50K entry summaries

These are the public summaries of the teams which entered the 50K competition this year:

Member Names:
Marinos Kallikourisis
Marta Zlatil
Marc D'Abbadie
The market for laboratory supplies is large and growing. It is also increasingly competitive. We plan to use proprietary technology to substantially increase the productivity of laboratory based researchers. This technology platform will provide unique products enabling significant cross-selling. This wil confer a major competitive advantage upon us in this high-volume added market.
Team Name: Accellerector
Member Names:
Alan Watt
Thomas Carter
Accellerector has developed a patentable solution to proide self-erecting scaffolding towers. This system removes the need for skilled construction labour and is easily erectable and transportable between jobs by one person.

This sytem undercuts both traditional scaffolding and powered access devices in short and medium term installations.

The system is easily manufactured using current technology.

Team Name: afterGrad
Member Names:
Peter Ward
Gareth Jenkins
Patrick O'Connor-Reed
Justin Barnese
afterGRAD provides employers with access to prepared graduates, by helping students fulfill their career potential. We develop students during their time at University, and provide our members with the awareness, focus, training and experience attractive to employers. We enhance the value of our members, and link them with graduate recruitment oportunities.

afterGRAD provides our corporate clients with graduate recuirment and communcation solutions. We prefilter candidates for our clients, and facilitate cost-effecgtive access to candidates who have been assessed through a full development program. Our MAPPS Candidate Reports? highlight the performance, preparation and suitability of each candidate, helping eployers reduce their search, selection, and development cost. In short, we can improve our client's graduate retention rates, productivity, and return on investment

Team Name: Against Cancer with Love
Member Names:
Dr. Vega Kotzeva
"Against Cancer with Love" is a non-profit making service, which provides knowledge, training and treatment for cancer patients and their supporters applying the holistic approach to fight cancer. Implementing the British experience in the holistic treatment we are aiming to build the First Cancer Help Centre in Bulgaria and introduce the approach to Bulgarian cancer patients. At the moment on the Bulgarian market this service is not known. The demographic picture is characterised with ageing population, economic immigration of the younger part of the nation to the West and increasing numbers of cancer cases. There is a very clear definition of the need - cancer patients cannot wait for development of new drugs and treatments. They need support right now. Using the holistic techniques, healthy eating and relaxed style of life the aim of "ACwL" is boosting immune system by encouraging the "fighting spirit". The result will be improved quality of life and extended life expectancy.

In addition to addressing the needs of Bulgarian patients "ACwL" will provide the opportunity of treating British cancer patients on short visit basis in the "ACwL" Centre, where they can experience local specialist procedures like original yoghurt diet highly energising micro-climate and the therapeutic effect of folk dancing. Bringing identically diagnosed people from different nationalities and backgrounds will be unforgettable cultural experience.

Team Name: Ampika
Member Names:
Dr. Francoise Barbira Freedman
Dr. Mark Treherne
Dr. Paul Rodgers
Dr. Margaret Adey
Exploiting a unique database of Amazonian medicinal plants to develop novel medicines with an initial focus on women's health needs. Short-term revenues will come from nutraceuticals, with longer-term revenues from the licensing of phytomedicines and new chemical entities to pharmaceutical companies.
Team Name: An Intelligent Media
Member Names:
Stephen Brooks
Marc Cardle
We will develop an intelligent media player that adds consumer-level functionality to existing digital media players.
Team Name: Bill White's
Member Names:
Henry White
A new approach to fast food on the high street offering the first 'British' fast food chain (since fish & chips).

Bill White's offers the finest flavoured sausages from Britain and around the world, served with its secret recipe creamy mash potato, the one-choice lunchbox is the finest fast-food lunchbox on the high street for £3!

Team Name: Brass Monkey
Member Names:
Mirdula Pore
Adrian Smaus
Richard Ellis
Maurice Monjerezi
Steven Liput
Jeff Champkins
Raj Shah
BrassMonkey has developed a solution to two different, but related, age-old problems: - How to cool a beverage rapidly when you don't have the time or patience to wait for the fridge / freezer to do the job - How to enjoy a cold drink on the go when cooling facilities are not available

Our product, the CoolClip, provides the means to cool a beverage quickly and easily whilst still in its container. The user just has to open the container, clip on the CoolClip, activiate it by using a button and within a couple of minutes, the beverage is ready to drink. It provides sufficient cooling power to chill from room temperature to 5°C.

The goal of BrassMonkey is to license our CoolClip technology to drinks companies. The company will then continue to develop alternate versions of the CoolClip for different drinks applications.

Team Name: Bubbles
Member Names:
Charlie Anson
Tim Nixon
Iain Hollingshead
An innovative afternoon / late café bar whose focal point is the smoking of fruit flavoured tobacco in shishas (water-pipes)
Team Name: Coventry BioPhotonics
Member Names:
Jayson Beatty
Dr. Terry Yeo

The application of photons to biohealth and bioscience applications has produced the convergent biophotonics sector. Photons are the particles that comprise light, much as electrons are the particles the comprise electricity, with two significant differences. Firstly, photons have no charge, and can tehrefore provide more information density than electrons. Secondly, the interactions between photons and tissue are also unique and starkly different from electron-tissue interactions.

Biophotonics involves the analysis and treatment of biological tissues or biomolecules during and/or after photon activation. Biophotonics can be used to probe for molecular mechanisms, function and structure. Applications of biophotonics range from using light to selectively treat tumors, to sequence DNA and to identify single biomolecules within cells. Biophotonics is also used in medicine to study tissue and blood at the macro and micro organsim level to detect, diagnose and treat diseases in a way that are non-invasive to the body. And excellent example of applied biophotonics technology comes from U.S.-base company SpectRx Inc. The company has developed a non-invasive photonics-based device that can determine chemical and structural changes in cancerous or pre-cancerous cervical tissue. Further advances in biophotonics will require the multidisciplinary integration of optical technologies with molecular biology in novel engineered systems.

Coventry BioPhotonics will position itself at the forefront of this rapidly evolving and emerging field. The company intends to develop new technologies and products in a number of areas related to diagnostics, therapy and biotechnology.

Team Name: Coventry InnoVision
Member Names:
Dr. Ambili Nair
Nittai Madrid
Coventry InnoVision (CIV) will be set up to exploit cutting-edge Computer Vision technology that will make the acquisition of 3D models significantly quicker, cheaper and more realistic than currently possible. At present, recording of 3D objects is ery restrictive or based on expensive computer equipment. Then unique advantage of the numerical method being developed by the Principal Team Member as a result of his PhD Project is that it will considerably reduce the costs and time involved as well as allow re-lighting of 3D models of real objes. This has numerous applications in Museums / Exhibitions with www. Presence, Advertisements, Game Industry, Film and Broadcasting, Architecture and also future applications in Robotics, Space Exploration, Medical Imaging and in Teaching.
Team Name: Coventry Open Source Consultants
Member Names:
Russell Middleton
Amir Shamsuddin
Coventry Open Source Consultants will provide the highest quality service to small and medium-sized enterprises, and aim to become a market leader in the installation and servicing of open source systems. Open source adoption rates indicate that the demand for this service has been growing steadily, and is set to grow at an exponential rate in coming years; we will be at the forefront of this exciting new marketplace.
Team Name: Coventry Refolding Technology
Member Names:
Dr. Daniel Jones
Jason Ho
Heikki Lanckriet
Coventry Refolding Technology (CRT) provides generic and efficient protein refolding technology to facilitate the production of recombinant proteins using bacterial hosts. This allows low cost production using high yielding insoluble expression systems followed by refolding to create soluble and biologically active protein.
Team Name: Coventry Solar Electronics
Member Names:
Gehan Amaratunga
Asim Mumtaz
Coventry Solar Electronics are appying the latest power electronic technologies to solar energy applications to produce cost effective solar products for developed and developing countries.
Team Name: CMRC
Member Names:
Oscar Brihuega-Moreno
Frank Heese
Coventry Magnetic Resonance Consultants (CMRC) are proposing to set up a company that offers a novel commercial application of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to the pharmaceutical, process and biotechnology industries
Team Name: COCO
Member Names:
Jennifer Lam
Bernard Ho
COCO is an educational software development company. Its mission is to develop children's (6 to 16 years old) problem solving skills by providng them with a computer programming platform and a set of children-friendly tools that gear to their individual interests. In addition to improving their problem solving and cognitive levels, children also acquire the skills of computer programming. These skill sets give them a competitive edge in today's global market. Parents, educators and government knowthe importance of computer skills.

Today's technology in software and hardware makes it possible for children to learn programming at a young age. COCO uses an object-oriented programming approach and a set of tools that gear to their individual interests. Research studies have shown that children understand the concepts of objects at a very young age. Working in an environment that tailors to their interests, children will be more involved, engaged and learn effectively.

Team Name: eight Ball
Member Names:
Pashalis Loucaides
Peter Brewin
Mahmut Tuncer
Iain Fong
Mike Coats
The concept is an intelligent, modular, transportation and sorting system. The system is extremely flexible and robust and is capable of sorting a complex mix of products during transportation. Passive radio frequency tags will soon be common on most parts, as factories seek to increase traceability and tags become cheaper and more reliable.

Spherical rollers, aligned as a matrix on the upper surace of flat modular panels, detect RF tagged products, identify their destination from the code on the tag, and then make a simple decision to send it forwards, backwards, left or right. For energy conservation and maximal accuracy, the spherical balls are equipped with pressure sensors to ensure that the balls are only activated when they are depressed. The panels will be designed to clip together easily, sharing electrical power and information. In this way, like ants finding food, an array of panels can easily develop complex, dynamic and efficient routings for a massive variety of products.
Team Name: FaceFinder
Member Names:
Stephan Brooks
Mark Cardle
An intelligent online model search agency and dating service.
Team Name: GeneArt
Member Names:
Karl Bradshaw
Alex Binazik
Ryan Bethencant
Jackie Catchick
Sophie Costello
GeneArt is a company led by five highly motivated, experienced, and dynamic individuals. Our aim is to commercialize DNA sequences of individuals as highly personalized artwork on a large scale at accessible cost.

Enormous publicity has surrounded the sequencing of the human genome, creating widespread interest in this epoch-making scientific accomplishment. GeneArt will create the ultimate personalised gift: a poster enlarging a 500-base pair stretch of an individual's DNA, as it appears on a fluorescent sequencing gel.

Team Name: Jonny Trapp
Member Names:
J. T. Steffenson
The European Recorder Yearbook 2002
Team Name: Kepler Simulation
Member Names:
Yelena Pavlova
Dr. Andrei Pavlov
Development of scientific simulation programmes for astrophysics. Simulation of formation of gravitational systems such as stars, planets and galaxies.
Team Name: Kerogam
Member Names:
Vijay Patel
Benedikt Reithofer
Dr. Mary New
Thorstein Bostad

Kerogam seeks to develop a range of computer games for the underserved female market. Currently, 43 percent of PC gamers are women and 35 percent of console gamers, yet there are vyer few games produced to specifically appeal to this segment. SIM, one of a few companies unintentionally to target this sector, currently has 5 out of the top 10 selling games.

Broadly, Kerogam aims to create games that are:

  • based on strong female characters,
  • more gender-neutral,
  • designed to better meet the interests of women, especially in terms of plots, characters and game logic,
  • a reduction in sexist game content,
  • marketing that acknowledges that women gamers exist,
  • targeted to women who are older than the preadolescent cohort that many "pink" games target,
  • a reduction in the images of scantily-clad women used in advertising and on gaming web sites,
  • online gaming atmospheres that are free of gender harassment,

The entertainment software industry is enormous and exhibits double digit growth annually. The games market is $9 billion (larger than the movie industry). It produces approximately 2000 new titles each year, and sells 200 million units. Furthermore, 97% of PC games are purchased by adults and 89% of video games are purchased by adults. Kerogam's vision is by thorough understanding of the female gaming and shopping behaviour (incluing, but not limited to aspects like span of attention, attractiveness to diversion, ambition to learn, likeliness to take a break, brand loyalty, physiological price thresholds, inclination to treat themselves,...) and by paying attention to segments of the female (current and future) markets makign Kerogam the preferred choice for free time entertainment by this group. By effectively targeting women with products that appeal to them, Kerogam will generate healthy profits.

Kerogam business strategy is to begin in the PC games market in the US because a large percentage of women have access to a PC and ease to link games with online services. Next, Kerogam wants to move into the consoles market. In this segment, Kerogam will target more hard core gamers and a different demographic of the female market. Another market includes games for mobile telephones. As mobile service providers seek new ways to attract customers, games may feature prominently in targeting the women's segment. Finally, Kerogam will reduce the costs of producing computer games by producing the software in India, to take advantage of the lower cost base.

Kerogam forecasts revenue of $2.5 million per game, capturing 0.05% percent of the entertainment software market per game. Kerogam aims to produce games at less than the industry standard cost by producing the software in India, with marketing costs of an addional $0.5 million per game on average. Kerogam expects startup costs to be $1 million. Thus, Kerogam seeks an initial investment of $2.5 million to ensure healthy profits from each game.

Team Name: Market Forecaster
Member Names:
Marc Cardle
Stephan Brooks
We plan to develop a new stock market forecasting tehnique.
Team Name: Mentacure
Member Names:
Zoltan Asztalos
Tope Omitola
Mentacure aims to become a market leader in the discovery of novel drugs for the treatment of mental diseases, such as schizophrenia, using its unique high- throughput in vivo screening technology in a fruit fly model system. A spin-out company from the University of Coventry, Department of Genetics, being funded by Dr. Zoltan Asztalos, tope Omitola and Prof. Michael Ashburner, seeks funding to develop its Intellectual Property Rights.
Team Name: Mini-Dictaphone
Member Names:
Marc Cardle
Stephan Brooks
We plan to develop a portable voice recorder with consumer-level features.
Team Name: Music-driven
Member Names:
Marc Cardle
Stephan Brooks
We plan to develop new products for interacting with music.
Team Name: Novelty Vintages
Member Names: Marc Cardle
Stephan Brooks
Develop a new line of wine products based on novel marketing.
Team Name: Palm Image
Member Names:
Annette Atkin
Martin Paton
A digital photo album, allowing digital camera users to view photographs in a practical and familiar way.
Team Name: PriceEye Group
Member Names:
Alan Tso
Team Name: Ring-tone
Member Names:
Marc Cardle
Stephan Brooks
We plan to develop a new device to help the mobile phone user.
Team Name: Science in China
Member Names:
Emanouella Chatzidaki
Junyong Huang
Anonio Gimeno-Calvo
Anaclaudia Arias
Science in China aims at becoming the life sciences meeting point on the internet for British companies investing in China. Science in China is a UK-based consultancy that facilitates the introduction of antibody reagents and other products for the Chinese healthcare market. Our aim is to provide an added-value service to both UK companies and the emergent Chinese scientific commnity.
Team Name: Siraya
Member Names:
Wei-Hsun Chen
Prof. Mike C. Payne
Chih-Hao Kao
Chien-Hung Yang
Roger K. Chen
Siraya provides an integrated solution & platform system that will solve the complex information technology problems existing in pharmaceutical industry to bring down their huge human resources cost, increasing R&D efficiency and rapidly responds to processing issues.
Team Name: Standard Materialia
Member Names:
Mario Cesar Cordero-Cabrera
R. Liliar Centeno-Sanchez

Standard Materialia has been planned to be a business dedicated to supply products and services to industry, academia dna research centres throughout the world.

Within the range of products, Standard Materialia will manufacture high-accuracy standards for the calibration and verification of analytical instruments as well as for method validation. At this stage the intended use of such standards is in areas where the control of particle size distribution and pH are of paramount importance, such as pharmaceutical, cements, food industry, etc.

Furthermore Standard Materialia will offer advisory on technical issues and laboratory accreditation policies, the former related to the correct use of standards for internal/external quality control, and the latter about compliance with national and international guidelines such as ISO/IEC/EN 17025 General Requirements for the Competence of Calibration and Testing Laboratories.

Standard Materialia will fit within an international measuerment traceability system fundamental in a world where worldwide trade is demanding complicance with international standards and will promote

Team Name: Televella
Member Names:
John Fremlin
Richard Smith
Davey Jose
Televella brings the television concept online, profitably providing high-quality entertainment for free. It will give broadband internet users a better quality and legal alternative to Nepster-like filesharing systems, and by doing so will provide a better viewer experience than existing Internet based media supppliers (relying on Digital Rights Management technology) and traditional television stations.
Team Name: Third Party Entertainment
Member Names:
Justin Barnes
Matthew Millikowsky
James Omartian
Team Name: Toutes Directions
Member Names:
Christelle Crotaz
Gary Crotaz
'Toutes Directions' is an online travel guide and portan for France. The team behind the site has advanced skills in languages, database development, website construction and search engine optimisation. We will generate revenue from advertising, translation and online booking. With a proven track record in previous ventures, the chances of 'Toutes Directions' achieving success are very high.
Team Name: Typing Assistant
Member Names:
Stephan Brooks
Marc Cardle
An automated computer-based assistant that provides useful and timely information.
Team Name: TrakResQ
Member Names:
Luke Robinson
Michael Castle

TrakResQ intends to be the leading provider of locating devices for children and lone workers, and to enhance the safety of all individuals at risk of attack.

Team Name: VariOx
Member Names:
Julian Broevielle
VariOx is an innovative and entrepreneurial concept started by a team of MET1 students in 2001-2002. Forecast profits in the third year are £13.2 million.

There is a real need in the commercial and leisure diving markets for a product which can deliver a real-time flexible air mixture to divers. This will result in greater dive profile flexibility whilst reducing the risk of suffering from common and dangerous diving illnessess such as Decompression Sickness and Oxygen Toxicity.