Winners 2022
Engineers in Business Competition – Champion of Champions Final 2022
On 28 October 2022, we hosted our fourth Engineers in Business Champion of Champions Final at the Royal Academy of Engineering and live-streamed via YouTube. Ten university teams comprising engineering students and graduates pitched an impressive array of business innovations to win a share of the £15,000 prize money, mentoring from Sainsbury Management Fellows and prizes from our sponsors, PurpleCV and Cambridge University Press.
The background
The Awards Show was hosted by TV Presenter Rob Bell, who guided contestants through the spotlight of the show. Opening the show Rob said, “I am hugely supportive of Engineers in Business Fellowship for promoting and encouraging engineering students to bring together the two disciplines of engineering and business skills to help future professional engineers commercialise their innovations. Ultimately, this helps to improve the economic performance of UK engineering and sustain the reputation and value of the phrase Engineered in Britain.”
The finalists competed in two categories – Big Ideas and Start-ups. There was also the chance to win the £5,000 Enterprise Award, sponsored by Sainsbury Management Fellows (SMFs). This was awarded to the team that the judges felt had the greatest commercial potential.
Each finalist had just three minutes to pitch their ideas and then had to answer questions from the judging panel (see details at the end). After a nail-biting wait for the results, the winners were revealed.
The Winners
The Enterprise Award of £5,000 was won by Atlas Smart Technologies from Queen’s University Belfast. Atlas Smart Technologies 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 turns people’s workout results into fun and shareable workout statistics.
Start-up Business – First Prize of £3,000 went to Team Repair from 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 keep) needed to fix it, together with an app to teach them the concepts and repair procedure.
Start-up Business – Runner-up Prize of £1,500 was awarded to AMRSS from the 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.
Big Ideas – First Prize of £3,000 + People’s Vote and Audience Vote Prizes of £1,000 Prizes were awarded to Amara Automotive from the University of Southampton. 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.
Big Ideas – Runner-up Prize of £1,500 was awarded to UMMACH from the University of Greenwich: UMMACH is a low-cost, environmentally friendly, 12V air-conditioning device that can be retrofitted to existing fan units.
The Winning Innovations
The judges
SMF Chris Shelley, Chief Executive Officer, SolarBotanic Trees
SMF Caroline Cake, Entrepreneur in Residence at Oxford Science Enterprises
SMF Kwok Ng, Strategy Programme Manager, The Crown Estate
Dr Terri Holloway, Ingenuity Lab Manager, Entrepreneur in Residence, University of Nottingham
Our thanks and appreciation to our prize sponsors: PurpleCV is providing personal CV packages to all participants in each winning team and CUP (Cambridge University Press) is providing the publication Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship to each winning team.
A Word from the Head Judge
Head Judge SMF Chris Shelley, Chief Executive Officer, SolarBotanic Trees said: “This is an exceptionally talented group. It was very difficult to separate many of the presentations. Congratulations to all participants. The improvement in presentations, following their coaching sessions, from the initial submissions was noticeable in everyone. In the end, the overall winner of the Enterprise Award won by demonstrating the traction and momentum that motivated them. But everyone pitched great ideas and should be very proud. Congratulations-you are all winners!”