Georgian students claim top prize at prestigious international tech event

A group of young Georgian inventors triumphed at a prestigious international tech start-up event with their novel device that enables users to feel objects they touch in a virtual environment.

The annual Jacobs Start-up Competition in Bremen, Germany, selected the Georgian team as the top winners of this year’s event.

The inventors - Free University of Tbilisi student Dimitri Tskhovrebadze, Tbilisi State University student Giorgi Meshveliani and Agricultural University of Georgia student Giorgi Gabarashvili – fished ahead of 10 other projects shortlisted for this year's top award with their Interactive Glove invention, also known as InGlove.

The three Georgian students presented their invention to an audience at the Bremen start-up contest. Photo from the Jacobs Startup Competition/Facebook.

The shortlisted inventions had been selected from a group of 127 projects submitted earlier by tech enthusiasts from universities and groups from all over the world.

The March competition in Bremen included presentations, workshops and an awards ceremony for the winners.

The new technology created by the three Georgian inventors enabled those wearing the InGlove to physically feel the virtual objects they touched in video games and in other visual scenes.

It was a further development of the resurgent Virtual Reality technology that is enjoying special attention in the tech industry this year.

The Interactive Glove created by three Georgian students. Photo from InGlove/Facebook.

The initial idea to create the InGlove belonged to the project's leader Tskhovrebadze. The young tech enthusiast then teamed up with the other two students to develop the device.

The group were invited by the Masdar University of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi, UAE to develop their invention, which was presented at the 2016 MENA Cristal ID Congress technology event in Dubai in February.

The Georgian team then submitted their project for the 2016 Jacobs Start-up Competition, which ran from March 11-12.

Each year the German tech event gained creative entries from students studying at prestigious international universities including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and Yale University.

Aiming to "showcase the entrepreneurship talent of students from all over the world", the competition also provided an opportunity for young developers to meet prospective business partners and investors.

See Georgian inventor Dimitri Tskhovrebadze talk about his team's InGlove device at the 2016 MENA Cristal ID Congress in Dubai below: