In partnership with the University of Glasgow and Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, CENSIS delivered two workshops to help undergraduate students find out if they have what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.
Running across two separate sessions over two days in November 2021 and February 2022, this pilot programme challenged students to think strategically, identify problems that need solutions, and channel their entrepreneurial curiosity.
The workshops wereopen to undergraduate and taught postgraduate students of any discipline registered at the University of Glasgow, Glasgow School of Art or Robert Gordon University Aberdeen.
Participants worked in teams on a IoT challenge provided by CivTech in 2021: how do we better plan, manage and respond to the experiences of visitors and communities at visitor hotspots in rural, remote and other locations?
n both workshops participants explored:
- Innovation and business idea generation – How to ask the right questions to generate innovative ideas
- Real world problem solving – How to tackle real problems that don’t currently have solutions
- Team building/team working – Understand how to build effective and high performing teams
- Prototyping and user testing – How to develop and refine a business idea through engaging with the product or service and the customer
- Communicating and pitching ideas – How to engage and persuade
The focus of the weekend workshops was on new ideas and solving challenges. Students did not need to have a technical background or be studying engineering or computer science to take part.
Cash prizes totalling £2,500 were available, with the top team at each session winning £1,000.
There were 50 places available at each weekend and application was competitive.
These workshops have finished and there are no current plans for new dates or locations.