Students and staff from the School of Management & Languages at Heriot-Watt University's Dubai Campus recently won three awards at the final of the UAE Big Idea Start-Up Challenge 2010 - a business plan competition open to students studying at UAE institutions.
The competition is structured to provide students with real exposure to the entrepreneurial community
The aspiring entrepreneurs presented their business ideas to a distinguished panel of successful entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and other professionals and were subjected to an extensive grilling session from the panel.
"The competition is structured to provide students with real exposure to the entrepreneurial community", said Reena Banerjee, Co-founder and Idea Director at Big Idea.
Big Idea Start-up Challenge
A team of students from the School of Management & Languages consisting of Nida Fatma, Shabbar Fayyaz, Farida Haider, Nigel Pinto, and Fatima Ahmed walked away with the Big Idea Start-up Challenge 2010 Winner-Gold for their Big Idea "Ezy Scrub": innovative scrub gloves that combine a scouring pad, rubber, plastic, and cotton cloth stitched one under the other for the comfort of the wearer.
The Big Idea Start-up Challenge 2010-Best Innovator award was given to Faisa Abderezak from Heriot Watt University for her Big Idea "YEP (Youth Empowerment Project)", which provided tailor-made internships, mentorships and numerous highly valued educational empowering programs to young people.
Big Idea Mentor Challenge
Universities, institutes and colleges also took part in the Big Idea Mentor Challenge 2010, which aimed to highlight the innovative practices and methodology implemented in nurturing entrepreneurship skills in students. Heriot-Watt University picked up its third award taking the 'Big Idea Mentor 2010 Winner-Gold.
Professor Ammar Kaka, Vice Principal of Heriot-Watt University Dubai said: "The teams representing Heriot-Watt University demonstrated to the panel of leading entrepreneurs that they have the business ideas, skills and knowledge necessary to bring their ideas to the market-place. I was very impressed by these students and their success is reflected in the hard work and efforts delivered by the School of Management and Languages team here in Dubai."