UCL Awards for Enterprise 2011

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2011 UCL Awards for Enterprise

AWARDS HOMEPAGE

PHOTOS/VIDEOS

From high-energy comedy to low-energy buildings, UCL Awards for Enterprise 2011 celebrate a range of entrepreneurial activity

On Tuesday 17th May academics, students, entrepreneurs and business came together to honour a new generation of innovators in the 4th Annual UCL Awards for Enterprise.

This year’s event was the biggest yet, with over 400 people gathering in the Bloomsbury Theatre to “enthusiastically celebrate”, in the words of Professor Stephen Caddick, Vice Provost for Enterprise, the efforts and accomplishments of UCL’s most entrepreneurial academics and students.

Professor Malcolm Grant, UCL’s Provost and President, said: “UCL has always recognised outstanding achievement in teaching and research, and I'm delighted that this practice nowadays extends to colleagues who make major contributions in entrepreneurial activity. These awards are a proper reflection of the responsibility of the world’s great universities to ensure wherever possible that their research brings benefits to society.”

The impact of knowledge generated by the university is “clear to see across the city,” he adds. Fittingly for one of London’s oldest university and one of its leading academic institutions, as well as one of its biggest employers, the theme of the awards for 2011 was UCL’s enterprise impact on the city. Despite a student body that is drawn from 140 countries, two-thirds of graduates remain in London when they have finished their studies.

Students and staff from many different areas of study, medicine, science and technology, as well as arts and humanities and law, were represented among the winners, who showcased the diversity of their ideas in a series of video presentations. From the light-hearted – a mobile app guiding partygoers to the hottest local events (eeve) – to the serious – technology that will allow medicines to come to market faster (MicroTailor), the calibre of the recipients makes them “real businesses and long-term success stories,” says Tim Barnes, Executive Director of UCL Advances, adding that many of the night’s winners have already won or reached the final stages of prestigious national competitions or have started generating their first sales.

This year, for the first time, there were two awards in the category of Best Corporate Partner: historically this award has gone to a large company, but the split is in recognition of UCL’s increased work with small and medium-sized enterprises.

The Small and Medium Enterprise Partner is Arius3D, with which UCL has shared use of a state-of-the-art 3D colour laser scanner based at the university. The Corporate Partner is EDF Energy, which is working on a £4 million project with the UCL Energy Institute on distributed energy in the built environment, and on the thermal efficiency of homes.

Since UCL’s establishment in 1826 our staff have discovered or invented many of the products and services that are integral to our lives today. ‘I think I can confidently say that we’ll be lauding many more in years to come’ added Tim Barnes.

List of recipients

UCL Business Award

Mark Pepys, Head of the Division of Medicine at the Royal Free Campus of UCL’s Medical School and the Director of the Centre for Amyloidosis and Acute Phase Protein, for his determination in pursuing the development of three novel small molecule targets.

He says: “I greatly appreciate this award which recognises the decades long work of my research and clinical teams in their efforts to discover and develop new treatments for serious unmet medical needs.”

London Entrepreneurs’ Challenge 2011 Awards

Winner
Tipgain (MSc Technology Entrepreneurship students) ** a mobile application to spread information about marketing promotions using social networks, in order to receive discounts.

"Winning the London Entrepreneur Challenge was the initial kickoff for our idea. It gave us the injection to go further with it. And today, after few months of arduous work and 'bootstrapping', a prototype is ready. More importantly, we're glad to have the commitment of two customers to test and use our service. We are looking forward to implementing Tipgain to many clients in London and the UK."
Martin Poschenrieder, CEO, Tipgain.

Runner-up in undergraduate category
One-2-One Medicine (Medicine, UG) - a platform for potential medical students to be mentored directly by a lecturer during the application process

Runner-up in postgraduate/staff category
eeve (MSc Technology Entrepreneurship students) - a concept for a mobile application guiding partygoers to the hottest local events

UCL Provost’s Prize

MicroTailor (Biochemical Engineering PG) - a disruptive technology that will allow an inter-university team from UCL and London Business School to screen future potential medicines more quickly and allow them to come to market faster.

UCL Provost’s Spirit of Enterprise Award

David Chapman (UCL Department of Management, Science & Innovation) - for his pioneering work in developing enterprise and entrepreneurship at UCL, including establishing the MSc Technology Entrepreneurship, and bringing the likes of Arup, Orange and numerous small businesses into classes. He was nominated for the award by his students, many of whom have gone on to form numerous businesses and have then come back to help with teaching or engage with student projects.

UCL Small and Medium Enterprise Partner of the Year Award

Arius 3D - sharing use of a state-of-the-art 3D colour laser scanner based at the university. To date it has generated over £2.5m in research funding proposals and partnerships with many cultural organisations including the British Museum, the Science Museum and English Heritage.

UCL Corporate Enterprise Partner of the Year Award

EDF Energy – for working on a £4 million project with the UCL Energy Institute on distributed energy in the built environment, and on the thermal efficiency of homes.

UCL Bright Ideas Awards:

Brink** (Computer Science UG) - a technology based solution that improves the tracking, analysis and security capabilities of government defence and public service providers

Learnbuddy (Computer Science UG) - combines multimedia and audio in an innovative and effective way that engages and educates

TagChats (Computer Science UG and Dept Electronic and Electrical Engineering UG)– a one-to-one chatroom service which allows people to share interests and make new friends.

Circalit** (English Literature UG and Alumnus)- an online platform giving film producers, publishers and agents access to the best screenplays, novels and plays.

Frame Medical (Clinical Medicine PG)* ** - a social enterprise dedicated to providing the best possible care for diabetes patients by offering education and management programmes

Literary Kitchen (Bartlett, PG) - a social space for writers, from beginners to more experienced, to get together , with classes and support up to publication.

UCL Social Enterprise Project of the Year Award

Bright Club - an innovative model for public engagement through comedy performances in pubs by academics centred around aspects of their research.

Steve Cross, head of Public Engagement at UCL and one of the founders of Bright Club, says: “It’s more important than ever to develop public engagement programmes that can support themselves financially, and we're incredibly proud of what we've accomplished.”

UCL Knowledge Transfer Partnership Award

UCL Bartlett School of Graduate Studies and Max Fordham Consulting Engineers - for the new expertise developed in building simulation tools that model the role of moisture in and around buildings.

UCL SMILE Best Mentor Award 2011

Delwar Hossain (MSc Architecture 1991), architect and owner of Adrem Group, a leading architecture and design careers agency, who is mentoring Kidz4Mation, producers of a series of books and runs fun and engaging workshops to raise children’s self-esteem.

Del says: “The SMILE (Selected Mentors and Interims for London Enterprises) programme is a terrific initiative into connecting energy with experience and in so doing eliminates some of the problems that a young company faces in the early days of their formation.”

Innovation Central London Bursary Awards

Funding and support for innovative start-up businesses in Camden to make their business idea a reality.

PrioCam	SensAthlete	Plastic Antibodies
Mobile Makeover	Agility Global	MBP Concepts
ASGI	Wishbomb	One-2-One Medicine
snowcarbon	Lutebox	eeve
TSS (Spa)	Helianth Systems	Circalit**
Almazina	Nonyelu	Frame Medical* **
Samba Communications	H2-NRG
3DScribe	ZOOZA