University of Cebu President Augusto Go places a document into the time capsule during the groundbreaking ceremony of its new engineering building in Cebu City. (CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)
Recognizing the impact of startups all over the world, the University of Cebu (UC) is encouraging students to have a startup mentality and try to become tech entrepreneurs as the university invests in a P170 million building, which will become the school’s “startup hub.”
According to UC, The hub will be where students can turn their ideas into reality.
Lawyer Augusto Go, UC president, said tech entrepreneurs like Bill Gates and the late Steve Jobs earned billions of dollars from a simple idea.
“Who are the billionaires now? What were they thinking? It all started with an idea,” he said in an interview during the groundbreaking ceremony and blessing of the university’s new engineering building last Saturday.
The new nine-story School of Engineering building is expected to be completed by April 2017.
According to Forbes Magazine, Gates, whose net worth is $78 billion, cofounded PC software company Microsoft in 1975. The late Jobs, on the other hand, was cof ounder, chairman and chief executive officer of Apple Inc., known for its products such as the iPhone and iPad.
Go also cited the rising popularity of vehicle-hailing app Uber and how startups like this can also be hatched by his students given the right environment and equipment.
Startup mentality
“(I told them), ‘Whatever you need, I will buy it for you.’ I want them, especially the computer science and computer engineering (students), (to have a) startup (mentality),” he said.
According to the 2015 Philippine Roadmap for Digital Startups, a Philippine startup is any business idea less than five years old, registered with the financial regulatory authorities of any country, provided that majority of its team is operating and residing in the Philippines.
UC’s initiative has also complemented the country’s thrust to increase the number of startups from 100 in 2015 to 500 this year.
UC has already started to teach the startup mentality to its students as shown by a team of students from the school winning a nationwide startup competition early this year.
TeamseyRoll
Last March, the UC-based TeamseyRoll, developer of the e-basura mobile app, beat nine other teams from all over the country in the annual Philippine Startup Challenge hosted by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and held in Manila.
E-Basura provides users tips and guidelines and proper management of electronic waste, whose improper disposal the developers called “a recycling opportunity lost.” It also maps out accredited drop-off sites for e-waste and features a rewards system that shows a user’s accumulated points from disposal.
According to reports, 50 million tons of e-waste are generated every year all over the world and are projected to reach 100 million tons annually in the next couple of years.
In December last year, UC-based startup Farm2Ket was rolled out to bridge the gap between farmers and consumers and remove the middlemen from the equation. Fresh2Ket is an electronic commerce website where farmers can post their products and consumers can buy directly from them.
Incubator
Following the success of these startups made up of UC students, Go said he believed his students had the talent go even further.
“The new engineering building will become an incubator for startups, an incubator for young people. Everything that the students need, (we will provide),” said Go.
The new building will rise on a 3,000-sq.m. lot along J. Alcantara Street in Barangay Sambag Dos, Cebu City, across Elizabeth Mall.