AI award for student start-up

07/14/2026

An AI designed to streamline time-consuming tasks involved in family psychology assessments: this is what a student start-up from Würzburg is working on. Founder, Johannes Störlein, has received a award for his project.

At the Social Media Days in Schwäbisch Hall, Johannes Störlein (fourth from the right) accepted the award. Standing next to him are co-founder Anna Manger and co-founder Oliver Gawron. (Image: Ufuk Arslan / ZIEHL-ABEGG)

Johannes Störlein knows only too well just how time-consuming it can be to deal with the paperwork involved in a family psychology assessment. As a student assistant and as an intern with medical and family law assessors, he transcribed hours of exploratory interviews, helped draw up assessment plans and analysed court files – all time-consuming tasks.

Today, Störlein, who is studying for a Master’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU), describes this experience as the catalyst for the idea of developing an AI application that will make such tasks easier in future. For this, he has now received the ‘Students and Young Talents’ Prize at the AI Communication Award 2026 in Schwäbisch Hall. The prize is worth 2,000 euros and was presented for the third time in 2026 at the Social Media Days, organised by the high-tech firm Ziehl-Abegg.

A data-protection-compliant and time-saving AI solution

Since March 2026, Störlein has been further developing his idea within his own start-up. mindocu GmbH is based at the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science (CAIDAS) at JMU. The Würzburg-based entrepreneur founded the company together with Anna Manger, a JMU alumna of the Master’s programme in Management, and Oliver Gawron, a computer science graduate from the Technical University of Würzburg-Schweinfurt (THWS).

“We already have two clients and a test system that interested assessors can access,” says Störlein. The start-up’s target audience includes experts, assessors and psychological and medical professionals.

How the application works: Assessors upload audio recordings of patient consultations to the system. They then receive a transcript and a first draft of an assessment report, written in the style of reported speech.

“Of course, a human still carries out the final check. To make editing easier, the software shows users the corresponding source in the transcript and the audio recording for every generated sentence,” explains Störlein. This makes the results traceable and verifiable. Those who prefer to communicate directly with the AI can also use the chatbot within the system to edit expert reports.

And what about data protection? This was taken into account from the outset, according to the JMU student, as the system operates entirely with local AI models – meaning no data is ever passed on to third parties. To achieve this, mindocu provides customers with their own high-performance computer, the size of a shoebox, installed on-site, which processes all the data directly at the practice. And: “Even when working from home, data is only sent to the computer via an encrypted connection. Much like in online banking.”

What is next for the young team

The young start-up team is continuously developing the system further. The next step is for the AI application to be able to distinguish between four speakers, rather than just two as is currently the case. Such situations arise, for example, during conversations involving both parents and the child, or when interpreters are involved.

A new, major module will be the "File Scan": this will enable assessors to process hundreds of pages of files in future, identify the relevant information specifically and better understand the connections behind the data sets. There are also plans for a “Smart Lector”, which will flag up inconsistencies and ensure compliance with professional standards. “Our application is designed to provide support at every stage of the expert report process, from the initial commission right through to invoicing.”

From idea to start-up

Störlein’s work as a student assistant reinforced his determination to stick with his idea whilst studying. In August 2023, he presented it for the first time at the Zentrum für Digitale Innovation Mainfranken (ZDI). Shortly afterwards, Anna Manger and Oliver Gawron joined the project.

This was followed by several prizes in pitch competitions, in which founders must present their ideas convincingly. These included winning one of the THWS’s KickStart Pitches 2025, worth 7,500 euros. “The start-up centres in and around Würzburg have been, and continue to be, extremely helpful,” said Störlein.

The team also made a strong impression at JMU on several occasions: in 2024, at the Projektiade organised by Professor Harald Wehnes, it won the audience award and the ‘Best AI Product’ project prize. At the 2025 awards ceremony, the AI application won in the ‘Greatest Social Benefit’ category.

As part of his Master’s thesis, Störlein validated the application: 15 reviewers tested the system and gave positive feedback. He presented the results during a poster session at the conference “Designing AI with a Human-Centred Approach” organised by the German Psychological Society in Berlin.

Support from the university

The start-up advisory service at the JMU Service Centre for Research and Technology Transfer (SFT) supported the start-up team in setting up the business. The SFT provided advice on the spin-off and assisted with funding applications. Further support for the start-up followed in the form of the eXist start-up grant.

Johannes Störlein and his team also receive support from Professor Carolin Wienrich and Dr David Obremski from the Psychology of Interactive Systems research group at the Institute Human-Computer-Media.