May 12 2015

Crash tests of start-up projects at the Belarusian National Technical University

If you have a business idea and you want to develop it for the benefit of society and you directly, it is necessary to think over a business model; make competent business plan for investors, willing to support the development of your project; assemble a strong team, and consider the intellectual property protection. Within the year, Start-up center of BNTU helped creative and ambitious students learn the basics of entrepreneurship, innovation management, business planning, intellectual property management, leadership and team building.

Courses have been studied using the case-studies of real projects, which allowed students learn not only the theory of doing business, but also gave opportunity to solve real problems in practice, to find solutions and to transform their ideas into finished projects. The education was conducted in the form of business trainings and distant lerning. In addition, each project team had their personal mentor, who supervised the learning process of the team from the very beginning up to the very end. The crash-test of the projects served as the piloting final exam and was preceded by a master class, delivered by the Start-up Centre and the European Commission mentors.

The event took place on May 27, 2015 at the premises of the Republican Center of Innovation and Technical Creativity. Science and Technology Park of BNTU “Polytechnic” and Belarusian Republican Youth Union were the partners of the event.

The event program consisted of a business training “Fostering youth innovation entrepreneurship in the Republic of Belarus, European Union and Eastern Partnership countries” and a crash-test of students’ business projects with the participation of investors, businessmen and international experts from the UK, France, Finland, Ukraine and Moldova. Young entrepreneurs had the opportunity to get acquainted with the foreign experience in management and promotion of innovative projects, to present their projects within the crash-test to the competent experts and obtain a fair assessment, criticism and advice.

The event started with the welcome speeches of the invited guests and signing of the Cooperation Agreement between the Startup center of BNTU, represented by G.A. Viarshyna, Vice-Rector for Academic, Economic and Financial Activity, Belarusian Republican Youth Union, represented by A. S. Vinnik, Coordinator of the project “100 ideas for Belarus”, Republican Centre for Technical and Innovation Creativity, represented by S.M. Sachko, Head, and Belarusian Association of Inventors and Innovators, represented by the Chairman A.A. Skvorchevsky. The Agreement, beside all, allows teams of the Start-up center of BNTU to use the facilities of the Republican Centre for Technical and Innovation Creativity for project work, thereby popularizing the entrepreneurial and innovative culture among the youth.

Business training began with the presentation “Start-up Centre of BNTU and support of youth innovation entrepreneurship in the Republic of Belarus”, delivered by Vitaly Gmyrak, Managing Director of the Start-up Centre of BNTU. In his presentation, V. Gmyrak covered all the activities of the Start-up Center of BNTU, conducted so far, and mechanisms of management of start-up projects at the Centre. “It is important to help young people to form teams and develop their innovative culture. The university has great potential for team building, because BNTU prepares specialists in various fields of engineering and economics”, – said Vitaly Gmyrak.

Later, Alesia Vinnik, BRYU, spoke about the funding mechanisms of youth projects and, in particular, about the Republican Project “100 ideas for Belarus” as a unique platform for the development of innovative ideas of young people.

Maxim Zhurkevich, mentor of the Start-up Center of BNTU, revealed the secrets of preparing a business plan for young entrepreneurs, and told how to submit a presentation to the investor, specified, what is interesting for audience, ready to invest money.

Oksana Borysenko, President of the Association “Digital Ukraine”, delivered a presentation “Preparing documents for an investor” and spoke about the public relations of projects on the initial stages of their implementation.

After the coffee break, where the participants of the event were able to meet and talk in an informal setting, Elena Plokhaja, Assistant Professor at Department of Information Systems of Kharkiv National University of Economics, spoke about customer service and its importance for marketing of the projects.

In addition, the presentation of Anton Kalinin, expert mentor of Start-up Center of BNTU, “Intellectual property and patent information support of innovative projects” was planned, but, unfortunately, due to the time limit the presentation was cancelled. However, intellectual property issues have been raised repeatedly during the crash test.

In the afternoon, crash-test of the projects of the start-up piloting graduates took place. The piloting of the IDP courses was held from October 2014 to May 2015 in the Start-up center of BNTU. The most interesting ideas that have become real innovative projects within 8 months of training were presented within the crash-test.

The first project “Development of the technology of magnesium oxide production in powder form” was presented in English by Ksenia Safronova, student of Instrument-making department of BNTU.

The project “Scooter Rentals” was presented by the talented Dmitry Chernov, student of Electronics Faculty of BNTU.

Maxim Massalsky, student of the Engineering Faculty of BNTU, Anastasia Deveryago and Olga Puzanova, students of Belarusian State Economic University, presented their project “Educational robot kits”.

“Entertainment workshop” was the most entertaining and interesting for young participants. It was presented by Bozen Davydov, Yevgeny Vovchok, Daria Klinova and Polina Avdeenko, students of Marketing, Management and Entrepreneurship Faculty of BNTU. The project involves the creation of a center with fundamentally new kinds of entertainment.

Tatiana Stankus, Paulina Chernavtseva, Artem Melnik, Anne Gudkovoj and Catherine Lira (Management, Marketing and Entrepreneurship Faculty of BNTU) presented the project “Development of import-substituting production of carpenter’s level in the Republic of Belarus”. The project is oriented on development of import substituting carpenter’s levels in Belarus market, which will significantly reduce the cost of production and sale of end-products.

However, according to the jury, the idea of “Design studio of automatic machine embroidery” was the most creative and successful.

This project team has received the main prize of the event – a year of free business incubation at the Scientific and Technological Park of BNTU “Polytechnic”. They have already received the first large order and are ready to turn their idea into a real business. The team is implementing a project to create a line of clothing with original logo, dedicated to the celebration of the 95th anniversary of the Belarusian National Technical University.

Besides, all other projects received certificates for a year of free information support at the Technopark.

Prior to the event, best students and mentors of the Start-up Centre of BNTU – Vitaly Gmyrak, Maxim Zhurkevich, Anton Kalinin, Anastasia Volkova, Maxim Massalsky, Tatiana Stankus and Ksenia Safronova – were awarded with the Letters of Gratitude for active participation in the development of university startup movement in Belarus, signed by the Minister of Education M.A. Zhuravkov.