Citi announced the winners of its inaugural upStart student programme at a ceremony at its offices in Belfast. The winning teams were Woogie Tap from Queen’s University Belfast and Happy Swap from Trinity College Dublin. Woogie Tap is an interactive tag for downloading information instantaneously and Happy Swap is a consumer exchange website for goods.
UpStart is an entrepreneurship programme operated in partnership with the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Queen’s University Belfast and the School of Computer Science and Statistics at Trinity College Dublin. Teams of students studying for Masters degrees at the universities created their own start up business for a new technology product or service. Each business plan had to provide a real market prospect and teams competed with each other to win the opportunity for virtual funding from Citi for their business.
The students were mentored by business advisers from Citi Belfast and the Citi Innovation Lab, Dublin. The programme included guest lecturers from the technology industry who discussed with the students the latest developments and sector trends. In addition, the programme hosted roundtable discussions for the students with Citi Ventures and Citi experts in global locations including New York, Palo Alto, Jersey City, London, Belfast and Dublin.
Programme sponsor Chris Hayward, CIO, EMEA for Citi, said: "The upStart programme… has allowed industry and academia to collaborate together and mentor the next generation of technology entrepreneurs. Many of the business ideas presented today have great potential for commercialisation and could become global products."
Prof Stan Scott, head of the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Queen’s University, said: "The partnership between the Queen’s and Citi on this entrepreneurship programme is an exemplar of how academia and industry can work together to build the skills that are needed in the economy. Throughout the programme academic work is complemented by Citi mentors who bring real word expertise to provide the students with an invaluable experience that will set them up for a great career in technology."
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