University-Student Run with support from the R&D Advisory Group more The first I-Cube Innovation Competition 2006 ( www.icube.ro ), modeled on the student-run Massachusetts Institute of Technology $100K Competition, was launched in April 2006.
The Competition is designed to encourage technically-advanced university students to propose innovative ideas that may have commercial application in world markets. Six finalists projects were selected by a ten-person US-Romania advisory board for presentations to a distinguished review panel on September 18th in Bucharest. Three winners will be announced on September 19th at British Council offices in Bucharest. Each winning team will receive a cash award and one person from each team will visit the US (Cambridge, MA, and Silicon Valley, CA) to meet technology experts and venture capital specialists.
Established by the R&D Advisory Group of the Honorary Consul in Boston, the Innovation Competition 2006 is run by the I-Cube Association (Romania), a student-founded non-profit organization. In June, representatives from the MIT $100 Competition visited Romania to advise the organizers. On August 9th, the semi-finalists were invited to an intensive one-day workshop on business planning for entrepreneurs.
Addressing them were Romanian technologies who have succeeded in building successful business. Included were Radu Georgescu (Romania) and Dr. George Stefan (USA).