Student innovations to take to national stage

Ten student-led innovations with the potential to transform the world will go head-to-head in this year’s EIBF Champion of Champions Competition Grand Final this November.

Now in its sixth year, the competition sees university students and graduates showcase their problem-solving innovations to industry experts in a bid to win cash prizes.

This year’s finalists have developed innovations that could change the world of energy, healthcare, housing, tourism, education, social media and product design.

The event is the culmination of a year of enterprise competitions held across UK universities, with thousands of undergraduate and graduates taking part in contests sponsored by charity EIBF.

After a day of expert coaching from experienced industry professionals, finalists will pitch their ideas in a dragons’ den style event at the Royal Academy of Engineering in London on 8 November in a bid to win a share of the £16,500 prize pot.

As well as cash prizes, winners will also receive mentoring, CV packages from PurpleCV and entrepreneurship books from Cambridge University Press and EIBF President David Falzani MBE.

The ten finalists will compete in two categories – Big Ideas and Startup.

Big Ideas

• Circlone (University of Nottingham): A verified-only social media platform aimed at helping children aged 8+ transition online safely.
• Filterra (University of Bath): A carbon-negative domestic water filter to tackle the rising problem of microplastics in water.
• Parasolar (Lancaster University): A smart, luxurious and eco-friendly Parasol that combines shade and power.
• Qualboat (Imperial College London): An autonomous water quality surveying boat that makes intelligent decisions about data.
• The Algae Photobioreactor (Cardiff University): Powerful and portable bioreactors that capture the same amount of carbon dioxide as 50 trees in the space of just one.

Startup

• HYGGE (Bournemouth University): Affordable and adaptable living spaces that meet the needs of the country’s ageing population.
• Inclus (Loughborough University): A design consultancy aimed at reducing global inequality.
• Leximos (University of Dundee): An app that helps people learn a new language like they would do their native language.
• Medscribe (University of Nottingham): An AI-powered clinical documentation solution to reduce the time clinicians spend on paperwork.
• pAIback (University of Southampton): A system which continually monitors the price of air fares and provides automatic savings to travellers.

There is a pre-event public vote prize of £500, with people encouraged to vote for their favourite.

This grand final kicks off with a coaching day for finalists on 7 November, where a select group of Sainsbury Management Fellows, all business leaders who benefitted from an MBA scholarship from EIBF, will take two teams of finalists under their wings and coach them so they can make a stellar presentation at the awards presentation on 8 November.

David Falzani MBE, President of the Engineers in Business Fellowship said: “For the second year running, we received a record number of entrants into this year’s Champion of Champions Competition, and it was difficult to choose the final ten. The creativity, vision and quality of these innovations is hugely impressive and we’re looking forward to hearing more about them during our grand final activities.”