Double success for enterprising students
Student entrepreneurs (l-r) Grant Cousins, Martin Barker, Matej Kaluzik, Peter Shaw, Sam Forrest, Yosef Elshebani, Anne Wildblood, Isaac Bastos and Gemma Humphris.
Mon, 07 Dec 2015 12:53:00 GMT
Huddersfield takes first and second in national enterprise challenges
► Huddersfield's Social Storm team (l-r) Matej Kaluzik, Sam Forrest and Gemma Humphris.
IT was a student all-nighter with a big difference. Finding global solutions to key social issues was the goal of three teams from the University of Huddersfield who took part in a 24-hour challenge that saw them linking up via the web to conduct brainstorming sessions with students in other parts of the UK.
This was the first year in which Huddersfield students took part in Social Storm, a ‘hackathon’ that aims to bring together young people from across the world to collaborate on solutions to major challenges.
The University’s debut was a notable success. Nine students formed teams of three, one of which came a very close second when judges awarded them just 0.02 marks fewer than the winners. Overall, there were 170 entrants from 14 universities.
“It was a really good experience, especially because we got to work with people from other universities. They could learn from us and we could learn from them,” said Gemma Humphris, a final-year Enterprise Development student at the University of Huddersfield, who was a member of the team that was pipped at the winning post. She took part alongside Sam Forrest and Matej Kaluzik, who are at different stages of the same degree course.
Social Storm began at 2pm on Friday and concluded exactly 24 hours later. It was a real test of stamina, said Gemma, although she did manage a short nap at one point!
When the contest started, the organisers asked the teams to seek solutions to one of three global challenges identified by the UN – gender inequality; internet provision for all; and sustainable power. Gemma, Sam and Matej went for the gender challenge and they hooked up, via Skype and Facebook, with a student team in Glasgow.
Together, they developed a concept named the Women’s Coding Academy. It would be a social enterprise in which women in the developing world offered training programmes in computer coding. The Huddersfield students’ knowledge of social enterprise played a key role in ensuring that judges were impressed by the idea.
During the 24 hours, there was online support and appraisal from Social Storm’s expert mentors and the University of Huddersfield’s session took place in the premises of its Students’ Union, which teamed up with the University’s Enterprise Team to organise the event.
Philip Clegg, who is Head of Student and Graduate Business Start-Up, was delighted by the University’s debut, especially the fact that it raised awareness of the importance of social enterprise, which channels profits towards tackling community issues or problems.
TestTown 2015
Enterprising University of Huddersfield students have scored success in another major national contest – TestTown 2015. Backed by the Carnegie Trust, it boosts economic regeneration by challenging young entrepreneurs to showcase their business ideas in towns across the UK.
This year the town of Huddersfield entered the contest, and seven student businesses, supported by the University’s Enterprise Team, took part. Several of them set out their stall in a ‘pop-up shop’ in the town centre – a venture co-ordinated by Enterprise Placement Year students Lorna Hampton-Bowes and Ellie Smith.
When Test Town judges visited, they declared that the winning Huddersfield business was postgraduate researcher Adriana Tavares, whose bespoke rug business has already earned widespread attention. Her latest success means that in February she attends the Test Town Grand Final in Glasgow, competing for a £10,000 prize.
The second-placed Huddersfield Test Town contestant was advertising design graduate Stephen Bond, who has also been supported by the Enterprise Team in launching his flavoured liqueur business Panda’s Kitchen, now based in premises at Huddersfield’s Byram Arcade.
