UCL Life Sciences students winners in Student COVID-19 Recovery Challenge

A team of Life Sciences students has won a competition that called for innovative ideas from UCL students to solve issues caused by the pandemic.

23 April 2021

The COVID-19 Recovery Challenge was launched by the UCL Faculty of Medical Sciences during lockdown, as a way to build students’ resilience while studying from home.

255 students took part, coming up with 34 inspiring ideas. The brief called for innovative applications deliverable within six months, with a budget of £50,000.

The winning team Covicyle, consisting of four first-year Life Sciences students, came up with the idea of developing recyclable PPE. This has the dual benefit of addressing the issue of PPE shortage while also reducing the pollution caused by PPE going to landfill.

The judges felt the idea was “feasible, sustainable and would have a significant impact”.

Priyanka Rachel Peres, who is studying Biological Sciences at UCL, said: “The pandemic has exposed so many problems in the world. [We] wanted to contribute somehow, to make a positive impact. We were really happy when the competition came along as we could use our degrees and our connection with the university to do something positive in such a dark time.”

The competition has given students the chance to connect with experts at UCL who are responding to the issues created by COVID-19, and come up with their own solutions.

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