School of Engineering (ENG)
Entrepreneurs win cash - and prizes that money can't buy
Wed, Feb 9, 2011
The successful entries capturing the judges imagination were a helicopter training simulator, a phone ‘app’ to inspire runners and a device for carrying multiple coat-hangers to make shopping easier. And as well as £250 cash, each of the three top prize-winners received the opportunity to spend a day in one of three big-name organisations.
Sean Larsen, the inventor of a training console for a Robinson R22 helicopter, will spend the day as a project manager at BMW. He said he was more pleased with the work experience than with the cash prize, although he intends to put the money to good use and develop his prototype.
He said: “One of the most difficult aspects of my idea was keeping the price down. Full scale helicopter simulators costs thousands of pounds so the whole idea behind my design was to keep it as simple and therefore as inexpensive as possible while maintaining its functionality and effectiveness. It’s been a real challenge but it’s part of my course so I’m working on it every single day.”
Sean, 22, is in his third year studying Enterprise in Product Design in the Department of Mechanical and Design Engineering. He got the idea for the simulator when he saved up to put himself through helicopter flight training, something he had always wanted to do. He said: “I enjoyed every minute of it and my ultimate ambition is to become a commercial pilot.
Andrew Martin is in his first year of Computer Games Technology in the School of Creative Technologies course and will spend a day with the entrepreneurial team at Fuller's Brewery for his winning phone app designed to encourage competition between runners. He has created a website and mobile phone application which work in unison that allows runners to share information about routes, speed and timings and to compare performance on Facebook and twitter etc.
He was inspired when his own motivation to run needed a boost but realised that current products on the market were expensive. He said: “My product doesn’t need any special equipment and will cost the same price as an average phone app making it affordable to everyone.” He said that the funding will allow him to develop the application and hopes to launch it as a product in the near future.
The third in the winning trio was Abigail Dillon with her hoop device designed to slip over the arm and make carrying a several coat hangers or clothes easier. The 19 year old English student described her idea as simple yet effective and confessed it was dreamed up after frequently carrying armfuls of clothes during shopping trips. She wins a meeting with a retail buyer at The Southern Co-operative.
Each of the winners receives a further £500 on top of their £250 when they can prove that the initial funding is being used to develop their idea and at stage two of the awards in June there are prizes for international travel up for grabs.
The annual Enterprise Challenge Awards are organised by the University’s Centre for Enterprise which aims to inspire students to learn and succeed in entrepreneurship through developing enterprise skills and experience.
This year’s keynote speakers were Lee Prior and Nathan Gaskin from ‘Applied Brilliance’, a recent University of Portsmouth graduate start up business that creates applications for mobile devices.
The project manager day at BMW has been sponsored by Babcock
The day with the entrepreneurial team at Fuller's Brewery is sponsored by Fuller's
The meeting with a retail buyer at The Southern Co-operative is sponsored by The Southern Co-operative
SPONSORS OF THE PORTSMOUTH CENTRE FOR ENTERPRISE:
BARCLAYS, BDO LLP, BEXMEDIA, COFFIN MEW LLP, COLAS LTD, DE LA RUE, ELLIOTT GROUP, GREENLY'S, HAMPSHIRE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, HAMPSHIRE ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP, MATCHTECH GROUP PLC, MENZIES, PORTSMOUTH CITY COUNCIL, PORTSMOUTH TECHNOPOLE, PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS, SOUTH EAST BUSINESS & INNOVATION GROWTH, THE COAST RADIO STATION, THE SOUTHERN CO-OPERATIVE, ZYLPHA