Graduate Enterprise Challenge is a business plan competition that is open to undergraduate and graduate students in Sri Lanka. It is organised by the British Council and Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies (SLASSCOM). This programme is a follow-up project to National Entrepreneurship Week Sri Lanka 2008 (NEW 08).
British Council has pioneered ‘Graduate Entrepreneurship’ development in Sri Lanka under the auspices of the Ministry of Higher Education and the University Grants Commission. NEW 08 is the latest of a series of activities organised by the British Council funded by the UK Prime Minister’s Initiative (PMI2) for the development of international education partnerships.
SLASSCOM acts as the catalyst of growth for the Sri Lankan IT and BPO industry by facilitating trade and business, propagation of education and employment, encouragement of research and innovation, and by supporting the creation of a progressive national policy framework.
On Tuesday 2 June eight teams of university students assembled at the Virtusa Office at Trans Asia to prove their 'entrepreneurial worth' to a panel of investors including board members of SLASSCOM and business leaders. The students were from the different universities and higher education institutions in Sri Lanka
This was the third and final stage of the Graduate Enterprise Challenge (GEC), a business plan competition open to undergraduate and graduate students, organised by the British Council and Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies (SLASSCOM). The objective of the initiative was to create awareness about graduate entrepreneurship amongst university students and staff, identify potential graduate entrepreneurs and provide training about business planning and enterprise start-up. The final goal is to create real graduate business start-ups.
Awareness and training about graduate entrepreneurship was created in the earlier stages of the competition where students were asked to submit a summary of their business idea and once selected for their innovative ideas, they attended a one week ‘residential workshop’ on business planning and enterprise start-up. The training was conducted by two trainers from the UK.
It was during this final stage that student teams presented their business plans combining innovative uses of ICT with feasible and profitable business solutions. The plans highlighted key aspects of financial analysis and forecasting, operations and marketing strategy and other elements necessary for an enterprise start-up. Following each presentations, the panel engaged in discussion with each team offering constructive advice and feedback on their business idea. In the coming months, the student teams will be provided support and mentoring by the investor panel to further develop their plans and ensure that all plans are commercially viable.
Following are the businesses that were presented at the challenge:
University of Kelaniya
Web portal that connects all stakeholders involved in agriculture related businesses and providing them with information and business opportunities.
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Asanka Wickramasinghe |
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Lakmal Silva |
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Ayomi Rajapakse |
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Manjula Darshani |
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Sadathana Wickramasinghe |
University of Moratuwa
Game based on a car racing tournament among schools in Sri Lanka which supports Sinhala, Tamil and English languages.
Team
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Devinka Thilan Andrahannadi |
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Chamila Balasooriya |
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Brayan Eustass Livera |
University of Colombo School of Computing
Web based total printing solution for local and International consumers to reduce overall printing cost.
Team
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Melick Baranasooriya |
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Isuru Sandaruwan Silva |
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S I Semage |
University of Colombo School of Computing
Online auto spare parts service that connects customers with registered spare parts dealers.
Team
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Hasini Adhikari |
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Gayan Garusinghe |
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Uditha Jayasinghe |
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Chanak Upendra |
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Udaya Shantha Herath |
University of Moratuwa
System to blend web services and grid computing to facilitate high available and high scalable web services deployments.
Team
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Hiranya Jayathilaka |
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Aravinda Dassanayake |
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Dinusha Boteju |
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Isuru Senadheera |
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Nimantha Baranasuriya |
University of Moratuwa
System for conversational spoken-language interfaces to Sri Lankan public that is accessible through telephones using Interactive Voice Response (IVR), speech synthesis and speech recognition..
Team
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Asha Senanayake |
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Chamith Siriwardena |
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Rukmal Fernando |
University of Moratuwa
Web portal which provides early childhood education related services.
Team
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Sanjaya Ratnayake |
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Ruvindee Rupasinghe |
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Anuruddha Ranatunga |
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Amila Sajayahan |
University of Colombo School of Computing and APIIT
Integrated billing solution which produces a “single” bill restoring all monthly bills.
Team
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Ruvini Lokunarangoda |
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Yasitha Lokunarangoda |
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