Announcing the Finalists in the Engineers in Business Champion of Champions Competition 2022

ANNOUNCING THE FINALISTS IN THE ENGINEERS IN BUSINESS

CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS COMPETITION 2022

Ten teams of student innovators from eight universities have been selected to pitch their business ideas in the dragons’ den style Engineers in Business Champion of Champions Final on 28 October 2022.

Engineers in Business Fellowship (EIBF) received an outstanding range of business ideas from student innovators at universities throughout the UK, giving the judges the tough task of selecting just 10 innovations from the eight universities. The finalists will compete for a share of the £15,000 prize fund to help them develop their ideas. Prizes also include entrepreneur and business mentoring, CV packages from PurpleCV, a leading CV writing company and innovation books from Cambridge University Press.

The finalists are competing in two categories – Startup Business and Big Ideas: Startups are businesses that are on their way to trading and Big Ideas are businesses of the future.

BIG IDEAS CATEGORY

University of Birmingham: My First Carbon Kit is a passive, home-use carbon capture system, that enables people to reduce their carbon footprint from home.

University of Birmingham: Plastic Powered Train  – This would use hydrogen gas sourced from deconstructed waste plastic for hydrogen fuel cells to retrofit electric trains.

University of Greenwich: UMMACH is a low-cost, environmentally friendly, 12V air-conditioning device that can be retrofitted to existing fan units.

University of Oxford: The ArJiCat Robot will prevent hospital medicine waste which results from hospital prescription cycles to patients of longer than one week.

University of Southampton: Amara Automotive – Amara’s Elecy is a four-wheeled, weatherproof e-bike, offering crash protection, that focuses on minimising emissions during both the production and operation stages, and allows for upgrading rather than replacement.

STARTUP CATEGORY

Imperial College London: Team Repair is the first sustainable subscription service teaching children science, technology, and the life skill of repair, by sending them an electronic gadget with carefully planned faults, and all the tools (which they get to keep) needed to fix it, together with an app to teach them the concepts and repair procedure.

Lancaster University: Moddies is a range of collectable, customisable and programmable robot STEM toys, with a python-based interface, designed to enable children to make their toys ‘come to life’, whilst helping them develop highly sought-after skills in coding, critical thinking, technology and innovation.

University of Nottingham: Mobiliaid is a portable, battery-powered, mobile seat raiser, lifting a person from a seated position or gently lowering them from standing, and rotating, if used in a car for example, which will help improve the quality of life of elderly people.

Queen’s University Belfast: Atlas Smart Tech has invented the SmartBell, a smartphone-controlled dumbbell, that offers twenty-six weight levels, which can be used in conjunction with Stronger Mobile, a gamified workout tracking app, which aims to turn people’s workout results into fun and shareable workout statistics.

University of Southampton: AMRSS provides AI solutions for real-time aerodynamic performance analysis, to enable engineers within the automotive, aerospace and renewables sectors to improve decision-making throughout the design, test and deployment stages.

The finalists’ entry videos can be viewed here – vote for your favourite innovation before midnight 27 October 2022.

WHAT’S NEXT?

This next stage of the competition kicks off with a Coaching Day for finalists, hosted at the Royal Academy of Engineering on 27 October 2022.

At this event, five Sainsbury Management Fellows, all business leaders who benefitted from an MBA scholarship from Engineers in Business Fellowship, will take two teams of finalists under their wings and coach them so they can make a stellar presentation at the Awards Presentation on 28 October.

Commenting on the competition, David Falzani MBE, President of the Engineers in Business Fellowship said, “The inventiveness of the students and the quality of their entries never fails to impress me. I look forward to seeing their pitches at the Awards Presentation after a day spent with their coaches perfecting their presentations and wish them all the best of luck.”

The finalists will receive red carpet treatment as they are photographed along with their mentors and display the pitch posters that helped to get them into the final. They will also give interviews about their competition experience, the inspiration behind their innovation and their ambition for developing their business idea.

Introducing the Sainsbury Management Fellows Coaches for the 27 October 2022 Coaching Day:

David Falzani MBE, President of Engineers in Business Fellowship, CEO at Polaris Associates and Professor at Nottingham University. David works with CEOs and senior executives, offering incisive strategic perspective and analysis, linking activity to drivers of success, and revealing buyer decision-making processes.

SMF Henning von Spreckelsen FREng, Investor and Director of multiple companies including the award-winning Plastecowood which recycles plastic that would otherwise go to landfills or incineration into plastic lumber called Smartawood™.

Simon Bonini, Board Member at Lightning Fibre, bringing hyperfast broadband to Eastbourne, Hastings, Heathfield and other areas in East Sussex allowing residents and businesses unparalleled speeds whether they are surfing, home working or streaming. Lightning Fibre’s focus is performance, community and service levels.

Andrew Hogwood, Chief Digital Officer at Lumon which makes international payments and hedging effortless for consumers and businesses. Over the last 15 years, Lumon has moved billions around the world, helping customers run their businesses, pay invoices/suppliers and staff and buy dream houses. Andrew runs all marketing, product and tech, leading the digital transformation of the whole company and the scaling of a digital unit with P&L responsibility.

Ian Peerless, Director at ExRobotics, is the leading expert in developing robots for harsh environments that require IECEx Zone 1 certification.