Marinitech Grand Prix 2022 Preliminary Report: Grand Prize goes to Liquid metal

The Marintec Grand Prix 2022 was held on Saturday, October 1, 2022 at the Center of Garage to select the winning teams for the Grand Prize and the Corporate Award.

Starting with the 2020 season, the Tech Planter will evolve its concept to "Deep Issue & Deep Tech Explorer," which will use "Deep Tech," a collection of science and technology, to solve unsolved "Deep Issue" problems. Tech Explorer," which is a collection of science and technology to solve "Deep Issues" through "Deep Tech.

In addition, this year we have added "ability to expand overseas" to the existing four criteria of "novelty, feasibility, potential to change the world, and passion" as a new criterion for judging. The intent is to encourage early-stage companies to look globally, and to accelerate new development through collaboration with the 1126 Alumni teams (as of September 1, 2022) and other overseas tech planters sponsored by RIVANES.

On the day of the event, the 11 finalist teams of the Marine Tech Grand Prix, selected from among the 349 teams that applied to Tech Planter 2022, passionately presented their ideas for implementing solutions to global issues using diverse technologies related to maritime and riverine environments, including IoT, microbes, liquid metals, new aquaculture systems, sludge recycling systems, gels, and biologging. They passionately presented their thoughts on implementing solutions to global issues through the use of these technologies.

And the winner of the prestigious Grand Prize was "Liquid metal".

Mr. Masaaki Kondo of Liquid metal (Tokyo Institute of Technology) gave a presentation titled "Simultaneous Recovery of Fresh Water and Valuable Resources with Liquid Metal Technology. He presented his vision of realizing a society with sustainable development that does not suffer from a lack of resources through a process that can simultaneously desalinate seawater and recover valuable resources from seawater by utilizing liquid metal, which he conceived and developed based on his research on nuclear fusion reactors, his specialty. The judges were unanimous in awarding the prize to this proposal as it fulfills both the requirements of new science and technology and a quality question, and has the potential to solve the "ultimate pain point of not being able to drink or obtain water," based on an idea that is difficult for people in the existing industries involved in the ocean to recognize.

Members of Liquid metal and the jury members who won the Grand Prize

 

List of Company Awards and Grand Prizes

Team Name	Theme name	winning (a prize)
MarineSL Corporation	Comprehensive contract management platform using onboard data
Symbiobe Corporation	Next Generation Aquaculture System Using Photosynthetic Bacterial Feed	DIC Award Mitsui Chemicals Award
ARK Corporation	Small and decentralized land-based aquaculture for resting oceans	Maruha Nichiro Award
Fishpath Corporation	DX of the local environment from a glass of water	Real Tech Fund Award
Tromso Corporation	Blue carbon credits realized by growing eelgrass with rice husks
Vantec Ltd.	Development of Aquaculture Sludge Recycling System by Centrifugal Separation
Liquid metal	Liquid metal technology to simultaneously recover fresh water and valuable resources	Grand Prize Asahi Yukizai Award
Applied Live Feed	Realization of fish farming detached from the sea	EBARA Award
yellow mole (Talpidae spp., esp. the small Japanese mole, Mogera imaizumii)	Microplastic Recovery Technology Using Recombinant E. coli	Focus Systems Award
Transformation Soft Matter Laboratory	Offshore farms realized with low energy
Marine Wildlife I/O	IoT information mechanism using marine life mounted sensors

 

Results of public voting (votes by non-jury partner participants and finalist teams)

1st place	ARK Corporation
2nd place	Transformation Soft Matter Laboratory Marine Wildlife I/O
3rd place	Liquid metal

 

Demo Day Implementation Overview

• Grand Prix name: Marintec Grand Prix 2022
• Location: Center of Garage (1-16-3 Yokogawa, Sumida-ku, Tokyo 130-0003, Japan)
• Date: Saturday, October 1, 2022, 13:00-19:00
• Eligibility: Closed, pre-registration required (entry teams, partner companies, Superfactory Group Professional Supporters)
• Website:https://techplanter.com/marinetech/2022/