The UP Parser

By Phillip Kimpo Jr. [http://ccrux.corsarius.net]

Four teams based in UP Diliman’s Department of Computer Science made it to the semifinals of the 1st Philippine Emerging Startups Open (PESO) Challenge, held last September to December 2005. PESO is a technology and innovation business plan competition patterned after the Massachussetts Institute of Technology $50K Entrepreneurship Competition.

The DCS students, all in their thesis years, entered their undergraduate projects as potential startup businesses. Teams Clerc, Percom Kids, Rijndael, and Wi-G also had an additional member each with business management expertise.

Team Rijndael was also a finalist in the 1st UP Diliman COllege of Engineering Marketing Competition (see related article), while Team Wi-G made it to the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2005 World Finals.

The DCS students attended a free series of Participant Enhancement workshops, designed to educate them on business plan writing, legal issues and IP, team management, entrepreneurial finance and accounting, financing options, and marketing. These workshops were held on three consecutive Saturdays in October, in Ateneo de Manila University and the DEEE Building, UP Diliman.

Aside from the workshops, the students were also acquainted with various industry leaders, venture capitalists, and mentors. Despite not making to the finals, the students are assured of more benefits through PESO’s post-competition support system.

Among the 36 semifinalist teams, the DCS teams were among the youngest, having all-student rosters. Most teams had entrepreneurship veterans or members of the academe. Prior to the semis, 72 teams submitted their business proposals to the contest.

The PESO Challenge was organized by the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship and the Ayala Foundation, and conceptualized by a group of Filipinos and Filipino-Americans at MIT. For more details, visit http://web.mit.edu/peso.