TUSUR students won the CRDF Grant
A group of TUSUR student developers won the competition organized by the U. S. Civilian Research & Development Foundation (CRDF) and received a grant for their visit to the USA.
«3DBin», a company created by the student of TUSUR Dmitry Klimenko, got the highest score in the category «The best business model». The winning company will be able to dispatch two representatives to the USA in the end of this year to attend events and meetings organized by CRDF. The grant of 10 thousand USD will cover all expenses.
Young innovators from TUSUR will be able to attend seminars, dedicated to the development of engineering enterprises and innovative infrastructure. For «3DBin» these meetings will be especially useful. The company has already opened an office in California, so events aimed at promoting cooperation between Russian and foreign innovative companies can be of practical use for it.
— Primary objective, as far as I understand, is to assist beginners with promising projects in getting the hang of principles applied in technological entrepreneurship all over the world, — suggests Dmitry Klimenko.
A business project competition was organized in Tomsk within the framework of a workshop devoted to technological entrepreneurship. It took place on November 16–19 and aimed to identify projects with the greatest commercial potential. Participants attended a set of lectures during this workshop and met with American experts.
— First of all they had a look at all project presentations selected by organizers for the competition, — says Dmitry. — And only then they delivered lectures and gave individual consultations to each participant. During these consultations they voiced their competent opinion on how to promote the product in the market, how to present it to investors, how to identify its market niche and how to select the most suitable business model.
During the last day of the workshop participants presented their projects, which had been updated in accordance with recommendations. Finally, the winners were announced in the following categories: «The most innovative technology», «The best business model», «The best presentation». Representatives of Tomsk Polytechnic University and «Elecard» won the grants along with TUSUR team,.
The project of Dmitry Klimenko is based on idea to create a 3D image of products sold online. This project became the winner of the competition «Business of Innovative Technologies — Siberia — 2008» (BIT) and became third in the national «BIT» competition in 2008. It was also successful in the «Silicon Valley Open Doors» competition (Berkeley University, California).
— In the future we are planning to develop our project without linking to a particular place, — underlines Dmitry Klimenko. — As a matter of fact, even now our developers in Tomsk are actively cooperating with the marketing department in the USA. Modern information technologies make it possible.
