Recent Stories
- Unborn babies 'practise' facial expressions in the womb
- Lancaster leads the way in cyber security bursary scheme
- Physicists gain insight into the UK's biggest killer
- Engineering students make finals of national start-up business competition
- Social media plagued by privacy problems, say researchers
- Lancaster Environment Centre conducts roadside pollution research for BBC
- Lancaster set to receive funding boost to stimulate UK's economy
- Billion-year-old water could hold clues to life on Earth and Mars
- How do we find out about cyber criminals?
- First, carbon footprints... now you can calculate your 'nitrogen footprint'
Lancaster University Coffeemat Challenge won by Science and Technology student Seb
Story supplied by LU Press Office
The concept of a new university website, complete with mobile application, to capture the campus social scene at a glance, earned an enterprising student an iPad.
Seb Cooper, a second year Physics with Astrophysics and Cosmology student, Science and Technology, took up the Lancaster University Coffeemat Challenge, the hugely popular hardy annual competition where students have to submit a business idea on a coffeemat.
Seb's vision was to unify all the university's social societies on one website, offering an efficient solution to finding and joining groups and organisations.
The idea was born out of Seb's own experience at university, which plenty of other students agreed with judging by the amount of 'likes' on Facebook which got him through the first heat of the contest.
The site, with Facebook integration for notifications, search engine for finding societies, customisable calendars and news pages, is for universities who pay to use the platform as it becomes an essential student must-have.
"The Coffeemat Challenge requires only your imagination," said Seb. "From there it helps you realise that a small idea can be enough to change your perspective and make you think in an entrepreneurial way."
Jon Powell, from the Enterprise Team in Research and Enterprise Services who organised this year's challenge, added: "Seb thought through the practicalities of the idea and saw opportunities to progress it if he was successful and this is why he won the challenge and the prize."
Other ideas shortlisted in the challenge, which attracted hundreds of entries, included a fruit bowl that regulates its own temperature and a car share website.
This year the challenge was run as part of a 'How To…' week, seven days of intensive workshops to help students develop a range of key enterprise and employability skills.
The Coffeemat Challenge and 'How To...' week were organised by the Enterprise Team in Research and Enterprise Services through the Northwest Enterprise Champion Project, part-financed by the European Regional Development Fund. For more information please visit http://www.lancs.ac.uk/users/gew/support/.
Students with ideas for a social or commercial enterprise are invited to attend the Business Start-Up Boot Camp on 25 and 26 March. Register your interest at http://businessstartupmarch2013-eorg.eventbrite.co.uk/#.
Tue 19 February 2013
Latest News
Unborn babies 'practise' facial expressions in the womb
Researchers from Durham and Lancaster Universities suggest that a foetus's ability to show a "pain" facial expression is a developmental process which could potentially give doctors another index of the health of a foetus.
Story supplied by LU Press Office
Mon 17 June 2013
Lancaster leads the way in cyber security bursary scheme
Lancaster is one of four UK universities selected to take part in an 'industry first' sponsorship initiative encouraging students to take up Masters-level cyber security degrees.
Story supplied by LU Press Office
Mon 10 June 2013
Physicists gain insight into the UK's biggest killer
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the UK, accounting for a third of all fatalities through illnesses such as stroke and heart disease.
Story supplied by LU Press Office
Wed 29 May 2013
Engineering students make finals of national start-up business competition
Engineering students Scott Nash, Daniel Richardson and Aaron Aboshio have won the northern heat of the Youth Entrepreneurs Scheme 'Engineering YES' competition for their spin-out renewable energy company Atlantis.
Thu 23 May 2013