Today 5 groups of Operations Research and Quantitative Management students pitched their business ideas in front of a panel of judges. The judges were: Surgor member and operations research lecturer Linke Potgieter, owner of Zurion Solutions Cobus Potgieter, quantitative management lecturer Jeanette Thiart, operations research lecturer Lieschen Venter, and client liaison officer at the Launchlab, Pius Illah. The students were challenged to come up with an innovative business idea addressing the question: "Where can Operations Research make a difference". The quality of the presentations was good, and it was evident that the students put in a lot of effort and thought into the project.
The five ideas pitched were:
Shame to Waste – an app connecting restaurants and clients to sell leftover meals
CRAPP (Crash App) – notification app connecting insurance companies and emergency services
CCU (Cause for Community Upliftment) – a consulting company using Operations Research to promote better housing, optimising public services, RDP developments, etc.
Link-em – a web app connecting Food stores and NGOs to distribute leftover food
ShopHopper – an UBER concept applied to shopping
This is a yearly project facilitated by Linke Potgieter as part of the Methods of Operations Research postgraduate module. This is usually the first time in their academic career that operations research students are challenged with an entrepreneurial project. The aim of this project is to open up the entrepreneurial world to the students and broadening their horizon - most of them tend to think about life after Uuiversity only in terms of applying for salaried jobs.