Alexandra Milne a student from University of Ulster recently won the Enterprise Ireland Student Entrepreneur of the Year Award and was named ‘College Entrepreneur of the Year 2014’. This year celebrates the 32nd year of these prestigious awards which are co-sponsored by Invest Northern Ireland, Cruickshank Intellectual Property Attorneys, Intel and Grant Thornton and are open to all third level colleges across the Island of Ireland. The awards were presented by Tom Hayes, Head of Micro Enterprises and Small Business at Enterprise Ireland and Doug Howlett, from Munster Rugby.

The Enterprise Ireland Student Entrepreneur Awards are part of a major drive aimed at tapping into the potential for students and young people to turn their entrepreneurial ideas into commercial businesses. This is Ireland’s largest and longest established third-level student enterprise competition.

The winning team is Little Deli, Alexandra Milne is a student at University of Ulster and beat off stiff competition with her project. The Little Deli is a solution that lets customers easily and efficiently pre-order and pre-pay for their lunch from local delis and cafes, at their own convenience. By ordering through the App, customers can skip the queue and save their valuable time letting them order from anywhere at any time. By using the app, it enables delis to prepare orders earlier, making their rush hour more efficient, productive and profitable. With Little Deli, both delis and customers win.

The Student Entrepreneur Awards are aimed at encouraging students into business as a career option and this year attracted submissions from over 450 third level students from colleges across Ireland. The substantial prize fund includes €30,000 in cash prizes and €30,000 in consultancy fees which are available for winners to help them make a serious start at making their idea a commercial reality. In addition to winning the top prize, the winning team will also receive mentoring from Enterprise Ireland/Invest NI to develop the commercial viability of their overall concept.

High Achieving Merit Awards were provided by sponsors Cruickshank Intellectual Property Attorneys and Grant Thornton and Intel.

The Cruickshank Intellectual Property Attorneys High Achieving Merit Award of 5,000 Euro went to Digital Perception, project from UCD. Cruickshank Intellectual Property Attorneys are also providing intellectual property consultancy and protection for all the finalists and they will also receive a Tablet from Intel.

The Grant Thornton High Achieving Merit Award of 5,000 Euro, went to AmputAid from UCC. Grant Thornton will also provide business plan development advice to the finalists and they will also receive a Tablet from Intel.

Intel awarded their High Achieving Merit award of a tablet to Motus from University of Limerick. Intel will also provide mentoring for the students to enter the Intel Challenge Europe Awards 2014.

Finally merits were also given to all remaining finalists and a new Enterprise Ireland Institute Award of €2,000 was awarded to TCD for their outstanding encouragement and standard of applications submitted to the competition.

For more information on the Student Entrepreneur Awards visit; www.studententrepreneurawards.ie<http://www.studententrepreneurawards.ie/>