On the 14th and 15th of September 2017, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (Bach khoa) hosted an entrepreneurship pilot course – Innovation Camp, which lasted for 30 hours. The Innovation Camp is part of the project Supporting Entrepreneurial Development in ICT in Vietnamese HEIs – ICTentr, which is financed through the EU funding under the Erasmus+ Programme for the action Capacity-Building Higher Education.

Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (Bach khoa) is very pleased to welcome trainers from University of Turku, Mr. Vesa Hautala (M.Sc. Econ) and Mr. Mikko Grönlund (M.Sc. Econ). Coming with the trainers are Ms. Mai Renko, representative of Asia Consulting Oy, Mr. Anssi Ketopaikka & Ms. Liisa Lehtonen from Boost Turku, a student-based network for young entrepreneurs and entrepreneur-minded people sharing knowledge among universities in Turku.

► OISP Students Meeting With Boost Turku

From the side of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (Bach khoa), there were Mr. Huynh Minh Nhut, Lecturer cum ICTentr Project Coordinator, Assoc. Prof. Wynand Bodewes from Maastricht School of Management, Lecturer Le Dinh Thuan from Computer Science & Engineering Faculty, Mr. Tran Dac Uy Vu, ICTentr Project Coordinator, and teaching assistants.

Beginning the course, after a brief introduction of ICTentr Project to students, entrepreneurs, from English Hub Ltd., and IT247 – Communication & Technology Ltd., presented their business & difficulties in starting up in the field of ICT. Following that, Mr. Vesa Hautala and Mr. Mikko Grönlund delivered their lectures on Business Model and Business Model Canvas, through which students understand the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value, as well as visualize, assess and make suitable changes to the Business Model.

Groups of 4 to 6 students are formed and students were eager to discuss and solve the given challenges. With the enthusiastic support from the trainers as well as lecturers from HCMUT – Bach khoa, students spent their whole afternoon and also in the evening to analyze the cases with the Business Model Canvas, together with working out the entrepreneurial problems.

In the next morning, on the 15th of September, students started to practice pitching their ideas on the cases. Each group was given 5 mins to show their solutions to the problems in a private room with judges. Some groups utilized their time, while some others did not. After the trial, students received feedback from the lecturers on their content as well as the way they presented their ideas. It was quite strenuous at that time though as they had to improve a lot from their first performances. The next 3 hours were given to students for adjusting their group work and practicing for the final pitch in the afternoon.

After the lunch break, groups were scheduled to pitch their ideas in front of not only judges but entrepreneurs and all student participants. Groups now went into a competition to each other solving the cases, thus they had to utilize their presenting time, as well as answering questions from judges, entrepreneurs and from other groups. It was such a big improvement from all of the groups after their trial, which impressed the judges deeply.

Here goes some pictures of students presenting their final group works:

Needless to say, the judges were then fell into difficult situations in choosing the winners. Lastly, the winners were voted for the 2 most impressive performances for their great work and improvement after the course.

The Entrepreneur Pilot Course – Innovation Camp was organized successfully and the Project Coordinators will revise and make its content integrated into the main course of Computer Science & Computer Engineering program, as well as other engineering programs in the long run.

Here goes more pictures on the course: