Quill takes home first prize at 'Everyday Distruptions' UQIES Weekend of Startups
Written by Milind Bordia, Bachelor of Engineering (Honours), Master of Engineering.
In September of last year, the UQ Innovation and Entrepreneurship Society (UQIES) ran their annual Weekend of Startups event, co-hosted by UQ Ladies in Technology (LIT), and it was an incredible success. With over 70 participants and 17 teams, the event was a melting pot of creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurial spirit.
The theme for the event was 'Everyday Disruptions', and teams came up with a range of solutions to real-world problems. From AI-generated changing rooms to sound-proof cladding material for homes, the ideas were diverse and impressive.
The winning team, Quill, impressed the judges with their solution for content validation in the healthcare industry. Team Quill, consisting of Andy Lee (International Business/Physics), Thomas Petersen (Engineering) and Harry Williams (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering), designed a tool which allowed electronics batch records produced by medical device companies to be verified, as they recognised there was a major issue of transposition errors, with data not being adequately checked.
The participants' hard work, dedication, and creativity were evident throughout the event. Some teams went above and beyond, going to colleges late at night to validate their solutions, while others called industry experts and even managed to make sales. It was inspiring to see the entrepreneurial spirit in action.
We received some fantastic feedback from the participants, with one saying that, “It was the best startup experience I've ever had," and another noting, "I enjoyed the tips and learned so much." One of the judges even claimed that, "This is probably the best pitch event I've ever attended." It was clear that everyone learned a lot and left feeling inspired and motivated.
Participants received mentorship from industry throughout the weekend, and we would like to thank them for their support: Nicholas Robertson (SwapU), Jason Lowe (Oracle), Dr. Jason Wessel (Contemplate), Chris Pymble (Graphics et al.), Daniel Brazil (Bunnings), Maggie Morrison (Cisco), Blair McMillan (Entain), Lachlan Healey (NTI), Georgina Siggins (Microsoft) and Matt Kershaw (Dominos), along with the amazing judges Tim Anderson (Entain), Sonja Berhardt OAM and Alexander Cohen (TEN13). We would also like to thank the support from Entain and the UQ Ventures team in running this event.
Looking ahead, we are excited to announce that the 2023 Sustainability Innovation Challenge event will be co-hosted by UQ Aeroponics and backed by industry partners such as Stripe, Econome, and Climate Salad Friday 21 - Sunday 23 April. We encourage everyone to purchase tickets and take part in what promises to be an even more incredible event than the last. Who knows? Maybe your team will be the next Quill!