Hughes Hall Enterprise Society Annual Competition 2019

On Monday June 10 , Hughes Hall Enterprise Society’s Annual Competition was held with much expected enthusiasm. The Hughes Hall Enterprise Society’s Annual Competition rewarded the winning team with a £1,250 prize to help them embark on their entrepreneurship journey. The atmosphere throughout the competition was exciting, competitive and lots of questions were asked by both audience and judges. The competing teams were QBIO, FOODPLUS and TX.

Paolo Casamassima,  the new HHES President, was very pleased and reported  “There was an online selection round and the Enterprise Society is appreciative of the efforts put in by all applicants; the presentations made by these three finalists were particularly good and the open forum appreciated by all. For 2020 we are looking for business ideas from all sectors and we will be starting the process again in September”

QBIO’s team members included; Dr William Pritchard (Hughes Hall),  Dr Yanin Naiyachit (Trinity Hall), Mr William Bolton (Downing College). The QBIO team was promoting novel infection testing and treatment through an innovative platform approach. Initially targeting the sepsis market, their diagnostic technique allows for an integrated big data approach to infection, delivering immediate clinical benefits of improved patient survival and reduced Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), informing future diagnostic design, and the discovery of much needed novel antimicrobial therapies. If you would like to know more, the QBIO team would be delighted to be contacted at info@qbio.co.uk

Subsequently, team FoodPlus’ members included; Zhiqi Wang (Hughes Hall), Cathleen Law, Pavel Artemov, Jennifer Jia, Hector Williamson and Carina Tyrrell. The Foodplus team was promoting an ethically driven food technology social enterprise with a vision of improving nutrient intake for the general public, as well as the undernourished population. Their product- a ‘fruit and vegetable powdered drink mix’- which conveniently supplements a person’s 5-A-Day, not only improves public health, but also aims to reduce food wastage by sourcing surplus raw ingredients from food providers. Anyone who would like to learn more about FoodPlus and would like a sample can email hellofoodplus@gmail.com

Finally, the winning team, the TX team members included; Harry Baxter (Hughes Hall), Ting Lye (Girton), Camila Betterelli Giulano (Girton) and Nikhil Shiva (Trinity Hall). TX’s team was promoting a digital health platform which helps individuals with thyroid conditions better manage their health and wellbeing. TX’s team business plan was highly impactful given that 1 in 8 women suffer from a thyroid-related disease and TX specifically focuses on how such conditions can impact women’s health issues. The platform allows patients to track symptoms and blood test results over a longitudinal basis as well as will allow patients to communicate directly with clinicians via a telemedicine platform. Using aggregated data, TX aims to use machine learning analysis to help better predict fluctuations in thyroid function blood tests and help individuals and clinicians more proactively manage thyroid-related conditions. TX’s goal is to prioritise women’s health issues, empower patients to take back control of their health, and ultimately to improve clinical outcomes for thyroid disease. Should you be interested in learning more or working with TX team as an early-stage start-up, please contact txdigitalhealth@gmail.com

Rupert Pearce Gould, Hughes Hall By-Fellow who chairs the Enterprise Society, wished all of the participating teams success in their entrepreneurial journey. After 5 years he was pleased to see an improving quality of entrants from Hughes Hall members and a better balance of teams that bodes well for the next generation of entrepreneurs.  We look forward to welcoming another generation of entrepreneurs in the Michaelmas term and the next round of applications for the 2020 HHES Annual Competition.