First year law student Rayyan Sorefan is one of two Kent students to win the People’s Choice Award in the Virginia Tech KnowledgeWorks Global Student Entrepreneurship Challenge in the US.
Rayyan, and Politics student Cesare Dunker, won the $5,000 award with their idea ‘eLog’, an app that seeks to help government departments process the asylum claims of groups of migrants more quickly and more efficiently; the app enables migrants to provide evidence of their journeys through the use of geo-tagging, photo-recognition and time-mapping. Not only does this mean that governments can save money on processing asylum claims, they can also dismiss fraudulent asylum requests more easily. In an explanatory video on YouTube, eLog is described as ‘the world’s first company delivering humanitarian technological aid to refugees coming into Europe.’
Rayyan and Cesare were selected to represent Kent (and the UK) in the US competition after winning the University’s Big Ideas Competition in May. They pitched their winning idea at Virginia Tech University last week (Thursday 18 August) along with teams from 14 other universities across the globe.
Kent’s Director of Innovation & Enterprise Carole Barron watched the live stream of eLog’s presentation at Virginia Tech. She said: ‘The two students were absolutely brilliant. They were confident, professional and responded to some challenging questions extremely well.’
The Big Ideas Competition is run as part of HIVE (the University’s Hub for Innovation and Enterprise). As winners, Rayyan and Cesare were given comprehensive mentoring in preparation for the US competition and free workspace at the University’s business incubator. For more information about the company, follow eLog on Facebook or Twitter.
Students at Kent who have a business idea or who would like to find out more about how the University supports students looking to start-up a business can contact HIVE via: hive@kent.ac.uk
HIVE activities are open to all students at the University of Kent and include:
- Business Advice
- Business Start-Up Workshops
- Business Mentors
- Online Business Start-Up Modules
- Competitions for Students
- Workspace Facilities
