Ten innovative groups battled it out at The University of Queensland last week for $125,000 in prizes.
The third annual UQ Business School Enterprize competition culminated with Pitch day on October 31 at the University’s St Lucia campus.
UQ Business School Head Professor Tim Brailsford said the competition aimed to provide opportunities for entrepreneurs to develop business plans and compete for prize money to commercialise their business dreams.
“We’ve tested some of the best minds and have been rewarded with some real breakthroughs,” he said.
UQ fifth-year business management/law student Shye Wei Lim and fellow team members Shye Ju Lim and Mark Nugent won the $25,000 student category, supported by i.lab, the Queensland Government’s technology incubator.
Known as the J-Team, they have identified a market opportunity for downloadable, animated action and adventure games for mobile phones allowing users to play against one another from their individual phones using wireless technology.
The inventors of a new Coaching Automation Tool (CAT) designed to train athletes` reactions and decision-making abilities on the field won the $100,000 open category.
Fusion Sport`s performance monitoring device has already attracted commitment from the Australian Rugby Union, the Queensland Academy of Sport, and the Auckland Blues Super 12 rugby team.
The team’s device, Smartspeed™, consists of coloured, flashing, remote field sensors that track athletes during training and competition, providing them with real-time visual and audio feedback on their performance.
The device can be used to train and assess critical aspects of all land-based sports performance including speed, endurance, reaction time and decision-making.
It also has implications for spectator sports and broadcasting, giving crowds real-time information and instant comparisons with records and personal bests, and visuals of who is pulling ahead or falling behind.
Fusion Sport team members included team leader and Smartspeed™ creator Dr Markus Deutsch, Dr Douglas Moore, Greg Woodroffe and UQ students Michael Woo (Master of Information Environments), Matthew D’Souza (electrical engineering PhD candidate) and Peter Wallace (fourth-year applied science).
The 2003 judging panel consisted of Bruce Scott, Managing Director of NBC Capital; Bob Christiansen, Executive Director of Allen and Buckeridge; Steve Copplin, Chief Executive Officer of i.lab; and UQ Senior Deputy Vice Chancellor Professor Paul Greenfield.
Long-standing business entrepreneur Bob Ansett gave the keynote speech and Queensland Government Minister for Innovation and Information Economy Paul Lucas presented the student category prize.
Media: for further information, visit www.enterprize.uq.edu.au or contact Karissa Douglass in the UQ Business School (telephone 07 3365 6179, mobile 0410 642 027) or Joanne van Zeeland at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 2619).
