Dr Massa from the Department of Management was invited as a judge on the final adjudication panel for the awards at the ICT Student Association's 2017 'The Million Dollar Idea' (TMDI) business start-up idea competition held in collaboration with the Microsoft Innovation Centre at the Skyparks Business Centre.
Spanning academia and industry, Nathaniel is resident faculty at the Department of Management, University of Malta – holding a PhD in business management and international entrepreneurship, and an MBA. He is a member on the board of the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Business Incubation at the University of Malta, and is associated with the Community for Internationalisation and Enterprise Research at the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow.
Other Judges on the panel for this year’s TMDI event were Dr Adrian Francalanza (Department of Computer Science, University of Malta), Mr Carmel Cachia (Executive at eSkills Malta Foundation), and Mr Marcel Cutajar (Managing Director at Agilis IT Business Solutions).
The Million Dollar Idea is an ICT-based annual competition encouraging students to take innovative business ideas a step further towards turning them into reality. During this weekend event teams sleep-over and further develop their start-up idea. They are given expert advice by appointed mentors, towards refining their concept and business plan. By the end of the weekend, they present and pitch their idea in front of a panel of judges.
Winning teams receive cash prizes and development assistance besides exposure. This year's winning team was 'Sci-Fi' presenting an agribusiness concept. Runners up were 'Flow' with a catering optimisation solution.
As an organisation, ICTSA incorporates and represents ICT students at various faculties at the University of Malta (including FEMA), as well as MCAST. Dr Massa and the Department of Management commend ICTSA's initiative.
