UCL celebrates impact and support on local businesses

UCL celebrated on 1 November the impact that staff, students and alumni have had on local enterprises in the last year with awards for the strongest projects carried out to date and the launch of SMILE, a new mentoring initiative. The awards were made for projects carried out under Higher Education London Outreach (HELO), a part-European Funded programme managed by UCL Advances (UCL's centre for business interaction and entrepreneurship) involving software company MegaNexus Ltd, the London Business School, and other partners that aims to support small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in London through short-term consultancy. HELO draws from the expertise of UCL and London Business School by creating teams of students to solve the problems of the businesses they work with. This competition was set up to reward and celebrate the work of students and staff who have taken part in HELO. HELO is currently working with over 70 businesses in London and has completed over 30 projects. Professor Anthony Finkelstein, Dean of UCL Engineering, presented the HELO Awards. He summarised: 'HELO is an excellent programme combining the academia with the enterprise world and we can see real benefits from both sides.