FCS News

The ICT Sandbox - a collaboration between the Province of Nova Scotia, Dalhousie, Saint Mary’s, NSCAD, NSCC, and non-profit Volta Labs – announces that it has changed its name to ShiftKey Labs.

“This new name – ShiftKey Labs – allows us to emphasize our wide-ranging objective to shift to a more entrepreneurial mindset around students,” explains Grant Wells, program manager for the sandbox.

Wells worked with a team of students from the Management Without Borders (MWB) MBA course at Dalhousie to facilitate various marketing research activities including a focus group and a survey (with 350 responses). Sandbox representatives at each partner institution whittled the list of 75 name suggestions down to a shortlist of three. The final name was selected by majority vote in March.

 “I’m very pleased to have worked collaboratively with faculty, staff, students and sandbox partners to develop a new identity for the sandbox that inspires,” says Wells. “I hope it encourages even more students to access the great support and resources at their disposal.”

The new name is effective immediately.

About ShiftKey Labs

ShiftKey Labs focuses on supporting student start-ups in information and communications technology. Announce in March of 2014, the sandbox will receive $150,000 per year for three years and is hosted by Dalhousie University in the Goldberg Computer Science building.

ShiftKey Labs is an ICT-focused innovation program primarily aimed at post-secondary students who are looking to bring an idea to market. ShiftKey Labs provides students with physical collaboration space, mentorship, educational, and material support to foster and enable innovation and increase the chances of success as teams progress from pre-incubation to later stages of venture growth.

For more information on ShiftKey Labs, visit shiftkeylabs.ca or twitter.com/shiftkeylabs