Robotic vine pruner wins Entrepreneurs' Challenge

Vinetology team members Ben Longstaff and Damien Mavroudis - winners of the 2006 echallenge
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Thursday, 26 October 2006

A plan for an autonomous robotic system for pruning grape vines, by Team Vinetology, has captured the imagination of the judges to take top prize in the 2006 University of Adelaide Entrepreneurs' Challenge.

Vinetology team members Ben Longstaff and Damien Mavroudis receive $12,500 in cash and $15,000 in equipment from key sponsor Hewlett-Packard.

The University of Adelaide Entrepreneurs' Challenge, or echallenge, is a joint University-Hewlett Packard initiative that aims to foster the successful development of new ideas into investment-ready, start-up companies. It is run by the University's Education Centre for Innovation and Commercialisation (ECIC).

ECIC Director Professor Noel Lindsay said: "The echallenge stimulates entrepreneurship and creates genuine commercial prospects for the benefit of South Australia. Echallenge celebrates and promotes innovation and entrepreneurship among our students and the outcomes exemplify the impact the University of Adelaide has in the community."

The annual business planning competition involves teams of up to six students, all including at least one University of Adelaide student, developing a business plan for a new previously unfunded concept.

Second place went to EnviroAir (Vince Borg, Heidi Dennis, Jennifer Varzalay, Thomas Mulraney, James Wright, Andrew Kadis) for a system combining heating with air diffusion for a fire-safe, allergy-friendly and cost-effective solution to breathing easy in the bedroom. EnviroAir also won the Vroom Award sponsored by Vroom and Associates.

Faibelle - Natural Skin Couture (Julia Beardsley, Sara Newman, Sophie Christian and Michael Dodd) won third place for a proposal for custom-made natural and effective skincare products using skin scanning technology. Faibelle also won The Advertiser 'Market Ready' award.

The People's Choice award went to Purely (Emily Humphreys and Danielle Jones) for a range of organic cotton female underwear free from the chemicals used in conventional underwear products.

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