April 12, 2018, by The Ingenuity Lab

Ingenuity18: Meet the Top 24

From the Ideas Summit right through to the final pitching stages, Ingenuity18 has been an incredible journey of creativity and exploration for many people. With 254 teams globally and over 450 innovators bringing their ideas on how to #FixTheWorld, our amazing judging panel have whittled it down to the Top24 who will be in with a chance to win from the Ingenuity18 £100,000 prize fund on Tuesday, 24th April. Read all about them below and cast your vote in the People’s Choice Awards.

Update 29/05/2018: We have now updated this blog article to feature the prizes won by each successful Ingenuity18 team.

Innov8tia

Innov8tia was founded by three University of Nottingham Ningbo Campus students, now alumni.

Innov8tia has developed the world’s most advanced solution for hazardous industrial sludge – one of the largest, fastest growing, and most insidious problems in China’s emerging $1.2 trillion environmental sector.

Developed over the last eight years by the team at The University of Nottingham, Innov8tia is now commercialising the technology.

Innov8tia is also part of the Laudauto Si’ Challenge accelerator, a partnership between The Vatican and Silicone Valley to address humanity’s largest environmental and social challenges using for a profit mission driven model.

Watch a short video about Innov8tia here: www.bit.ly/Innov8tia

Contact Seth Knutson (Environmental Science, 2016) to find out more: s.knutson@innov8tia.com

The Human Flourishing Project

The Human Flourishing Project (HFP) is an existing, community-based, grassroots, psychological well-being service. It offers free psychotherapy service to the community of Nottingham, run by postgraduate student therapists. 

Delivering person-centred psychotherapy to Nottingham, Leadership and Employee Assistance Programme (LEAP) is the sustainable arm of HFP, promoting the psychological well-being of local SME’s.

This year, the HFP team are also applying for large lottery grants to ensure that the free psychotherapy service for trauma, mental health and human flourishing can continue to expand. They also have a crowdfunding platform in operation, allowing people to ‘buy’ blocks of therapy.

Support HFP’s Crowdfunding campaign here: www.bit.ly/HumanFlourishingProject

Contact Jennifer Holland (MA Person-Centred Experiential Counselling and Psychotherapy Practice, 2018) to find out more: ttxjh79@nottingham.ac.uk 

Flourish

The Flourish team are passionate about encouraging, supporting and developing women and girls to be the best they can be. 

They believe that through enabling women and girls from all backgrounds to reach their full potential, we can help change

society for the better. Describing themselves as ‘enablers of interventions’, Flourish aim to harness a range of services and resources under one brand.

Flourish have a range of UK-based workshops in 2018, covering themes including career planning, assessments and interviews, and mastering the art of communication.

Find out more about the Flourish here: www.bit.ly/FlourishInternational

Contact Jackie Andrews (Skills and Development Manager, Nottingham University Business School) to find out more: jackie@flourish.international

Prizes won:

• Enterprise Grant

MealMate

MealMate aims to make the dining-out process more transparent and accessible for people with allergies and dietary requirements. 

Eateries will be able to upload the contents of their meals onto MealMate for consumers to search for exactly what they want based on their dietary preferences. MealMate will enable more individuals to enjoy the experience of eating out carefree through the intelligent use of technology.

MealMate will also promote eco-friendly eateries and those which champion workers’ rights, meaning customers can see what actions each venue to takes in order to address sustainability issues.

Contact Jordan Hales (MSc Business Analytics) to find out more: jordan10.hales@hotmail.com 

Prizes won:

• Enterprise Grant

Super Health Foods Ltd

Super Health Foods provides a sustainable solution for the growing food shortage and natural resource scarcity in the world; through the development of a shared kitchen and sustainable urban farm.

Their sharing model strives to enable the business to be economically viable, while overseeing sustainability in all levels: environmental integrity, economic resilience, social well-being and good governance.

The Super Health Foods Ltd team is made up of alumni Flavia with over 12 years of experience in engineering, consultancy and management; and Mike, a digital marketer with over 10 years experience in the industry.

Contact Flavia Villarroel (MSc Sustainable Energy and Entreprenuership, 2017) to find out more: flaviavillarroel@gmail.com

Prizes won:

• Enterprise Grant
• Sainsbury’s Management Fellow (SMF) Mentor30Engineer prize

MediSmart

MediSmart aims to provide a 24/7 smart monitoring system to enable healthcare providers to obtain and analyse data about patients’ wounds remotely.

Current wound monitoring technologies can record changes in one wound parameter at a time. MediSmart provides complete wound monitoring system to record changes in wound environment parameters without removing wound dressings, enhancing healing and reducing the cost of therapy.

The MediSmart team consists of three scientists – Omar, Abdulraham and Hosam –  from the pharmaceutical industry and regenerative medicine background with skills in biomaterials, drug delivery and additive manufacturing of medical devices and tissue constructs.

Contact Omar Hamid (PhD Pharmacy, 2018) to find out more: omerabdulhakem@yahoo.com

Prizes won:

• Potter Clarkson prize
• Research prize

Maize Network

Maize Network generates and trades electricity in their proprietary peer-to-peer blockchain powered platform.

With Nigeria the ideal location for their business homeowners who lease their rooftops will earn tokens based on the amount of electricity generated. Using our blockchain technology, tokens can be traded to pay for electricity or cash. The ‘Uber for electricity’ model promotes trust and creates measurable impact.

In theory, Maize Network’s novel business model means every rooftop is a potential energy plant, could provide sustainable and reliable electricity to 50,000 consumers by 2020, internet connectivity for 100,000 and create 1,000 jobs in four years of operation.

Contact Victor Udeozor (PhD Business and Management, 2018) to find out more: cevizor@gmail.com

Prizes won:

• Enterprise Grant
• SMF 2nd Place

Ecopack

Each time you order a take-away, you contribute to another day of flooding and marine life destruction. 

Ecopack aims to become a leading biodegradable food packaging company that uses sugarcane bagasse to improve the well-being of the environment and those it serves. It’s main customers well be the 110,115 people living in Montego Bay, Jamaica, and then the 39 million living in the Caribbean.

Ecopack’s vision is not to further harm the environment through added pollutants, but use already existing and readily available natural items for production – helping make polystyrene food packaging a thing of the past.

Contact Abbie-Gayle Johnson (PhD Business and Management, 2020) to find out more: abbiegaylej@gmail.com 

Prizes won:

• Enterprise Grant

Overphish

Overphish is the first and only ubiquitous user-driven email sender authentication service. It is primarily targeted at B2C email communication, which has shown high efficacy in fraudulent email detection in testing. 

The social impact and benefit of Overphish comes from its positive effect on institutional security, be it for the NHS, future US elections, and companies such as eBay.

Overphish removes the issue of privacy concerns through military-grade encryption. With a projected 2.9 billion email users online by the end of 2019 and over 269 billion email sent daily the product has a very large market to grow into and protect.

Contact David Fricker (MSci Computer Science, 2018) to find out more: dbf@davidfricker.com

Prizes won:

• Enterprise Grant

Textocracy

Textocracy is a better, dedicated Twitter for organisations and services. It’s SMS-based, so it’s free, anonymous, and doesn’t require a smartphone, internet, or setup. It doesn’t handle personal data, and no IT installation is needed. 

Textocracy opens up consultation and increases representation of those who typically would not engage. It turns texts instantly into valuable, usable data for better decisions, and better business – inexpensively, and risk free.

The Textocracy team believes everyone has a right to have their voice counted and heard, and that public sector agencies should be taking all reasonable measures to ensure their methods are as universally accessible as possible.

Visit the Textocracy website: www.bit.ly/Textocracy

Contact Elizabeth Shassere (MPH Master of Public Health, 1995) to find out more: elizabeth@textocracy.org

Prizes won:

• Enterprise Grant

Bacterial Entic Team

Bacterial Entic Team plan to create a hand-held miniaturised device, which will revolutionise veterinary practices. 

The device will enable in-house diagnosis of infectious disease facilitating rapid intervention and targeted treatment generating massive economic savings. The device will process samples with DNA extraction, DNA sequencing with identification of the infectious agent via internet connection and presented on a touch-screen.

Bacterial Entic Team will focus on the veterinary market which shows interest in the rapid diagnosis of infectious pathogens with an absence of legal requirements for such devices. The device will also gain additional exposure through peer-reviewed scientific publications.

Contact Aouatif Belkhiri (PhD Animal Infection and Immunity, XXX) to find out more: Aouatif.Belkhiri1@UniofNottm.onmicrosoft.com

Prizes won:

• People’s Choice Award

Firstline24 Health Technologies 

Firstline24 Health Technologies uses artificial intelligence to catch urgent and life-threatening diseases. The high record of mortality and morbidity that burdens developing regions, especially African communities, are mostly down to communicable preventive diseases. 

With Firstline24 healthcare platform, millions across the rural Africa and developing regions can be treated early, effectively and saved.

Firstline24 is currently at prototype stage, but a survey with 54 community healthcare workers showed that Firstline24 can increase their confidence of disease management by 95% because the technology is a duplication of human doctor.

Contact Donaldson Opoku (MSc Cancer Immunotherapy, 2016) to find out more: frefredonaldson@gmail.com 

Proodle Solutions

Proodle provides an excellent opportunity for international student recruitment teams to focus their marketing strategy on proactively and directly recruiting students digitally.

Every prospective student gets personalised access to the information and services tailored to their requirement, supporting them to make informed decisions. The service reduces costs for universities, increases their profits, and decreases their dependency on agents.

Proodle is formed of a diverse team of six business professionals operating from three different time-zones. At present, their target market is the UK Higher Education Institutions (HEI) and are also looking to reach HEI in Australia and the US.

Visit the Proodle Solutions website: www.bit.ly/Proodle

Contact Shrenik Parmar (MBA Entrepreneurship, 2016) to find out more: shrenikparmar@proodlesolutions.com

Prizes won:

• Enterprise Grant
• Asia Business Prize

China-Britain Football Centre

China-Britain Football Centre (CBFC) has been set up to connect the demand for professional coaching and football ‘infrastructure’ in China with the UK. 

It has established a win-win model, which sees UK clubs generating stronger links in China. This is bringing tangible benefit to the club and players, whilst also increasing the opportunity for China to learn from the UK system and expertise.

Through the prizes won with Ingenuity17, CBFC were able to pay for three Nottingham Forest coaches to fly to Ningbo and deliver a week of coaching programmes for a variety of different level players.

Visit the China-Britain Football Centre (CBFC) website: www.bit.ly/ChinaBritainFootballCentre

Contact Kayleigh Renberg-Fawcett (Global Issues and Contemporary Chinese Studies, 2015) to find out more: kayleigh.renberg-fawcett@chinabritainfc.org

Prizes won:

• BDO Prize
• Enterprise Grant

Miiito

Miiito provides UK-educated Chinese students with the tools and knowledge needed to gain a competitive edge in the global job market. 

With over 100,000 Chinese international students in the UK, over 85% of them leave the country without any significant work experience. Miiito has designed two services tailored to provide them with more opportunities and insights into UK working culture: speaking training and bespoke professional training.

Miiito are currently based in Nottingham, and are planning to expand the business by opening three more branches in Birmingham, Manchester and London. Through this, the team will be able to overcome the linguistic and cultural barriers Chinese students face.

Visit the Miiito website: www.bit.ly/MiiitoI18

Contact Lili Zhu (BA Film and Television Studies, 2015) to find out more: lili.zhu@miiito.com

Prizes won:

• Enterprise Grant
• Paragon Law Prize

KlipAL

KlipAL is known as the ‘Swiss Army Knife’ of smartphone holders. It adapts easily to daily activities including browsing, watching video, driving navigation, Skyping and photography, providing enhanced user comfort and convenience. 

KlipAL combines universal and modular design with a compact aluminium body and future-proofed features. It acts as an everyday and everywhere companion.

KlipAL recently completed a successful crowdfunding campaign, and with vast functionality and standout aluminium material the KlipAL team believe their product provides unbeatable value for money to the customer.

Visit the KlipAL website: www.bit.ly/KlipaI18

Contact Shawn Loo (Civil Engineering, 2003) to find out more: klipaluk@gmail.com 

Prizes won:

• Enterprise Grant
• SMF 3rd Place

Sustainable Water

Sustainable Water has designed a low-cost solar water pump that is easy to use. One billion people in the world lack access to water, a basic human right. 

84% of people without water live in rural areas, and their principal economic activity is subsistence agriculture. Sustainable Water’s solar water pump has been designed to be deployed for irrigation in developing countries using a PAYG model.

Sustainable Water has the potential to meet the demand for appropriate irrigation and water solutions that is increasing as farmers need to feed growing populations. The PAYG model removes the high upfront costs that usually deter farmers from using solar water pumps.

Visit the Sustainable Water website: www.bit.ly/SustainableWaterSWC

Contact Tabitha Wacera (MSc Sustainable Energy Engineering, 2016) to find out more: tabithawacera@gmail.com

LionCard

LionCard believes independent businesses are important, not just to the economy but also to the diversity of a city’s cultural landscape, and ultimately, to the customers they serve. 

LionCard supports small businesses for free, and save members money. Members can get access to deals, discounts and perks at a growing number of independent businesses in Nottingham, and become part of the community LionCard calls ‘The Pride’.

With membership at only £10 a year, LionCard has gained over 400 members since launching, and has gained attention locally through the 7ft LionCard mascot, known as Lion Cardashian, that has taken to the streets of Nottingham as a marketing ploy.

Visit the LionCard website: www.bit.ly/LionCard

Contact Alex Greenhalgh (BA Industrial Economics, 2018) to find out more: a.greenhalgh@thelioncard.com

Prizes won:

• Enterprise Grant

Quensus

Quensus offers businesses a customised, easy-to-use service for water management. Their innovation, LeakNet, is their flagship smart water metering product which connects water meters and shutoff valves to the internet. 

Through using the latest in WiFi technology, high resolution water data is analysed in the cloud to detect anamolies and diagnose faults, allowing users to avoid serious water damage, while also saving otherwise wasted water.

The benefits of Quensus’ online water management are clear: reduced bills, leak-free buildings, and a more sustainable future for our most precious resource. Quensus boasts current customers including Travis Perkins, Pizza Hut and Nottingham City Council.

Visit the Quensus website: www.bit.ly/QuensusI18

Contact Dan Simoons (PhD Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 2016) to find out more: dan@quensus.com

Prizes won:

• Enterprise Grant
• Ingenuity18 2nd Place
• SMF 1st Place
• Shakespeare Martineau Prize

Yoop

The Yoop team are building the first open social network built to discover great media content. Yoop is an AI-powered platform that crowd-sources the best stories and tells you which ones are worth your attention. 

The team believes the time of information overload is over, and Your Opinion is the new media, and that with affiliation with publishing brands becoming obsolete, Yoop’s rate-and-discover mechanism will become the new normal.

People want more control, more certainty and the ability to trust others. Yoop also allows people to flag fake news, and have stories verified as fake, helping create a more transparent and accountable media industry.

Visit the Yoop website: www.bit.ly/YoopI18

Contact Mattia Fosci (PhD Law, 2014) to find out more: mattia.fosci@yoop.io

Prizes won:

• UNIP Prize
• Ingenuity18 3rd Place
• Enterprise Grant

Cerebrum Matter

Cerebrum Matter aims to develop cognitive therapy software to help dementia sufferers gain more of their life and memory back, one brain training exercise at a time. 

The team are trying to use the digital platform to improve the well-being of the older population, and address the problem of memory declination leading to early stages of dementia through their cognitive training.

Cerebrum Matter’s neurofeedback system aims to capture the brain activities of each user, allowing them to tailor therapy that is specific to each person’s brain activity. The innovation can enable older populations to have an improved quality of life and remain independent for longer.

Visit the Cerebrum Matter website: www.bit.ly/CerebrumMatter

Contact Kartheka Bojan (MSc Imaging and Sensing, 2014) to find out more: karthekab@cerebrummatter.com

Prizes won:

• Enterprise Grant

WalkIn

WalkIn believes your time is valuable. The team have created the technological connection between people looking to eat right now and restaurants who want to be full (all of them). 

For the diner, the app queues on their behalf, telling you the current wait time and your place in the queue remotely. Their validated technology increases revenue by up to 15% and improves the customer experience because their app queues on their behalf.

Walkin have already proved their market fit through working with their lead partner restaurant Eggbreak. In one month, Eggbreak were able to seat 1743 guests through Walkin, leading to an increase in weekend revenue of 14%.

Contact Amos Teshuva (BSc Economics, 2014) to find out more: amos@walkinapp.co.uk

Prizes won:

• Enterprise Grant
• Vice-Chancellor’s Innovation Award
• Ingenuity18 1st Place
• BDO Prize
• Shakespeare Martineau Prize
• Potter Clarkson Prize

NOX-Tech

NOX-Tech provides a solution to the issue of food waste. Currently, ⅓ of food is wasted globally, occupying 30% of the world’s cultural land area. 

NOX-Tech’s solution is to create a biogas recovery system from anaerobic digestion through an automation system. The solution is being designed to produce biogas to supply stove gas and electricity, be ‘DIY-able’ and can be integrated with your sink, and automated.

NOX-Tech supports the aim of the National Strategic Plan (NSP) Malaysia to generate the value of waste by converting food waste into energy: allowing Malaysia to sustain its growing population and demand with minimal environmental impacts.

Contact Chiew Jing Jie (MEng Chemical with Environmental Engineering, 2018) to find out more: jingjie95@gmail.com

That Dive Life

That Dive Life believes all divers deserve a seamless booking process for their next diving escape. To help make this a reality, the team have created an online platform that helps divers explore, compare and book their preferred dive-shops in one place.

The platform will also include an information hub, a personalised dive planner, and a job-portal helping diving shops connect with diving professionals around the world.

That Dive Life believe the diving industry needs better exposure, ease of access for its customers and better education of the marine and diving ecosystem to locals in diving hotspots. Their platform will support the industry in finally adapting to the digital age.

Visit the That Dive Life website: www.bit.ly/ThatDiveLife

Contact Shahbaaz Siamwala (BEng Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, 2015) to find out more: shahbaazdali@gmail.com

Prizes won:

• Asia Business Prize

We can’t wait to see what the future holds for these 24 amazing teams, and we look forward to announcing the prize winners at the Ingenuity18 Awards Dinner. The People’s Choice Awards is officially open so cast your vote here before Friday, 20th April.

If the business ideas and stories above have inspired you, why not become a member of The Ingenuity Lab? We provide support to all University of Nottingham students, alumni and early-stage researchers. Find out more here.

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