Students impress the Dragons’ in ‘DkIT Dragons’ Den’

Wednesday 19^th December seen the Whitaker Theatre transformed into Dragons’ Den as DkIT Student Enterprise hosted their own version of the popular reality television show.

The Student Enterprise Interns teamed up with the lecturers who currently have a business plan/entrepreneurship module to get students to think beyond their continuous assessments and realise that their business ideas can be turned into viable businesses. Each team had five minutes in the den to “pitch” their ideas to the Dragons’. Dragons’ included Annmarie McHugh, Lecturer in the School of Business and Humanities, Amanda Kirk, DkIT Careers Officer and John McDaid, local entrepreneur and businessman. Teams were scored on the execution of their pitch, the innovativeness of their idea, the feasibility of the business and whether or not they would invest in the business.

 

 

The finalists included:

Cycling Safety Device – Marc Smyth, Ingrida Kanaseviciene, Peter Lynch, Kevin Healy

Braille Labeling – Irina Matvejeva, Kristina Cabule

Fitness Tracker – Rachel Mulligan, Shauna Whearty, Cíara Brennan

The Pit Master – Nuala Markey, Darren Brennan

Eire Jewels – Chloe Monaghan, Denise Duffy, Lucy Watters, Jessica Coburn

Nature’s Way Funeral Service – Mark Crawley, Yiru Liu, Grace Woods, Eoin McCormick

A tough task for the Dragons but there could only be one winner and one runner up with prizes for both including Beats by Dr. Dre and Tablet Computers.

 

Overall winner: Fitness Tracker idea developed by Rachel Mulligan, Shauna Whearty and Cíara Brennan

 

Runner up:  The Pit Master idea developed by Nuala Markey and Darren Brennan.

DkIT Student Enterprise would like to thank all the teams that got involved in the competition; we hope you enjoyed the experience of pitching and once again congratulations on being nominated for the competition. A big thank you goes to the Dragons’ who took the time to judge the competition. We’d also like to thank the lecturers that nominated teams for the competition without your continued support this competition would not have been possible.

For more information on what DkIT Student Enterprise can offer you find us on Facebook.

DkIT Dragons’ Den

Dragons’ Den is coming to DkIT next week. For the first time DkIT Student Enterprise will be hosting their own version of the popular reality television show.

Throughout the year various courses in the college have being completing a business plan continuous assessment and DkIT Student Enterprise have teamed up with the lecturers to get students to think beyond their continuous assessment and realise that their idea can be turned into a viable, commercial business. Each lecturer nominated a representing team from their class into the competition and this team will be required to “pitch” their business idea to the Dragons’.

There are some excellent prizes to be won including Beats by Dr. Dre and Tablet Computers. Classmates and all those interested in the competition are welcome to come along on the day to show their support. The event will take place this Wednesday 19^th in the Whitaker Theatre starting at 3 p.m. sharp.

For more information on the competition and DkIT Student Enterprise’s offerings find us on Facebook.

Creative Calling Competition – Informatics and Creative Arts Competition

DkIT Student Enterprise’s ‘Creative Calling Competition’ sparked the creativity in the students of the School of Informatics and Creative Arts over the course of the last few weeks. This competition required the students to create a digital representation of the DkIT Student Enterprise Programme for their chance to win a 16gb Apple iPad2.

The students were asked to present information on the DkIT Student Enterprise Programme in anyway digitally possible, be it a video, a piece of music, an animation etc. This competition gave students the freedom to practice and apply their creative skills by creating an artifact that they could potentially use in their portfolio in the future. The competition was launched on Wednesday the 14th and Thursday the 15th of November to celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week. The students of the department gathered by the DkIT Student Enterprise sign up stand in the P.J. Carroll’s building on those days and those that missed that chance applied through private message on DkIT Student Enterprise’s Facebook page. The final for this competition took place in P1071 of the Carroll’s building on the 3rd of December. Judges Matthew Green and Dermot Logue deliberated over the submissions for some time before picking a winner.

 

The winning piece was submitted by Andrew Browne who is currently undertaking a Certificate in Digital Post Production. His video will be used to advertise and promote the DkIT Student Enterprise Programme throughout the college year.

 

 

DkIT Student Enterprise would like to congratulate Andrew and all the other participants for taking part. We have plenty more competitions and activities planned for next semester so stay tuned to Facebook and Twitter and don’t miss out!

The Midas Challenge – Engineering Competition

DkIT Student Enterprise launched their first Engineering specific competition of the semester on 14^th November last. The Midas Challenge consisted of several low value items which students had to think creatively with and come up with a new product or service idea. The items provided were as follows:

• Lollipop stick
• Elastic band
• Two cent coin
• Laminated page
• Balloon
• Thumbtack
• Play-doh
• Paper clip
• Tie-wrap
• String

The rules were kept to a minimum in order to allow creativity flow and not to restrict any ideas. There were only two main rules. First of all, if an item is in the pack, the student can add more of them in order to complete the project. For example, if more lollipop sticks are needed, the student can get more themselves. Additional items not in the pack can be added but it was recommended to keep these to a minimum.

There was a large sign-up for the competition with 40 students in total participating. However, there could only be six finalists and only one winner. Although there were many great entries, there was very few marks between the top few. Cian Martin was announced as the winner of the competition for his idea and was presented the Apple iPad 2. His product, a ballista was created from the majority of the items listed. The only additional item he used was a straw to create the projectile. Judges were impressed when he fired the “arrow” to pop the balloon. DkIT Student Enterprise would like to congratulate Cian, and also thank the participants, finalists, and the judges Antoinette O’Rourke and Catherine McCloskey for taking the time to judge the competition.

For more information regarding the competition, contact fearghal.cotter@dkit.ie or visit us on Facebook.

Online Scavenger Hunt – Health and Science Competition

DkIT Student Enterprise held their first faculty specific competition of the year in the School of Health and Science which was a great success and generated a great level of interest and participation. The competition took the form of an ‘Online Scavenger Hunt’ which was based around DkIT Student Enterprise’s Facebook page. The lucky winner then received the prize of an Apple iPad 2.

On the 14^th November over 130 stuents of the School of Health and Science signed up for the competition and were then given the details of the Online Scavenger Hunt.  To take part, entrants had to answer fifteen questions which were based on information available on DkIT Student Enterprise’s Facebook page. Submissions were then made through Facebook. The idea behind the competition was to create a greater awareness among students of the School of Health and Science about the supports provided by DkIT Student Enterprise for anyone wishing to set up their own business.

By the closing date of 21^st November there were numerous correct entries and these were entered into a draw which took place on Monday 26^th November in the Nursing Building.  The winner was chosen by nursing lecturer Margaret Cotter who selected the winner’s name at random.  The winner of the ‘Online Scavenger Hunt’ was Nathalie Smith a first year Applied Bioscience student.

DkIT Student Enterprise would like to thank everyone who took part in the ‘Online Scavenger Hunt’. A special thank you goes to Margaret Cotter who took the time to draw the winner.  We hope that everybody who signed up for the competition gets involved in future activities which we will be running in the School of Health and Science.

For more information on DkIT Student Enterprise, ‘like’ us on Facebook and ‘follow’ us on Twitter.