Latest News Archive
Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
02 July 2019
|
Story Eloise Calitz
|
Photo Keagan Nkwaira
Audience members listening attentively to the presentations at the Entrepreneurship Inter-varsity on the Bloemfontein Campus.
The UFS continuously creates opportunities for students to develop and explore platforms where they can showcase their talents and share their innovative concepts. In the light of this, it is important for the institution to become a preferred academic knowledge partner that can conceptualise, develop, and successfully commercialise research activities, and through this foster an innovative and entrepreneurial culture that aligns to its Integrated Transformation Plan.
This is why opportunities such as the Entrepreneurship Intervarsity Competition are so important, since it encourages students to demonstrate their entrepreneurial talent, and through this connect with investors and industry leaders to start up a business.
The competition
Student entrepreneurs across the 26 public universities in South Africa were invited to submit their innovative ideas as part of a competition supported by Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (EDHE), in collaboration with the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation. The opportunities created through this initiative are twofold:
1. For student entrepreneurs to present their innovative ideas and businesses.
2. For universities to demonstrate their entrepreneurial talent and the ways in which they support and grow the next generation of business leaders.
The competition takes place in five stages. The process started with each student submitting their short videos and applications on the official competition site. Each institution also had the opportunity to select student entrepreneurs to take part in the competition. Fifteen students pitched their ideas during internal rounds at the UFS on 30 May 2019. Of these students, four were selected to represent the UFS at the regional rounds of the Entrepreneurship Intervarsity, where the finalists will be chosen.
The students were judged in four categories:
• Category 1: Innovative Ideas
• Category 2: Tech Businesses (existing businesses, formal or informal, undergrad or postgrad)
• Category 3: Social Impact Businesses (existing businesses, formal or informal, undergrad or postgrad)
• Category 4: General (existing businesses, formal or informal, undergrad or postgrad)
The following UFS entrants were selected to take part in the regional finals:
• Christopher Rothman for his liquid yeast culture that can be used in the fermentation of beer.
• Driaan-Lou Kemp for his patented water-saving device.
• Grace Mthembu for her electricity-saving system.
• Martin Clarke for his idea to use drone technology for the mining industry
Minquiz competition presented at the UFS
2009-05-20
|
The Minquiz Regional Competition, sponsored by Mintek and the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS), was presented for the fifteenth time on the Main Campus last week. The aim of the competition is to stimulate Grade 12 learners’ interest in science, technology, engineering and specifically the disciplines Chemistry, Physics, Geology and Mineral technology. The competition comprises a written and oral examination, which is divided into categories, namely gold and platinum. Historically previously disadvantaged schools participated in the gold category, whilst schools that were previously categorised as Model C and private schools, as well as previous gold-category winners participated in the platinum category. The winning school in the oral quiz of the gold category was Le Reng Secondary School at Ladybrand and in the platinum category the Secondary School Sentraal came up trumps. The individual winner in the gold category of the written test was Madimatle Molatseli from Re Reng Secondary School and the platinum category was won by Oscar Nouwens from Harriston Secondary School in Bethlehem. The Free State team for the national quiz also includes Lindiwe Sondach (Commtech Comprehensive, Kagisanong), Nkobo Thabang (Lephola Secondary School, Welkom), Moorosi Motake (Leseding Technical High, Welkom) and Dawie Lotz (Sand du Plessis Secondary School, Bloemfontein). These winners will participate in the national competition presented by Mintek in Johannesburg from 23-24 July 2009. At one of the demonstrations presented by the Department of Chemistry were, from the left: Blener Buitendach, Ph.D. student in Chemistry at the UFS, Tshepo Khomoatsana from HTS Louis Botha in Bloemfontein and Goodwill Nogwanya, also from HTS Louis Botha.
Photo: Leonie Bolleurs |