About FWLS

Falling Walls Lab Sendai in Japan

The Lab invites Master students, Ph.D. candidates, post-docs, young professionals and entrepreneurs of age under 35 as of April 1st, 2015 from the region and state to apply and share their research work, ideas and initiatives.
The winner of the Falling Walls Lab Sendai will travel to Berlin to attend the Falling Walls Lab Finale and the Falling Walls Conference on 8/9 November, 2015.

The Falling Walls Lab Sendai will take place on 4 September, 2015 at 3rd floor, Lecture Theater in TOKYO ELECTRON House of Creativity, Tohoku University.

What is the Lab?

The first Falling Walls Lab took place in 2011 in Berlin one day prior to the Falling Walls Conference. Thanks to the huge success of the Falling Walls Lab 2011, the Falling Walls Foundation and A.T. Kearney extended the format to a global scale in 2012. Since then, international Labs take place in different vibrant cities around the world throughout the year. The Falling Walls Lab Finale is held each year in Berlin on 8 November. The finale gathers 100 participants, among them all winners of the international Labs.

Great minds, 3 minutes, 1 day

The Falling Walls Lab is a new challenging, inspiring and interdisciplinary format for young great minds. It offers the opportunity to excellent young academics and professionals to present their outstanding ideas, research projects and initiatives. Each participant is asked to present his/her work in 3 minutes.

All disciplines are welcome: from agriculture, medicine, economics, engineering to the humanities. A prestigious jury from science and business awards the best participants. The jury is allowed to ask questions or to make comments during your speech. Further discussion will be welcome during the several breaks and reception party.

The jury looks at three different criteria: The “breakthrough factor” indicates if an idea is a real innovation, if it is original and catchy and has the potential to inspire other ideas. Secondly, they will look at the relevance and the scope of impact of your work. Does it make a valuable contribution to progress; does it address an existing or imminent problem or even offer solutions to it? The third category is related to the presenter and presentation itself: Do the participants deliver their presentations well? Do they explain their ideas in a clear and understandable way? Does the presenter show a proof of concept?

Presentation Format

3 minute-presentation, 1 minute-Q&A, and 1 minute-scoring session

Three slides:
1. Your presentation title, name, and affiliation
2. Your breakthrough idea
3. Summary

Many audiences with diverse backgrounds will be in the Lab.

Scoring System

Falling Walls Lab Scoring System
Each presentation is evaluated with a score, based on three criteria

1. Breakthrough factor - 50%
 ・Does the project have originality and potential for innovation?
 ・Does it represent a groundbreaking idea, initiative or discovery?
 ・Could it trigger other innovation processes?

2. Relevance / Impact - 30%
 ・What is the target (group)?
 ・Does the idea affect a broad group of addresses or does it have a deep impact on a small group?
 ・Does the idea have short- term or long-term effects?

3. Structure / Performance - 20%
 ・Is the presentation well structured? Does it clearly explain breakthrough and impact?
 ・Does the candidate present a proof of concept / the feasibility of the project?
 ・Is the candidate able to explain the idea?
 ・How does the candidate perform?

You can find more information at https://falling-walls.com/lab