Academic recognised for fostering student entrepreneurship
Dr Pete Mylon, Academic Lead for the iForge and Student-Led Activities in Engineering from Multidisciplinary Engineering Education, has won the Emerge: Be Enterprising Showcase Award for ‘Enterprise Champion of the Year’.
The Champion of the Year Award recognises individuals that have made a significant and positive impact on enterprise education or provision and who have worked alongside the Emerge Team to realise the potential of what the University of Sheffield has to offer in this space.
Pete was chosen because he has built a well-connected community through the various enterprising groups he leads, such as iForge, Hackcessible and the engineering Co-curricular Activities (CCA's). Due to this positive influence, CCA and Hackcessible projects are taking the initiative to turn their ideas into startups.
Dr Pete Mylon said: “I was honoured to be named Enterprise Champion of the Year. It's been a privilege to work with Matthew Charlton, Tom Hemington and Victoria at Emerge: Be enterprising at the University of Sheffield this year to develop our students' enterprise capabilities. Having access to the iForge makerspace has been a game-changer for budding entrepreneurs amongst our students, and we're also starting to see our co-curricular activities like Sheffield Bionics and Hackcessible taking steps towards commercialising their ideas thanks to support from the Emerge team.”
Tom Hemington, Enterprise Officer, said: “Pete is a strong advocate for the Emerge programme, by continually connecting us to his communities, introducing us to students who show particular entrepreneurial potential, and being more than willing to take time out of his schedule to showcase the iForge to those in our community. As a team, we were therefore really excited to recognise this advocacy in our recent Emerge Awards Showcase 2024.”
Sponsored by Santander Universities, the Awards Showcase is an annual event to reward the work of entrepreneurs from across the University of Sheffield community. Nominations can be for staff, students or alumni and were introduced to recognise and celebrate entrepreneurial based activity across the university; accelerate future growth of projects/start-ups by awarding financial support; incentivise students to develop ideas and launch ventures throughout their time at the university and drive a culture and behaviour change towards a more enterprising, innovative, challenge-led community.