IADT announce two new student spinout companies from 2023 Student Accelerator Programme
Higgle is a ground-breaking concept that has been designed to revolutionize the way creativity, lateral thinking, and problem-solving skills are nurtured within primary school classrooms. It is founded by IADT Visual Communication Design graduate Grace Brennan who is currently participating in Phase 1 of the Enterprise Ireland New Frontiers programme, a programme that helps early stage founders test their ideas in order to build successful start-ups. The New Frontiers programme is being run currently by IADT in conjunction with NovaUCD, with IADT as lead partner. Higgle aims to become a valuable asset in the realm of primary education in Ireland and internationally.
Chordable is led by Colm Delaney, a Creative Music Production student, developing an intelligent harmonizer audio application that operates on both Windows and MacOS platform. The core idea is to transform a single note produced by a user into a harmonious chord, creating an ensemble effect. This project builds upon the foundation laid by “Robotune,” initially released by Dr Brian Carty in 2015. Dr Brian Carty is associate lecturer in sound technology at IADT on the Creative Music Production course. “Chordable” takes his concept further by introducing chord progressions and incorporating music theory principles. The addition of code for determining chord shifts and detecting intentional note changes significantly enhances the user experience.
Both of these spinouts arose out of the first IADT pilot accelerator programme run in June 2023, sponsored by Higher Education Authority. IADT’s Student Accelerator programme is an intensive 4 week mentoring programme for IADT students across our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes who are interested in exploring and pursuing a business idea or development of a creative project. The main objective of the Accelerator is to provide students with the confidence and tools to launch and grow their projects.
“The pilot IADT accelerator programme, funded by the HEA, sought to support the commercialisation of student projects and business ideas and helped us to identify IP rich new businesses, enabling the formation of the first student spinout companies within IADT. We see this a significant marker for us as we continue to build on the value of innovation and skills of our students and understand how these skills can contribute to the wider creative economy, both regionally and nationally.” David Smith, President.
“Observing students evolve during the four-week mentoring and accelerator programme was inspiring as they proactively took responsibility for their ideas that lead to the creation of viable business pathways. The pilot provided us with new insights on how we can support our students navigate the transition to hybrid employments models, many of whom who will also seek to work as sole traders, entrepreneurs or seek to develop portfolio careers. The programme provides IADT students with an opportunity to develop an agile mindset and prepare and for an ever-changing workforce.” Emma Leahy, Vice President of Research, Development, Innovation at IADT.