Memories about the 2021 AIrLab Challenge at YES!Delft to Global Startup Ecosystems

This afternoon, I sacrificed my lunch (I had a hearty breakfast at the hotel) to finally visit the YES! Delft facilities. During the pandemic, my students Roberto Mendívil Castro , Jose Cisneros and Edison Altamirano Avila from Tecnológico de Monterrey mainly my "Vision for Robots" class, and I participated (https://youtu.be/pZ86GOpBphY?si=v7A8hFO-iEqyYlg8 ) in the AIrLab Challenge. Robotics in retail aims to free workers from repetitive tasks, enabling them to focus more on customer interactions and gather data on products and buying patterns.?

The AIRLab Delft, a joint lab of Ahold Delhaize and TU Delft, hosted the AIRLab Stacking Challenge with PAL Robotics during the pandemic to advance this field. This competition, which included a cash prize, targeted research teams working on innovative retail applications like automated product stacking. Open to students, researchers, professors, and professionals worldwide, teams of 2-6 members developed algorithms using simulations that could be deployed on PAL Robotics' TIAGo robot. The competition fostered knowledge sharing and deep dives into robotics technology, enhancing problem-solving, time management, and teamwork skills. PAL Robotics provided technical support, and I am proud to share that my students and I won the Most Consistent Solution award in this competition. Here https://youtu.be/sTFtxwSkYfI?si=mKJWmik0gFfCAsuc you can see the finals.

?YES!Delft is a leading tech incubator in Europe dedicated to helping tech-based startups with promising ideas accelerate their business and grow into successful companies. They provide tailored services and an extensive ecosystem to startups without taking equity, which is unique.

YES!Delft is deeply committed to the impact tech companies can have through innovation, contributing significantly to society and the economy. Their services help turn promising ideas and teams into solid tech startups and assist them in growing into successful companies. They achieve this by connecting unique startup programs and services with a regional ecosystem of experts, mentors, partners, and investors.

The incubator collaborates with shareholders like TU Delft, the Municipality of Delft, Erasmus University, and various partners, investors, mentors, municipalities, and other incubators and accelerators, creating a comprehensive ecosystem. YES!Delft is located at the TU Delft Campus, a technology hub in the South of Holland, known for fostering radical innovations in fields such as Robotics, AI, Quantum, MedTech, and Energy Transition.

The team at YES!Delft consists of entrepreneurs, innovators, and tech enthusiasts with firsthand experience running companies. They are dedicated to sharing their knowledge, connecting startups to the right people and organisations, and adding value to the entrepreneurs who join the incubator.

YES!Delft, founded in 2005, was one of the first incubators in the Netherlands and has since expanded to three locations in Delft, Rotterdam, and The Hague. This expansion has cultivated a vibrant community of entrepreneurs, mentors, partners, and investors. Their unique programs and services enable startups and scale-ups to bring their disruptive technological innovations to market quickly and effectively, creating a real and positive impact on society.

I believe I have visited nearly every entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem in the world, from the disruptive startups in France, the early spin-off developments in Oxford and London, and spending an extensive summer at Stanford during the aftermath of the dot-com crash to the unique expressions of entrepreneurship in Asia but what sets YES!Delft apart is their support for entrepreneurs building complex products in challenging markets, both hardware and digital, often requiring significant development time and expensive prototyping. As a non-profit organisation, they take zero equity, prioritising the entrepreneur and valuing quality over quantity.

This participation was the first significant event I attended remotely. I must confess that I hesitated to involve the students in an event of such magnitude given the virtual conditions; the computational solution had to be packaged in a container and sent to the organizers so they could test it both in simulation and on the real robot.

That's why visiting these facilities today brought about a very particular feeling: the pandemic is over, we have experienced virtuality, and we have returned to normalcy. Until today, this chapter, which was undoubtedly still open, has now been closed.

I had my elephant moment: over hundreds of years, there have been legends of mysterious places where elephants travel when it is time for them to die. Some folklore even says this magical spot calls to dying elephants as they search for a final resting place.

I believe I came out alive.