ICT Innovative Business Idea : winners create app to facilitate medical learning

The Award ceremony of ICT innovative Business Idea Competition 2017-2018 was held at the Burrenchobay Lecture Theatre at the University of Mauritius at Réduit on Thursday 25th October. The goal behind this contest is to encourage corporate culture and start-ups. A Technopreneurship Unit of National Computer Board was designed for the competition, in collaboration with the University of Mauritius and the State Bank of Mauritius. 

The Minister of Technology, Yogida Sawmynaden, indicates in his address that is a positive sign for our country that the youngsters are getting the opportunities to showcase their talents in the technological sector. “Technology is a wonderful tool which can be used to convert Mauritius into a high income country and into a long lasting economy,” he said.

Technopreneur, for him, is a field which is creating new business models and thus creating job prospects for many youngsters. He refers to the examples Smart Health Ltd and Order Manze which were some years ago in the competition but have now turned into reality and is benefitting the whole country. “My Ministry encourages the establishment of such competitions which can open the door of opportunities for many young Mauritians in the national and global market,” he concluded.

Shameer Ramdin, Wisdom : Bello Oclofin and Tabi Okoin won the first prize

Shameer Ramdin is an Engineering student, Wisdom Bello is doing a Masters in Computer Network, while Tabi is also at Masters level in Business Information Systems Management. These three students at the University of Mauritius joined hands to create an educational app, called ORAMA for medical students who find it hard to learn all the theories. “We are adding virtual and visual reality to make this application. It will ease to a high extent the tasks of the medical students,” explained Shameer Ramdin, the team leader. They have contacted medical institutions to make use of their app. Last year, they won the Most Innovative Idea at the Global Start-Up Lab 2017 organised by the MIT. They will use the prize they won and that of this year to fund their project. 

Lavnish Maunthrooa and Yashvi Paupiah, second prize winners

Lavnish Maunthrooa and Yashvi Paupiah, both 20-years-old, are the two Computer Science students at the University of Mauritius who have won together the second prize for their project Multi Food Express. After carefully analysing the food industry in Mauritius, the two youngsters have observed that there is an ever-growing demand for fast food.

“In response to this, we have come up with an idea to ease the burden on restaurants, save users time and also provide a great consumer experience to the food buying model,” explained Lavish Maunthrooa. His friend Yashvi explained that their new model will replace an archaic but still in use telephone order system where users need to personally call the restaurant to order their food. “The service allows the consumer to choose which restaurant the customer wants to order from, select their meal and set the time where he will show up at the premises to take their meal and proceed to the payment through the app,” adds Yashvi Paupiah. In the coming weeks, they will approach incubators who wish to invest in their project and restaurants that will pay to make use of their app. The two young men are eager to make this a reality.