The winners of the 2018 Venture Out student ideas competition were announced at a celebration evening on Tuesday, 4 December. The competition is open to both undergraduate and postgraduate students from across the University and is run by the Masood Enterprise Centre, the focal point for enterprise and entrepreneurship at The University of Manchester.
The competition saw students from every faculty compete in five categories – Business, Creative, Environment, Social and Technology.
Business winner: Algacine
Lauren McGinney, School of Biological Sciences
Algacine creates oral medicines from edible, nutritious algae - to prevent and treat disease, promote holistic good health, and provide worldwide access to affordable medicines. We engineer and cheaply grow algae producing biotherapies (pain-relief drugs, malaria vaccines and insulin, for example) then freeze-dry the biomass into oral tablets, for reliable worldwide distribution and injection-free treatments.
Creative winner: Mercado Creativo
Juan Felipe Alvarez and Lina Vargas, Alliance Manchester Business School
Mercado Creativo aims to satisfy the employment needs of professional graphic designers in Colombia by connecting them with budget-scarce small companies. We aim to build a bridge that connects the excess offer of designers with the unmet design demand of small companies via design contests. We offer a digital job marketplace that is fair with both parties involved in the transaction
Environment winners: Recycling Bee
Denzel Mercera, Alliance Manchester Business School
Mitigating the effects of the plastic-problem through the introduction of a bee statue, containing a plastic-shredder on top that breaks plastic down into smaller 'flakes' that can be used to create new usable products in the adjacent pop-up store (where extrusion, injection and compression machines are present).
Social winner: Speak Up
Deepti Mohindra, Aniruddha Mahato, Alliance Manchester Business School
Emma Kolkman, School of Environment, Education and Development
Lillie Toon, School of Social Sciences
Yusef Zaman, School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering
Speak Up is a student led volunteering society. We teach English to migrant parents in 5 primary schools around Manchester, the lessons are weekly, free and accessible. Currently we teach over 60 parents and have 40 volunteers.
Technology winner: Trocar Damper
Mark Toleman, School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering
Natalie Metcalf, Alliance Manchester Business School
The Trocar Damper has the potential to save millions of lives and tens of millions of pounds by drastically reducing the risk of over puncture during keyhole surgery; initial access devices have had no significant improvements in decades. Until now.
Read more about the Venture Out student ideas competition >>
