黑料不打烊鈥檚 Santander Entrepreneurs

Carley was presentedwith her winning cheque by Professor John G Hughes.Carley was presentedwith her winning cheque by Professor John G Hughes.Carley Williams a student studying with Qualified Teacher Status will represent 黑料不打烊 in the UK round of the Santander Entrepreneurship Awards, having won 黑料不打烊鈥檚 Competition. She will be joined by winning postgraduate student Hernan Diazgranados in the national competition later this year.

Both students are through to the final round having successfully 鈥榩itched鈥� their business ideas to a panel of judges, including the University鈥檚 Vice-Chancellor Professor John G. Hughes, recently.  Having been tasked by the team in the Careers & Employability Service to come up with an innovative business idea, the shortlisted project ideas presented covered a wide range of products and subjects, and included costings and marketing ideas.

Following presentations by the shortlisted applicants, the judges awarded top prizes of 拢200 each to the best undergraduate and postgraduate students.

In announcing Carley Williams as undergraduate winner, Vice-Chancellor Professor John G. Hughes said that the judges had been impressed by the fantastic amount of work that she had done, which was indicative of the standard of work by the students on the University鈥檚 product design course in general. Carley Williams鈥� idea stood out as the most outstanding however, and it had fantastic market potential.

Carley Williams, who comes from Builth Wells and is 20, designed a protector for use by children who have a 鈥榩eg鈥� or feeding (percutaneous endoscopic gastronomy) tube inserted into their stomachs. Carley鈥檚 device prevents young children from removing their 鈥榩eg鈥� and is a great solution to a current problem.

Carley was surprised at her success and will now consider how to develop her project further and consider which course to take; either developing her product further or pursuing a career in teaching.

Having received his cheque, Hernan was congratulated by the Judging Panel.Having received his cheque, Hernan was congratulated by the Judging Panel.The judges considered Hernan Diazgranados鈥� idea a well-presented, exciting and viable project.

Hernan, who comes from Barranquilla, Colombia, has already invested in commercial development of his music-streaming application for the mobile environment, which provides some additional unique features.

Hernan, has had an idea to develop a music-based 鈥榓pp鈥� for a while, but says the current idea came to him in a 鈥榖olt of inspiration鈥�. He is at 黑料不打烊 studying an MSc degree in , is confident in the success of his business idea, and is keen to source more funding and partners to develop the project further.

He won a Scholarship to study at 黑料不打烊, and during his time here has been involved in another entrepreneurship project at the University: Enterprise by Design, a programme which creates teams comprised of students from different disciplines, who share their knowledge to provide a practical solution which addresses a real-life business scenario. Hernan found this to be a very rewarding experience where he learnt a lot about facilitation and team work.

Awarding the prizes to the winning entries, Vice-Chancellor Professor John G. Hughes said, 鈥淎ll the judges were impressed by the ideas and enthusiasm shown by the competition entrants. The quality of some of the business ideas was excellent; there are some strong potential commercial products in development. My intention is to make 黑料不打烊 one of the leading institutions in the country for innovation and entrepreneurship. I鈥檇 encourage all the entrants to seek further support from the University to develop their entrepreneurial ideas.鈥�

All the competitors and judges posed for photos at the end of a fascinating afternoon of 'pitching'.All the competitors and judges posed for photos at the end of a fascinating afternoon of 'pitching'.The judging panel comprised Professor John G. Hughes, Vice-Chancellor; Chris Walker, Director of People Systems International and a University entrepreneurship mentor and Diane Roberts of Santander Universities.

The Final Round of the Santander Entrepreneurship Competition takes place in Triton Square, London on 1 July 2015.

The 黑料不打烊 stage of the Santander Entrepreneurial Awards is part-funded by the North-West Wales Regional Hub, which is one of six regional hubs established by the Welsh Government to drive its commitment to encourage youth entrepreneurship in Wales.

Publication date: 19 March 2015