UPM, UiTM teams wow them in MSC business competition
By Digital News Asia June 10, 2013
- Annual competition encourages technopreneurship among students; 18 public IHLs and 12 private IHLs took part this year
- Competition has successfully produced digital entrepreneurs, some of whom have launched products for global market: MDeC
TEAMS from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) were the grand winners in the two categories of the Ninth MSC Malaysia-Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL) Business Plan Competition (MIBPC).
The UPM team scored in the competition’s ‘Business Plan’ category with a software solution dubbed Trash Point, while the UiTM team won in the ‘Business Idea’ category for a product called “Paddy Defects Diseases Intelligent Kit” (PaDDI Kit), the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) said in a statement.
The MIBPC is an annual programme jointly organised by MDeC, the Ministry of Education and Malaysian IHLs.
It is aimed at providing a national platform for skills development focusing on innovative thinking, problem solving and entrepreneurship, said MDeC, the national ICT custodian which also manages the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC Malaysia) project.
The MIBPC also aims to inculcate a culture of technopreneurship in IHLs, and to provide exposure and knowledge of the key competencies required in becoming a successful technopreneur, MDeC said.
It encourages students and researchers from diverse backgrounds to share their business ideas and form teams that leverage on both technology and business competencies; and to identify commercially viable ideas and intellectual property for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry.
The winning team members from UPM, which comprised Cheong Hoong Jun, Ching Kin Heong, Sham Wai Rock and Tan Yeong Zhuang, walked away with RM12,000 cash.
Their creation, Trash Point, significantly increases the rate of waste collection and distribution process via a platform for users to set up their point of collection.
The winning team members from UiTM (first pic above), which comprised Megat Ridwan Megat Adnan, Nur ‘Atiqah Ghazali and Muhammad’ Umar Rasydan Romli, received RM7,000 cash.
Their product, the “PaDDI Kit”, provides farmers with efficient paddy diseases detection, with expert level knowledge and suggestions.
MDeC chief executive officer Badlisham Ghazali said, “MIBPC began as a testbed to challenge local students to produce viable and marketable ICT based products, applications and solutions.
“Nine years down the road, the competition has successfully produced digital entrepreneurs, some of whom have launched their products, applications and services for the global market,” he claimed.
The MIBPC 2012/2013 competition attracted the participation of 18 public IHLs and 12 private IHLs. A total of 35 Business Ideas and 27 Business Plans were submitted for the pre-qualifications round from 19 IHLs across the country.
To compete in the Business Idea category, teams of a minimum of three undergraduates (preferably Final Year students) were required to demonstrate the commercial viability of the idea. However, no prototype or product was required.
For the Business Plan category, teams of maximum four members, comprising a combination of undergraduates, postgraduates, researchers and academic and non-academic personnel, were required to submit a comprehensive business plan detailing the commercial viability. It was compulsory to show a prototype or product.
Judging was carried out by industry experts, and among the criteria assessed by the judges included product/service/technology description and commercial viability, idea innovativeness, market, sales competition, opportunity and risks, financials, prototype demonstration and overall presentation.
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