Young innovators step up to the business eChallenge

Friday, 18 November 2016

The nation's premier student entrepreneur "investor ready" program – the Australian eChallenge – is preparing to crown the next generation of innovators in the 2016 finals of the Australian eChallenge awards in Adelaide tonight.

More than $100,000 in total cash and prizes are on offer in 2016, including five $10,000 cash first prizes, as well as consulting and workshops from leading firms.

Run by the Entrepreneurship, Commercialisation and Innovation Centre (ECIC) at the University of Adelaide, the eChallenge has this year attracted 152 teams across different categories.

Tonight, awards will be presented at a ceremony at Adelaide Oval in the categories of Tertiary, Schools, Agri-Food & Wine, Research Commercialisation, Medical Innovations, and the People's Choice award of $1000.

"The Australian eChallenge was established in 2001 as a platform for Adelaide's brightest students to share their visionary ideas with some of the country's best business minds. Now, 15 years later, eChallenge continues to play a critical role in stimulating innovation and business thinking among new generations of South Australians," says Professor Noel Lindsay, Pro Vice-Chancellor - Entrepreneurship and Director of ECIC at the University of Adelaide.

"One of the great success stories of eChallenge – and one we're especially proud of – has been the introduction of the Schools category. This year, we have teams of secondary school students competing from Blackfriars, Blackwood, Cardijn, Loxton, Prince Alfred, Renmark, Scotch, St Peter's Girls, and Urrbrae High.

"The opportunity to develop innovative, entrepreneurial thinking at an early age can only be of benefit to South Australia's future, and the school students who take part in eChallenge continue to impress us at every stage of the event," Professor Lindsay says.

The 2016 Australian eChallenge is sponsored by Qatar Airways, Microsoft, STEP, and KMT Partners. The naming sponsor of the Agri-Food & Wine category is Primary Industries and Regions SA (PIRSA), Government of South Australia.

"It’s wonderful to see the innovations that participants of the Agri-Food & Wine stream of the Australian eChallenge have developed," says Dr Steven Lapidge, Director Science Partnerships, South Australian Research & Development Institute, PIRSA.

"The opportunity to grow the competitiveness of the agriculture, food and wine sector, through the development and marketing of a product, service, business process or practice, is critical to the future success of our food and wine businesses."

In 2016, ECIC has already hosted the finals of the Australian Tech eChallenge and the Australian eChallenge France, as well as announcing further expansion of the event into other countries in 2017, and establishing the ThincLab Chalons business incubator in France.

www.adelaide.edu.au/echallenge

Tertiary:
1st prize: Praxis Aeronautics
2nd prize: Crop Circle
3rd prize: Facade Engineering
Microsoft Prize: Crop Circle
ECIC Award: Meal Mate
Vroom Award: Recipeze

Schools:
1st prize: LeLe - St Peter’s Girls’ School
2nd prize: GottaGo - St Peter’s Girls’ School
3rd prize: Yenzy - Renmark High School

Research Commercialisation:
1st prize: Life Whisperer

Medical Innovations:
1st prize: Life Whisperer

Agri-Food & Wine:
1st prize: ElevenLabs
Step and KMT Partners Prize: Hop the Wall
Qatar Prize: Redmud Energy

People's Choice Award:
Praxis Aeronautics

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