Elias Robot has been named as the European Promotion Award “Next Generation” winner. The award was presented at the European Cultural Award gala in the Bonn Opera House on 28 August 2021.
Since 2012, the European Cultural Forum has been recognizing the significance of European pioneers of culture. Under various themes, artists, cultural workers, institutions and personalities from politics, economy and media are awarded on a rotating basis. The award has been given to several world class artists and influencers, such as Sophia Loren, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Prince Albert II, and Scorpions.
This year's European Promotion Award Next Generation searched for innovative solutions that are changing the future of education under the theme “With digital education to success”. The Award is an acknowledgement for entrepreneurial achievements and initiatives which push new ideas and technologies for our common future. The Award is addressed to young entrepreneurs all over Europe who change our lives with their innovations.
"We had an unbelievably large number of exciting applicants, and it wasn't easy for us to choose the winner," admits juror Stefanie Kreusel, member of the Supervisory Board and Group Representative for Digital Education and Schools
at Deutsche Telekom AG. In the end, she said, the robot's combination of "futureproof technologies such as speech recognition and artificial intelligence with scientifically based and playful language learning methods" tipped the scales in its favor. "It thus puts learners in real-life communication situations in a safe environment, paving the way for successful workers of tomorrow".
“It is a great honor to accept this award together with Europe’s greatest artists, cultural and social actors", says Johanna Hemminki, CEO and Founder of Elias Robot. "This award encourages us to continue our work to develop human-friendly education technology, and to make language learning fun, equal and accessible for all”.
We thank European Culture Forum for recognizing our hard work! We also want to thank all our supporters, investors, researchers, students and teachers for making this achievement possible.