Celebrating Innovation: Meet the Winners of Curiosity’s Shane Chidgzey Award (Semester 2)
What a beautiful way to close this chapter called 2025: celebrating committed students who dared to dream big, back themselves, and turn an idea into something real.
Among 2 cohorts, this semester the Curiosity program had dozens of powerful ideas, but 3 teams stood out! Ideas from students who showed grit, creativity, and heart from day one. They are the winners of the 2025 Curiosity Shane Chidgzey Award (Semester 2), a recognition that celebrates early-stage founders who imagine boldly and act bravely.
The winning teams are:
- Global Scripts – Kushagrah Madnani.
- Infilament – Ritisha Verma, Alvin Yan, Gordon Tam, and Julius Firdasaputra.
- AidVice –Chloe Wu, Malwina Mania, and Kayla Wade.
Check the stories behind each idea below:
Global Scripts
Student Founder: Kushagrah Madnani
When Kushagrah joined Curiosity, it was clear he wasn’t just exploring an idea: he was chasing a mission. As an international student, he understood the anxiety and risk that come with crossing borders while managing essential medication; when he spoke about his “why,” it came from a deeply personal place.
The Challenge:
Kushagrah is solving the problem of interrupted access to essential medication when people move across borders. International students, expats, and travellers often discover that their home-country medical diagnoses are not recognised abroad, forcing them into costly, time-consuming re-diagnoses and putting their health at risk.
Global Scripts is starting with international students and expats because they represent a large, under-served population with a clear, urgent need. They are away from home for long durations, often managing chronic or mental health conditions like ADHD, diabetes, or depression, and cannot afford treatment interruptions. This beachhead market is concentrated, digitally savvy, and accessible through universities and expat networks, making them the ideal starting point.
The Solution:
Creating a healthcare platform that connects licensed doctors from both the home and host country to jointly validate medical diagnoses. This enables patients to receive a legally recognised prescription before travel, ensuring uninterrupted access to essential medication when moving abroad.
Impact of the Award:
The Curiosity Shane Chidgzey Award will allow Kushagrah to take Global Scripts from prototype to pilot. With that support, they can complete my no-code MVP, onboard the first panel of doctors across India and Australia, and run a small-scale pilot with international students moving between the 2 countries. This will validate the core workflow of a joint doctor review and pre-arrival prescription issuance with real users. Beyond the funding, the recognition and mentorship that comes with the prize has helped Global Scripts refine the business model, build credibility with partners, and take the first concrete steps toward making healthcare truly borderless.
Infilament
Student Founders: Ritisha Verma, Alvin Yan, Gordon Tam, and Julius Firdasaputra.
Some teams start with an idea—this team started with a problem they could feel. If you’ve ever stepped into UQ Innovate’s makerspace during semester, you’ve seen the buzzing printers and piles of PLA scraps. But have you ever stopped to wonder, "Where should all these 3D printing material scraps go when they’re no longer usable?". Infilament decided to answer that question.
The Challenge:
3D printing has become an essential part of the workflow for today's engineers, designers, and innovators turning their ideas in real tangible products at light speed. However, on average, 40% of a 3D print (primarily made of PLA plastic) is wasted which is costing both people and the environment because there is no accessible way to recycle PLA or recuperate these losses. Infilament spoke to, and targeted, individuals and Brisbane-based print farms who 3D print regularly as they are the ones who suffer most from this issue.
The Solution:
Infilament provides an accessible solution for businesses and people who 3D print to deposit their printing trash and get rewarded for being sustainable. We will take the trash and feed it through our recycling pipeline to be shredded, cleaned, and re-extruded into brand new spools of filament. We aim to reward users $5 for each kilogram of waste the recycle in the form of store credit which can be redeemed for our recycled spools of filament priced at $15 per kg (the most affordable on the market). This gives users an easy-to-access solution for their waste while getting back something they are in need of.
Impact of the Award:
This award will support the team's purhcasing of necessary materials to begin the research and testing of the recycling pipeline process. We aim to start with integrating electronics into our current 3D printed prototype. This means Infilament can fast track the development and start experimenting with melting and re-extruding the filament to optimise our technology and produce our first recycled spool!
AidVice
Student Founders: Chloe Wu, Malwina Mania, and Kayla Wade.
Some ideas come from lived experience; others from empathy and curiosity. AidVice was born from listening deeply — recognising that something wasn’t working for people with disabilities and deciding to change it. The 3 founders, who met through the program, built AidVice on the belief that everyone deserves products that are truly accessible.
The Challenge
AidVice set out to solve a critical gap: people with disabilities — starting with those who have arthritis in their hands — lack a reliable, central space for accessibility-focused product reviews. For instance, beauty product reviews often highlight color, brand, or price, but rarely mention whether someone with dexterity challenges can actually open or use the product. Our research, including Reddit threads and community discussions, confirmed this is a widespread frustration that needs addressing.
The Solution
AidVice is a community-driven platform where people with disabilities can find and share honest, accessibility-focused product reviews. The team began with beauty products for people living with arthritis, as makeup routines often reveal everyday challenges like gripping brushes, opening packaging, or applying products with limited dexterity. Over time, AidVice aims to expand to include all disabilities and product categories, becoming the go-to hub for accessible product advice and support.
Impact of the Award
This prize will help cover the cost of starting a community platform and potentially be put into investing in product lines, such as testing and sampling.
Interested in seeing more outcomes? See the winning ideas from Curiosity Semester 1 here.
Join Curiosity in 2026!
No matter what you’re studying at UQ — science, engineering, arts, business, sports — if you’ve ever had an idea that keeps you up at night, or you just want to meet like-minded people and learn how to build things that matter, this is your moment. Curiosity 2026 applications open soon — fill out the Expression of Interest link below and come build something amazing with us.