Innovative students crowned Champion of Champions

Innovations that could transform the worlds of carbon capture, consumer travel and healthcare were among the projects that scooped up a set of prestigious national awards.

Student-led innovations went head-to-head in this year’s EIBF Champion of Champions Competition Grand Final at the Royal Academy of Engineering on November 8.

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

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 money-can’t-buy coaching from experienced industry professionals, finalists pitched their ideas to judges in a dragons’ den style event.

The students competed in two categories – Big Ideas and Startup.

The Big Ideas prize went to The Algae Photobioreactor, which aims to develop powerful and portable bioreactors that capture the same amount of carbon dioxide as 50 trees in the space of just one.

The Startup prize was awarded to Medscribe – an AI-powered clinical documentation solution aimed at reducing the time clinicians spend on paperwork while also enhancing the patient experience.

The Enterprise Award was given to pAiback – an idea that judges felt has the most commercial potential. Its system continually monitors the price of air fares to provide automatic savings to travellers.

The 2024 Champion of Champions Competition winners in full:

• Big Ideas winner (£3,000 plus mentoring): The Algae Photobioreactor, from Cardiff University
• Big Ideas runner-up (£1,500): FilTerra, from University of Bath
• Startup winner (£3,000 plus mentoring): Medscribe, from University of Nottingham
• Startup runner-up (£1,500): pAiback, from Southampton University
• Enterprise Award (£5,000 plus mentoring): pAiback, from Southampton University
• Best Presentation (£1,000): Parasolar, from Lancaster University
• Pre-show public vote (£500): The Algae Photobioreactor, from Cardiff University
• In-show public vote (£500): Qualboat, from Imperial College London
• Social Media Prize (£500): Leximos, from University of Dundee

As well as cash prizes, winners will also receive entrepreneur and business mentoring, CV packages from PurpleCV and innovation books from Cambridge University Press and EIBF President David Falzani MBE.
Morgan Taylor, founder of pAiback, took away a total of £6,500 in prize money. He said: “It feels great. It’s been really rewarding. Being in my pyjamas 18 months ago to standing up there with something to stand behind is really worthwhile.”

Dr Henry James, co-founder of Medscribe, said:

“It’s been a really lovely couple of days, with lots of really interesting people. We’ve been working remotely, and this has been the first time we’ve met and gelled as a team. The mentor feedback was incredible.”

Hajira Irfan, co-founder of The Algae Photobioreactor, said:

“We’re happy with the prize, but we’re really excited now because we actually get to make the bioreactor. Hopefully if the judges come to Cardiff soon, they’ll be able to see the bioreactor in action and see the work we’ve put in over the last two years.”

David Falzani MBE commented:

“The finalists did a wonderful job of presenting their business ideas – all of which showed leading edge innovation. We’re now working with 50 university partners and this year, our competitions have had over 4,000 participants and an audience of more than 300,000 students.”