91快活林

Prince Ansah, studying mechanical engineering, is leader of a team of engineering students which has produced ‘Recall’, a wristband that sounds an alarm should you stray 10 metres from your phone.

Prince is a finalist in the Santander Universities UK ’60-second pitch’ awards which aim to support and encourage university students and graduates present their business ideas in a creative manner.

Entrants pitch their business ideas to camera and to vote on the best video pitch. Voting closes on 31 January and winners will be announced on 9 February. The first prize is £1,500.

91快活林 is the only university with two finalists – Melanie Smith, a graphic communication graduate from the university’s partner college Sussex Coast in Hastings,  was shortlisted for her pitch about her new idea ‘Story’, a mini suitcase full of ideas to help children find their imaginations to develop stories.

Melanie, Prince and his co-leader Jhonny Herrera and their colleagues Alex Harrison,  Atharsh Jeyanandam, Benedict Bowen, James Thompson, Kevin Raivire-Grisot,  received support from beepurple, the university’s entrepreneurship programme.

Prince Ansah

Simon Bray, Managing Director Santander Universities UK, said: “In a fast-paced society as the one we live in every second counts. If participants are able to catch the eye of the viewers during a brief period of time sometimes it is all it takes to kick start a success story.

“The 60-second pitch encapsulates the basic values of entrepreneurship and the academic world and putting them together with new technologies so that it can be easily accessible by the general public. There is a lot of talent out there and at Santander Universities we want to give all those entrepreneurs their time to shine.”

There are 10 finalists from different universities and the awards are open to students and graduates from all UK universities, including those 77 currently partnering with Santander Universities.

The competition is part of the Santander Universities Enterprise Portal, one of the newest initiatives launched by Santander Universities. It has been designed to support entrepreneurs and the university, start-up and small business communities. The portal aims to provide entrepreneurs with the ability to do 3 key things: Win, Learn and Connect.

Santander said it was “committed to encouraging and promoting enterprise at all stages of the business cycle and one of the areas that need more support is marketing brilliant ideas which in many cases are born in the classrooms of many UK campuses”.