Celebrating student entrepreneurs Start100 showcase allows students to pitch investible ideas and innovations
IdeasLab, the entrepreneurial and innovation hub at NUI Galway, has announced as the inaugural Start100 winners for 2022.
ICTUS Medical and IRIS were crowned the winners of the inaugural Start100 programme from NUI Galway’s IdeasLab.
ICTUS Medical received the overall award for Start100, with IRIS receiving the One to Watch award.
Nine teams of students presented at a special showcase event bringing their innovative ideas to a panel of judges from the worlds of academia, research, industry and enterprise after an intensive six-week programme hosted by IdeasLab.
IdeasLab launched their new student incubator programme, Start100 earlier this year. Start100 helps students with an early-stage concept to transform their ideas into potentially investible innovations.
The Start100 programme provides physical space, key networking opportunities, expert mentorship from alumni and enterprise, as well as a support fund of over €40,000. Students have access to funds to research and develop their idea throughout the programme, and have the chance to win a final event prize fund.
ICTUS Medical is spearheaded by Peter Best-Lydon, a Galway native and recent Biomedical Engineering graduate, and Ciarán McDermott, a final year student in Electronic Engineering. They are developing a painless monitoring device that empowers stroke survivors to take control of their health by detecting sleeping strokes.
“We are absolutely delighted to win. Start100 has been a massive help to us with all of the connections that we have made,” Peter Best-Lydon said. “There is a buzz every week in IdeasLab and it was great to get a sense of working in a start-up. We are really looking forward to making a significant impact to the patient.’’
The One to Watch prize was awarded to IRIS, which was co-founded by Keelan Rowley and Michael Dillon, both recent graduates of NUI Galway’s BSc in Project and Construction Management.
IRIS is a safety device that helps detect the presence of people and animals from machinery like Tractors, Diggers, Dumpers. A cost-effective device that saves lives and families. Winning this award will allow Michael and Keelan to focus on prototyping and validating their idea.
President of NUI Galway, Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh launched the showcase event.
“At NUI Galway, our values – respect, openness, excellence and sustainability – are what define us and more importantly we strive to see them become not just words but actions and deeds. Supporting students on a journey of societal impact through enterprising ideas is part of that mission for the public good. It’s a great encouragement to see young people finding solutions to problems through innovation, ideas and solutions and also to see them being supported in that journey by our educators, our university community, and our civic and business networks,” Professor Ó hÓgartaigh said.
The difficult decision of selecting the most investable idea was made by a diverse judging panel representing some of Irelands best and brightest entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and academics. The panel for the final showcase included: Dr Helen McBreen, Partner Atlantic Bridge; Professor Michelle Millar, Dean of Students at NUI Galway; Dr Paul Dodd, Vice President Engagement, NUI Galway; Dr Vanessa Creaven Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Spotlight Oral Care; and Finn Hegarty, Co-Founder and Chief Procurement Officer at GloFox.
Dr Natalie Walsh, Director of Entrepreneurial Development at NUI Galway, said: “In recent years, we have seen some fantastic student entrepreneurs create global businesses in the west of Ireland. Through Start100 we now have a platform to support more students to achieve this type of success through the creation of commercial and social enterprises. Start100 is the first student incubator to launch in the University, designed with former and current students, our alumni and enterprise partners, we are incredibly proud to see Start100 come to life on our campus.”
A summary of nine projects showcased at the event included:
I Said Speak – An information awareness video that delves into Ireland’s drink culture among students
Receipt Relay – A customer insights software for retail and hospitality chains using point of sale and consumer app integrations
IRIS – A safety device that helps detect the presence of people and animals from farm machinery – saving lives and families
Matán Marketing – Digital marketing for gyms
Scrunch-UP – An anti-spike scrunchie for university students
ThoughtGarden – Self-administered CBT mobile game to reduce anxiety and depression
DataPals.io – A data-driven e-commerce agency that builds and optimises high-performance Shopify stores
Struts.app – An application that facilitates the remote capture of patient’s foot scan data using just a smart phone
ICTUS Medical – A painless monitoring device that empowers stroke survivors to take control of their health by detecting sleeping strokes
For more information check out
http://www.nuigalway.ie/Ideaslab
Or follow IdeasLab on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/company/nui-galway-ideaslab/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/IdeasLabNUIG
Instagram @IdeasLabNUIG
Ends
About IdeasLab
IdeasLab at NUI Galway is an open collaborative environment for the campus community to explore and accelerate ideas. Programmes are open to all students from any year or course. Whether meeting new people, developing skills, working to solve global challenges or setting up a business is your aim, IdeasLab is the place to start.
Start100 is funded by the Human Capital Initiative (Government of Ireland) and the European Institute of Technology HEI Initiative.
Start100 Media
Quotes
Helen McBreen – Judge from Atlantic Bridge – Quote on all Start100 presentations
Through Start100 the student teams gained the experience and tools needed to build a business and that came across in spades in their presentations. The passion that came across in all of the presentations was huge. The friends that the student teams have built by engaging with one another and networking is fantastic. The impact of all of the ideas was impressive, every team spoke about huge problems in their target markets and spoke with passion, like most entrepreneurs do. The Start100 teams had a great understanding of the problems in their target markets and the need to solve them.
Helen McBreen quote on One to watch – IRIS
IRIS were our One to Watch in terms of the impact, the passion of their presentation, the teamwork involved throughout and the transformation from week one to week six of Start100
Helen McBreen quote on Overall Winners – ICTUS Medical
There is a huge market ahead for this winning team and their technology around stroke detection. It is very early days and there is a lot of road to go, there is going to be a lot of head winds, a lot of tail winds and challenges but this team clearly presented and demonstrated how they progressed over the 6 week Start100 programme. ICTUS Medical presented a clear plan for the years ahead and the work that they will have to do to bring their technology into the stroke market was very impressive.
Vanessa Creaven – Spotlight Oral Care – Judge – On both winning teams
In the overall competition the winning team really stood out in terms of their passion and ingenuity. ICTUS Medical have a huge opportunity to make a real difference on an individual patient level but also on the healthcare service as a whole. They presented a very structured and thoughtful plan and were seriously impressive Start100 participants. Both ICTUS Medical, as overall winners and ‘One to Watch’ IRIS were really patient focussed and would make a huge difference to the quality of life of patients.
President of NUI Galway, Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh on Start100
At NUI Galway, our values – respect, openness, excellence and sustainability – are what define us and more importantly we strive to see them become not just words but actions and deeds. Supporting students on a journey of societal impact through enterprising ideas is part of that mission for the public good. It’s a great encouragement to see young people finding solutions to problems through innovation, ideas and solutions and also to see them being supported in that journey by our educators, our university community, and our civic and business networks
Natalie Walsh IdeasLab quote on Start100
In recent years, we have seen some fantastic student entrepreneurs create global businesses in the west of Ireland. Through Start100 we now have a platform to support more students to achieve this type of success through the creation of commercial and social enterprises. Start100 is the first student incubator to launch in the University, designed with former and current students, our alumni and enterprise partners, we are incredibly proud to see Start100 come to life on our campus.
Peter Best-Lydon of overall winning team ICTUS Medical
Absolutely delighted to win. Start100 has been a massive help to us with all of the connections that we have made. There is a buzz every week in IdeasLab and it was great to get a sense of working in a start-up. We are really looking forward to making a significant impact to the patient.
IRIS – One to Watch
Michael Dillon
Start100 was a great programme. We really learned a lot and the lecturers that came in provided us with great insider information and helped us plan how we will expand our business. This prize really means a lot and will help us towards prototyping and field testing our design.
Keelan Rowley
Start100 has been critical in the development of our product. From the very beginning we were mentored throughout the entire process of the 6 week programme. We had brilliant tutors and lecturers. Winning this prize will be very important for our prototyping and validating the solution we have developed.