Every year the MIT Technology Review (MIT), the media wing of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, crowns the world's most talented entrepreneurs and innovators under the age of 35. Past award winners include Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Sergey Brin (Google) and Daniel Ek (Spotify). The Belgian version of this prize has now just been held for the second time, and was awarded to eight innovative entrepreneurs in 2016
Two of these innovators were given a special mention. The jury named Xavier Damman Innovator of the Year 2016 for his creation of Open Collective, a platform making crowdfunding accessible to all. In turn, Steven Vercammen was crowned as Social Innovator, for his Evapp, an application used in the case of a heart attack to warn medical volunteers in the neighbourhood to go and administer first aid or to call the emergency services.
Other award winners were Alisson Derenne (pharmaceuticals), Charles Fraccia (biomedical software and hardware), Geert Houben (care platform Cubigo, see more here), Geert Slachmuylders (turbines generating electricity from water), Jill Vanparys (science-based video games) and Guillaume Wegria (biostimulator for plants).
http://www.innovatorsunder35.com/innovators-under-35-belgium
