£5K Challenge Phase a (Business Plan Competition) Submission

Deadline Friday 25th February 13:00 pm

Finalist announcement: 23rd of March, 2011 [..]

2011 £5K Challenge Phase a (Business Plan) Submission

Deadline Friday 25th February 13:00 pm, 2011

Finalist annoucement: 23rd of March, 2011

M Innovations Epidural Device by Jenny Dean

We have developed a functional prototype of a disposable medical device to reduce the risk of needle overshoot during epidural insertion in women in labour. Of the 355,000 obstetric epidurals performed in the UK each year, 1% result in overshoot, puncturing the membrane surrounding the spinal cord resulting in severe headaches in over 80%, which requires further hospital treatment in 70% of these. Our team, consisting of a mechanical design engineer, anaesthetists and an MBA graduate, has already received an EEDA grant and applied for patents in UK and US.

Cambridge Environmental Trading Group by Laurie Green-Eames

The Cambridge Environmental Trading Group would act as an exchange for a market-based cap and trade scheme to reduce the environmental impact of universities. Each year credits of energy usage would be auctioned off to each college/department by the exchange. Any college/department that exceeds its allowance would either have to trade credits or pay a fine to the exchange. Not only would this company help universities to reduce their environmental impact, but it would also prompt them to save money through energy and waste reduction – something that would be particularly useful in the current age of austerity.

Numerical Psychoeducation by Jan Zirk-Sadowski

This education project is going to provide people suffering from moderate mathematical difficulties, or even more severe cognitive disorders such as developmental dyscalculia with a valuable, scientifically documented training method which allows to regain self-confidence in mathematical domains and become a healthy functioning mastermind also in everyday logic. The training course is targeted to secondary and high school students and their parents who are keen on supporting their children in educational development, but it will be priceless also to adults who would like to switch their career paths from humanities to sciences, but who are afraid of quantitative tasks.

SkinCare by Lu Tan

A convenient “all-in-one” napkin set for skincare. A set contains 4 napkins (each for cleansing, refreshment, moisturing and powdering) to be applied one by one onto the face. The procedure takes about 3 minutes and does not require rinsing with water. Depending on customers’ needs, there can be different combinations of napkins (different types of set). With this innovative light-weight product, women no longer need to carry mini-bottles of gel, cream or powder in handbags and are able to freshen-up and powder-up anywhere anytime. With some modifications of the design, the product can also be marketed for men.

OneCard by Moses Hoyt

More and more people are using RFID. In credit cards, ID cards, meal cards, Oyster cards, you name it. Yet the more RFID cards that you have in your wallet, the less useful they become. Their benefits are lost. Interference gets in the way. OneCard is a service that integrates all your RFID cards, making one manageable, convenient and secure card. Built on a database linking the card providers with the customers. OneCard is used like any other RFID card. Usage and services available can be user managed and tracked. Revenue is generated from card providers and customers.

Novel Inertial Sensor by Eva Hradetzky, Vivian Mohr, Kevin Cheng, Noriko Kuya, Petros Farah, WKH and Vivek Thacker

What do areas as diverse as oil exploration, missile technology and next generation gaming have in common? They demand the ability to detect even the tiniest accelerations and vibrations. We’re marketing a next generation MEMS sensor developed at Cambridge with a sensitivity 1000x better than current MEMS devices. It’s robust and cheap, offers unmatched noise reduction and temperature stability and at 2.5 cm in size is an order of magnitude smaller than conventional devices of similar sensitivity. We are also interested in breakthrough applications like improved navigation of deep drills and large format interactive touch screens-all potentially huge markets.

HemaStor by Andrew Lynch, R. Chen and David McNally

Over 100,000 units of processed transfusion blood worth approximately £10M are discarded in the UK each year after they have exceeded their 35 day shelf life. While freezing blood extends this shelf life, it requires refrigerated storage and is prohibitively expensive. Using patent-pending technology my collaborators and I have developed a technique to safely store blood in dried (powder) form. This allows blood to be stored indefinitely and inexpensively at room temperature, eliminating waste and simplifying supply chain. After rehydration, standard transfusion techniques can be used. We plan to license this technology to public and private blood banks worldwide.

PCB-Integrated Optical Sensor by Tanya Hutter and N. Bamiedakis

There is a strong interest in the development of low-cost sensors for healthcare, environmental and homeland-security applications. Optical sensors offer high sensitivity, low power consumption and immunity to electromagnetic interference.We propose a low-cost sensor integrating a polymeric waveguide array on standard printed circuit board with the required electronic circuitry. This hand-held device can be fabricated with conventional methods and incorporates all electronic and photonic components on the same substrate. Chemical functionalization can be used to generate ‘fingerprints’ for specific analytes. The device can incorporate a transmitter for wireless sensing and also can be miniaturized to fit in mobile phones.

eComm by Tongyun Li

Due to severe signal penetration loss, large buildings blocks have increasing demand for in-building infrastructures to provide wireless services (3G, Wifi and etc). Most recent market research forecasts worldwide deployment revenues from in-building wireless systems to grow from $3.8 billion in 2007 to over $15 billion in 2013. Distributed antenna systems (DAS) is an attractive approach for improving radio coverage in buildings. However, traditional DAS suffers from a requirement for high linearity, dynamic range and energy consumption. Using digital signal processing techniques, we have demonstrated a high efficient digital DAS system with dynamic range over 60dB and reduced data rate of 208 times. Reconfigurable digital system and high energy efficiency lead to significant reduction in both construction and maintenance costs.

Kaleedo in Brief by Wenqi Chen

The smartphone apps market has been lead by Apple since its introduction of iPhone. Kaleedo has developed a proprietary software platform that allows other handset manufacturers (e.g. Nokia) to have access to over 250,000 apps and participate in apps revenue sharing for the first time. App developers for iPhone can also extend their reach to other smartphones (e.g. Android) and enlarge their revenue without modifying their source code. A roughly working prototype has been developed and patent filed for key components. We are seeking seed capital to produce the prototype demonstrable to handset manufacturers and thereafter route to market.

Programming is Power by Theodore Hong

Children are so immersed in technology that even two-year-olds know how to play songs on an iPhone. However, modern design makes it impossible for children to tinker and experiment with technology.  Where previous generations happily took apart transistor radios or programmed BBC Micros, today’s children get only impenetrable shiny boxes. We build software that opens up the boxes.  Our products teach children to write their own apps and take control of the smartphone or laptop.  Parents can give their children an advantage in tomorrow’s world by giving them the ability to create technology, not just passively consume it.

iClickMusic by Sharon Lee

Music is inherent in the very nature of humans. The tiny infant will often respond to a rhythmic sound, beginning to hum even before speaking. Unfortunately most people never know the joys of creating their own music. iClickMusic is a program to record your hum and make your own music. By analysing the frequency spectrum of hum, it can calculate and generate the corresponding harmonics and chords automatically. You are offered a drop-down box to choose from a standard list of musical genre and instruments options. Simple overdubbing in just 1 click and everyone can be a musician!

POCDATT- Point of Care Diagnosis and Treatment Toolbox by Muntaga Umar-sadig

As a result of inadequate transportation infrastructure, cost pressures, derelict locations, and laborious conventional methods for diagnosing, it isn’t efficient for doctors to follow up on initial “consultation” visits to patients in rural remote communities across Africa - with treatment plans. For example, in Nigeria, it takes on average, three community visits to prepare, test, confirm diagnosis and discuss treatment plans with patients. POCDATT will maximise each visit by equipping doctors with an innovative toolbox that combines “point of care diagnosis” tools with pictorial treatment plans expressed in local dialects that empower patients to take ownership of their management plans – initial focus will be on AIDS, malaria and TB.

Identity by Frederick Widl and Christian Gruber

Identity is a virtual ID, you log in any computer or OS-driven device (iPhone, iPad, etc.) and you will find the same settings the same software and licenses, the same files, mails, contacts, favourites, applications, music, photos and many more. Further all passwords requested by your computer/device or websites you are visiting, or mail account will be automatically applied by Identity without your notice. Your Identity with all your settings and data is securely stored on a server, to use and edit files, Identity downloads the needed data from your server account, software can be used if existing on the device or via cloud systems.

WorkingCycle by Sergio Koc-Menard

Over the next 5 years, 3.2 million people will retire in the UK alone. Two-thirds of them, however, will consider working in retirement. WorkingCycle is a social partnership for employers that value the talent of retirees. Using an online exchange, employers can build a shared pool of retirees, and help their retiring employees find flexible assignments. Companies profit because they can reduce recruitment costs, while branding themselves as age-friendly employers. Retirees gain because they can increase their savings, while keeping time for retirement activities. Society benefits because extending working lives is essential to sustain economic growth and finance public pensions.

Transdermal Micro-needle for convenient, noninvasive vitamin B12 dosing by Lindsay Kellar-Parsons

Elderly deficiency of vitamin B12 (10-15% of those over 60) can cause irreversible neurological damage, anemia, osteoporosis, and cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases. Establishing + maintaining healthy B12 levels require 6 initial injections + 1 injection every 3 months. This process is uncomfortable, invasive, & may require frequent doctor appointments. The proposed solution is a trans-dermal, micro-needle patch that would deliver B12 and replace injections as a comfortable, noninvasive, & convenient alternative. This patch would reduce doctor visits, alleviate patient discomfort, and increase convenience of B12 dosing. This would also target developing countries and vegetarians who suffer from this deficiency.

Appzyme by Ollie Wright

The 21st century has been declared the “biotech” century, but yet for DNA manipulation we are still reliant on restriction enzyme technology developed over 40 years ago. When these inflexible tools are not fit for purpose, synthetic biology projects are compromised. Rather than relying on a traditionally constrained protein-DNA interaction for target site recognition, Appzyme can be charged with any short piece of DNA that is complimentary to the desired target sequence – thus guiding the enzyme to cut exactly where the end user wants, no compromise required. Appzyme with user programmable control - a limitless number of DNA manipulation possibilities.

Tangam Energy by Roger Coulston

We wish to extract energy out of the environmental waste of cows using a novel technology. We can install low cost anaerobic digestors onto the 9000 Aus/Nz dairy/cattle farms with herd sizes of 100-500 cows. Our opportunity is to convert dairy waste to methane gas for electrical generation and using new technology convert biogas into methanol. We will lease the space for the digesters from the farmers and generate revenue from the sale of electricity to national power grid and the high quality methanol to chemical suppliers.

Solar-Powered Mosquito Device by Neesha Harnam

Mosquitoes bring great suffering through the transmission of tropical diseases such as malaria and dengue fever. The use of a solar-powered device to address this problem has minimal cost and no side effects. The device I am proposing will be powered using solar energy, attracting mosquitoes in the vicinity through the emission of carbon dioxide. Subsequently, it utilizes a suction mechanism coupled with electrified wires prior to dropping them into a mesh basket at the bottom. Similar devices are available at present, though the use of solar energy to power large-scale devices has yet to be seen.

A next generation low-cost passive RFID accurate real-time location sensing by Mr. Sithamparanathan Sabesan

In-building real time location/tracking systems (RTLS) are currently limited by costly active RFID tags. We have overcome this challenge by developing a low-cost passive RTLS and have shown that the coverage of $0.05 passive tags can greatly be enhanced while simultaneously achieving a 100% detection success rate and allowing location with sub-metre resolution. These breakthroughs will enable for the first time low cost identification and high precision location of items. This patented system will enable, a wide range of new applications, including automated checkout which will eliminate checkout queues, and passenger/luggage tracking which will reduce/eliminate aircraft turn-around delay and lost-luggage.

It’s easy: just pitch your business idea to us in 100 words or fewer. The challenge here is to condense what you want to say and get all the major points across in just a paragraph. There is no need to give away any private information – a public summary is enough to win the competition. Then, submit your summary online at www.cue.org.uk.

Submission deadline: 29th of October, 2010.