The Business School’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) offers opportunities for students and staff of all faculties of the University of Auckland. CIE aims to help our community to develop an entrepreneurial mindset, technological confidence and innovative capability so that they can create the future we want to live in.
Join us to create the future!
AWARDS AND ACCOLADES
2022 Vice Chancellor award for Excellence in Community Engagement
Finalist – 2023 Excellence in Entrepreneurship Education awards – United States Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE)
Named one of the 2022 World’s Best Maker Schools
For more information about any of the following timeline stories, click on the header.
2022
JANUARY I UNIBOUND
CIE delivers workshops for participants in UniBound, the University’s university preparation programme for Māori and Pacific students.
FEBRUARY I SUMMER LAB
The seventh Summer Lab programme finishes. A diverse group of 84 participants worked in teams to find solutions to tackle some of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs).
FEBRUARY I HYNDS ENTREPRENEURIAL FELLOWS PROGRAMME LAUNCHES FOR 2022
The Hynds Entrepreneurial Fellows Programme aims to embed innovation and entrepreneurship in the curricula across the University by working with and supporting academics from all faculties. Over the coming months thousands of students across 7 faculties are supported in their learning with support from the Hynds programme.
MARCH I INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
CIE leads New Zealand’s contribution to an International Women’s Day event celebrating the role of women in education, led by the International Council of Small Business. Skip to 1:12:37 to see Vice Chancellor Dawn Freshwater and Professor Susan Watson, Dean of the Business School, discuss New Zealand’s journey in advancing women’s rights.
MARCH I MAKER CLUB LAUNCHES
Maker Club’s official 2022 Launch Night held as a hybrid event, with fifty makers coming together at Unleash Space and many more joining via Zoom.
MARCH I DOCTORAL ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME LAUNCHES
The free, year-long programme is designed to equip doctoral candidates from all disciplines with an entrepreneurial mindset and skills by teaching them tools and frameworks to develop ideas, opportunities, and solutions.
APRIL I WHIUA KI TE AO
Velocity runs Māori innovation and entrepreneurship event, Whiua Ki Te Ao online via Zoom with dozens in attendance.
APRIL I CIE HOSTS WOMEN IN ENGINEERING HOLIDAY CAMP PARTICIPANTS
Fifty secondary school students recently had the opportunity to participate in a Creative Inspiration and Design workshop at CIE’s Unleash Space at the end of April. The event was part of a 3-day Women in Engineering holiday camp held for Year 11 students from Auckland, Waikato and Whangarei.
MAY I 2022 VELOCITY INNOVATION CHALLENGE WINNERS REVEALED
The Velocity Innovation Challenge winners were revealed at a prize giving event, with each receiving part of a $20,000 prize pool.
JUNE I ROBOGALS INSPIRED TO EXPLORE STEM
A group of primary and intermediate school students visited CIE’s Unleash Space to participate in three interactive workshops exploring the world of STEM.
JULY I CIE STAFF REPRESENT NEW ZEALAND IN WASHINGTON DC
Staff from CIE represented New Zealand at the 2022 World Congress of the International Council of Small Business, the world’s largest international SME organisation dedicated to small business and entrepreneurship.
JULY I STUDY ABROAD STUDENTS EXPLORE THEIR POTENTIAL TO BECOME GLOBAL CHANGEMAKERS
An innovative programme that merged sustainability education with an introduction to social entrepreneurship was piloted with the latest influx of University of Auckland Study Abroad students.
AUGUST I UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND ALUMNI WIN BIG AT 2022 NZ HI TECH AWARDS
The NZ Hi–Tech Awards celebrate New Zealand’s most successful hi-tech companies and highest achieving individuals. University of Auckland alumni crowded the 2022 NZ Hi-Tech Awards finalist list, with alumni present in every category.
AUGUST I VENTURELAB INCUBATOR GRADUATES 2022 COHORT
CIE’s VentureLab incubator programme wraps for 2022 with an impressive showcase of the cohorts’ learnings. Ventures incubated address a wide variety of problems including water safety, making friends and 3D printing services.
SEPTEMBER I SOLVE IT WITH 5G INNOVATION SPRINT
Behaviour change problems of sustainable shopping, sidewalk safety and composting were addressed with hi tech solutions in the first ever Solve It with 5G sustainability innovation sprint run by CIE.
SEPTEMBER I CIE RECEIVES VICE-CHANCELLOR’S EXCELLENCE AWARD
CIE received the award for Excellence in Community Engagement. The award recognises excellence in creating or enhancing relationships with the wider community to foster the University’s local, national and international standing.
SEPTEMBER I STUDENT INNOVATORS TOUR SILICON VALLEY
A group of 13 University of Auckland students enjoyed the opportunity of a lifetime to have an all-expenses-paid trip to Silicon Valley, where they met with world-leading innovators and entrepreneurs. The Vanguard programme was made possible through the generosity of entrepreneur Tony Falkenstein, from the Just Life Group.
SEPTEMBER I 2022 INNOVATION BLUES AWARD WINNERS NAMED
Outstanding student innovators are formally recognised for a variety of initiatives in the 2022 University of Auckland Blues Awards.
OCTOBER I CIE PARTICIPANTS RECOGNISED WITH DISTINGUISHED GRADUATE AWARDS
A record 59 CIE participants have their newly acquired skills and extra-curricular work recognised with a University of Auckland Distinguished Graduate Award.
OCTOBER I VELOCITY $100k CHALLENGE WINNERS ANNOUNCED
Consent, mental health, and water quality were just a few of the real-world concerns tackled by innovators and entrepreneurs as part of the 2022 Velocity $100k Challenge.
OCTOBER I MAKER CLUB NAMED NEW CLUB OF THE YEAR
The University of Auckland Maker Club was named New Club of the Year at a glitzy University event at the Pullman Hotel, held in recognition of the more than 200 clubs on campus. The award recognised the Maker Club’s achievements in community building, with more than 50 events held.
NOVEMBER I ROBOT SCISSORS SNIP RIBBON AT TECH HUB LAUNCH
The Business School officially unleashed the 5G-powered technology hub Te Ahi Hangarau at an event celebrating a successful semester’s worth of beta testing of innovative curricular and co-curricular programme delivery.
NOVEMBER I CLIMATE TECH EVENT
Insights into the world of CleanTech entrepreneurship were shared at a networking event at Unleash Space by visiting keynote speaker, MIT Entrepreneur in Residence Ben Soltoff. The event was a collaboration between CIE and the University’s new flagship research centre Ngā Ara Whetū: Centre for Climate, Biodiversity and Society.
NOVEMBER I DOCTORAL ENTREPRNEURIAL LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME FINISHES
Participants in CIE’s first-ever Doctoral Entrepreneurial Leadership Programme have tapped into their entrepreneurial potential and learned valuable skills to enhance their future careers – both in and out of the academic world.
NOVEMBER I UNLEASH SPACE MANAGER REPRESENTS NEW ZEALAND AT INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON ACADEMIC MAKERSPACES
Unleash Space Manager Sean Kelly presented CIE’s paper on blended training models for different learning scenarios in Georgia, USA. The University of Auckland was the only university from the southern hemisphere represented at the conference.
2022 CIE ALUMNI STORIES
- CIE spin-out Auror were named 2022 EY Entrepreneur of the Year. Auror was runner-up in the 2012 Velocity challenge. Read more.
- The NZ Hi-Tech Awards celebrate New Zealand’s most successful hi-tech companies and highest achieving individuals. University of Auckland alumni crowded the 2022 NZ Hi-Tech Awards finalists list, with alumni present in every category. Read more
- EdTech company Kami has been named by TIME as one of the world’s top 100 most influential companies of 2022. They are listed in the ‘leaders’ category alongside companies such as Spotify, Sony, Impossible Foods and Airbnb. Read more
- Start-ups that began through CIE’s Velocity programme have been named in the 2022 Deloitte Fast 50, an index of New Zealand’s fastest growing businesses. Deloitte says that their inclusion is evidence of the important role universities have to play in developing New Zealand’s economic potential. Read more
- Toku Eyes AI technology scans eyes to predict the likelihood of blindness, stroke or heart disease. What sounds like science fiction is now science fact, currently operating in over 70 clinics worldwide. Having recently completed a $3.6 million investment round, the venture is now looking to expand operations from New Zealand, Australia and India into the United States. Read more
- FormusLabs, a venture co-founded by University of Auckland Professor Thor Besier and alumnus Dr Ju Zhang, has raised $5m USD towards their pre-operative planning software designed to assist orthopaedic surgeons with delivering joint replacement surgeries. Read more
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StretchSense, a global leader in high-precision motion capture technology for the gaming and animation sectors, finalised a $13.3m capital raise. Read more.
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Delta Waterways has developed an innovative solution that uses high-tech satellite data to monitor waterways remotely. Read more
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Poi therapy venture SpinPoi has gone global, with it’s founder establishing online certification courses. Read more
- Since graduating from the University of Auckland, Dr Francis Hunter has forged a career dedicated to finding enlightenment to some of the darkest diseases known to humankind. He now works in Pennsylvania in therapeutic discovery and development. Read more
- Jessica Tulp has been riding a tidal wave of industry innovation, working for cutting-edge start-ups including Rocket Lab and Soul Machines. Read more
- EnergyBank is an energy storage technology company founded by University of Auckland alumnus Tim Hawkey. Their technology, which envisions moving multi-thousand-tonne blocks of iron-ore the size of buildings back and forth between the ocean floor and surface, is a sustainable, economic, and scalable solution to accelerating decarbonisation. Read more
- BioFab, a biotechnology company founded by a team including University of Auckland alumni, are making a sustainable alternative to expanded polystyrene. They are using New Zealand fungi to grow a compostable and functional fungal mycelium packaging material they call mushroom packaging. Read more
- Kara Technologies is an award-winning start-up with a vision of making sign language avatars available anywhere a Deaf person might want to access services or entertainment. Read more
- Manzana is a new creative space and community supporting women entrepreneurs who are driven to change the world. Founded by University of Auckland alumnae Dil Khosa and Ché Zara Blomfield, the co-working space on Auckland City’s High Street offers workshops, events, and networking opportunities all designed to empower and support women entrepreneurs striving to improve the way we connect with each other and our environment. Read more
- SugarWallet, an app co-founded by University of Auckland alumni, is on a mission to make investing simple for the everyday Kiwi – for those who don’t have time for extensive research, who may not have a passion or investing, or the means to seek professional financial advice. Read more
- New Zealand venture NewFish® is pushing the boundaries of research and food culture to develop products that aim to introduce consumers to alternative food sources. University of Auckland alumna Paula Jeune has joined their operations team as a Research and Development Commercialisation Assistant, helping to translate the Creative Director’s recipes into commercially scalable products. Read more
- Market Development Facility (MDF) is a multi-country initiative which promotes sustainable economic development in partner countries. University of Auckland alumna Carline Bentley is supporting the organisation’s mission through her role as a Business Advisor in Fiji for MDF’s High Value Agriculture team. Read more
- Using drone technology and AI to collect and process visual data, the founders of MAUI63 hope to empower scientists, government, fisheries and the general public to take action to try and save the world’s rarest dolphin from extinction and influence future marine conservation efforts. Read more
- Vortex Power Systems is inspired by how whirlwinds from in nature and aims to generate kinetic energy from waste heat. So far the venture has raised $2 million to operationalise the company. With proof of concept complete the founders are now looking to build a demonstration station. Read more
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