Student entrepreneur success

A team of students from the newly formed young entrepreneurs society joined with a student from Aberdeen to scoop the prize in the first round and entry to the second round in the Scottish Institute for Enterprise's national business plan competition.

The five students won the first round with their executive summary describing their idea for an intelligent flame sensor for the oil and gas industry. Twenty nine entries were submitted to the first round and twenty one of these including the University of Dundee's first round winners go through to the second stage where they have to submit and present a business plan for their concept.

Peter Trail, a second year chemistry student met Meidhi Kehoury, a first year computing student from the University of Aberdeen on the bus down to the launch of the competition in Stirling last December. On the way home, the pair started throwing ideas around, but with no business experience decided to approach research and innovations services who linked them up with the newly formed young entrepreneurs society. Matthew Miskell, president, Dominic Defranco, treasurer and Paul Casey, secretary, came on board and between them they designed the concept for the Intelleflame system.

Paul said: "We were extremely shocked and surprised to win the first round from so many entries. The competition is teaching us skills in finance, marketing, good business ethics and team work. We are currently working hard on the business proposal and finalising details for the prototype."

Business plans for round two are due to be submitted in May where three teams will be selected to compete for a £10,000 prize to support the development of a new business.

Carl Togneri, director of the Scottish Institute for Enterprise said: "We are positive that the competition will seek out the most promising technology entrepreneurs from Scotland's thriving student population and continue the trend of successful young companies spinning out of Scottish University's science and engineering base."

The young entrepreneurs society now has 72 members and is open to every student in the University. Interested students should email p.r.casey@dundee.ac.uk

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