Budding UTT innovators win $30,000

UTT’s Valsayn Campus buzzed from two days of exciting competition which culminated with an awards ceremony for UTT’s IDEAS competition on March 6. Dr Fazal Ali, acting president and provost of UTT, was on hand to congratulate the 22 finalists selected to pitch their ideas from among 289 entries in eight categories. 

Internally-sponsored through UTT’s Business Development and Marketing Unit, the University’s fifth IDEAS Competition offered $30,000 in prize money to competitors submitting a 300-word abstract and delivering a three-minute elevator pitch to bring their ideas to life for a panel of judges from the private and public sector institutions and university entrepreneurship faculty. 

UTT’s IDEAS Competition, designed to channel the University community’s vast talent and creativity into ideas for innovative products and services, garners wide interest and participation. Professor Denise Thompson recounted its phenomenal growth from “15 ideas from the third cohort of the MSc in Industrial Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Management (IIEM) students, to 289 entries from students, faculty and staff across all campuses and disciplines.”

These UTT competitions and their use of iStart software technology from the Kauffman Foundation (www.iStart.org) to manage the competition process, gained international recognition on the Huffington Post international news blog at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lesa-mitchell/business-plan-competition_b_...

Grand prize winners are:     
• 1st prize for IPAD—Ameer Khan (Thermoforming a leaf-shaped disposable plate)
• 2nd prize for Laptop—Mosi Denoon (Solar Mobile Cellular)
• 3rd prize for Mini Tablet—Kellon Marechaeu (Natural Nitrates Ltd.)   

Special prize winners:
• Research Commercialization—Alysia Alexander (Electro-Patient)
• Innovative ICT Application—Mosi Denoon (Solar Chargeable Mobile Cellular)
• Agriculture/Agri-Processing—Kellon Marechaeu (Natural Nitrates Ltd)
• Arts, Culture and Fashion—Shawn De Freitas (Dingole)
• Manufacturing—Sayyad Mahaboob (Control Technologies Ltd.)
• Sport and Health—Aaron Doug Deen (Zboze)
• Staff/Faculty—Josanne Arnold (Greenhouse Organic Technologies)
• Other—Ameer Khan (Thermoforming a leaf-shaped disposable plate)