STUDENT WATER INNOVATION SHORTLISTED FOR NATIONAL AWARD

Four London students are hoping to clean up the nation’s waters with their invention, which has just been shortlisted for a national award.

The students, from Imperial College London, have created Qualboat – an autonomous boat that surveys water quality and uses AI to make intelligent predictions.

Engineering students Julia Gong Pinho, 21, and Rose Zheng, 20, partnered with Computing student Charlie Campbell, 20, and Physics student Aidan Randall, 20, created Qualboat on their way to winning a prize at their university’s WE Innovate competition which was part-funded by charity EIBF.

Now, the quartet have been shortlisted in EIBF’s Champion of Champions Competition, which will see them compete against nine other talented groups of students from across the UK.

Charlie said: “Growing up in the UK, we have witnessed first-hand the deterioration of our waters. For some of us, we grew up looking at sewage being dumped into the River Mersey near our homes. Our hope is that Qualboat can be used to catalyse a change in the industry, facilitating a clean-up of our waters, creating safe spaces for communities to use and allowing wildlife to thrive.”

The students say their innovation provides a faster and more comprehensive way of collecting water quality data, while operating at a lower cost than traditional methods and hope that it will allow water companies to better measure their water quality.

The Champion of Champions grand final will take place at the Royal Academy of Engineering on Friday 8 November, where the Qualboat team will compete for a share of the £16,500 prize pot, providing vital seed money to help winners develop their innovation.

Winners will also receive mentoring from business leaders who are members of the Sainsbury Management Fellows network, plus CV packages from PurpleCV and entrepreneurial books from Cambridge University Press and Double your Price, an award-winning book by

David Falzani MBE, which covers how pricing works with practical insights, tools and actionable guidance.

The event, hosted by TV presenter and engineer Rob Bell, is the culmination of a year of EIBF-sponsored enterprise competitions held across UK universities, with thousands of undergraduate and graduates taking part.

Each year, EIBF champions business education for engineers and supports universities by giving them grants to award prizes to engineering students who develop ideas that can make a positive impact on society.

On being shortlisted for the grand final, Julia said: “It gives us a platform to showcase our idea to a wider audience and make more people aware of the severe problem facing the UKs waters.”

Sarah Ranchev-Hale, Head of Imperial Enterprise Lab, said: “Throughout their time on the WE Innovate programme, Qualboat continuously embodied an innovative spirit and exemplified the technical prowess of Imperial College London students. Their progress from WE Innovate to the EIBF’s Champion of Champions Competition is a testament to their dedication and the vast potential of their venture. We are incredibly proud of their achievements and excited to see how Qualboat will contribute to cleaner, safer waters across the UK.”