"There has never been a time of greater promise, or greater peril", Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of World Economic Forum.
Editors: P. Eteokleous and I. Tsioutsioumi
4th Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum 2019 - IEF2019: 4th Industrial Revolution: Technology and Society, April 19 2019, University of Cyprus – April 2019
The 4th Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum 2019 - IEF2019: 4th Industrial Revolution: Technology and Society took place on April 19th 2019 at the University of Cyprus, attracting over 240 participants, guests and visitors from academia, business, investment, policy making, government and media, from Cyprus and abroad.
The Forum was organized by the Center for Entrepreneurship (C4E) with the invaluable support of PwC Cyprus and in cooperation with the following research centers and organizations: KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence; RISE - Research Centre on Interactive media, Smart systems and Emerging technologies; FOSS Research Centre for Sustainable Energy; Nireas International Water Research Center; EMPHASIS Research Centre; Enterprise Europe Network; Oceanography Centre; European Office of Cyprus, and Enterprise Europe Network.
The Forum opened with short opening remarks by the director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship, Professor Marios D. Dikaiakos, and a welcoming speech by the Rector of the University of Cyprus, Professor Tasos Christofides. Introduction to the PwC Distinguished Lecture was given by Mr. Evgenios C. Evgeniou - CEO PwC Cyprus, who presented this year’s distinguished speaker, Dr Harry Anthony Patrinos of the World Bank, Washington D.C. Dr. Patrinos’ lecture was entitled: “The Future of Automation and Its Implications for Educational Systems.” The Forum featured also a research results exhibition, a business pitch session, and the Student Innovators Competition (SINN2019), co-organized with the Department of Public and Business Administration of the University. The Forum closed with an Award Ceremony where the Council of Entrepreneurship Chair, Professor Yiorgos Chrysanthou, presented the first UCY Entrepreneur Awards. Several awards and recognitions were also given to participants of the Innovation Track and SINN2019.
The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum is organized every year and seeks to provide knowledge, expertise, training, support and networking opportunities to the academic community, young researchers, students and the Cyprus society, about ideas, practices, perspectives, but also the challenges and opportunities that exist in order to contribute to the creation of a sustainable innovation ecosystem in Cyprus. It is organized and hosted by the Center for Entrepreneurship of the University of Cyprus. To read more details about Forum’s sessions and award winners read the following news or visit Forum’s website at http://c4e.org.cy/ief2019/.
“The PwC Distinguished Lecture” - 4th Innovation & Entrepreneurship Forum (IEF2019) – April 2019
The PwC Distinguished Lecture of IEF2019 was delivered by Dr. Harry Anthony Patrinos, Practice Manager for Education of the World Bank and renowned expert in education policy, school-based management, demand-side financing and public-private partnerships. The Lecture was titled: “The Future of Automation and Its Implications for Educational Systems.” Dr. Patrinos talked about the future of automation and its effects on the economy, work and society. He noted that technology holds the key into shaping the future of work, adding that automation will directly or indirectly affect several occupations in the coming years. Particular reference was made to the need for radical transformation of the education systems so that young people can meet the challenges of the future labor market. He also underlined that investment in education has the highest performance over time over any other form of investment. A Q&A session followed, with the audience exchanging views with Dr. Patrinos and Mr Evgenios C. Evgeniou - CEO PwC Cyprus who coordinated the discussion. A video of the opening remarks and Dr. Patrinos’ lecture is posted at the C4E Channel on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Dx5xhF4xdZQ and his slides are on C4E Slideshare channel: https://www.slideshare.net/ucyc4e/the-future-of-automation-and-its-implications-for-educational-systems
Innovation Track: Showcasing research results - 4th Innovation & Entrepreneurship Forum (IEF2019) – April 2019
The 4th Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum 2019 featured a research results exhibition (The Innovation Track), which was co-organized with the Enterprise Europe Network. The Innovation Track hosted 20 research projects with a potential for market exploitation and/or societal impact in the fields of Information Technology, Communications and Microelectronics, Intelligent Infrastructure, Renewable Energy Sources and Health Sciences. The European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT), Climate-KIC Cyprus, European Office of Cyprus and Enterprise Europe Network were also represented in the Innovation Track. All academic institutions in Cyprus were invited to participate in the Innovation Track.
Innovation track projects were evaluated by the Innovation Track Committee, comprised by external experts, in order to decide upon the awards to be given to the three best poster/demos. The first prize was given to the project "Real-time monitoring of reservoirs during EOR operations", which is the result of a collaboration between the Department of Physics, EMPHASIS Research Center, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University and Cambridge Biomagnetics Ltd. Members of the group are Theodosis Trypiniotis, Angeliki Agorou, Konstantinos Nikolaidis from the University of Cyprus and Thanos Mitrellas from Cambridge University. The first prize was given also due to a tie-up to the project "Lightweight Intrusion Detection System for Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things" by the Department of Computer Science of the University of Cyprus, Vassos Vassiliou and Christiana Ioannou. The second prize was given to the project 'CUREX: SeCure and pRivate hEalth data eXchange' and to Christos Laoudias, Nikos Nikolaou and Christos Panayiotou from KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence. During the Innovation Track participants had the chance to vote for their project of preference, for the “People’s Award,” which was given to the project "StreamSight: A Query-Driven Framework for Streaming Analytics in Edge Computing" by the team of Zacharias Georgiou, Moses Symeonidis, Dimitris Trihinas, Marios Dikaiakos and Giorgos Pallis from the Laboratory of Internet Computing, and Demetris Trihinas from the University of Nicosia.
All the awarded projects will be a part of the second series of videos 'Shaping the future: Featuring selected University of Cyprus Innovations' - featuring narrative of selected University of Cyprus' innovations and the University’s efforts towards bringing its inventions to the market and to society.
An innovative feature of this year’s Forum was the Business Pitch session, which aimed at attracting industry representatives who seek collaboration with the University on problems of practical importance that entail interesting technical, scientific or business challenges. Initiator of the session was Ms Elena Tanou – member of the Entrepreneurship Council of the University of Cyprus and Vice President of the Top Kinisis Travel Group. During the Business Pitch Session, industries, businesses and organizations have been invited to present problems/questions for which they seek technical expertise, innovative solutions, and partnerships within the research community.
The IEF 2019 Business Pitch session featured ‘Pitches’ of Blue Island Plc on the subject of ‘Improving Environmental Indicators’ presented by Marianna Papadopoulou, Assistant to the Director and Elias Nikolaou, Head of Quality, Food Safety and Hygiene. Theodoros Kringou, Managing Director of The Infocredit Group Ltd presented the challenge of ‘Creating a credit rating model for Cypriot companies’ and Antonis Kountouris Head of Research and Development Department of Nicolaides & Kountouris Metal Company Ltd focused on ‘The need of Production Monitoring and Control in a heavy duty Industry΄. OCL Oceanic Catering Ltd was represented by Marinos Markides, Systems Manager, who presented the issue of ‘Control Stock and reporting, in the middle of the ocean’. The 5th ‘Pitch’ was delivered by Panayiotis Kyprianou, Director of Business Development of Thanos Hotels & Resorts on the timely subject of ‘Technology and Online Presence and their effects on businesses in a rapidly changing social, economic and technological environment’. The first Business Pitch was well attended by researchers, academics, postgraduate and doctoral students, business executives and other stakeholders.
The Centre for Entrepreneurship together with the support of the Entrepreneurship Council of the University of Cyprus seeks to develop this activity further and create a practical framework of collaboration that can create and deliver substantial value for all contributors.
The finals of the second Student Innovators Competition (SINN2019), took place in conjuncture with IEF2019. The event was organized by the Center for Entrepreneurship (C4E) and the Department of Business and Public Administration of the University of Cyprus. Students from the University of Cyprus presented creative ideas and innovative solutions (early stage) in a 5-minute “pitch” presentation to a panel of judges and the audience. 24 applications were submitted to the competition by teams which developed their ideas during the Entrepreneurship courses of the Department of Business and Public Administration and the elective courses offered by the Centre for Entrepreneurship. 10 of the projects were selected to present at the final pitching competition by a panel of judges comprising people from the Cypriot business ecosystem and entrepreneurs: Andreas Papadopoulos, Strategic Development Director of the Hellenic Bank; Angela Panayiotou Manager of IDEA Cy; Xenia Papandreou, Youth Mentor; Phanos Demetriou, CMO & Director of Services Digital Tree, and Odysseas Economides Founder of startups Robo και Teembly and 2018 SINN winner.
The first prize involved three scholarships to the European Innovation Academy (EIA) including the Rector’s award scholarship and a tablet from Hellenic Bank. Second prize included one scholarship to the European Innovation academy and one participation to the IDEA Field Trip in Israel at the DLD Innovation Festival and several Innovation Centers in Tel Aviv. The third prize was one EIA scholarship. The First prize went to the ‘Anonymous Social Network for Students’ with Rafail Andreou, Giorgos Longinos and Chrysovalantis Christodoulou, a team from the Computer Science Department. The ‘Shelvino’ team received the Second Prize, comprised by Katia Kyriakoudes from the French and European Studies department, Irene Appiou and Loizos Prodromou from the Business Administration Department, Styliana Baghdhadie from the department of Architecture and Yiannis Mavros from the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The Third Prize went to ‘HealthGum’ by Andreas Georgiou, Maria Kazamia, Elina Panteli, Andreas Kapetanios and Pantelis Hadjihambis, all from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The Digital Tree Award, which included promotional digital activities through the Digital Tree platforms (interviews, audiovisual and editorial content, communication of the idea/project) was awarded to the ‘Anonymous Social Network for Students’ team.
IEF 2019 was concluded with the Award’s Ceremony. The ‘UCY Entrepreneur Award’ was presented by the President of the Entrepreneurship Council, Professor Yiorgos Chrysanthou and awarded to Giorgos Larkou, Giorgos Matthaiou and Giorgos Nicolaides, founders of Impact Tech Ltd, and to Dimitris Eliadis, founder of Phoebe Research and Innovation Ltd. Through this Award, C4E aspires to present and celebrate the achievements of recent or present affiliates of the University (alumni, researchers, students, faculty, employees), who created value for the economy and society through entrepreneurial activities characterized by traits like novelty, risk-taking, scientific or technical excellence, social responsibility, and an international outlook. During this session Innovation Track and Students Awards were also presented by Professor Yiorgos Chrysanthou.
A few words about the companies of awarded entrepreneurs:
Impact Tech Ltd is an EU-based tech company focusing on revolutionizing the way companies interact with and manage their customers using AI, Big Data and Predictive Analytics. After the launch of an innovative banking platform and our proprietary telecommunication solution and a state-of-the-art AI-driven CRM system, ImpacTech focused its efforts on delivering a cutting-edge stand-alone AI platform. Impact AI modules incorporate Big Data, Sentiment and Compliance analysis using NLP and Machine Learning techniques that boost business performance. Last year, ImpacTech received the “Best automated performance tool” award at the Finance Magnates London Summit and recently, during the Hong Kong iFX Expo, ImpacTech presented an innovative set of tools that can pre-screen and score leads/potentials prior any human interaction.
PHOEBE research and innovation was founded in 2016 by a team of researchers and innovators experienced in intelligent systems and networks. The team leverages machine learning and artificial/computational intelligence methodologies to develop innovative software and hardware tools for monitoring, fault/event diagnosis, control, risk assessment and security, resource and energy optimization, re-configurable automatic control and much more.
C4E Makerspace Month
Learn to Build a Bluetooth Speaker – March 2019
March 2019 was the “Makerspace Month” for C4E, emphasizing on tools and methods for rapid prototyping of ideas in the C4E makerspace. This initiative featured an exciting and well-attended series of workshops, provided by Mr Odysseas Economides, start-up founder of Teembly and Robo. During four two-hour workshops, UCY students had the chance to pass through the steps of building a portable Bluetooth speaker that can be powered from a standard power bank and connected to a mobile phone to play music. Through the workshops the students were introduced in Tinkercad, a 3D design software, and to the Arduino platform which can be used for almost any kind of electronic prototyping project. The goal was that by the end of the workshops students would gain basic knowledge enabling them to model and build simple electronic gadgets of their own, using all the standard available electronics and information found online about Arduino.
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The Centre for Entrepreneurship is glad to announce the first UCY student to receive the Certificate in Entrepreneurship, Ms Katia Kyriakoudes. Katia comes from the Department of French and European Studies, and completed successfully the requirements of the Certificate in Entrepreneurship. As part of these requirements, she also completed an internship at IDEA Accelerator-Incubator. She worked on a project “Shelvino”, a book shelving system, which was presented by her and her team at the finals of SINN2019 (Student Innovators Competition). The team received second place in the competition, getting one full scholarship to attend the European Innovation Academy Summer School 2019. The requirements to obtain the Certificate in Entrepreneurship are described in the following link: https://c4e.org.cy/activities/education-and-training/certificate.
UNICORN Innovation contest for startups
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Study – Global Report 2018/2019
