£100 winners are here!0

This year we are giving a way 5 additional prizes of £100!

Are you one of the lucky 25? If not, don’t fret. Join the £1k Competition opening on 23rd November 2011 to win £1000 prizes!

(Winners are in alphabetical order based on the idea name.)

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3D Insect Eye Endoscope

Ranjith Rajasekharan Unnithan

Three dimensional (3D) endoscopes technology open up the possibility of moving operations to an outpatient setting, easy diagnosis from 3D images and colours. The existing stereoscopy based endoscopes with two relay optics systems do not provide a full 3D image because only two viewing angle is used to generate 3D view. Here we propose a novel endoscope and display based on integral imaging where an insect eye based lenslet array is used to sample the specimen from more than 180 degrees. The proposed endoscope reconstructs the 3D images seen without wearing glasses and floating in the air.

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Access Water

Katie Fitzpatrick

Every human needs water. But the cost of that water, whether as a commodity sold in plastic packages in developed nations or as a potential health risk from less favorable sources in developing nations, has become too high. We have a multi-patented water filtration technology which reduces the costs of water. Our portable filtration technology provides the greatest reduction per contaminant of any technology available on the market today. Our portable filters span a range from tap water units, replacing up to 800 16 oz plastic bottles, to extreme outdoor units, eliminating up to 99.999999999% of contaminants.

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Biofilm Solutions

Stephen Mulgrew

Biofilm Solutions- is a team of experienced plastic surgeons and  chemical engineers who are dedicated to enhancing patients surgical experience. We have developed a novel, safe, patented, FDA approved compound which reduces capsule formation associated with breast implants. It costs less than 10 pence per implant.

In the USA  since 1997, the number of women undergoing breast augmentation  has trebled to over 300,000/year. The most common complication associated with breast augmentation is capsular contracture. Estimates vary from 10%-40% of breast implants will require removal due to this complication.

Our compound  improves  implant longevity and reduce complications for breast augmentation surgery.

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Coventry BioCompatbility

Clark Barrett

Hip replacement surgery is one of the most important surgical advances of the last century. Globally more than 300,000 total hip replacements are performed each year at a lifetime cost of £25,000. However the average lifetime of a hip replacement is 10 years. This team is developing new bio-compatible coatings for all types of orthopedic and prosthetic surgery that will increase the lifetime by at least a factor of three and reduce recovery and aftercare costs by a factor of 10. Total product lifetime savings will be the major pricing driver for this new portfolio of biocompatible coatings.

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CamPores

Vivek Thacker

Ultracapacitors and pharmaceutical filters underlie very different industries, but are the most promising applications of our technology – a method to produce a novel nanoporous material. The manufacturing process is cheap, quick and easily scalable and the pore size can be reliably tuned from 5-100nm with a high degree of uniformity across the substrate. In polymeric form, the substrate has already attracted interest from leading filtration companies. As a porous metal-oxide, it will be a key component of hybrid ultracapacitors, a fast growing industry with applications in grid management and hybrid cars.  Other applications include fuel cells and enhanced Lithium-ion batteries.

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CNSERs

Roger Coulston

We have developed a sensing technology to rapidly and accurately analyze the chemical composition of breath. We are looking at incorporating the technology into a handheld test to screen road users under the influence of illegal substances. CNSERs is remarkably simple, cheap, and suitable for simultaneous and sensitive detection of multiple chemicals. The technology identifies characteristic signals to unambiguously confirm the presence of a drug in a gas or solution. We are currently building a prototype for proof of concept and envisage the other applications in the bio-diagnostic industry.

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Desktop Genetics

Riley Doyle

Genetic Engineering, while revolutionary, has hardly changed for nearly 40 years. The goal of Desktop Genetics is to democratize gene synthesis by producing a DNA printer: a device which leverages microfluidics to automatically synthesize and assemble entire DNA plasmids. While current solutions are “institutional scale,” our device will leverage the proven business model of inkjet printers to keep initial costs low, using disposable reagent cartridges to facilitate rapid market uptake. Our device will enable users to translate their designs into physical reality the same day, enabling rapid proof of concept, more comprehensive drug searches, and more time spent finding breakthroughs.

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Do images really need pixels?

Ranjith Rajasekharan Unnithan

The pixel is one unique unit of an image. A conventional hologram based spatial light modulator (SLM) display used in projectors with existing pixel technology produces pixallation in the projected image though the replay field (image generated) of the hologram is effectively pixel-less because it completely reproduces the rays of light as if they were from the original object. We have invented a ground breaking design for a novel nanophotonic SLM pixel technology, which will be used to address a major bottleneck in the development of a pixel-less 2D and 3D images achieved by integrating nanotechnology with liquid crystal technology.

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Ecological Bricks

Pedro Henrique Gorayeb Vitoriano

Brazil is one of the biggest biofuel producers in the world and sugar-cane ethanol accounts for most of it. In the ethanol production process, ash is a by-product produced when bagasse is burned to generate electricity. This ash is often spread in sugar cane’s culture although it does not improve soil fertility and could generate negative impacts in water sources. However, this material can have an economic value if used to produce ecological bricks, which, in comparison with concretes ones, presents similar mechanical properties, while consuming sixty per cent less electricity and costing ten times less.

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Fit-you-in online shopping tool

Jing Tang and Vivian Lu Tan

Fit-you-in online shopping tool. Do you hesitate when you shop online for a dress/clothes that you can’t try on? Fit-you-in is a software that restores your full-sized photo, records the data of your body size and shows how clothes looks on you. It  also works for jewellery, bags and shoes. Moreover, you can match different clothes which looks exactly like the real you on them. With the fit-you-in tool, you will be able to shop online with much enhanced certainty whether something fits you or not. This useful tool will improve the shopping experience for both the seller and buyer.

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Heliomobil

Sean Cheng

Despite government subsidies and feed-in-tariffs, solar photovoltaic systems remain expensive, costing more than £10,000 with payback times lasting 10+ years.  Heliomobil offers a novel low-cost solution using patent-pending heliostats (mirror devices tracking and focusing sunlight) combined with high-capacity PV panels, resulting in a solution costing 1/10th of current PV systems and reducing payback time by 90%.  By applying utility-scale concentrated solar concepts and innovative heliostat engineering, a household system with less PV panels and up to 13x energy gain is achieved.  Our technology also offers an inexpensive power generation solution for remote or third world needs.

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HopSkip

Scott Kelly

Have you ever been stuck with no signal on your mobile? HopSkip is a smart phone app that searches for optimum pathways to access the information network and get you connected. If you are surrounded by people but have no reception, HopSkip will search for other users on the network and tunnel the signal through their phones until a connection to the information network is created. Information literally hops and skips through other users mobile phones. The technology works by sending an encrypted signal using peer-to-peer tethering. One route to market is to deploy the technology using existing mobile phone companies.

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jaocampos

Jessica Ocampos

Traditional methods of long-term cell storage such as cryopreservation, employ toxic agents with potential risk of adverse effects in clinical transplant patients.  The CellSafe system deploys an alternative non-toxic cell protectant regimen for freezing and desiccation conditions, which overcomes adverse side effects in patients while maintaining the functional properties of the cells. Early studies suggest that stem cells, potentially useful in the treatment of several diseases with a global market of US$20 billion, and Chinese Hamster Ovary cells, the most widely used mammalian cell line for biopharmaceuticals manufacture (industry with sales exceeding US$30 billion) are amenable to this method.

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Life$pan

Naaman Tammuz

Over half of the food produced today is lost, wasted or discarded as a result of inefficiency in the human-managed food chain. Reducing food waste is critical in the context of both global food crises and international climate change targets. Retailers often manually downprice selected items approaching their sell-by dates. This process is labour-intensive and inaccurate in its reflection of the changing value of goods. We propose a low-cost, innovative, non-volatile labelling technology, which continuously adjusts the price of perishable items in relation to their remaining shelf life. This technology could also be adapted to reduce household food waste.

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Next-generation diagnostics for infectious diseases

Muhammed Murtaza

Majority of the world’s population lives in developing countries and faces a high burden of endemic infectious diseases. Next-generation sequencing allows rapid, sensitive and specific detection of disease but has been far too expensive for everyday clinical applications. Millions of people suffer from dengue fever every year and there are no objective criteria to identify patients at risk of shock and death. We can utilize next-generation sequencing of plasma to diagnose and stratify patients who present with dengue fever using cost effective high-throughput methods. Selling at 10 pounds a test, we can improve outcomes, focus resources and make a profit.

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OreCell

Erenn Ore

Due to their dwindling resources and their adverse effects on the climate, fossil fuels need to be replaced by alternative energy resources. Solar radiation is the most abundant alternative energy resource available and is environmentally friendly. Solar cells harvest and convert radiation into electricity, but they are expensive to manufacture. Consequently, no commercial solar cell is currently capable of generating electricity cheaper than fossil fuels.

I invented a patent-pending solar cell that can generate electricity cheaper than fossil fuels. They are manufactured from abundant, environmentally friendly materials by using the industry-standard equipment. They can be on the market straightaway.

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OrganizationEvidence

Eva-Maria Hempe

The Cochrane Collaboration is an independent, international network which collates evidence on the effects of medical interventions and thereby enables evidence-based health care. However healthcare organizations do not just struggle with finding the best possible treatments. A big challenge is optimizing their internal processes and structures. Much could be learned from other organizations in the same or related fields. But it is difficult to find out what works as so far there is no organizational science equivalent of the Cochrane Reviews, thus much money is spent on consultancies. OrganizationEvidence fills this gap by evaluating and publishing reviews of organizational interventions.

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ReliaWind

Ehsan Abdi

Reliability is vital in the growth of the wind industry, especially offshore, and to realise EU’s targets for 2020. ReliaWind has developed a novel and patented condition-monitoring algorithm for wind turbine drivetrains, enabling 40% greater reliability and 25% reduced maintenance cost for offshore installations. The product, comprising a number of sensors and the analysis software, offers straightforward retrofit into new wind turbines as well as existing ones. This is a relatively new market and we expect to take a 20% market share by 2015, equivalent to 4000 of new turbines per year, generating revenues of £60M.

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Sayyid

Sayyid Ahmed Tahir Sheikh Said

Nuru Capital is a Micro-Venture Capital institution in Kenya that provides financing of up to £2500 to micro enterprises. Micro-Entrepreneurs come to us with business ideas. We then undertake due diligence on the potential investment and background checks on all applicants. If the entrepreneur and his idea hold up under our scrutiny we set up the business and Employ the entrepreneur to run this business. We pay the entrepreneur a salary to and receive a share of the profits of the business. We invest in two entrepreneurs at a time with each entrepreneur having joint liability for each other’s businesses.

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Social gamification of learning : Massive Multiplayer Online Teaching & Learning

Pierre Bellec

Website for addictive, social and efficient learning to help students achieve and enjoy school requirements, starting from secondary school. Choose a specific topic. Start with exercises and get advised/rated by others. Increasingly, get new powers : Correct&rate answers from others / Give advice to newbies / Rate corrections from other experienced users / Submit new exercises / become the mayor of the topic..? Getting new powers is addictive. Learning AND teaching on a human 1to1 relationship makes it social. Teaching brings a deep understanding of the topic (efficient!). Integrated with real classrooms : students can get online points based on real classwork.

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SolarGlazing

Heather Hilburn

SolarGlazing has developed a new window insulation technology 10 times more efficient than traditional glazing methods. This allows, for the first time, the control of thermal resistance of windows adjustable to the environment, reducing heating energy demand by 50% in domestic buildings. The technology employs a phase-changing material for spacers of double-glazed windows. This material appears as clear gas during the day, allowing maximum heat gain on a cold winter day. After sunset, it solidifies and forms a film on the glass panes, reaching a combined U value as low as 0.7W/K.m2, preventing major heat loss in the evening.

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Sreijan

Sreijan Dhasmana

A chip attached to medicine bottles’ cap which records the time of bottle opening (proxy for drug usage). Working with the patient’s mobile phone, a reminder messages is sent to the patient/ to caregiver (patient’s mother). Also, the data collected will be transferred to e-health record system. Potential of use in clinical trials to monitor compliance (report compliance adjusted efficacy), reminder messages for busy/ old/ Alzheimer patients, e-health record management, physicians proactively monitoring side effects impact on patients and suitably modify prescriptions, and health insurance companies (deny claims to patients not taking medicine).

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TeraWand

Nicholas Tan

Terahertz radiation can be used to identify illicit drugs and explosive substances, which give specific colour signatures when irradiated. In addition, this radiation can pass through soft materials like clothing and paper and, unlike x-rays, is harmless to humans. As such, handheld terahertz scanners can fill a void in the US$130 billion global airport security equipment market by allowing security personnel to easily identify and locate drugs or explosives hidden under clothes or in luggage without invasive methods or sniffer dogs which are potentially unreliable. Such scanners can also find a secondary market in postal facilities for mail screening.

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The Indo-Brazilian Aliance

Harsh Baid and Pedro Vitoriano

What benefit can be derived by having self-sufficient electricity in rural areas? In Brazil, Fabio Rosa and his Palmares Project has shown that installing renewable energy generators (solar panels in combination with micro wind turbines) can boost the income of poor farmer’s “by 200-400%”. Imagine the impact it would have in countries like India, China or Bangladesh. The returns derived from such a project would greatly benefit a wide range of stakeholders (e.g. governments, electricity distribution companies) - potential clients of our company, whose central activity would include installation and management of these micro Rural Renewable Energy generators.

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The Low-Cost Lighting Project

Zhu YiChen

The poorest countries are located within the tropics where the sun sets at 6pm. With no electricity and lighting, children can not study and adults can not work. LED lighting coupled with solar power is a practical, proven lighting method. We are a social enterprise with the aim of distributing robust all-in-one solar-powered LED lighting units to developing communities. Our key finaciers, NGOs and Carbon Credit Schemes have already expressed interest in our low-cost, localised, zero-carbon design. We aim to partner with established lighting manufactures to allow consumers to donate “hours of light” to children in developing countries.