Bright sparks light the way to success

Sep 17 2009 by Peter McCusker, The Journal

Around £7m has been earmarked to help North East technology companies develop new products and processes by working with some of the country's brightest young minds. Peter McCusker reports.

TYNESIDE people-tracking firm TrackaPhone believes the work of a postgraduate student may help it expand into a whole new area of business and another postgrad has helped a Gateshead company save £250,000.

And it’s not just these companies who have benefited from the recently rolled out North East Studentships programme (NESt) – it has now placed postgraduate students at more than 350 North East businesses.

Originally launched as a pilot programme at Newcastle and Durham Universities in 2007, it now involves the region’s three other universities, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside.

A spokesman for regional development agency One North East explains: “The North East Studentship provides full or partial funding for study at Masters or PhD level at one of the five universities in North East England combined with work-based placements at companies in the region.

“While studying, the graduates get the chance to work on a ground-breaking project with one of these companies. These placements last between one and three months. Companies in the business of innovation know how vital it is to attract the most innovative employees.

“NESt enables companies to do just that. It allows a business to work with the highest calibre of postgraduates on groundbreaking projects with no extra cost. It is a great way to get tomorrow’s high flyers today.”

One such graduate is James Nicholson of Northumbria University who has been testing a new mobile phone system which could help parents protect their children by providing their location at any time.

The School of Psychology and Sports Sciences has been testing the TrackaPhone People Locator monitoring system to see if it is a feasible product for child safety.

Researcher James has carried out a two week trial, working with parents in the North East who have children aged 6-10 and 13-17. During the trial, the children’s mobile phones were registered with TrackaPhone’s People Locater Service and the study tested the system to record the children’s locations. Parents were able to access the information at any time.

He said: “Our study tested a protection monitoring system on families and more specifically on younger, dependent children, in order to assess its feasibility. It is taking a product which has a successful business application and looking at how successfully it might be used in a home and family environment.”