RendezVu, an e-learning venture located in NovaUCD has won the 2009 David Manley Emerging Entrepreneur Award.
There is currently no convenient way for most students learning languages to practise their language skills other than travelling to foreign destinations which can be expensive and impractical. To address this issue in the learning environment RendezVu has developed a next generation learning platform to provide immersive education for languages and other subjects using virtual world and gaming technologies.
Garrett Hussey & Paul Groarke
RendezVu was co-founded in 2008 by Paul Groarke and Garrett Hussey, both ex-Baltimore Technologies employees, and the company was the overall winner of NovaUCD's 2008 Campus Company Development Programme.
The 2009 David Manley Emerging Entrepreneur Awards were presented at a ceremony today in the RHA Gallery by An Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mary Coughlan TD and Dr Chris Horn. co-founder and former CEO, Iona Technologies. The aim of the Awards is to nurture and recognise the enterprising spirit in Business, the Arts and in Social/Community.
On winning the Award RendezVu will receive €10,000 in cash and over €100,000 worth of mentoring and consultancy services from a variety of blue chip companies. Businessman, Alfie Kane chaired the panel of judges for the Awards.
Speaking at the ceremony, Mary Coughlan TD said, “I cannot overstress the importance of entrepreneurship, particularly in today's economy. An active entrepreneurial sector can continue to assist Ireland in facing the challenge to sustain growth, deepen competitive advantage in a knowledge economy and strengthen the enterprise base. It can also make a significant contribution to creating vibrant regions and to achieving greater social inclusion."
On winning the Award, Paul Groarke, CEO, RendezVu said, “The number of people learning English is expected to top 2 billion in the next 10 years. Research shows that these students suffer from having no way to regularly practice, particularly coming up to oral exams. Both oral and listening-comprehension accounts for 50% of language exams at present and there aren’t enough English tutors in the world to cater for all the students who want to learn English - so we realised that the solution had to be automated.” By ‘immersing’ students in real-life settings where they must use their knowledge, RendezVu gives students a deeper and more dynamic understanding of languages, through using them in context."
The two runners-up this year were Krystian Fikert of The PPD Psychological Centre and Jennifer Jennings and Phillip McMahon of ThisIsPopBaby.
The David Manley Award was established by a group of David Manley’s friends in the Dublin Chamber of Commerce to honour his contribution to, encouragement and mentoring of SMEs during his short life time. David had been President of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce in 2000. The Friends of David Manley Committee features high profile Irish business people including Clive Brownlee, Frank Flannery, Alfie Kane, John McGuire, David Pierce and Peter Webster.
Previous winners of the Award are SwifTXT (2003), Moving Media (2004), Innerworkings (2005), Emergent Events (2006), EirGen Pharma (2007) and Camara (2008).
ENDS
21 January 2010
For further information contact Micéal Whelan, NovaUCD, e: miceal.whelan@ucd.ie, t: +353 1 716 3712.
Editor’s Notes
NovaUCD is University College Dublin’s Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre. NovaUCD is responsible for the commercialisation of intellectual property arising from UCD research and for the development of co-operation with the industry and business communities. NovaUCD as a purpose-built incubation centre also nurtures new technology and knowledge-intensive enterprises. Twenty-four knowledge-intensive companies, including RendezVu, are currently located in NovaUCD. NovaUCD has been funded through a unique public-private partnership that includes AIB Bank, Arthur Cox, Deloitte, Enterprise Ireland, Ericsson, Goodbody Stockbrokers, UCD and Xilinx.