UTEM

Sunday April 10, 2011

Inventive solutions

CREATIVITY and a keen eye for solving problems earned students of Taylor’s University and Multimedia University (MMU) top prizes at the seventh MSC Malaysia-IHL Business Plan Competition (MIBPC) recently.

Taylor’s University’s team “Third Eye” won the Business Idea category for their invention of a device to assist visually-impaired people to “see” things around the streets as they walk.

Meanwhile, MMU’s team “Tac” won the Business Plan category for their Typo Auto-Corrector, which provides spell checking and auto correction to all applications on the MS-Windows platform.

In the Business Idea category, KDU University College (KDU) took second place while the International Islamic University of Malaysia (UIAM) clinched third. The two merit winners were from Universiti Teknologi MARA and UIAM.

In the Business Plan category, UCSI University took second spot followed by KDU in third.

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) were the merit winners.

The prizes were given out by Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin. Also present at the ceremony were Multimedia Development Corporation chief executive officer Datuk Badlisham Ghazali and competition chairman, UTeM vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Ahmad Yusoff Hassan.

Champions of the Business Plan category received RM10,000 cash, certificates and trophies while the Business Idea category winner was awarded RM7,000 in cash, certificates and trophies.

The winners also received full sponsorship from Yayasan Inovasi Malaysia to attend the Asean Youth Forum on Innovation and Creativitiy in Labuan from April 18 to 20.

In his speech, Mohamed Khaled said the competition was an avenue for institutions of higher learning to prove their calibre in producing innovative and creative graduates who can become technopreneurs, as well as skilled graduates who are sought by employers.

“All these skills gained will not only prove to be valuable for those who intend to delve into entrepreneurship.

“They will, in fact, help your marketability, visibility and employability in the future,” he said.

The competition received a total of 383 business ideas and 99 business plans from 46 institutions.

Badlisham said in the seven years of MIBPC, the competition has become a strategic platform for MDeC to cultivate the art of technopreneurship amongst future graduates.

“In the past, we have seen young graduates establishing themselves as technopreneurs and winning accolades both locally and abroad,” he said.

He added that so far, 14 MIBPC projects have been developed further under the MSC Malaysia Pre Seed Fund programme, with a total of RM2.1mil.