The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) held the HKUST One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition again this year. Neoid Limited was the champion, while Green ACE and iTorr were the first and second runners-up. The total awards offered by this Competition amounted to HK$1 million.
This was the second time HKUST organized the HKUST One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition. 89 teams made up of faculty, staff, students and alumni from the schools of Science, Engineering and Business participated. More than 50 leading executives, professional investors and entrepreneurial academics formed an international judging panel to select 12 finalists after rounds of rigorous competitions.
Prof Ali Beba, Chair of the Competition and Center Director of the Entrepreneurship Center at HKUST, stated, “HKUST organizes the HKUST One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition and continues to foster the spirit of entrepreneurship by helping winning teams develop their businesses. The Competition means a combination of science, technology, entrepreneurship and business management. It exemplifies the spirit of 1-HKUST which brings together interdisciplinary talents to create synergy.”
Neoid Limited, the Champion, develops high performance RFID tagging solutions including innovative RFID tags, RFID tag testing and encoding.
Green ACE, the first runner-up, aims to build energy-efficient cooling systems for buildings and industrial applications powered by solar and waste heat.
The second runner-up, iTorr, explores the development of diagnostics and treatment devices for the eye, production and marketing patented products to clinical professionals.
The winner of the Innovation Prize, Clean Water Technology, Ltd, proposes to design and build novel industrial wastewater treatment plants to minimize fresh water consumption and pollution.
The Trade Show Prize goes to WaBit which invents a smartphone / tablet application enabling end users to interact with the show they are watching. The Elevator Pitch Winner is Dipline which creates light products while making positive contributions to the environment. The Student Prize goes to Abacus Ltd which develops a cloud-based scientific computing program enabling users to build customized programs and accelerate their computation.
“All finalists demonstrated superb skills in formulating business proposals, presenting business plans and giving elevator pitches. We are particularly glad that some winning entrepreneurs of our 2011 Competition, whose company has continued to expand and excel in the market, are having such business success that they have become our sponsor this year,” said Prof Beba who is also consultant to HKUST’s Business School and MBA Programs.
At the final round, each of the 12 finalists made a 15-minute presentation on their project, followed by 12 minutes of questions and answers with the judges. Based on this, the four top teams were selected.
The Competition is supported by a number of sponsors, including Shui On Group, Sonivy Technology Limited, Googol Technology Limited, DJI Innovations and WebNova Ltd. Media sponsors include the Hong Kong Economic Journal, the Wall Street Journal Asia and the Xinhua News Agency HKSAR Branch.
More information about the HKUST 2012 One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition is available through the following link : http://onemilliondollar.ust.hk/
For media enquiries, please feel free to contact :
Kit Yip
Tel: 2358 6313
Email: kityip@ust.hk
