THE
LUMINARY
UNIVERSIT Y OF MALTA ALUMNI NEWSLET TER
www.um.edu.mt/alumni
JANUARY 2015
MCA TAKEOFF Award
MCA awards EUR 19,968 to a promising technology start-up: TAKEOFF
incubator to support idea development and commercialisation
InboundMuse is the first start-up to benefit from the MCA
TAKEOFF Award and was presented with a seed fund of
€19,968 during a ceremony held recently. The Award
is a joint initiative between the Malta Communications
Authority (MCA) and the University of Malta as a result
of a collaborative agreement.
The award was presented to InboundMuse founders Mr
Tyron Lloyd Baron and Mr Neville Bezzina by Dr Edward
Woods, Chairman of the MCA and Professor Juanito
Camilleri, Rector of the University of Malta. This award is
aimed at supporting local start-ups in the development
of innovative business ideas in communications, with a
view to taking such ideas to the commercialisation stage.
Through the campus-based TAKEOFF Incubation Centre,
the University will support the project by offering office
facilities and dedicated business mentorship.
InboundMuse proposed the development of a
Software-as-a-Service solution through which business
clients, particularly SMEs, are given the tools to
monitor their inbound-marketing strategies. The idea
promises to provide business value by leveraging on
Artificial Intelligence (AI) to exploit big data — data
which is too large and complex to be processed costeffectively by humans. For further information see
the TAKEOFF website and the Malta Communications
Authority website.
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Visit of Public Policy students
to European Institutions
A group of more than twenty
students from the University of
Malta’s Faculty of Economics,
Management and Accountancy
(FEMA), the Institute of Public
Administration and Management
(IPAM) and the Institute for
European Studies went on a study
visit to Brussels organised by the
Department of Public Policy during
the first week of December.
The intensive study trip consisted
of seminars and information sessions
at a number of key European institutions, including the European Commission, the European Parliament
and the European Council, as well as
the Committee of the Regions and
the European Economic and Social
Committee. At the European Commission, the students had meetings
with Commissioner Karmenu Vella,
as well as with other experts and officials including members of the Maltese permanent representation in
Brussels at Dar Malta.
The group also spent a day at the
European Parliament observing proceedings in Committees, attending
an information seminar and participating in Question and Answer sessions with MEPs Dr Alfred Sant and
Dr Roberta Metsola. During their
visit, students also had the opportunity to visit a number of European
think-tanks that are key stakeholders in lobbying processes through
the preparation of research dossiers
on policy initiatives steered by European institutions.
The study trip provided students
with an insight into policy-making at
the European level and gave them
exposure to high level officials in
different institutions. This is another
academic initiative that serves as
a bridge between public sector
management within the national
arena and European affairs at the
supranational level. The students
were accompanied by Mr Robert
Micallef, resident academic within
the Department of Public Policy, who
coordinated the study visit.
Public Seminar on Family Violence and the Law
A student-led public seminar on family violence and the
law was recently organised by the University of Malta’s
Faculty of Laws and presided over by the President of
Malta, H.E. Marie Louise Coleiro Preca.
Students presented some key findings in their
research, which raised such questions as: is marital rape
a silent crime in Maltese society? Is elder abuse in the
family more or less serious than child abuse? What is the
relationship between a culturally constructed notion
of masculinity and violence in the family? Which should
be punished more strongly: incest or stranger sexual
assault? How prevalent is child to parent violence in
Malta? For instance, an issue which raised major concern
is the adolescent to mother violence, which remains
one of the most hidden forms of family violence and the
least researched in Malta.
In her concluding speech, President Coleiro Preca
discussed her experience of listening to young people
in schools, who openly expressed dissatisfaction
with the existing realities in their respective families
and the repercussions these had on their health and
personal wellbeing.
The seminar was coordinated by Professor Frances
Camilleri-Cassar of the Faculty of Laws.
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European
Youth
Exchange
Programme
Climate Changes as
Fast as Fashion
Inviting young
people to make
Malta greener
Are you interested in issues related to environmental sustainability? If so, the Innovation Challenge: Go Green is just for you. During the launching which
took place at TAKEOFF Business
Incubator at the University
of Malta in November by the
Hon. Chris Agius — Parliamentary Secretary for Research,
Innovation Youth and Sport
– young people were invited
to identify an environmental
problem that affects the Maltese
Islands and to come up with
a green innovation solution
to this problem. Finalists will
be featured in a publication
and the winners will have the
opportunity to participate in
an international activity related
to environmental innovation.
A number of workshops will be
organised to help the participants
prepare their submissions for the
competition, including on how
to identify relevant problems
and solutions. Young people
who do not yet have a clear
idea in mind are therefore still
encouraged to get involved by
joining the event page that has
been set up on Facebook, where
updates about the workshops
and competition will be posted.
This competition is a joint initiative between Aġenzija Żgħażagħ
and The Edward de Bono Institute for the Design and Development of Thinking at the University of Malta, in collaboration with
TAKEOFF Business Incubator.
Further information is available on the website of Aġenzija Żgħażagħ . For any queries please send an email.
A group of Junior College students together with partners
from Cyprus, Poland, Romania,
Austria, Bulgaria, and Estonia,
are participating in a European Youth Exchange programme
called “Climate Changes as Fast
as Fashion.” The main objective
of the programme is to enable
young people and their teachers
to work together and strengthen their European citizenship,
promoting inclusion, the environment and intercultural awareness.
The students involved in the programme attended a number of
lectures by the Department of Environmental Science at the University of Malta in order to learn more
about the local climate effects. A
meeting was also held in Cyprus,
where participants exchanged the
results of their findings. Ms Miriam
Soler and Mr Carmel Hili, lecturers,
accompanied the students while
the project is being co-ordinated
by the Eurocentre at Junior College.
This newsletter is published by the Communications and Alumni
Relations Office within the University of Malta.
All Rights Reserved 2015