The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) held its fifth annual HKUST One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition to foster entrepreneurship and identify the best business plans. The Competition offers a platform for the HKUST community to bring their innovative ideas from concepts to consumers. Winners can use the cash prize as seed money to form their companies or to commercialize their inventions.
More than 100 teams competed for the awards this year with each team consisted of at least one member of students, faculty, staff and alumni from HKUST. An international judging panel made up of investors and leading executives shortlisted 16 finalists for the last round of competition.
Parle, a team formed by four HKUST students, won the President’s Prize with a cash award of HK$300,000, while the second place and third place were claimed by team “NanoPrint” and “NovaMatrix” respectively.
Parle’s proposal is to pin discussions on websites, enabling users to discover and share insights in an easy and convenient manner. The team also claimed the Best Business Plan Presentation and the Student Prize. NanoPrint’s proposal uses various metal inks and pastes to print electronics in a fast, cost-effective and eco-friendly way, and the new technology brought the team the Best Elevator Pitch Prize. The second runner-up, NovaMatrix, develops the world’s first injectable Hydrogel Formulation that allows a long, sustainable release of protein therapeutics which can be used to treat eye diseases like macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. The invention brought them the Innovation Prize.
Another outstanding team, Dream High, won the Trade Show Winner with its proposal to help power storage systems cut electricity cost and prolong battery life by using an intelligent central controller in energy storage equipment.
A new award for teams outside Hong Kong was also created this year. HKUST invited its partner universities to send their teams to join the competition and was glad to see interaction and engagement enhanced between the international communities and the University.
Dr Steven Lee, Director of the Entrepreneurship Center, said, “we are very happy to set up an award for international participants this year. The next step will be to link up industries and our competition; eventually, we hope to make this event a platform that connects students, entrepreneurs, investors and corporate sponsors.”
The Competition received strong support from various sponsors including Shui On Group, Morris S Smith Foundation, Larry Franklin Trustee, TiE Hong Kong, Hong Kong Economic Journal and Education Post of South China Morning Post.
To learn more about the HKUST 2015 One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition, please visit: http://onemilliondollar.ust.hk/
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