UC Berkeley students are being invited to help European appliance maker Bosch find applications for its cutting-edge innovations in the first-ever Robotics Business Model Competition organized by the European Business Club at Haas.
Organizers will kick off the competition Feb. 24 at 6 p.m. in the Wells Fargo room. Light dinner and drinks will be provided.
Teams will submit their business proposals on March 4 and semi-finalists will be announced on March 14. Semi-finalists will receive a budget to cover competition-related expenses and the winning team will be announced on April 28.
The first-place team will win $3,000; second-place winners will receive $1,500; and third place will win $500.
All UC Berkeley students can participate in the competition, though each team must include one Berkeley MBA student. Club leaders will help students interested in participating find a team.
The competition is not a robot-building contest. Rather, organizer Hans Lintermans, MBA 12, stresses it’s an effort to identify “use cases,” or business models, which would target potential markets that Bosch could expand into. Lintermans adds: “It’s a great opportunity to apply knowledge acquired in courses such as Opportunity Recognition in the Management of Technology curriculum."
The competition is sponsored by Bosch Research. Bosch has a research and technology center in Palo Alto, which members of the European Business Club visited recently. Although perhaps best known for its home appliances, Bosch also makes power tools, automotive parts, and industrial technology products.
For more information on the competition, visit ebc-challenge.com.