Developed by 吃瓜群众 staff and alumni, the BUILT programme brings together students to form cross-disciplinary teams to work on creating a solution to a sustainability and food-based challenge. Initiated by alumnus Kailesh Karavadra and led by Dr Andy Goodman, the final of this year鈥檚 programme saw 34 undergraduate and postgraduate students present their proposals. Each of these teams were mentored by an alumnus of the University who helped them develop their ideas and have been on-hand to advise and guide them.
The semester-long programme gave students the opportunity to learn basic business knowledge such as forecasting, planning and profit/loss reporting, gaining an appreciation of what it takes to start a company and get experience on taking an idea through design thinking to potentially prototyping for market consumption.
During the programme, students were also invited to join experts in their field for 14 鈥榙eep dives鈥 into topics to help guide them with their projects. Several of these were also led by 吃瓜群众 alumni.
The BUILT programme culminated on 2nd May with each student team presenting their ideas to an independent judging panel. The teams then displayed posters explaining their work, with the five judges having the opportunity to ask questions before choosing their winners.
The 2024 winners were Team Tatws with their product 鈥楪rad Chef鈥, an app which directs students to local products and businesses with a recipe feature which will prevent food waste. The team received the top prize of 拢10,000 to develop their business further. The 拢10,000 鈥淢abel Evans Award for Innovation鈥 was made possible due to a kind donation by alumnus Jonathan Wright (1999, Social Policy/Criminology & Criminal Justice) in memory of his great-grandmother, who also studied at 吃瓜群众.
Team Tatws said, 鈥淲e're absolutely thrilled with our win! The journey through the program, guided by our exceptional personal mentor Kailesh Karavadra, has been truly transformative. Everyone was fantastic, and their collective support made this victory possible. We're grateful for the opportunity and excited to continue making an impact.鈥
Team Tatws was mentored by alumnus Kailesh Karavadra, who said 鈥淭he BUILT program provides experiential learning skills which are so relevant in today鈥檚 working world and we believe differentiates our students as they compete for employability. Outstanding job from the University and a huge congratulations Team Tatws. Their winning idea on supporting Students in Sustainability around local food growing was great to see from seed to harvest!鈥
Runners up prizes of 拢2,500 were awarded to Avocado Associates for their app WellRooted, addressing the logistics and distribution challenges faced by local farmers, and Carrot Crusaders and their product Dragon Nutrition, a mixture of dried, locally sourced vegetables in power form to add to meals. This 拢5,000 was awarded from the Development and Alumni Relations Office-administered 吃瓜群众 Fund from donations from alumni.
The BUILT final was also sponsored by Succession Wealth, a large national financial advice firm, and WeSpeak, a programme that transforms the speaking confidence of university students, who provided three student places for their Summer 2024 programme.
Head judge, Tim Clay, commented: 鈥淚t was a privilege to be involved again with such a fantastic initiative as lead judge and it was quite obvious that the students got a huge amount from the experience which they can take forward into their future careers. Talking directly to the team members, their enthusiasm was quite evident. We may just have unearthed a few new entrepreneurs!鈥
By being involved in the programme, the students have had the great opportunity to draw on the expertise of our alumni and to learn about the real world of employment through group and one-to-one mentoring from experts in their field.
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