DCU student wins coveted 'Student Entrepreneur of the Year 2009' award - Enterprise Ireland
11 June 2009

Allan Dixon, a final year student on the BEng in Digital Media Engineering programme at DCU, has won the coveted Enterprise Ireland 'College Entrepreneur of the Year 2009' award at a ceremony held yesterday in University of Coleraine.

The competition, now in its 26th year, is designed to encourage innovation, promote enterprise and foster a spirit of entrepreneurship among third level students. It is open to students from all academic disciplines and courses of study.

Present at the event was his final year project supervisor, David Molloy from the School of Electronic Engineering, and his business mentor from Dublin City University Business School, Dr Sarah Ingle. Dr Ingle said that Allan's win was particularly significant, given that he was the only 'one-man' team in the final. He was also the only competitor from the Dublin region. "He faced very stiff competition from all the teams. However, his idea was strong and his presentation skills were excellent. We are all extremely proud of Allan - he is a great ambassador for his university and we wish him every success for his future".

Allan's project, 'Eventwolf', is based on the work carried out for his final year project. "It is an online, interactive social network that is different to MySpace, Facebook or Bebo. Instead it takes the concept of YouTube which is based around viewing, commenting, rating, favouring and sharing 'videos', and replaces them with the equally attractive element of 'events'. The nominated events are positioned on the rich, interactive Google Maps service. The target market is instantly global as the service can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection, and caters for everyone by providing a full interactive map of the world. Eventwolf is being developed with internationalization in mind in order to incorporate languages other than English. No other social networking site has synchronized its features with that of an events page, so Eventwolf's offering is unique".

The finalists were as follows:

1. Baby Milk Maker – University of Ulster – Ashleigh Benson, Alison Benson, Niall Corriagan & Ryan Quigg
2. In Sav – Queens University Belfast – Martin Jonathan Milliken, Matthew Milford, Matthew Hazley, Lee Borland, Alex Houston
3. Eventwolf – Dublin City University – Allan Dixon
4. Hypehip.com – Waterford Institute of Technology – Monica Ramirez Arizmendi, Chrystiane Cavalcanti, Yi Zhang, Eoin Donnelly
5. E-Rat – Shannon College of Hotel Management – Nicole Kupfer, Olga Grestina, Dino Lee, Sharon Emmett
6. Vision Re – Cork Institute of Technology – Etaoin Ni haILPIN, Norma Dowling, Kieran O’Callaghan
7. Nebulaer – Cork Institute of Technology – Luke Crowley, Ciara McKenna, William Murray, Kevin Gilmartin
8. Rigi – Jig – Cork Institute of Technology – Damian Buttimer, Dave Cronin, William O’Shea, Fiona Hedderman
9. * *G-One Trading – University College Cork – Tommy Brophy, Barry Houlihan, Sean Duggan, Richard Barrett, Niall Douglas
10. Neonatal EEG Service – University College Cork – Cliona Moore, Aisling Gleeson, Stephen Connolly, Mark O’Donovan, William Quigley

For further details, see the Enterprise Ireland website: http://www.enterprise-ireland.com/News/Press+Releases/2009/PressJun102009.htm

Prize Structure - totalling €50,000

Overall Winner - Student Entrepreneur of the Year - €10,000
Technologically Innovative Idea - sponsored by Cruickshank Intellectual Property Attorneys - €7,500
Export Capability Award - Can you produce and export ready idea? - €7,500
Solving Problems for Industry - Are you aware of an existing company that needs a product, R&D or business solution to its current operations? - €7,500
Professionalism of Business Approach - Financials, Marketing & Presentation - €7,500
3 Awards of Merit will be presented with a prize of €2,500 per project
In addition, a prize will also be awarded to the academic with the best entries - €2,500

Enterprise Ireland will offer mentorship and guidance to all finalists to develop the commercial viability of the concepts.

Cruickshank Intellectual Property Attorneys will also offer a consultancy service of up to €20,000 for all winners to aid the students and patent and protect their projects.