On May 24 it was held at the UC Anacleto Angelini Innovation Center, the UC 2022 Transfer and Intellectual Property Day, an event held annually by the Transfer and Development Department, which in this edition aimed to recognize the results of research that managed to reach the market and society in the past year.
On this occasion, Cenia’s director and academic from the UC School of Engineering, Álvaro Soto, was distinguished with the “outstanding spin-off entrepreneurship award” for the startup Zippedi, one of the companies that collaborate with Cenia and that has been an essential pillar in raising capital during 2021.
Zippedi was created in 2017 by a team of engineers from the UC Department of Computer Science, Alvaro Soto, Luis Vera and Ariel Schilkrut. The project consists of a robot that uses artificial intelligence to scan supermarket and retail store shelves. With this information, the robot notifies and helps workers to detect out-of-stocks, check if a labeled price matches the database or if a product is in a section that does not correspond.”Zippedi achieves things that are impossible for a human being, such as checking some twenty thousand products in a single night. However, what is relevant is how the robot can help workers achieve their goals more quickly, making work more efficient with the use of artificial intelligence,” explains Álvaro Soto, who is currently a partner in the startup.
The ceremony was led by President Ignacio Sanchez and Vice President for Research Pedro Bouchon, along with the Chilean Minister of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation, Flavio Salazar.
