Uusi Tehdas (New Factory) is situated in the very heart of Tampere. The building is full of history: founded in 1835 it used to be a cotton factory and the biggest industrial building in the whole country. Today it's the local center of innovation and start-ups. Instead of old engine rooms, the New Factory has four programs that help students, entrepreneurs and innovators put their ideas into practice: Demola, Protomo, Suuntamo and StartupStairs.

Demola attracts students from all the universities in the area to gain study credits by building demo products for projects. Protomo helps creating start-ups by matchmaking talents, building prototypes and developing business ideas. Suuntaamo gathers a community of users from various backgrounds who are willing to test new products and give feedback. Finally, StartupStairs is an evolving program that helps most potential companies that come out of Demola and Protomo to get funded and expand to new markets.

Demola was the first project that the New Factory created in 2008. Their idea was to facilitate concrete projects that test new ideas and mobilize student talent.'There are about 38,000 students in universities around Tampere', says Ville Kairamo, co-founder of Demola. 'But there was no organizational structure to mobilize that young talent and help students work together. With Demola we wanted to offer concrete projects where students learn by doing'.

Each project lasts between 3-8 months. Themes for projects come from companies who are project partners, altogether more than 50 organizations from public and private sectors. They offer students solve a problem they are facing or test a new idea. Project partners co-create demos with the teams while teachers and researchers support students throughout the course.

Importantly, the results of all projects are owned by students. If the company likes the results studens can sell licenses (worth 3,000€-7,000€) or develop the idea further into a start-up.

Since its foundation, altogether 700+ students went through 140 projects conducted by Demola. 95% of completed projects were licensed and 700,000€ were earned by students in licensing fees. 15% of students were head-hunted after the projects. More importantly, before the courses only 30% of students want to be entrepreneurs while at the end of the course that number grows to 75%.

Below is a video about Demola's summer projects this year:

Image by demola.fi