A group of IFT Year 4 bachelor degree students recently helped a Macao start-up test a smartphone application it has developed, called eTour. The students were led by IFT Visiting Assistant Professor Dr. Fernando Lourenço.
The new app is meant to give tour guides in Macao a way to advertise and sell their services and products direct to tourists, digitally. The software uses artificial intelligence to match a tourist that has certain demands with a tour guide that can meet them.
The students undertook the project to test the app as part of their IFT course in entrepreneurship, taught by Dr. Lourenço. The undergraduates were divided into groups, with each group tasked with developing a sample profile of an enterprise, including the services and products it offers, and uploading it to the app.
The co-founders of the company behind eTour, Mr. Armando Amante and Mr. Tony Lee, attended the final presentation given by the students. Mr. Amante and Mr. Lee both said they were satisfied with the outcome. They have offered the students the opportunity to give their company further help in the testing and fine-tuning of the app.
The project allowed the students to learn how start-up enterprises work, and about the use of technology to support business development in the tourism industry.
Dr. Lourenço says the project met the 5 criteria that he uses in teaching with a view to benefiting various stakeholders in the community. His criteria are that a project should, first, offer students experience of the real world which can enrich their resumes; second, generate results valuable for the clients/parties involved; third, improve the teaching at IFT and the specific degree programme; fourth, build up the overall quality of IFT; and, fifth, have a positive effect on Macao.
In academic year 2018/19, IFT invited several government officials and businesspeople to tell students about their experience of matters to do with entrepreneurship and give insights into such matters. The guest speakers included Director of Macao Economic Services Mr. Tai Kin Ip; Mr. Gregory Kuong of the Macao New Chinese Youth Association; Mr. Timothy Leong of the General Association of Chinese Students of Macau; Mr. Gary Chao Weng Hou of Bank of China; architect Mr. André Ritchie; businessman Mr. James Lo Kit; and representatives of the Forum for Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries (Macao).
