global companies and incubation centers in San Diego during the BIO Convention. BIO Convention, which is expected to host 8,000 companies and 20,000 people from 70 countries, offers an important opportunity to follow scientific and technological developments in biotechnology, to contact with different actors of the global biotechnology ecosystem, and to make one-on-one meetings for collaborations.

Cengiz Aydın, AIFD investment policies and corporate communications director stated that the applications made to the BIO Startup Program from different cities are very pleasing.

"In this period, when the basic research part of the pharmaceutical research and development (R&D) process in the world is increasingly carried out through startups, we are happy to provide an accelerator and facilitating role in enabling entrepreneurs operating in the field of biotechnology and life sciences in Turkey to access global networks and interact with global players," Aydın said. "We aim to continue contributing to the life sciences and health biotechnology fields in Turkey with our entrepreneurs who will participate in the BIO Startup Program, the fifth of which will take place in 2020."

"When we compare it with the results of last year, we see that more startups that have formed a team structure are participating this year," he further stressed. "It is noteworthy that the majority of applications consist of two to three or four to five teams, as well as seeing the participation of teams of 13 and 14," Aydın added.

14 finalist bio-entrepreneurs

Virasoft is developing digital pathology software for clinical diagnoses, while LumiLabs is developing a new generation of hemostatic medical devices with molecular modeling, synthesis and analysis.

GlaucoT, on the other hand, develops neuroprotective glaucoma treatment with non-drug and noninvasive techniques, and Micronos develops a microfluidic-based global coagulation scales analyzer, providing a fast and accurate diagnosis in heavy bleeding.

While Biogenuslab develops platforms used in biotechnological drug development studies, Meinox works on personalized treatments in medical and veterinary applications and protein develops inhibitors and conducts studies to modulate the molecular mechanisms of diseases.

Meanwhile, Araltek Medical Device Designing develops a heart pump that can be used as a heart support system during medical interventions, as well as a long-term circulation support system and software using the centrifugal blood pump.

PortMera develops molecular chemical analysis methods with noninvasive methods, providing accuracy tests of counterfeit and sub-standard drugs with the help of smart chemical sensors.

Pacem Medical Technology provides antimicrobial treatment and software systems for dental and gum diseases with plasma technology, as GlakoLens provides treatment for glaucoma disease with smart contact lenses, wearable reading, recording and tracking systems.

Funktor brings an interactive method to the literature research with its innovative search engine that processes medical information, and Oruba Medical Technology develops a uroflowmeter that measures urine amount and speed and operates automatically, sterile and without operator need to provide various health tests and follow-up.

Lastly, IsTech Group is developing a virtual reality-based (VR) simulation system that can be used in medical education to eliminate the complications and wrong intervention errors during the surgical operation, while Alice White Rabbit Biotechnology and Medical R&D Consultancy provides cerebrospinal fluid measurement with CerebroPress.

Teknopark Istanbul on the hunt for global talents

Teknopark Istanbul, the innovation center of the Turkish defense industry, continues to explain global job opportunities in Turkey with Talent for BIZ 2020 events organized by the Presidential Human Resources Office.

Teknopark Istanbul officials, who participated in the events organized in February in Uzbekistan and Pakistan to convey the employment areas in Turkey to young people abroad, hunt global talents. The authorities will also go to Germany and the U.S. within the framework of the same program to explain the employment opportunities at the important companies in Teknopark Istanbul to young talents.

Teknopark Istanbul, which includes more than 300 domestic and foreign companies that make advanced technology developments in the fields of the defense industry, maritime, aviation, space and health, aims to employ 9,000 qualified R&D engineers by hosting an additional 4,000 qualified personnel at its campus until the end of 2020.

Teknopark Istanbul, which wants to host over 43,000 qualified R&D engineers by reaching more than 1,000 companies in a closed area of 1.5 million square meters in 2030, comes together with young talents in TALENT for BIZ 2020, which is organized by the Presidential Human Resources Office and covers eight countries. Gearing up to introduce young people with promising and creative ideas at the event, Teknopark Istanbul will continue its talent hunt by participating in the events to be held in Cologne, Germany, on April 3-4 and in Boston, in the U.S., on April 11.