OutLoud - Researcher Winners of Enterprise Pathway 2016! (Photo by Mark Runnacles/Parallax Photo Ltd)
OutLoud - Researcher Winners of Enterprise Pathway 2016! (Photo by Mark Runnacles/Parallax Photo Ltd)
A team of postgraduate students has won the Researcher category of the Strathclyde Enterprise Pathway competition for their business idea OutLoud.
Mohammad Salman, a PhD student in the Human Resource Management department, and Prasuk Jain, a Masters student in Banking & Finance, were teamed up with two postgraduate students from the Faculty of Engineering - PhD student Jonathan Jamieson and MRes student Calum McKinnon – and together came up with an idea for a mobile app which helps people with hearing impairment, allowing those who use sign language to communicate by converting the sign language to audible speech.
Mohammad said, “Deaf people can feel excluded from society due to communication difficulties, and research by the WHO suggests that this leads to depression, anxiety and loss of confidence. As well as functional and emotional effects, deaf people can be disadvantaged economically too - our research suggests that they are four times less likely to gain a job as compared to a person without communicative disabilities.
“Our product is an app-based pair of gloves fitted with a number of sensors that detect hand movement and gestures used in sign language. The app then converts the signals received from the gloves to sound. The app will play an audible version of what an individual is saying in sign language, helping communication between users and non-users of sign language and giving sign language users an audible voice.”
The team found out at the final on March 23 that they had won top prize in the Researcher category which includes a £1,000 cash prize, lunch with founder of the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship Sir Tom Hunter, ipads for the team and the opportunity to develop their business idea through support from the Enterprise Team (contributor to Strathclyde Entrepreneurial Network).
The Enterprise Pathway programme is run by the Enterprise Team with support from the Researcher Development Team at the University of Strathclyde. The programme aims to nurture the entrepreneurial talent of participants through a three step process; Footsteps, Academy and Challenge. This is the fourth year of the programme running, and for the past two years the programme has been opened up to postgraduates from other institutions through the University’s partnership with Enterprise campus. This year saw participants from the University of Glasgow, University of the West of Scotland, University of Stirling, Caledonian University and Glasgow School of Art.
A total of 527 participants registered at the first stage. Only 120 places were available for the second and third stages, and 24 teams were formed during the second stage, with just six teams going on to the third and final stage.
OutLoud’s mentor was Graeme McClurkin, an alumnus entrepreneur and Enterprise Partner who helped guide them in the final stages.
Enterprise coordinator Eleanor MacKay said, “It was great to see business school students represented on all ‘student’ teams and a good proportion in the ‘researcher’ category too. It was an excellent final, with great ideas and great pitches. We’d like to extend our congratulations to all the finalists.”
Mohammad added, “The Enterprise team are supporting us to take this idea further and entering major entrepreneurial competitions to gain recognition and approval and to invite investors to help us in the production process.”
The Enterprise Pathway is just one element of Strathclyde’s Entrepreneurial Network. To find out more about enterprise and commercialisation activity at Strathclyde, click here. To speak to an enterprise advisor about a business idea you have, contact enterprise@strath.ac.uk
OutLoud's pitch: