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Techstars Innovation Competition 2019

Applied Computing students from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David recently participated in the TechStars Innovation Competition and presented their enterprising and innovative ideas to a panel of judges at Swansea’s TechHub. The panel of experts included: Guy Wendon, Business Development Manager from the module & event sponsor Alacrity, Ann Swift, Enterprise Manager for the Welsh Government and Paul Harwood co-founder of TechHub Swansea.

The TechStars Innovation Champions 2019 Award sponsored by Alacrity went to ‘Team Version ZERO’ consisting of Richard Davies, Dylan Evans, James Millns, Austin Hooper, Sarann Strange. The Team created ‘Doggogo’ an Animal Well-being System that included a Pet Health tracker for physical and mental well-being.

“Doggogo is a phone application and device pair that will allow dog owners to better care for their dog. The device is a small cuboid that clips onto the collar of the dog. The phone application gives tailored recommendations based on the breed of the dog, for example; giving walk distance recommendations which would be higher for a husky as opposed to a Chihuahua. The device is GPS enabled and relays the live location of the dog to the application, this can be used to alert the owner if the dog escapes the property. The phone application can also store reminders for the dog including de-worm/flea reminders and vet appointments. The application will store the health progress of the dog and will have a review section which will be useful for vet appointments.” Team Version ZERO.

Winning Team with Judges and Module tutors

James Williams, Paul Harwood, Richard Davies, James Millns, Dylan Evans, Sarann Strange, Ann Swift, Mabrouka Abuhmida.

The Best Prototype Innovation Awards sponsored by IICED The International Institute for Creative Entrepreneurial Development went to Team EEST consisting of Nicholas Jones and Team LIFE consisting of Helen Frey & Julie Millard.

Nicholas Jones

Nicholas Jones

Nicholas Jones created a proposition called EEST Educational, Electronics & Science, Technologies. A potential Tech Start-Up Company to design and create educational products geared towards electronics and sciences. The initial product offering and prototype demonstrated included a modular environmental weather monitoring system.

Helen Frey & Julie Millard

Helen Frey & Julie Millard

Team Life’s innovative idea and prototype is a Health App that monitors and reacts to abnormal parameters in heart-rate temperature and body functions, and if an emergency situation occurs such as a stoke or collapse the App would notify a pre-arranged contact alerting them to the event.

“The ingenuity and creativity of our students never ceases to amaze me.  Their curiosity and capacity for spotting opportunities is something we  know will put them in good stead for their future careers. What drives IICED is that simple fact, and our international research activities helps us to learn how to continuously improve – so that we can fully support our students in their creative endeavours.” – Kathryn Penaluna

The Best Tech Start-Up & Business Development report sponsored by Alacrity and selected by Alacrity CEO Dr. Will Williams went to Sarann Strange.

Prizes for the Winning Teams and students provided by the event sponsor include an overnight stay and dinner at the prestigious 5* Celtic Manor Resort.

 “The Alacrity Foundation is a charity that helps to nurture and create the next generation of technology entrepreneurs. We recognise the value of innovation in academia and were delighted to sponsor the 2019 Techstars competition. James and his team have supported a fantastic group of students from a variety of disciplines to create some cutting-edge technical innovation.  We are excited to continue to work with UWTSD.” – Guy Wendon

Ann Swift, Guy Wendon and Paul Harwood

Ann Swift, Guy Wendon and Paul Harwood.

The TechStars Innovation Competition, was organised by UWTSD Senior Lecturer James Williams who teaches the School’s Enterprise and Innovation Group Project module. The competition enables students within the School of Applied Computing to form inter-disciplinary teams and pitch their innovative solutions to a panel of experts from industry. Teams consist of students from multiple Computing degree programmes including Applied Computing, Business Information Systems, Web Development, Computer Games Development, Computer Networks & Cyber Security and Software Engineering.

“The Group project module and the TechStars event is a fantastic learning experience for our students. It enables and supports them to discover their potential and develop enterprising innovation & employability skills. Congratulations to all our students who presented at today’s event. You should all be very proud of yourselves. A special thanks to the module and event’s main sponsor The Alacrity Foundation represented by Guy Wendon. A special acknowledgement and thanks to the module and event’s supporters and prototype Innovation sponsor: TechHub Swansea represented by co-founder Paul Harwood, The Welsh Government represented by Youth Entrepreneurship Manger Ann Swift and IICED The International Institute for Creative Entrepreneurial Development. Thank you for your time support and expertise. Particularly for the constructive positive and encouraging advice given to our students.
Finally but not least, the proficient application of up-to-date technical skill displayed by the students is testament to the excellent teaching team at the School of Applied Computing UWTSD.” – James Williams

For more information about the Techstars Innovation Competition please click-here.

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TECHSTARS Competition 2018

TECHSTARS 2018 COMPETITION

Students from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David’s School of Applied Computing recently participated in the TECHSTARS Competition and presented their enterprising and innovative ideas to a panel of expert judges (below) at Swansea’s Tech Hub.

TECHSTARS 2018 Competition was organised by UWTSD Senior Lecturer James Williams who teaches the School’s Enterprise and Innovation module. The Competition enables students within the School of Applied Computing to form inter-disciplinary teams and pitch their ideas to a panel of experts from industry. Teams consist of students from multiple programmes including Applied Computing, Business Technology, Web Development, Computer Networks and Software Engineering. The panel of experts included: Ann Swift (Enterprise Manager for the Welsh Government), Professor Ian Wells (Head of the School of Applied Computing) and industry representative Lee Woodman from Visit Digital.

The Winning Team H.E.L.P. (below) consisted of students Paul Lawrence, George Searle, Henry Cobbold and Ross Van Den.

Halo Emergency Logistical Provisions (H.E.L.P.) created a product titled HALO v1 an emergency mobile networking product for governments and aid agencies around the world, is designed to provide a communications system in areas where traditional methods of communications i.e. Cell coms, Wi-Max coms etc. are no longer available due to the damage of communications towers. It is to be utilized in the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster provides a High speed Local Area Network (LAN) and Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) communications i.e. voice, video and data between rescue workers, medical professionals etc. on the ground to coordinate humanitarian aid/rescue efforts. And a High speed Wide Area Network (WAN) satellite communications i.e. voice, video and data to a Command and Control (C&C) center located in the UK that contains professionally trained logistical coordination staff who will liaise with governments and aid agencies near to the effected country/area to provide.

A special mention and recognition with regard to immediate commercial viability was given to Team ‘Top Ticket’ including team members Oliver Jordan, Lara Terzi and Lewis Ireson (below) for their product ‘Food Scout’. An App that provides comprehensive maps of a store, provides a product’s location and compares prices across stores using location based filters.

Professor Wells (below right) said: “The School strives to include the principles of Entrepreneurship in all that it teaches. This exciting event highlighted some of the very innovative ideas that our students can produce, many of which were commercially viable propositions.”

Fellow judge Anne Swift (above left) added: “It was my pleasure to attend Techstars. It is a great event giving students the opportunity to develop and practice their entrepreneurial skills within their course subject. All of the teams presented innovative business opportunities as well as some really viable products that could be taken forward into real businesses. I hope the event has opened up the students eyes to the possibility starting their own business one day as well as highlighting how they could use the skills to identify opportunities for future employers.”

TECHSTARS organizer James Williams said: “I arranged the event because I know there is great potential within every person and when people are given the opportunity to apply themselves in a supportive environment they discover that potential for themselves. In this case I arranged the event to allow 2nd Year Computing students studying the Enterprise & Innovation module to have the opportunity to pitch their innovative ideas and prototypes to a panel of expert judges from industry academia and the Welsh Government. The feedback they received was very valuable inspiring and rewards for the students. A fantastic learning experience for our students who are now better prepared for Graduation and Careers that will positively contribute and evolve our society with their Computing skills and enterprising growth mind-sets.”

Well done and Congratulations to all students who presented at the TECHSTARS Competition 2018.

Students receiving their Certificates of Achievement.

For more photos please click-here.

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