FIT Faculty Jose Berengueres (FIT) won 2nd prize at Startup Weekend Abu Dhabi
May 29, 2011: FIT Faculty Jose Berengueres (FIT) won 2nd prize at Startup Weekend
Abu Dhabi
A team formed by Mouza Delham (B4 Architects), Sajit Kamal (TEDxAlain) and Dr. Jose
Berengueres (FIT) won 2nd prize at Startup Weekend Abu Dhabi last weekend. I am delighted
to see Dr. Jose’s solid representation of our college and of the university in this
challenging competition. This comes on the heels of our male student team mentored
by Dr. Jose taking first place in the Sultan Qaboos University Fourth Technical Forum
for an innovative robot design. Congratulations to Jose and to all involved on these
impressive achievements.
Startup Weekend is a non-stop hackathon that gathers students and entrepreneurs. The
challenge: build a startup company in just 54 hours. Startup Weekend is an intense
event, which focuses on building a web or mobile application, which could form the
basis for a credible business – all must be conceived and proposed over the course
of a weekend. The weekend brings together people with different skill sets – primarily
software developers, graphics designers, and business people – to build applications
and develop a commercial case around them.
At the end of the third day each team presents a three-minute pitch in front of a
panel of four judges, who then award the prize money to the three projects with most
potential to become a real business. This year’s event venue was Sadiyat – Almanara
in Abu Dhabi. The event started on Thursday May 24 at 18:00 and ended on Saturday
May 26 at 21:00. During the event the teams could solicit advice from high profile
mentors. The mentors coach teams during the 54 hour brain marathon.
The Platinum Sponsor of the event in Abu Dhabi was the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise
Development, while the global organization is supported by such names as Google, Microsoft
BizSpark, and Startup Labs. There are over 45,000 Startup Weekend alumni, and events
have been held in hundreds of cities worldwide.
The prizes this year where provided by the Khalifa Fund as 20,000 dirhams for 1st; 10,000 for 2nd; and 5,000 for 3rd place.
The 1st prize winner proposed a health iPhone app, the 2nd prize winner pitched an online design magazine, and the 3rd prize winner proposed an educational application with augmented reality.
The online design magazine start-up proposed by Dr. Jose and his team, which won 10,000
dirhams, was named “Mungo” and presented a place to connect artists with customers,
based on showcasing products and images, like the popular social photo-sharing site
Pinterest.
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