PRESS RELEASE

The winner of the BUT Student Entrepreneurship Award, which was awarded for the first time this year by the Brno University of Technology, is the Discyo application, which is backed by four students from the Faculty of Information Technology. Their solution will advise the user which movie to watch, what to listen to in a podcast or which computer game to play. Across the media, the algorithm recognizes the user's preferences and what they might like. The competition of student ideas is organized by the Brno University of Technology together with the South Moravian Innovation Centre.

"Discyo provides information across a variety of media. If, for example, someone liked the film Iron Man, the application can recommend, for example, a podcast with its leading actor," the student Petr Buchal suggested the link across the media. In addition, the offer of films and series is not tied to one provider such as Netflix, HBO GO or Apple TV+. The user gets a recommendation across all platforms, on the contrary, the application will recommend which source offers the most content according to his/her preferences.

"Until now, the application was only available to the top ten users who helped us with testing and feedback. In January, Discyo for the public will be free to download on Google Play and in the App Store. Thanks to it, users will get tips for movies, series or interesting audio podcasts," Buchal described the planned launch. In the future, however, the media offer will be expanded to include books, computer games and the ability to select content suitable for multiple users. "For example, if someone is going to watch a film with a girlfriend or a group of friends, it will be possible to set as a parameter also films and series suitable for more viewers," Buchal, who has been working on the project for more than a year with two other groupmates and one fresh graduate of FIT BUT, said.

After downloading, the user just enters in the application what content he/she has liked recently, which should not take him more than a minute. In addition, students plan to connect Discyo with Facebook or the Spotify music player, where it will be possible to download data on the user's current preferences, and even better adapt the offer to the user. The application itself will be free to download, but some features will only be available under a premium account, the price of which should be up to two euros. Next year, students will also present the Discyo application at the virtual trade Innovation Leaders Summit, which will be organized by Tokyo, Japan.

The students fine-tuned their business idea thanks to the university program Come in Business!, where they continuously received feedback on their project under the guidance of lecturers from the South Moravian Innovation Centre. The applications for the next year of the competition can be submitted until the end of this year, new competitors do not have to complete a series of workshops, but can immediately submit their idea. As part of the finals of the Student Entrepreneurship Award, an expert jury composed of representatives of BUT and South Moravian Innovation Centre distributed 400,000 crowns among student ideas, and the winning Discyo thus received over 130,000 crowns for the next start of its business.

Four projects, which were evaluated by an expert jury, advanced to the finals for the Student Entrepreneurship Award:

1st place Discyo - a platform that recommends additional content based on current preferences. The application recognizes what the user likes and generates additional suggestions for similar content, whether in the field of movies, music, books or computer games.

2nd place iParcella - a functional system with all public information about real estate in one place, similar to the well-known ticket search engine, but with a focus on land plots. This aggregator should also offer the connection of the real estate cadastre with the given territorial workplace, maps or satellite images.

3rd place Entoway - use of insects as food - a website with information about entomophagy, where those interested will get tips and the opportunity to purchase insect products based on a protein mixture of plant and insect protein, high in protein, vitamins and minerals.

4th place PJ&3D - similar to portrait photography, but in a sculptural design using modern technology of 3D printing and 3D scanning. The key moments of life captured in the form of a 3D printed sculpture enhanced by a scanning experience.