Since it’s inception, The University of Pretoria has been one of The Innovation Hub’s primary academic partners and through the years, this relationship has been of considerable value. This year a number of collaborations were effectively established between various Hub tenants and the University of Pretoria. The Innovation Hub is proud to draw attention to the companies involved and illustrate some of the results that were generated:

BSTEP: assisted with the development of young black professionals in the Engineering Science and Technical Studies Faculty, while the Chairman of the organization also serves as a lecturer at the university.

RIIS: this company’s representatives are judges for the Engineering Department’s Innovation Competition and also sponsor prizes for the winners.

Techsolutions: is responsible for setting up the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) Test Lab at UP and they are sponsoring four students who are completing a project on RFID.

Silvean Biotech: is cooperating in various Biotech projects with the university and research is conducted at their laboratories.

Qsens: has developed the Species Prediction Project as well as the Biomap Model at the university.

Fablab: runs a student exchange programme, allowing university students to utilise their facilities for the sake of completing their academic projects.

Global Image: provides mentoring for GIS (Geographic Information Systems) students.

NetCB: provides intensive internship for Computer Science post-graduates.

Smit & van Wyk: has been assigned to protect the university’s Intellectual Property from a legal point of view.

Innovation Lab: provides internships for post-graduate students in the Computer Science and Graphic Design Faculties.

Icexpress: has a staff representative who practices physiotherapy, lecturers Physiotherapy at UP.

Full Marks: have developed the electronic examination system called umfundi for UP and the online electronic training system for Microsoft Office and Group Wise.

Luuk: recruits three students annually for internship and eventual employment from UP. This number will increase to five in 2009.

Kreon Technologies: utilises the relationship they have with UP’s Engineering Department for advice in the implementation of engineering related projects.

Biopad: is sponsoring the Animal Vaccines Delivery Platform and the Anti-Cancer project at the university.

The Maxum Business Incubator forms part of the expert team that makes up the judging panel of the University of Pretoria’s School of Engineering Innovation Competition, for second year entrepreneurship students. 8 of the best students have already been selected to present their business plans to commercial banks and other organisations such as The Innovation Hub and Business Partners. Maxum Business Incubator has volunteered their resources to provide feedback, recommendations and suggestions on the business plans presented by students.