Pictured (l-r): Darren O’Connor, Last Year finalist with project Motus, Gillian Slattery, Enterprise Ireland, and Eric Risser, Winner of Roots in Research Award

Initiatives such as Enterprise Ireland Student Entrepreneur Awards get students thinking about starting their own business as a career option once they graduate. The Awards are a great opportunity for ambitious and enterprising third level students to build a real-world business venture and at the same time be in with a chance to win a prize from the overall €35,000 cash prize fund, which includes a €10,000 first prize, as well as a €30,000 consultancy fund.

Student Entrepreneur Awards 2015 are co-sponsored by Enterprise Ireland, Invest Northern Ireland, Cruickshank Intellectual Property Attorneys, Grant Thornton and Intel. The sponsors also bring their expertise to nurturing the finalists in the competition to commercialise their business by providing them with expert guidance in areas such as intellectual property, market research, finances, technology development, public relations and advertising, all aimed at supporting
young entrepreneurs to develop viable businesses and create jobs.

Third level students represent a seed bed for future business start-ups and last year’s finalists who attended the launch are a great example of the commercial potential for student entrepreneurs. Here are two examples:

Darren O’Connor from UL with his company Motus won the Intel High Achieving Merit award 2014. Motus is a complete joint rehabilitation and treatment system that motivates the client to achieve their recovery goals and empowers the physiotherapist in making effective treatment decisions for the benefit of their client. The product provides a constant link between the physiotherapist and the client, thus maintaining a structured and motivated approach to the rehabilitation process.

Dr Eric Risser from TCD with his company Artomatix won the Roots in Research Award 2014. Artomatix solves the problem that digital art creation for the video game and movie industries takes too long and costs too much. Artomatix technology enables a computer to simulate human-like artistic creativity. This software helps digital artists make art faster, cheaper and better. Eric Risser identified a gap in the animation and digital art industry and developed a Texture Synthesis Based Hybridisation for Images and Geometry technology in response.

The Roots in Research award is an exciting new aspect to the Student Entrepreneur Awards that recognises a student or group’s ability to spot the commercial potential of the state-funded research project which they are involved in.

Following on from last year’s success students are requested to submit a video that captures how great their idea is and shows commercial and export potential. The closing date for the competition on 17 March 2015.

For more information visit the website:
www.studententrepreneurawards.com