Computer game technology is being emulatedto help save young soldiers’ lives in the frontline.

PlayStation-style joysticks are beingdeveloped for machine gunners to be locatedinside military vehicles and essential componentsfor them are set to be made by Cambridgeshireengineering company, Shearline.

Ely-based Shearline already makes a highlyspecialist kit of parts for a UK defencecustomer that is key to the new dual-optionjoystick design.

Gunners can either use the control like atraditional joystick or utilise the computergames option that will come second nature toyounger soldiers weaned on PlayStation andperhaps games like Activision’s ‘Call of Duty’where the returned fire doesn’t prove fatal.

Shearline’s Technical and Commercialdirector, Charles Maltby, told Business Weekly:“Using the advanced technology, machinegunners don’t have to stick their head out ofthe vehicle.

“It’s a fantastic, highly innovative idea touse PlayStation-type technology because of theyoung age of so many of our troops going tothe front line in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Itwill be familiar to them and it could save theirlives.”

Shearline dispatches the kits in bespokeelectrostatic packs which go straight into theclient’s clean room for assembly.

“Eventually Shearline hopes to offerfurther added value and have its own in-houseclean room to offer a turnkey service for the

joystick parts manufacture.The defence customer concerned has

reached the next stage of a ramp-up strategyand Shearline will be increasing production by50 per cent on these items to support the salesgrowth.

Maltby said: “This is a highly controlledproduction process and Shearline was able tooffer a design for manufacture service onseveral components that helped reduceproduction costs on this product.”

Shearline, through its ShearXL division, isalso set to cash in on the motorsport sectorfollowing a shrewd investment last year fromchairman, owner and founder DavidLittlechild.

He was forced to use part of his pensionfund and his daughter’s savings to leverageSantander money and buy the assets of F1supply chain stalwart Last Engineering fromthe administrator when his own bank turneddown the deal.

The bank concerned may care to send forthe sick bag: Work in the ShearXL division hasnow reached manpower capacity andadditional machinists are being sought tosupport the high level of motorsportscustomer interest in the facility.

Maltby said: “We’re sending a global ‘Comeand Join us’ message to high calibre millerswherever they are based to come and join us aswe have spare machine capacity, orders in thebooks and could expand this work on state-of-the-art gearboxes even further.

“It is a very exciting opportunity for thecompany.”

>>> Continued on page 27

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Games joystickconcept to savelives on front lineby Tony Quested

BUSINESSWEEKLYAT THE HEART OF INNOVATION IN CAMBRIDGE & THE EAST OF ENGLAND

March 10-17, 2011 no.622 65pwww.businessweekly.co.uk

THE REAL DEALPages 11-22

BUDGET 2011Pages 8 & 9

in association with in association with

Pictures and reactions from the inaugural Cambridge Startup Weekend – Pages 20-21

BUSINESSWEEKLY March 10-17, 2011

THE REAL DEAL

Entrepreneurs want tosee more start-uphothousing in future

www.businessweekly.co.uk

20

CAMBRIDGE STARTUP WEEKEND: Business Weeklyʼs inside track on a successful inaugural event at St Johnʼs Innovation Centre

Cambridge entrepreneurs involved in theinaugural Cambridge Startup Weekend want tosee a legacy put in place that leverages the ideasand energy generated by such hothousing events.

Judges, speakers and mentors emerged fromthe intensive 54-hour event inspired by the inputof the ‘pitchers.’

Billy Boyle, co-founder of Owlstone Nanotechin Cambridge and a keynote speaker said: “Ithought it was a great event; we should definitelybe doing more of this type of thing. I spoke aboutthe need to learn quickly and adapt during thestart-up phase; the journey is long so get readyfor the slog.”

One of the judges, Allan MacLean of AmdeoLtd, added: “I was impressed by the range of ideaspresented and how much they developed over theweekend. Maybe not ‘man on the moon’, but lotsof cool stuff that clearly got people engaged andhas to be good for moving UK plc forward.”

Another keynote speaker, Dr Shai Vyakarnam,director of the Centre for EntrepreneurialLearning at Cambridge University, was sufficientlyenthused to offer Judge Business School as avenue for a similar event in future.

Business Weekly, a gold sponsor of the event,backed the wireless category. Five of the 17pitching groups had a clear wireless componentand a few others had some wireless relevance.Kevin Coleman of Cambridge Wireless membercompany Alliantus acted as a mentor for thewireless entries.

The wireless prize went to a group – CPRVolunteers – led by Bonnie Cotier that developedan application to help get a qualified volunteer toa heart attack victim as rapidly as possible toadminister CPR. The other team members wereEdwin Hayward, James Shepherd, Saqib Shaikhand James Browne.

MacLean said: “They were a particularlyinteresting team as they started on Friday eveningfocusing on an application to get missing personsinto the system as rapidly as possible.

“On Saturday during discussion with mentorsand exploration of the domain they discoveredthat rapid response to heart attacks was very highpriority in the new government initiative onhealthcare so decided to change focus aroundmidday Saturday.

“They did an incredible amount of work topull together a credible demonstration of theconcept in not much more than 24 hours. Overalla great example of how tight time pressure canget things done – and of course what the startupweekend format can do.”

The real ‘prize’ for the group may be yet tocome. They are keen to continue developing theidea and Cambridge Wireless has already offeredhelp and encouragement to see if the idea can bemoved from pilot to scale. Business Weekly willalso provide publicity to the company.

Cambridge Wireless chief executive, Dr SorayaJones, is inviting the group to key events thecompany is running over the next few months – alocation special interest group (SIG) event onMarch 23 and a healthcare SIG event on May 19.

Healthcare also figured large in the StartupWeekend thanks to the backing of youngcompany Cambridge Healthcare, whose CEODawson King was a judge.

InspiringThe company’s chairman and serial healthcare

pioneer, Professor Alan Barrell – one of the keynotespeakers – praised the organisers and the eventsponsors, including Business Weekly – forencouraging budding entrepreneurship.

He said: “The Cambridge Startup Weekendwas wonderful – inspiring. But what a pity thatnobody from Government – not even locals MPs –was there over the three days of the event to seethe wonder of these young people who havestarted or are starting businesses. We need more

encouragement, moral and financial support fromgovernment for our inspirational young people.”

The Startup Weekend finished at St John’sInnovation Centre on Sunday night (March 13)after a marathon 54 hours of mentoring,

brainstorming and pitching ideas. Overall winner was Lessonista whose pitch

was an online facility to provide lesson-sharingplans for English Literature teachers.

Belongingsfinder.com – which won the ‘Best

Social Enterprise’ award – was conceived to allowvictims of this week’s natural disaster in North-East Japan and related areas to report their lostobjects and upload images of found personalbelongings. As soon as the website findsmatches of lost and found requests people areconnected to help recover their losses.

Rosedene Video Care won the BestHealthcare prize. Sonnet and Touch Paperworkwere other finalists.

All the pitching groups were given a rousingstart by messages of goodwill – and sound advice– from Professor Barrell, Billy Boyle, JamieUrquhart of Pond Ventures and Dr Vyakarnam.

Winnersʼ profiles

OVERALL: LessonistaAn application that allows English literatureteachers to share resources with their colleaguesacross the country simply and easily(http://www.lessonista.com/).

HEALTH: RosedeneAn online video application that links trainednurses to patients across the world, without themneeding to go into hospital.

WIRELESS/MOBILE: CPR VolunteersA mobile application, it uses ambulance dispatchdata to alert registered, trained CPR volunteerswhen someone near them calls in with acardiopulmonary emergency through an app ontheir phone. The app also shows them where thenearest equipment (such as defibrillators) is, andaims to save lives (http://cprvolunteers.com/).

COMMUNITY: Belongingsfinder.orgA humanitarian app created in response to theJapanese earthquake, it aims to re-unite victimswith their cherished possessions. Finders simplyphotograph and upload items that they find intoa searchable database. In Japan handing in lostproperty is central to life and culture (in one yearover $21m in cash is handed into Tokyo lostproperty offices) and this app (in Japanese andEnglish) aims to help by putting the processonline (http://www.belongingsfinder.org/).

WILDCARD PRIZE: SonnetAn iphone application, it allows you to composeand send love letters that will delight your lovedones. It has been submitted to the iTunes AppStore and should be on sale shortly(http://twitter.com/#%21/sonnetapp).

Photographs by Alan Bennett ‒ Media Imaging Solutions www.mediaimagingsolutions.com, tel: 0781 499 4934

BUSINESSWEEKLY March 10-17, 2011

THE REAL DEALwww.businessweekly.co.uk

21

Dr Vyakarnam urged a little sang-froid amidthe excitement of innovation and said start-upshad to run on something a lot more substantialthan adrenaline. He said young companiesneeded to be more cash conscious earlier in theirlife cycles. Cashflow was vital to sustain even theyoungest of businesses, he said.

Red Gate Software was platinum sponsor forthe event, into which the organisers – JamesDigby, Mauro Ciaccio, Chris Measures and BonnieCotier poured hearts and souls.

The judging panel that gave so much of theirtime and enthusiasm free of charge was led byNeil Davidson of Red Gate. He was joined byserial entrepreneur Jack Lang, representing JudgeBusiness School, Paul Smith (Eventility), DawsonKing (Cambridge Healthcare), Cambridge angelinvestor Peter Cowley and Allan MacLean ofAmdeo Ltd.

The hardworking mentors who also gave uptheir weekend R & R to nurture the raw ideas intoa presentable format were: Paul Walsh (CEO,Cognidox), Robin Little (Associate, Beer &Partners), Kevin Coleman (Alliantus Ltd),Emmanuel Carraud (Magic Solver), AlistairPaterson (Marketing Consultant), Tony Short(Jasper Apps), Jo Vertigan (Obidos Consulting),Eric Swain (Spice), Chris Arnold (Percollate), SteveO’Connor (Airsource Ltd), Ronnie Barker (TheAgile Workshop), Aamir Butt (United Lane),Simon Kingston (Kolila Consulting Ltd), JeremyParsons (Red Gate), and Nick Barker (AwareMonitoring).

"As organisers, we were amazed by thewide range of ideas, the level ofpresentations and the commitmentshown by all the teams. The mentors,speakers and judges were also veryimpressed. We are really happy to havecreated such an event in Cambridge. ForCambridge to flourish as an innovationhotspot, I believe events like this areessential to stimulating and promotingthe discovery of new software startups. Iwould again like to thank all of oursponsors, and especially Red Gate,Business Weekly and CambridgeHealthcare for making the eventpossible."Mauro Ciaccio (Founder of event organiser,CamTechNet)

The event organisers have decided to ringfence their share of proceeds from Cambridge Startup Weekend tofacilitate other activities to promote tech startups in Cambridge so the event can create a legacy to build on.http://www.camtechnet.info/