'Culture is not a set of values, it is a set of actions'.
Ben Horowitz Co founder of Andreessen Horowitz tech VC firm based in Silicon Valley
Editors: I. Tsioutsioumi
Three “Entrepreneurs in Residence” visit UCY
In the context of its Entrepreneurs in Residence program (EiR), C4E hosted three entrepreneurs, who came to campus in the period of June-October 2019 and gave advice to students on developing an entrepreneurial mindset. The first Entrepreneur in Residence was acclaimed composer and professor of Music at the College of William & Mary in Virginia, USA, Ms. Sophia Serghi. Sophia presented her personal entrepreneurial endeavor of launching her first startup, in a lively talk titled ‘Aplaud Every Step of Failure!’.
In September 2019, Mr. Philip Ammerman, entrepreneur, investment advisor, and consultant presented valuable advice and technical details on 'Start-up Valuation and Term Sheets’.
In October 2019, Mr. Marios Loucaides, Former CEO of CTC Group, an expert in Corporate management, Business Systems, Marketing and Retail Operations, and currently a member of the University of Cyprus Entrepreneurship Council, gave an open talk on the subject ‘Retail navigates digital transformation’: Industry trends, Operations tweaks, Enhancing Retail Experiences’.
Many individuals and teams (researchers, students and academics from UCY) had the opportunity to interact with the Entrepreneurs in Residence, holding personal mentoring and consultation meetings.
Filming selected UCY innovations for C4E’s “Shaping the Future” series
During September-November 2019, C4E produced its second series of videos featuring selected research results and inventions with a strong innovation potential for the market and society. The presented innovations were selected among the participations to the Innovation Track of the 4th Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum organized by the Center in May 2019. This series of videos is produced in order to increase the awareness of potential investors, industrial affiliates and the society at large about the contributions that University research can offer to the economy and society. The videos of the awarded projects can be viewed at http://bit.ly/37Oax9x
New Knowledge and Skills with PwC Cyprus – Fall Semester 2019
In the context of the partnership between PwC Cyprus and C4E, two PwC Workshops have been organized as part of the KEP101 Series of Lectures on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The workshops were open to all the UCY community and beyond. The first one focused on ‘Negotiation Skills’ and was held on October 29, by Ms Marilena Shakalli Maroudia, Senior Manager & Tutor of PwC’s Academy Cyprus. The training attracted a large number of University students coming from various Departments, as well as administrative and research staff, and external visitors. On November 20th Mr. Michalis Stavrides, PwC Partner, held a workshop giving practical knowledge and advise on legal, accounting and tax issues of relevance for people who wish to Create own Business.
During the Fall Semester of 2019, the Center organized and supported 18 workshops, lectures and seminars. These lectures were part of the Center's KEP 101: Series of Lectures on Innovation and Entrepreneurship offered as curricular or co-curricular activities for undergraduate and post-graduate students, researchers, staff, and faculty. In particular, we hosted two PwC training workshops, two EiR visits, a talk by former C4E Young Scholar Wael Al Masri on ‘How to: turn a "meh" idea into something innovative and build a team without money?’ , an introductory seminar on Marketing by Dr. Daina Nicolaou from the Department of Business and Public Administration, a practical talk on ‘How to video interview 101’ by Katia Kyriakoudes, C4E Young Scholar and recent graduate from the Department of French and European Studies, three workshops on 3D printing and digital prototyping by Odysseas Economides, former C4E Young Scholar, and a workshop on Design Thinking ‘The Innovation Game’: Business Modelling Workshop on Idea Generation and Startup Creation by Marton Belik, International Education Lead at EIT Digital and Ákos R. Wetters, Coach and Lecturer at EIT - European Institute of Innovation and Technology. The last seminar of the semester was an introduction to drafting Business Plans by Dr. Anastasia Constantinou, Head of the Innovation Management Unit of the University. Students also had the opportunity to attend talks during the ‘Money Conference: Building the Right Investment Portfolio’ and were also invited and attended Guest Lectures organized by the Department of Business and Public Administration.
In this year’s K2 category ‘Student Entrepreneurship’, the University of Cyprus had 7 entries, of which 3 were distinguished and won the three awards. The first prize went to the 'Unibook' project a team from the Department of Computer Science, the second prize was awarded to ‘Shelvino’, a diverse team from multiple departments, including French and European Studies, Architecture, Engineering and of Business and Public Administration. The third prize was given to the ‘Communeedy’ team from the Department of Business and Public Administration. Moreover the Shelvino team won the ‘International Business Orientation Award’. Read the full article http://bit.ly/2Y0KIyR
In European Innovation Academy (EIA) 2019 in Lisbon we had 8 students attending and successfully graduating, the biggest Cypriot participation of the last 3 years. Four of them gained their scholarships from the annual University of Cyprus Student Innovators Competition and one student won a scholarship from the National Digital Championship Competition 2019. EIA is an extreme entrepreneurship accelerator program for people who are exploring the possibility of starting their own company. The program mimics the process that an actual entrepreneur should undergo to create a start-up. EIA educational programs are jointly developed with professionals of world-class partner universities and companies: UC Berkeley, Stanford University, Google, Amadeus, CA and many others. All EIA Scholarship Recipients are all formally appointed as C4E Young Scholars.
See the EIA graduates 2019 video http://bit.ly/2Ony8GC
In November 2019 we celebrated the 1st anniversary of the C4E Makerspace. Makerspaces are lab spaces that are used for collaborative learning, exploring and sharing ideas through making prototypes, both material and digital. The C4E Makerspace is housed in Room 105 XOD 02, and provides equipment like 3D printers, a robotic arm, robotic kits, digital devices and sensors, a drone, virtual reality equipment, software and equipment for video production etc. More information about the Makerspace equipment is available online: https://www.c4e.org.cy/makerspace
Since the beginning of its operation, the Makerspace has been attracting an increasing number of users. In the summer, it hosted activities of the summer course on Product Design. Throughout October and November 2019, C4E organized collaboration with Robo.com.cy, four ‘3D Printing Intro’ and one ‘Rapid Prototyping - Creating a simple weather station’ workshops. Due to the popularity of the Makerspace workshops, more related events are scheduled for the Spring Semester.
Holistic Product Design: From the real world to digital and vice versa. (KEP 103 Elective Course):
The first KEP 103 C4E elective course, was implemented in June 2019 (Summer Semester) with the participation of 22 students from various departments. This 5 day course introduced the full design process of a novel product with references to methodologies and creative exercises for design thinking and digital sketching. The participants went through the process of prototyping to the completion of a design project with digital product design exercises (CAD Modeling) and the use of 3D printing and scanning.
More details about the course structure http://bit.ly/35Altpx
C4E participates to Web Summit 2019 – November 2019
C4E participated in the Cyprus national delegation to Web Summit 2019. Web Summit is the largest innovation event in Europe and possibly in the World. This year, the Summit brought together more that 70,000 people and companies, 2,150 startups, 1,221 investors, and policy makers who redefine the global tech industry. The Cypriot delegation comprised various stakeholders and 8 promising start-ups from the Cyprus startup, entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem. During the 3-day event, the C4E delegation presented to hundreds of visitors that came through the Cyprus national delegation booth various University innovations, disseminating promotional and informative material published by C4E and various research centers affiliated to the University (KOIOS, FOSS, RISE, etc.).
This year GEM’s Cyprus Advisory Board met on 8th October 2019 to discuss the results to be presented in GEM National Report 2018/2019. The role of the advisory board is to provide expertise and support to the participation of Cyprus to GEM. The board acknowledged the importance of the findings from the two surveys on entrepreneurship in Cyprus (an activity that takes place every year), and which are compared to the results of entrepreneurial activity worldwide. Participants highlighted the need for the results of the study to be taken into consideration and incorporated into the National Policy for entrepreneurship. The report is expected to be published before the end of the year.
University of Cyprus Approves New Policy for Applied Research Exploitation and Industrial Collaborations