Intelligent Beauty Care
Despite the economic recession, research has shown that people still continue to spend heavily on beauty products and grooming services. Taking advantage of this tendency for human vanity, 5 students have come up with a business plan to provide grooming services via automated machines. The business idea, called "Intelligent Beauty Care", won a Merit Award.

Nane - Make It Your Own
Not to be outdone, another group of 4 students proposed a business plan to sell a new mobile phone series, called "Nane", which allows users to customise their own handphone by picking the materials and components that they like -- much like assembling a desktop PC. The project idea also won a Merit award.

Both groups of students were from the Diploma in Business Process & Systems Engineering, which encourages its students to be innovative and entrepreneurial as part of the training it provides.

The students received their awards and cash prize of $100 per team at a presentation ceremony held on 13 March 2009.

Have you ever been stranded due to heavy rain, but can't find a shop that sells an umbrella?

Four students from the Diploma in Electronics have devised a business plan to sell umbrellas and rain-coats using vending machines that can be placed at strategic locations.

Taking the cue from Tokyo, where almost anything from cosmetics and cigarettes to condoms and candy are sold from vending machines, the students proposed setting up their vending machines at MRT stations, parks and the National Stadium, where the public are likely to be caught without an umbrella or rain-coat when it rains.

The business idea won a Silver award and $300 cash at the annual Final-5 Entrepreneurship Competition.

Attractive limited-edition umbrella designs enhance the popularity of the umbrellas and make them a collector's item too.