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Technopreneurs In The Making
Scheduling software comes out tops in business plan competition
SCheduling sports
matches to be fair to all teams is a cinch with the software developed
by FriarTuck, an NUS team of three budding technopreneurs. They
recently walked away with $30,000 in cash and $50,000 worth of products
after winning the top prize at Startup@Singapore, a business plan
competition.
Assistant Professor
Martin Henz, a School of Computing lecturer, Mr Sevugan Alagappan, a
computer engineering student, and Mr Tobias Muller developed FriarTuck
1.1 and FriarTuck Online 1.0 to optimise complex tournament scheduling.
The software, based on advanced constraint programming, has been used
successfully by sports organisations such as the Wisconsin
Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and the West of England Cricket
Championship.
Working out complex
schedules in as little as a minute is no mean feat, especially when
compared to other methods. FriarTuck plans to develop further product
lines to meet the needs of selected markets, such as hospital duty
rostering, conference session planning and university examination
scheduling.
FriarTuck beat 69 teams
in this second techno-venture business plan competition, which was
organised by the NUS Centre for Management of Innovation and
Technopreneurship with the support of the Economic Development Board.
The team's innovative technology, focussed business plan and clear
target markets were what won the judges over.
Exulting in the
endorsement for their business plan, Dr Henz said, "The task ahead
of us now is to put the plan into practice and develop a great
business."
Knowledge Enterprise July 2001 Edition
Copyright © 2001 Office of Corporate Communications
Date: 21 July 2001
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