HeartBlog 1
It’s raining outside.
I am now cracking my brains through some algorithm mathematics and its raining outside… I hear the rain sweeps through the roof top.. and the familiar sound of the rain hitting soft on the ground.. yar, it’s raining quite heavily..but, it reminds me of something though.
Home.
I still remembered how I used to do my maths or dug into some very very delicate equations or proofs during my high school time and sometimes it rained outside my window.. just like now, I really enjoyed those time, because raining is such a common phenomenon during the end of the year, I mean literally from October onwards, it usually rains in this tropical region of Asia. Yeah, its sure feels cozy inside my room where I do all my stuffs while it is raining but the sudden chill or breeze from the rain do refreshes me and keep me intact to my work.
Now… my little room seems so far away from me. Home seems so far away. Although I live in east Malaysia and it just takes less than 5 hours for me to travel to Johor Bahru and take a flight back to where I live… I am stucked with my work here in the dorm I am currently living and what’s worse… exam is coming…
Ha, suddenly I have the urge to listen to Home, by Michael Buble.
NTU BPC 2006
A number of learning lessons in the auditorium today…
After hearing from Dr Tan, the 12 teams, Mr Lawrence, some networking with the finalists, and a hell fulfilling of buffet(actually… I had 4 rounds : p), the result was announced, I was actually thinking of voting team 11: Dream Venture as my favourite team but they dint make it to the top three. The top three are:
1st – team 4: Revoice – a team that sells VoiceOver, a device that is said to be able to translate over 50 world languages…
2nd – team 12: LightMill – this was the team that won the BPC 2005. They claimed that they came back with new innovation upon their initial product. They sell energy saving light system and gadget which based on a ‘plug n play’ basis…
3rd – team 7: Air Shield Technologies – As air pollution and air-borne disease problems getting more n more severe nowadays, this team sells an air purifying systems that utilizes TiO2 technology…
I forgot the positions for the consolation winners…
Nevertheless, the top three teams are very very competitive indeed. The 2nd and 3rd winners actually have their product out there in the market at this current moment… Air Shield Tech is said to have its AireTotal and AireLite prototypes placed in running in SGH(Singapore General Hospital) and soon in NTU while LightMill has already won 3 awards. So in terms of feasibility and potential, Revoice is essentially outreached by both of them.
Frankly, I have no idea about the Revoice’s product: VoiceOver. I mean, I did see the product flashing stylishly in the presentation but just like one of my friend told me, its quite impossible to develop such a translator device that could be widely used. Scrap the GUI, it would be difficult even for the device to detect English spoken from two different people…let alone 50 other languages. As we all know, translators could be seen in big scale conferences, like the UN-ASEAN conference but for the consumer market… I doubt the demand would be high enough. The device itself is hard to model because each of us has our own ‘slang’ or unique’ way of speaking; even if it really works, it would need some ‘customization’ and this is really going to take a long time. The bottom line is: If you don’t understand what the other guy is talking about… would you trust your VoiceOver to ‘understand’ for you?
For BPC 2006, it’s really all about technology. Teams like Cuboids(locker service), Hepta(Charlton School of Phonetics), The Alchemists(stiletto heels), and Bright Minds(His Grooming Room) which sell services are clearly being pinned down by the others. Although they did show how they differ from their competitors but new innovative technology are fresh… Investors like to look at new things because they open up new market and that’s what venture capitalist is about… so they just don’t stand a chance.
I opted for Dream Venture because what they are selling is clear: Save the woods! Not only that, they also know what the investors want to see…. Results…MONEY! Yep, not all those long-winded speech about how good your product is but how good your product in generating revenue, they delivered just that. This can be seen by their structured slide and just one slide about the technology used… Its simple. Bad things go in…good stuffs(your wood fibre)come out...Of course, it is also about the ethical side where all of us would like to take part in – protecting mother nature. Again, this is the only team that touched about SOWT analysis and 4P’s… Although this is the second last team to present but the energetic presentation makes me quite high-spirited, I don’t understand why they couldn’t make it to the top three(could be the executive summary? Or perhaps the booth?). However, if I want to make a business presentation, I would do it just like them :).
By the way, my pal Ridz actually won the $2500 Lenovo laptop! Haiz….. just when I thought I had the luck…. Congratz anyway :)
Geezzzz, it’s getting late, I think I better hit the sack… Any comments? Ideas? Do write for me:)