At Showa Women's University, Tapirus Co., Ltd., the first undergraduate venture company in the history of the 100th anniversary of its founding, was born. In 2019, it will be commercialized based on the project that won the highest award at the "Intellectual Property Utilization Student Award" that competes for business ideas utilizing open patents of major companies.

 Tapirus Co., Ltd. was established by 4 fourth-year students of the Sumihiro Maeda seminar, Department of Business Design, Faculty of Global Business, and the faculty member in charge of 9 yen each.The president is Ami Suzuki, the head of the seminar, who aims to develop and sell "Tapirus," a device that supports people raising infants.

 "Tapirus" is a sensor that utilizes Fujitsu's open patent "Non-contact Vital Sensor" (a patent license will be obtained in the future).By installing it on the wall or ceiling, parents can check the body orientation, heart rate, respiratory status, etc. during sleep of infants on their smartphones.The app will warn you if something goes wrong, making it easier for parents to focus on housework and work and get a good night's sleep.

 Conventionally, products that check the condition of infants related to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) are contact type, so there are problems such as infants removing or disliking them, and sensing data being limited.In addition, when we interviewed parents and nursery schools, we found that it was a heavy burden to watch the sleep of infants.Therefore, the students decided to propose a system for watching over infants.The proposed project won the highest award at the "Intellectual Property Utilization Student Award" sponsored by Seibu Shinkin Bank in 2019.At that time, the judges recommended that the company be commercialized, and the company was established this time.

 "Tapirus Co., Ltd." is currently positioned as a research company, and for the time being, it will work to squeeze details such as product specifications in order to request small and medium-sized enterprises with technological capabilities to produce prototypes.Consider raising funds for prototype production through crowdfunding, etc.The founding members will graduate and get a job next spring, but they are still looking for ways to continue their business as a side business.
 
 Mr. Suzuki, who serves as the president, said, "The establishment of the company is linked to what I learned in the lecture, and it was possible with the support of Seibu Shinkin and related organizations, and it still seems like a dream."In addition, Professor Maeda, who supports the new company as an auditor, said, "I want students to continue to challenge the awards that support students to seriously commercialize their ideas." Students who challenge the commercialization of ideas. I expected that the number of students would increase.

Reference: [Showa Women's University] Established Showa Women's University's first student venture company Established "Tapirus", a childcare support system company for infants

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