Universities cash in on student ideas

Daniel Hulme, a computer scientist, and his business partner and fellow student Alastair Moore, both of UCL, are firmly set on the entrepreneurial route after winning several competitions for their new venture Satalia, a software package capable of resolving complex calculations to streamline design and business processes. “We call our product the ‘solve engine’,” Hulme says. “It can be used by manufacturers of microprocessors as well as logistics and finance companies.”

The college’s dean of engineering is on the board and UCL Business and UCL Advances, the technology and entrepreneurship and innovation arms of UCL, helped to take Satalia through the proof of concept stage to its launch. So far Satalia has collected a £20,000 award from UCL Advances and a £30,000 proof of concept grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. It also won the e-Challenge business plan competition run by UCL and London Business School.

Hulme and Moore have expended much energy taking the idea to manufacturers and are in discussions with a high-tech company in America’s Silicon Valley. “The university is encouraging that,” Hulme says.

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