Participants of the university's Startup as a Diploma Project competition have defended their projects before the representatives of business and academic communities.
Graduating students of Bachelor’s, Master’s and Specialist degree programmes, who are preparing to defend their theses this summer, have presented startups in commercial real estate, IT technology, industrial production, construction, tourism, law, and creative industries to the commission. When evaluating the works, the experts took into account the degree of novelty of the projects, their realism, the elaboration of the ideas and the possibility of their scaling and commercialization, the presence of a team ready to take on the realization of the authors' ideas.
The university-wide competition is being held at SUSU for the fourth time. Every year, both the number of applications and the level of project development by the participants grow.
“We have held the final of the Startup as a Diploma Project competition for two days. This is an intra-university competition, which lasts throughout an academic year, from November to June. In November, we collect applications from students who want to defend their diploma projects in the form of startups," said Irina Solovyova, Head of the Department of Economics and Finance. "This means that the topic of their diploma paper is a new business idea or development that they are working on and plan to bring to the market in the future. This can be a purely innovative project, with new technology, or it can be a social one, with significant effects on the socio-economic development of our region or our country as a whole. A preliminary selection of participants takes place in December. We had about forty projects at the start. The students are mainly evaluated by representatives of the business community − entrepreneurs, IT specialists, who already have their own companies. They are the ones who look at how businesslike and scalable the idea is, whether there is anything new. Based on this, we recommend or do not recommend the students to participate in further rounds. The jury is headed by the head of the project office for improving the business climate of the Chelyabinsk Region Entrepreneurship Development Fund − the My Business Centre, Natalia Ogarkova.”
Irina Solovyova also explained that from February to April, students undergo a business intensive course on startup design in the format of advanced training. There, the authors of engineering and IT developments are taught to analyze the market, develop a business model, determine the target audience of the new product, draw up a roadmap for the implementation of the project, and are advised where to find a source of financing. In addition to the thesis supervisor, each participant has a business mentor from among the teachers of the SUSU School of Economics and Management to help the students work through the economic part of the startup diploma project.
Among the participants are students from all of the university’s schools and institutes: future engineers, architects, lawyers, computer science specialists, etc.
"Today, the participants have presented their finished works to the jury. The academic community was represented by the Head of the Department of Industrial Economics and Project Management Natalia Dzenzelyuk and myself," added Irina Solovyova. "There was a very well-developed project from the Institute of Law, already with letters of support from potential buyers, that is, there is already the first contact with the market."
This is the value of the competition, Irina believes, that the guys learn not only to develop their fantastic ideas, but also to make them more realistic, test them in the market, communicate with consumers, with competitors. Even if they fail to launch their own business, they will grow significantly as specialists and develop soft skills to a sufficient degree.
“Startup as a Diploma Project” is a unique opportunity for students to combine useful and potentially profitable things: defend their final qualification work and do what they really like, improve their soft and hard skills, develop a unique product or technology, receive funding to launch a business, and earn money by selling the results of the project.
"I have an idea for an advertising agency called Compliance Image. I decided to participate in order to promote my project, find funding for the initial investment and directly realize my potential," explained the contest participant Ekaterina Ustyantseva. "I did it with pleasure. There are always difficulties, but they can be overcome if you like what you do."
Based on the results, the best project will be selected − funds will be allocated for its implementation within the framework of the Priority 2030 program. All finalists of the competition will have to defend their diploma projects in the form of a startup in June, about what a corresponding entry will be made in the diplomas, which will give additional points when entering Master's degree programmes and will become a very serious advantage in the portfolio. In addition to the members of the State Certification Commission for the main educational programme, the commission will also include economists. Having defended, the students will be able to further participate in the "Startup as a Diploma Project" all-Russian competition, and apply for grants that are allocated for student startups.