MET students have won an international competition for young entrepreneurs with their business idea the 'TouchSight Vision Mitt'.

The TouchSight team beat off five other teams from leading institutions around the world to take first prize at the Next Generation Entrepreneur Forum (NGEF) competition in Monaco worth 10,000 Euros. The team recently won both the Cambridge University Entrepreneurs £1k Business Idea Competition and the Varsity Pitch with their idea.

The 'TouchSight Vision Mitt' is an innovative low-cost mobility aid for the blind and partially sighted which enables the user to 'sense' their surroundings using ultrasonic sensors and vibration feedback actuators, whilst keeping the palm of the hand free for other tasks.

Pete Davies, Karan Keswani, Samaan Rahman and Jessi Baker, all in their final year, had to pitch their 'Vision Mitt' idea to an audience of 200 people, including many successful venture capitalists, and were then quizzed by a panel on stage.

Pete Davies said: "We have learnt a huge amount about entrepreneurship and have met amazing people from around the world with similar interests and great connections. We have come across several opportunities to help us take our business to the next stage. We are now taking steps to build more prototypes and bring the product to market."

TouchSight won particular praise for their social entrepreneurship from Candace Johnson, the co-initiator of the Astra satellite system and SES global, one of the world's largest satellite systems.

The NGEF event is a three-day networking competition attracting many venture capitalists and business angels, and offering students a chance to win international exposure.