How I Made it onto the Forbes List 30 under 30 of Europe

Cornel Amariei is in top 10 the most influential people under 30 in Europe. Here is the story of Cornel and the reason for which he was included in Forbes Magazines’ Top 10 „30 Under 30“!

I’m a 22 year old Romanian, born in Bucharest. I’ve been quite a fast learner since I was very little, I learned to walk at 7 months, swim at 2 years old and learned to read at 3. I was lucky enough to be born in the same year with my first computer and I guess it was love at first keystroke. Academically, I followed primary and middle school in Bucharest at state owned institutions, until I was admitted with a scholarship at the International Computer High School of Bucharest, where I did my high-school studies. There, I founded Romania’s first high-school Robotics Club, which under my 3 years as its leader received over 150 international awards. Afterwards, I was admitted at prestigious universities around the world, and I choose to go to Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany, where I studied both Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. There I invented .lumen, among others, and I published my first book called „Arduino Development Cookbook”. I graduated with degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in June 2015 and I decided to come back to Romania. And here I am at Continental.

I love creating things, and not only „engineering products”. It can range from music or photos up to industrial design. I’m a very curious person and I try to explore as many completely different fields as possible.

Probably my best invention which I can talk about is .lumen. It is a blind assisting device which aids the visually impaired in day to day activities. It works like a pair of glasses, only that after you put them on you feel electrical impulses which represent the environment in front of you. When a blind individual uses .lumen, it regains a small part of their vision.

It started in 2013 when I was inducted in the first edition of Forbes 30 under 30 Romania. When Forbes USA decided to make a list of the most influential people under 30 in Europe, they contacted me and asked me what new things I’ve done since I was initially nominated for the Romanian list. My main topics were .lumen, my book and the projects I’m leading at Continental. I knew I was on the short list with few more thousands youngsters but I didn’t expect to get into the Top 10. On the 12th of February the Forbes USA Magazine containing my story was distributed. It really felt special.

.lumen has been in a hiatus for the last few months. The sensor technology is not yet advanced enough to support a system which required 99.9% reliability. But the technology is advancing quite fast and we are waiting for our partners to release the new generation of sensors which will take .lumen from laboratory conditions to whoever needs it.

There are also quite a few new inventions. Since I am in Continental I applied for 28 patents and I am writing around 40 more.

Initially I was interested in the Continental eBike project. It is quite a different project compared to the other products Continental is developing. It is very opened and susceptible to radical innovation.

Currently I’m leading 18 innovation projects. A few of them are developed to be features of the eBike project. I wish I could tell more about them but they are strictly confidential. What I can say is that they range from new sensor technologies to new transmission units, communication protocols or smart connectivity between vehicles and smart devices.

I like quite a lot of things. I’m a musician, playing both guitar and bass for almost 10 years. Actually I am searching for band members around Continental :-). Otherwise, I started Pilot School and I expect to get my pilot license in September this year. And I love traveling, I was lucky enough to be able to travel half the globe and I just want to see more of it

This article was written by our employee.

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