The University of Auckland has been named Entrepreneurial University of the Year at the Asia-Pacific Triple E Entrepreneurship and Engagement Excellence Awards in Higher Education. Other contenders for the category included entrepreneurial superstars such as Tel Aviv University, the University of Adelaide, University of Technology Sydney and Malaysia’s Management and Science University.

The University of Auckland has been named Entrepreneurial University of the Year at the Asia-Pacific Triple E Entrepreneurship and Engagement Excellence Awards in Higher Education. Other contenders for the category included entrepreneurial superstars such as Tel Aviv University, the University of Adelaide, University of Technology Sydney and Malaysia’s Management and Science University.

Business Schools the world over are pivoting in how and who they deliver education to in light of rapidly changing demographics and the needs of Business. This is the ultimate observation of Professor of Entrepreneurship Rod McNaughton who has returned to the University of Auckland after a two month trip during his sabbatical, which included visits to leading business schools in Canada, Scotland and Finland.

Each year members of the Velocity student entrepreneurship programme organising committee have the opportunity to travel abroad on an exploration and discovery trip to an international business hub. The experience is funded by the Business School’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Wayve, a start-up dedicated to accelerating autonomous mobility through learning based approaches instead of hand-coded rules has received a $20M Series A funding round to launch a pilot fleet of autonomous vehicles in central London. The company was co-founded by University of Auckland alumnus Alex Kendall.

Caroline Hope is a recent Engineering graduate who is currently working at Beca as a Process Engineer and undertaking a number of leadership roles in both Beca and Engineers Without Borders. While studying at University, Caroline participated in programmes delivered by the Business School’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship which helped her further develop the skills and networks necessary to fast-track her career.

With a string of awards and some great media exposure, Kate Riegle van West has used her love of poi and provided some solid research into the health benefits.

A recent study has found that New Zealand has the highest percentage of women graduates who found start-ups, at 13.4%. Of these 13.4%, almost half are from the University of Auckland.

Trudi Gwillim is the Associate Director of the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. She has a background in senior leadership and has studied positive psychology with the Langley Group Institute. Earlier this year she was asked to speak on the topic of Imposter Syndrome at the University of Auckland’s professional staff conference ASPIRE.

New Zealand’s next generation of star innovators and entrepreneurs have been identified at this year’s Velocity $100k Challenge competition finals. Among the winners were an aquaculture technology venture set to revolutionise the mussel industry, a space technology venture solving power supply issues, a poi-based health and wellbeing venture, a glaucoma-detection tool and a social venture designed to aid the Pacific’s medical equipment donation systems.