A team of researchers from the National College of Ireland have won Citi's 2019 upStart Programme, with runners up including a team from Queen's University Belfast.The Citi upStart Programme is a Dragon's Den style pitching event in which new student startups and entrepreneurs pit their tech ideas against each other for a range of prizes provided by local industry. The competition is open to teams of students studying for undergraduate and Masters degrees who have created a start-up to launch a new technology product or service.
The teams must present their business plans and a "Minimum Viable Product" to a panel of experts, and this year it was students from the National College of Ireland who took the crown. The winning team presented "The Sol-Bot," an automated robot that uses Internet of Things tech and advanced data analytics to maintain the cleaning of a solar power plant.
Runners up included another team from the National College of Ireland presenting their "Dr Eye Scan" Diabetic Reinopathy tech, and team QUB5ASIDE from Queen's University Belfast. The winners were selected at a final event at Riddel Hall in Queen's University Belfast, and were awarded prizes from Dell-EMC, Neueda, Wia, and Citi that will help them push their technology to market.
Nathan O’Reilly, Citi’s Chief Technology Officer for Europe Middle East & Africa, spoke positively about Citi's involvement in the event, saying: "As a major employer in the UK and Ireland, Citi is focused on developing opportunities for the next wave of entrepreneurs from across the island of Ireland, and so I am delighted to see these inspiring new ideas and the talented individuals coming through the upStart Programme.”"
Source: Written based on press release
About the author
Brendan is a Sync NI writer with a special interest in the gaming sector, programming, emerging technology, and physics. To connect with Brendan, feel free to send him an email or follow him on Twitter.
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