Energy production (from wind and wave) using floating concrete platforms, monitoring cancer therapies, applying artificial intelligence in the railway sector, 3D printing of meat and fish, and the development of self-healing hydrogels for wound healing. These five projects, developed by multidisciplinary teams from Instituto Superior Técnico, were selected as finalists in the ninth edition of the Lab2Market programme.

This free initiative, supported by NTT-Data and i-Deals, aims to help participants turn their research into applicable solutions with an impact on society, providing access to specialised workshops, personalised mentoring and networking opportunities. Lab2Market will conclude on 3 June, featuring a final event to select the winning project, as in previous editions. The programme targets professors, researchers and doctoral or master’s students from Instituto Superior Técnico who are developing innovative technologies or projects.

The programme held its first workshop on 25 February, focusing on market analysis and defining the value proposition for each project.

The finalist teams of this edition were:

• OctaPlat – Juan Portillo, Luís Gato and João Campos Henriques (Department of Mechanical Engineering)
  OctaPlat aims to reduce electricity costs. A floating platform, built in concrete, will generate megawatt-scale electricity from wave energy and will also be able to support large wind turbines.
• FLASHGuard – Gonçalo Ribeiro, Carolina Miranda, Gonçalo Roriz, Pedro Assis, Patrícia Gonçalves (Laboratory of Instrumentation and Experimental Particle Physics (LIP) / Department of Physics)
  FLASHGuard aims to monitor beams in FLASH radiotherapy, a promising technique that reduces the side effects of cancer treatment. The device guarantees real-time monitoring, increasing the safety and clinical feasibility of this approach.
• On-Board Railway Track AI – João Torres, Hugo Magalhães, Susana Vieira (Department of Mechanical Engineering)
  On-Board Railway Track AI develops preventive maintenance technology for railways, detecting faults in advance using compact sensors in non-specialised vehicles and machine learning.
• Print’ n’eat – Diana Marques, Paola Alberte, Gonçalo Fernando, Afonso Gusmão, Frederico Ferreira (Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences (iBB) / Department of Bioengineering)
  Print’ n’eat uses 3D bioprinting to produce sustainable alternatives to meat and fish, using bio-ink of plant origin and algae. In this way, it is possible to create products with a similar flavour, texture and nutritional value to conventional ones.
• Self-healing e-biogels – Teresa Esteves, Diogo Dias, Duarte Almeida, Maria Resina, Frederico Ferreira (Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences (iBB) / Department of Bioengineering)
  Self-healing e-biogels are self-healing, elastic and electroconductive hydrogels developed for medical applications such as tissue regeneration, wound healing and tissue engineering, allowing for faster and more efficient treatment.