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Venture – 2023

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Venture is Scotland’s largest university funding competition for new business ideas. Venture is a three-stage new business idea competition for all University of Dundee Students, Staff and Recent Graduates split across different prize fund categories.

 

First Prize Winner: Phlow - Flushable Eco-Friendly Sanitary Pads

Lydia Konduah, MSc Industrial Engineering and Management, won first prize for her innovation Phlow, which are flushable eco-friendly sanitary pads.  Lydia was awarded £5,000, £2,000 of which was an Engineers in Business prize. Prof Iain Gillespie, Principal and Vice-Chancellor at the University of Dundee presented Lydia with her prize.

Disposing of sanitary pads can be very tedious as pads have to be changed several times a day. Some sanitary waste stays in bins for days whiles some washrooms have no dustbins at all, hence making pads flushable will provide an easier, more hygienic and more convenient way of disposing of sanitary pads.

A plastic‐free sustainable sanitary pad is also necessary as according to figures published in the Journal of the Institution of Environmental Sciences approximately 1.4 million non‐flushable sanitary towels are flushed down the toilet in the UK every single day with most ending up in the waterways and in landfills causing drainage blockages and leading to environmental pollution.

 

 

 

Second Prize Winner: Rehabi-Ware

Stefan Olsson, BSc Biomedical Engineering was awarded £2,500 business innovation award – £1,000 is an Engineers in Business prize.  Prof Iain Gillespie, Principal and Vice-Chancellor at the University of Dundee presented Stephan with his prize.

The award was made for Rehabi-Ware, a home rehabilitation game and controller for upper-arm training.   A muscle activation sensor developed as a controller for a multiplayer video game primarily for the rehabilitation of the upper arm for those with inhibited arm motion. By combining the field of video games and rehabilitation, an easily transportable rehabilitation setup can enable survivors to train in the comfort of their own homes, and even in private.

By implementing multiplayer, survivors can also play games with others should they choose to, otherwise, they can stick to a solo mode that focuses on getting better by the game recommending the user to move up a level and the user ultimately choosing to do so.

The device aims to target both users who are encouraged via competition, users encouraged via cooperation, and users who would rather train alone by having those three selectable modes.