In mid-March, Ostfalia's Portuguese partner university, the Instituto Politécnico de Setúbal (IPS), organised the "Semana de Empreendedorismo", the "Week of Entrepreneurship", for the second time. Ostfalia was the only German university invited to take part and was represented by Andrea Moysén Mason and Burak Dönmez. Over three days, the event provided a platform for innovation, exchange and entrepreneurial thinking, where students, lecturers and companies came together to develop ideas, present projects and initiate (external link, opens in a new window)new collaborations.
Video presentation of Warden Robotics
"To kick things off, the results of the 'Poliempreende Regional 2025' competition were announced," says Moysén Mason. "That was very interesting for us, because the winning start-up Ignitronic was a perfect match for the start-up that we later presented." And indeed, the approaches of winners Francisco and Tomás Cerviera, who specialise in the use of technology and AI for the early detection and control of forest fires, are similar to those of Ostfalia entrepreneurs Lucas Dehmel and Lukas Bartenstein from Warden Robotics, who also won an award.
As it was not possible for Dehmel and Bartenstein to come to Portugal in person, a pre-produced video was shown in which Dehmel explains the work of Warden Robotics. The start-up from Lower Saxony focuses on autonomous fire protection for recycling plants: drones and specially developed AI detect smouldering fires at an early stage and localise them precisely - even outside of operating hours and in areas that are difficult to see. This makes it possible to react quickly before a large-scale fire develops and jeopardises the safety of personnel and the plant.
Watch the video from Warden Robotics (external link, opens in a new window)here
Andrea Moysén Mason: "We have agreed to bring the two start-ups into contact with each other so that they can give each other tips. Maybe this will also open up the possibility of making the whole thing more international, who knows?" Networking at all levels is always good, especially within the start-up community, as Burak Dönmez also knows. Like Moysén Mason, he is part of the GO! (Gründen@Ostfalia) team, for which the Entrepreneur Week in Portugal was a milestone, the young initiative has now been able to showcase itself on the international stage.
Dönmez spoke about social advancement
As part of the "Stories that inspire" contributions, Dönmez outlined his career in the field of entrepreneurship. He initially trained as an industrial mechanic, completed his technician's qualification in mechanical engineering and worked in logistics at Volkswagen AG for almost eight years. He found his way to university via the second educational path: he studied media management for his bachelor's degree.
His initial experience at Bildungshelden, a non-profit start-up, sparked his interest in entrepreneurship and led him to an MBA in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management at Ostfalia, where he also worked in science communication and podcast production. Today, as a project coordinator at GROW, he accompanies prospective founders through funding programmes such as the EXIST start-up grant and is part of Gründen@Ostfalia, Ostfalia's start-up brand.
Panel discussion with Moysén Mason
The "Week of Entrepreneurship" concluded with an international panel discussion in which Andrea Moysén Mason took part together with Henny Oude Maatman (Saxion University, Dutch partner university of the Instituto Politécnico de Setúbal) and Luís Carvalho (IPS Setúbal). The focus was on questions relating to regional and global challenges and the future of entrepreneurship. "Overall," summarises Moysén Mason, "the event made a significant contribution to strengthening the network between the partner institutions."