The "Pitching Day" stage of the "Startup School 2-AI for Green Solidarity" project, operated by the "Enterprise Azerbaijan" portal under the Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communication, was held at the SABAH.HUB Innovation Center. Ten teams selected for this stage presented their ideas before the jury.
Matanat Musayeva, head of the "Enterprise Azerbaijan" portal, opened the event with an introduction. She stated that 121 teams from Azerbaijan and different countries applied for the "Startup School 2" project, and 41 of them were selected and participated in online training. After two months of training, 10 teams out of the 41 qualified for the next stage and joined the project presentation classes.
M. Musayeva introduced the jury invited to the "Pitching Day" stage. The panel of international experts included Alberto Leyve, Chief Innovation and Technology Director of Saudi Arabia's Al Ula Royal Commission; Rafael Salazar, CEO and co-founder of Sendity and Strategy and Innovation Consulting Director of Saudi Arabia's Al Ula Royal Commission; Natalya Radko, Professor of "Entrepreneurship and Innovations" at Newcastle University Business School; Rustam Madadzade, Project Manager of the "Innovation Ecosystem" department at the Innovation and Digital Development Agency; Vusal Suleymanli, "Innovation Ecosystem" expert at the Ministry of Culture; Nijat Mehdiyev, Professor at the German Artificial Intelligence Research Center; and Elmin Iskander, Founder of "R Group" company.
Following the team presentations, the judges voted. Five teams qualified for the next stage - the hackathon competition. The five most successful projects of the "Startup School 2" project are: "System of ANN Modeling the Agro-feasibility" from Nakhchivan State University, "Terra Reimagined" from the Agrarian Research Center under the Ministry of Agriculture, "PlantGenic AI" from Lankaran State University, "YellowGo" from the Czech Republic's CZU Prague University, and "ClearPath Shepherd" from Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University.
It should be noted that the five selected teams will prepare for the hackathon competition together with mentors.