Winners of the JA-YE Innovation Camp 2008

14-15 May 2008

80 students show off innovation and creativity at the JA-YE Innovation Camp

80 students from 12 European countries gathered together in Brussels last week, for 24 hours to respond to Nokia's Business Challenge:

"Modern technology, such as mobile phones, has transformed all our lives and changed the way we behave. Can you think of other innovative solutions that could be just as transformational in the future and not harmful to the environment?"

Students, teamed up in international teams of five, had to work together and come up with innovative solutions to address Nokia's challenge in just 24h. During the camp, 6 Nokia employees volunteered their time to offer students advice in their area of expertise.

Finalists of the JA-YE Innovation Camp 2008 and Emile Baak, General Manager Nokia Benelux

Team "Unity", Britt Eli Gjersvold (Norway), Graur Ana-Maria (Romania), Timothy Jacob (Belgium), Otto Rouhiainen (Finland) and Raiko Kikkas (Estonia), won the first prize with their bag made of natural recyclable materials covered with a sun panel and a shaking system to recharge batteries for computers, mobile phones and mp3 players.

JA-YE Innovation Camp is a new educational approach that nurtures entrepreneurship by motivating young people to be inventive and take risks in an interactive way and a learning-by-doing experience. The participants are encouraged to explore all kinds of solutions in the form of products or services. . Nokia sponsored the first such camps in Russia and Romania as well as this flagship one at the European level with students from many countries at once. JA-YE Innovation Camps are already popular in Norway, Finland and Estonia and run in partnership with many different businesses and organizations. As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility strategies, Nokia has emphasized the importance of working with young people, improving access to technology around the world and engaging its employees as volunteers.

"The Innovation Camp is an excellent opportunity for Nokia to nurture entrepreneurship by motivating young people to be inventive and take controlled risks. At the same time they explore the many new career opportunities that modern business offers, particularly in the areas of science and technology," said Emile Baak, General Manager Nokia Benelux.

"Europe needs to boost its capacity for creativity and innovation for both social and economic reasons and young people play an important role in this. Innovation Camps give students the invaluable opportunity to develop their interpersonal as well as problem-solving skills, learn to work with very tight deadlines and be challenged by business mentors," said Caroline Jenner, CEO of JA-YE Europe.

Other finalists:

• Quick Stick, a sticker that contains a WiMax sender, sending a signal to the nearest WiFi network.
• A new device allowing food-markets and restaurants to keep record of all your short durability groceries, reducing unnecessary waste. A medical shoe with a screen upon the shoe, that leads the walker to his destination.
• A translation programme "Connecting People" that can be added to mobile phones and will automatically translate the message into the language you are connecting to.

For more information, please contact Diana Filip, diana@ja-ye.org

Editorial notes

JA-YE Europe (www.ja-ye.org) is Europe's largest provider of enterprise education programmes, reaching 2,6 million students in 40 countries in 2007. Funded by businesses, institutions, foundations and individuals, JA-YE brings the public and private sectors together to provide young people in primary and secondary schools and early university with high-quality education programmes to teach them about enterprise, entrepreneurship, business and economics in a practical way. The JA-YE Company Programme is recognised by the European Commission Enterprise Directorate General as a 'Best Practice in Entrepreneurship Education'

Nokia (www.nokia.com) is the world leader in mobility, driving the transformation and growth of the converging Internet and communications industries. Nokia makes a wide range of mobile devices and provides people with experiences in music, navigation, video, television, imaging, games and business mobility through these devices. Nokia also provides equipment, solutions and services for communications networks.