22 March 2012

Young researchers share £5000 Venture Award

(Picture shows (l-r): Wen Ling Choong, Anna Rzepczynski, Lucy Robertson, Dr Jim McGeorge and Muhammad Sadiq.)

Two entrepreneurial projects from students at the University of Dundee were today each awarded £2500 after they were named winners of the 2012 Venture Programme competition.

A designer accessory for junior doctors and a new medical device with applications for biopsy and anaesthesia were the winning entries in this year's competition, which offers up to £5000 seed money for researchers to turn their ideas into commercial applications.

The winners were Muhammad Sadiq, from Pakistan, a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering, for his drug delivery system which features a vibrating needle. He has worked extensively with the Institute for Medical Science and Technology in developing his product.

He shared the £5000 prize with Design Aid+, a team made up of 5th year medic Wen Ling Choong and 3rd year Textiles students Anna Rzepczynski and Lucy Robertson. Their `Essential Accessory+' has been designed specifically with junior and foundation doctors in mind, giving them a fashionable but very practical carrier for the equipment they need to carry on the ward. It has been designed using NHS-approved infection-proof materials.

The Venture Programme is open to early career and postgraduate researchers at the University and is aimed at those who are interested in developing their research or exploring the commercialisation possibilities for their ideas.

Judging the final session at Enterprise House today were a panel of experts including Kevin Bazley, Senior Manager at Scottish Enterprise; Dr Howard Marriage, Director at Aquila Biomedical Ltd; and Dr Norman Alm, Co-founder and Director of CIRCA Connect and Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Computing at Dundee University.

The awards were presented by the University Secretary, Dr Jim McGeorge.

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