Over 100 people work on projects to change the world at Cambridge event
Cambridge, 23 April 2012: Sim-Prints took the overall prize at the first Idea Transform weekend for its mobile phone-based biometrics project which allows healthcare workers to collect and check patient information in the developing world. Aimed at supporting and accelerating projects that benefit and improve society, over 100 people attended the intensive weekend event, held in Cambridge between 20-22 April 2012, including speakers, mentors and judges representing Raspberry Pi, Research in Motion/BlackBerry, Amadeus Capital Partners, Springboard and the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (CfEL).
Sponsored and supported by ARM, Red Gate Software and ideaSpace Enterprise Accelerator, the event saw teams pitch and work together on projects in healthcare, education, community and the environment, aided by an experienced group of mentors.
As well as the overall prize, category winners from the 26 ideas pitched were:
- Education: Imvoto, a teacher-developed system for improving maths lessons by using mobile devices
- Healthcare: Sim-Prints
- Community: ITAS, a project to create a new service to combine the convenience of taxis with the economy of public transport
- Environment: Ampium, new technology to charge electric vehicles while they are driving
Sim-Prints will benefit from three months membership at the ideaSpace Enterprise Accelerator co-working and networking facility, while all category winners will benefit from ongoing mentoring via the team at Startup Masterclass and Cambridge Resolution as well as the chance to attend next weekend’s Silicon Milkround Cambridge. Additionally, two unnamed category winners won the chance to pitch for funding from Cambridge Angels. A special prize for mobile innovation sponsored by Research in Motion, saw Imvoto win BlackBerry PlayBooks.
These were then judged by an international judging panel of investor Peter Cowley, Mark Cheverton of Red Gate Software, David Gill of St John’s Innovation Centre, Stephen O’Brien of Research in Motion, Hugh Parnell of Cambridge Cleantech, environmental consultant Ian Tod and Paul Smith of Eventility/CamCreative.
We started Idea Transform with a desire to unlock and support innovative ideas that can really make a difference to society,”
said Chris Measures, co-founder, Idea Transform.
However we were blown away by the diversity of projects, the commitment of the attendees and teams and what they managed to achieve in just a single weekend. We’ve convinced that many of them can go on to change the world for the better.”
Sim-Prints is based on the winning project from the Global Health Hack Day held by the Humanitarian Centre and CUTEC in March 2012. The winners of that competition, Shruti Badwar, Mariya Chhatriwala and Toby Norman, won places at Idea Transform and were joined for the weekend by James Crosby, Marcos Ikegame and Gail Mayhew in the winning entry.
At Idea Transform we’re incredibly grateful for the support and help we’ve received from companies and individuals who’ve both provided sponsorship and given up their time to mentor, judge and speak over the course of the weekend,”
added Jeremy Parsons, co-founder, Idea Transform.
We’d particularly like to thank our partners – ARM, Red Gate Software, ideaSpace and the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning for their backing, and to all the volunteers that gave up their time to make the event run so smoothly.”
Keynote speakers for the weekend were Billy Boyle, co-founder of sensor company Owlstone Nanotech, Jack Lang, serial entrepreneur and Raspberry Pi trustee, Dr Ward Hills, CEO of medical monitoring company Pneumacare, Alex van Someren of Amadeus Capital Partners and Jon Bradford of Springboard.
What’s really exciting about Idea Transform is that there’s a real will amongst all the teams that took part to carry on and turn their ideas into reality,”
said Mauro Ciaccio, co-founder, Idea Transform.
The combination of the prizes of ongoing mentoring, the chance to pitch for funding and membership at ideaSpace for the winners shows Idea Transform’s commitment to support these projects and help them succeed.”
About Idea Transform
Innovation, ideas and technology now have the ability to make a difference, delivering real, long-term change across the globe. Cambridge-based Idea Transform has been created to empower the meaningful entrepreneurs driving this change through events, mentoring and targeted support. Backed by the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (CfEL) it aims to inspire meaningful projects, from Cambridge and beyond, in areas as diverse as education, health, finance, community and the environment.
The first Idea Transform event was held between 20-22 April 2012 at the Judge Business School, Cambridge. Open to all, brought together people with innovative ideas and those with the skills they needed to develop meaningful projects over the course of the weekend. Supported by experienced mentors and high profile keynote speakers it helped identify promising projects, which will now receive the ongoing backing they need to develop and flourish.