FAU Digital Tech Fellows Program

Be Part of Something Unique!

The Digital Tech Academy is FAU’s Elite Entrepreneurship program open to outstanding innovative talents from all FAU degree programs and faculties! We impart all you need to follow your heart and passion for digitization, entrepreneurship and innovation.

Work in interdisciplinary teams, get in touch with expert coaches and mentors, develop your own pristine and validated business model for your start-up and get integrated in our Digital Tech Fellows and start-up network & community.

Check out DTF Batch# 8 Movie!

FAU Digital Tech Fellows Batch 8

 

What are the benefits of the DTF Program?

Within a 12 weeks sprint, you will

  • learn the latest state-of-the-art innovation methods
  • work in interdisciplinary teams on your entrepreneurial challenge
  • choose either your own start-up idea or one of the highly enticing projects from the other participants
  • work with 20 other handpicked talents from FAU and our international expert coaches and mentors from former Batches
  • widen your professional & personal network
  • receive an official FAU certificate upon successfull completion of the program

There is no place you can’t learn something for your start-up!

  • We are really glad that we started our start-up journey in the FAU Digital Tech Fellows Program as we thoroughly learned to establish and validate a business model and could experience how we work best together as a team. Even now, the DTA and its network support us in our endeavors.

    Lucia, Felix & Sebastian
    Arfinity

  • The DTF program showed me many important aspects which were helpful when I founded my own start-up in 2019 such as that your customer is as important as your product. We should talk less about how innovative an idea is but start thinking harder about how a product addresses a certain customer need. Try to listen carefully and let your product grow with your customer base. Be flexible, you might end up heading in a different direction.

    Andreas Reichle
    HOREICH UG, CEO

  • The DTF program allows you to ‘live’ and practice the knowledge gathered about the topics of entrepreneurship, innovation, project, and financial management. Through practice and constant reflection, by the end of the program, I have felt fully equipped to try and start my own business. Although it is just a little dip into the world of entrepreneurship, it is a valuable and empowering experience worth going through ?

    Anna Kikesheva
    Netlight, Product & UX Consultant

  • The DTF program gave me a unique opportunity to push my boundaries – both personally and professionally. I got a chance to test a business idea and build a prototype, but also lead a team and carry out difficult conversations. The DTA team provided my team and myself with every kind of support that was required – tools, contacts, coaching… I am beyond grateful for that experience!

    Jonasz Staszek
    FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, AI Researcher

  • From our kickoff weekend to the first prototype and the final pitch — the DTF program was an awesome journey. The only way to learn more about how to start up, is to start up. And as an alumni, I am also happy to continue to be a part of the DTF network.

    Dr. Stefan Seegerer
    IQM Quantum Computers, Quantum Education Manager

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What are the projects and objectives?

You can work either on your own start-up idea, or join a start-up idea from another participant – after the program you will have:
+ a validated Business Model
+ a validated Market Potential
+ a validated Financial Plan
+ defined / work in progress prototypes

What happens during this 12 weeks Sprint?

We will guide you through the end-to-end Business Design process and help you understand and figure out if you have the entrepreneur in YOU!


We also have our DTA Start-ups from the previous batches coming and sharing their journey & advice with the upcoming entrepreneurs.


  • arfinity
    Lucia Grom-Baumgarten from our DTF B#3 Start-up arfinity sharing their journey since participating in the Digital Tech Fellows Program back in 2018. Arfinity brings Augmented Reality to the world of trade fairs by enabling completely new ways of product presentation and interaction,  which eventually offer significant value for all stakeholders at trade fairs. In an easy and cost-efficient configuration tool, exhibitors can create their own AR content and showcase a bigger portfolio in the form of true-to-original 3D-models during events.



  • Oculai

    Constantin & Tim from our Batch#6 Start-up Oculai joined us as mentors for Batch#8 during the Design Weekend and shared great insights on how to grow fast and what not to underestimate when going all in with your start-up. Oculai offers a solution for camera-based data collection on construction sites. Intelligent computer vision algorithms extract data on resource utilization, construction performance and construction progress from image material. This automates time-consuming documentation and reveals productivity deficits in individual processes at an early stage.


  • Libati
    Katrin & Doro from our Batch#4 Start-up Libati shared helpful validation advice with our Digital Tech Fellows. They show the different mock-ups and prototypes they started out with and how long it took to have their final app (which is of course always work-in-progress) today.Libati offers an App for the chronically ill people to discover new places more freely and independently. The user simply creates his personal trigger factors and preferences like stairs, pet hair etc. at the beginning and sees at a glance which locations around him/her are suitable and which are not. The input is based on the ratings of other users.


  • INVRTUAL
    Markus, Spyros and Michi from our DTF B#4 Start-up INVRTUAL shared their journey of starting a start-up next to studying with our fellows. Their Do’s & Don’ts when starting a business were really helpful for our Digital Tech Fellows.INVRTUAL’s mission is to redefine the way people collaborate in the virtual space. With our XR communication platform, we enable a variety of customer-centric applications ranging from virtual training to product presentation.


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On top of that you will get a complete overview of FAU’s great innovation ecosystem!

Your Application for the FAU Digital Tech Fellows Program

This was B#10! Do you want to be part of B#11? Apply now for B#11! Application is open until 09.02.2025

 

APPLY HERE

Please find here the full program and schedule of Batch #11: 

Name of the Event

Date Venue Time
Kick-off Weekend 25.04.2025 – 27.04.2025 D.hip 9 am to 5 pm
DTA Community Event 26.04.2025 D.hip 5-9pm (optional)
Discover Deep Dive 09.05.2025 D.hip 9 am to 5pm
Design Workshop 29.05.2025 – 31.05.2025 Forschungscampus

Waischenfeld

(Transportation & Accomodation included)

9 am to 5 pm
Pitching Workshop 06.06.2025 D.hip 10 am to 4pm
DTA goes BERG 06.06.2025 Bergkirchweih Erlangen 6pm (optional)
Validate Workshop 13.06.2025 D.hip 9 am to 5 pm
Financial Modelling Workshop 30.06.2025 Online 5 pm to 8 pm
Review Workshop 04.07.2025 D.hip 2 pm to 5 pm
Pitch Test I 09.07.2025 Online Individual
Pitch Test II 14.07.2025 Medical Valley Center Erlangen Individual
Final Demo Day 18.07.2025 D.hip 9 am to 5 pm
DTA Celebration 18.07.2025 D.hip 5-10pm