Jordy Senssen won second prize at the Student Startup Festival.
The second prize Jordy Senssen received yesterday at the Student Startup Festival was more than welcome. He and his fellow students of Fontys ICT & Media Design were equally glad with the news they got to hear earlier: they are getting a subsidy of no less than 25,000 euro to further develop their start-up Mind Mansion.
"So cool", says Senssen. And with this he is referring to the second prize of 500 euro as well as the considerable subsidy. Both were assigned for the same idea: the combination of virtual reality, biofeedback and gamification, to be able to help people with anxiety and phobias better.
More enjoyable treatment
"These three individual elements we are working with aren’t new", Jordy admits immediately. "But the combination of the three is. It is not yet being done anywhere in the Netherlands: therapy in an accessible virtual environment, where you can measure useful data such as heart rate and perspiration for the practitioner via biofeedback that makes the treatment so much more enjoyable via gamification. This is what makes Mind Mansion so special."
With this combination of techniques, Senssen and co think they can offer a more efficient treatment of anxiety. With the take-off subsidy of the SIA, the National Task Force for Applied Research, they can further develop their idea.
Various studies
In addition to Jordy, Lisa Slegers, Mike de Greef, Luke van der Loop and Melle Janssen are the founders of this start-up. They are all taking a different courses at Fontys. Melle is studying Commercial Economy - International Event, Music & Entertainment Studies, Lisa Commercial Economy - Digital Business Concepts, Luke ICT Software, Jordy ICT Media Design and Mike Game Design. They have been working on Mind Mansion for some time. They were previously supported by GGz [mental health care] Eindhoven, which accommodated their project in the eLab, a breeding place for social and technological innovation. [Jan Ligthart]