Get to know one of the 10 Academic Startup Competition winners 2020! uCrowds B.V.: a short introduction
It’s time: the jury has selected the best 10 startups in the second edition of the Academic Startup Competition! From 57 contenders, first the Association of Universities in the Netherlands, the Netherlands Academy of Technology and Innovation, and Techleap.nl have nominated 20 academic startups to compete in the finals. Now that the winners are known we would like to introduce you to one of them: uCrowds, a company that offers a software solution and expert knowledge for simulating crowds in big infrastructures, events or virtual worlds.
The level of the competitors was very high this year, and the most ground-breaking and innovative academic startups were selected to be the ‘Best academic startup in the Netherlands’. These startups are responsible for state-of-the-art and ground-breaking innovations in various fields, uCrowds is one of the winners in the Logistics field.
Real-time simulation of 100.000 individually controlled pedestrians
The software, called SimCrowds, facilitates real-time simulation of 100.000 individually controlled pedestrians (on a fast PC). Moreover, it supports more than 1 million pedestrians on one PC (not in real-time). This allows quick development cycles, fast simulations, and shorter project times. SimCrowds supports 2D environments as well as large 3D multi-layered environments, such as train stations or complex buildings.
SimCrowds facilitates the process of re-using environments and environment data. The easy configuration and modelling of the simulation in that environment is using a pragmatic and intuitive interface. Unique is the interaction with the crowd in its environment during the simulation. This empowers the collective visual feedback and iteration of your team and your customers.
Unique software
The software is unique because it represents the exact walkable spaces and can be used to study the impact of social distancing on buildings or environments, find out how to improve crowd flow in a train station, perform what-if scenarios for a better preparation of an event, plan escape routes for use during a fire evacuation of train emergency personnel to deal with evacuation scenarios. The company’s ambition is to contribute to a safer and more pleasant world.
uCrowd’s products and services are based on 13 years of research on crowd simulation at Utrecht University. The company is very excited to be one of the winners of the Academic Startup Competition 2020 and is looking forward to all the opportunities and network possibilities the unique ASC program is offering them.
Welcome to the team uCrowds!