Crossover Business Lab

I was fortunate enough to be able to participate in a great event which took place in Leeds from 25.-26.February 2010: the Crossover Business Lab. Frank Boyd had organised this event, with speakers who presented case studies and held workshops. One could learn a lot about business development and venture investing. This knowledge is crucial when setting up businesses and trying to commercialise some developments from within the university. The speakers were enthusiastic and conveyed very well the issues that businesses face when then move from one stage to the next.

"Virtual Runner" Demonstration

Since summer 2007, we have been working in a collaboration between the Leeds Met Carnegie Faculty and the Faculty Innovation North in developing a learning game, which allows students to intuitively learn about physiological processes in a playful way. The second prototype of this simulation "Virtual Runner" has now publicly been demonstrated for the first time at the Venturefest 2010 in York on Wednesday, 10.February. At this occasion we received a lot of positive feedback.

We also had the opportunity to present this demonstration to the Leeds Met Governors during their meeting last Friday (12.February 2010), and they were very positive about this project.

During the first development phase, the project had been developed through funding from the HEFCE Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund (TQEF). The first prototype had been developed by Kooji Creative who are a student-owned (former graduates of Leeds Met Innovation North) organisation. The 2nd prototype which was the subject of the latest demonstrations has been developed with help from the Yorkshire Proof of Commercial Concept Fund, matched by funding from the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF). Innovation North graduate Abraham Smith was the key developer of the software of this prototype.

We intend to offer more information at the Virtual Runner website.

Visit of Peter Baumgartner

Prof Peter Baumgartner from the Danube University Krems (DUK) visited our faculty Innovation North during the past two days. Since 2005, several students from DUK had registered at Leeds Met for a PhD degree, and the first students are approaching the completion of their degree. In our meetings with Peter we discussed the terms for future collaboration in teaching and also in research activities.

Peter was very impressed by the interdisciplinary activities which we demonstrated within our faculty and in collaborative work with other faculties, and by the 24/7 access to our library.

Unfortunately the weather here in Leeds was not very hospitable: rain on Tuesday, snow sleet on Wednesday, and today thick fog which led to the cancellation of his flight. He will have a very long journey back to Krems tonight.