Galileo Masters Regional Prize
Three students of Leiden University’s “MSc. ICT in Business” programme, Erwin Marges, Stefan Zhelyazkov and Georgios Valouras, have been awarded with the prize of Galileo Master of the South-Holland region, for their business plan idea “SnowMate Alpine Assistant”.
The three students entered the competition with a business plan which they had developed within the context of an entrepreneurship course and which successfully captured the need for an inexpensive and easy-to-use device, to locate avalanche victims buried under the snow. The current satellite navigation technology provides the accuracy necessary for such an application, and the European Galileo system, which is currently under development, will improve it even more.
SnowMate Alpine Assistant
The “SnowMate Alpine Assistant” business idea, however, goes further than the previously mentioned functionality: the proposed solution will include some additional “fun” functions. The device, by taking full advantage of the potential of modern Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), will be able to provide fans of winter sports with interesting information about their journey, like average speed, distance traveled and altitude.
The jury, after studying almost 300 complete business plans that have been submitted to the Galileo Masters competition, awarded the SnowMate business plan with the title of regional winner for South-Holland, the only region in the Netherlands , in a ceremony that was held on October 21st in Munich.
