While many of us are enjoying summer holidays, last weekend was busy and productive for people who responded to Innovation Challenge on Education and were shortlisted for participation in the Start-Up Cup National Challenge event. Participants worked on their innovative ideas from early morning till late evening. In partnership with BizNest and IAB Internaional Business Academy we hae organized Armenia Start-up Cup National Challenge event.
All 30 teams were trying to find fresh solutions to different issues in education sector in Armenia. Solutions supposes both technological and non-technological solutions, from the interactive environmental courses to the teaching of film production and application of virtual reality technologies in the learning process. These were ideas, which had potential to become business projects and corresponding tools were used to help them in designing their commercial path.
Invited mentors from different backgrounds helped participants to develop business models of their projects based on the methodology and toolkits provided by the Start-Up Cup team. Based on the outcomes of team work, mentors selected top 10 teams who will present their ideas to the professional jury on July 16.
The selection process was tough and the decision making process was challenging, as a results of mentors’ discussion the following 10 ideas were shortlisted for pitching:
- Sona Hovhannisyan, Anoush Manucharyan “Match&Share”“Match&Share” is a unified Armenian web platform for knowledge management, which aims to bring together people who are ready to share their knowledge and experience with others.
- “Disability Info” NGO “University Inclusion Rating” “University Inclusion Rating” project suggests development of a rating methodology to observe the level of inclusion of higher education in Armenia (both physical accessibility and process and format of educational content). An online interactive platform will be a public source of information for anyone interested in the topic.
- Haykuhi Gevorgyan “My skills are my future” Professional orientation and career counselling services available through an online platform and mobile application which will act as “online mentors and guide” for youth.
- Lia Mkhitaryan, Gayane Ayvazyan, Lilit Stepanyan “Art hub” interactive gamesArt hub: series of Armenian-language interactive learning games promoting art education (6+), which are interesting, funny, and informative at the same time. “Art hub” interactive games are designed to be educational aid kits for schools and parents to educate their children through gamified process.
- Rima Kharatyan – “Chess School” Everyone at the Chess School Online Platform will be able to choose a coach who will prepare and save the class in advance. Pupils will learn chess online: the platform will enable one trainer to work with multiple pupils.
6. Marina Galstyan – ARM-Student
Online database will contain information about all registered students in the RA, including their contact information, sex, age, educational institution, specialty, course and other inquiries on different topics. This data will enable to carry out sociological researches by specific criteria. The registration to the database will be voluntary accompanied encouragements such as discounts, drawings.
7. Nelly Drnoyan – Training and Research Center
Experimental and interactive education, focused specifically on environmental protection. It is planned to organize practical work with children (e.g. to teach them how to create biomass that will replace synthetic fertilizers). Learning by doing approach will help children to understand the importance of environmental protection issues, at the same time the gained knowledge will be applied practically.
8. Mariam Melik-Bakhshyan – Hobby.am
Hobby.am, online platform will enable people with specific skills to help others. With the help of online platform, people will be able to share their experiences and at the same time make money, and those who are interested in acquiring those skills will receive exhaustive information without wasting time.
9. Arthur Vardazaryan – Learn online
A web platform where kids will have the opportunity to test their level of knowledge of a subject, general course, or in a frame of few subjects. Through the Artificial Intelligence tool it will carry out analyzes, progress and development graphs, ratings, and will showcase high-performing children. The initiative will help in raising pupils’ learning potential in remote regions.
10. Vazgen Barseghyan – Study Anytime
The team suggests using video recording cameras in classrooms. The recorded matieral will be hosted on the online platform, where students can use their individual e-mail addresses and get informed of the four-year academic material of the corresponding department.
The final pitching ceremony of Start-up Cup on Education will take place on 16th of July, where jury will select finalists from both pools : business projects and non-commercial projects. Finalists will get the chance to enter the start-up incubator to further develop prototypes of their ideas.
You can follow the updates on the innovation challenge in our News section, as well as join us on Facebook and Twitter, and of course follow #inno4edu !
The crowd sourced competition is part of #Inno4dev: Innovation for Development project, which is funded by the European Union