Students win GBP £17,000 for innovative healthcare tech ideas
Student-led teams from universities across the UK have been recognised for a range of healthcare-focused technology projects at the tenth annual ESBF Champion of Champions Competition in London. The competition awarded seven sets of student science and engineering teams with prizes totalling GBP £17,000 for solutions addressing medical training, cancer diagnosis, and mental health challenges.
Main winners
Peach Simulators from King's College London secured the largest share of the prize fund. The team received a total of GBP £8,000 in two categories for their reusable medical training devices. The devices, which are notable for emitting a peach aroma, aim to support the training of doctors through realistic simulation experiences.
Speaking after the win, Carlo Saija from Peach Simulators addressed the next steps for development.
"Now, we're making everything in the university. We're thinking of taking some of the prototypes forward for more industrial-level manufacturing, so we'll be using the money to look at getting some moulds made. We can also start protecting some of our designs as well - we can do so much now," said Saija.
Digital health solutions
Rephobia, founded at Queen's University Belfast, won the Big Ideas category, alongside a GBP £3,000 prize and a mentoring package. The project uses a virtual reality platform to assist in the treatment of phobias, seeking to improve mental health interventions by creating more accessible therapy options.
Liam Harte, founder of Rephobia, highlighted the impact of mentorship during the competition.
"I want to say a huge thank you for the opportunity. It's amazing to see the roadmap of what I want to achieve for the next couple of years. I had brilliant mentoring - I actually revamped the presentation entirely. That feedback is so important as a solo founder. Getting that other perspective and not being in your own echo chamber is vital and I think it fed into the reason why I won," said Harte.
Other recognised teams
FluoroGlow from the University of Exeter and BetaSync from the University of Edinburgh were named runners-up in their respective categories, each receiving GBP £1,500. Sekhmet Biomed from Imperial College London received the Best Presentation award, worth GBP £1,000, while CAnswer Biosolutions from the University of Aberdeen was honoured for Best Technical Idea and granted GBP £500.
AeroTHAW, based at Nottingham Trent University, won three awards: the pre-show public vote, audience vote, and social media prize. Each prize was worth GBP £500, highlighting broad support for their concept.
Enterprise support
The competition also provided mentoring, CV services and business books to the winning teams, aiming to connect young technology entrepreneurs with experienced industry figures.
According to David Falzani MBE, "What an incredible competition. All our finalists delivered outstanding presentations. Their business ideas are ambitious and truly innovative. We now partner with over 50 universities and over the past year alone nearly 5,000 students took part in these enterprise competitions reaching an audience of around 500,000 students."
