Downing Enterprise 2005 Winners

Alumni Board Members, clockwise: Mike Starkie, Julian Childs, Jonathan Lander, Susan Lintott (Bursar), Nick Lewis, Chris Bartram, and Chairman, Luke Nunneley.

On 4 May 2006, the Downing Enterprise 'Board' met to hear presentations from the five shortlisted teams in the Downing Enterprise £20k Challenge. This competition was launched in October 2005 and has, completed its first successful year. The standard of entries was excellent and after considerable discussion the Board decided that three teams should be supported. The winners are listed below. Luke Nunneley (1981), Chairman of the Board, said “I have been very impressed by the quality of the entries and by all the hard work that was put in to the preparation of proposals and business plans. I hope that those that did not make it this time will try again next year. It is clear that Downing has many enterprising and dynamic students at all levels and I look forward to meeting many more of them in future competitions.”

The winners are:

Clinical Imaging: Daniel Jackson and Haidong Deng


Daniel and Haidong, both 2nd year Mathematicians, will receive up to £5,800 to develop and market specialised imaging software with applications in the field of Histology. The software will help to generate quantitative data and useful 2D and 3D images from slides using only a standard PC and a reasonable flatbed scanner. They will begin work on the program in the summer and hope for general release later this year.
Julian Childs (1969) will act as mentor to the Clinical Imaging team.

Project Lungfish: Dan Reynolds


Dan, a postgraduate studying Stem Cells, was awarded up to £7,500 to develop an idea to improve the safety of underwater breathing apparatus.
In comparison to standard SCUBA gear, the closed circuit breathing apparatus or rebreather greatly extends a diver's endurance and capabilities, removing the fear of running out of air and reducing the danger of decompression sickness. Unfortunately this comes at the cost of much increased complexity, making risk of malfunction itself a considerable hazard.
Project Lungfish aims to commercialise an idea first developed by Dan Reynolds in 1998, which gives the closed circuit rebreather a failsafe mode of operation. We hope this will let divers benefit from the considerable advantages of closed circuit systems whilst avoiding many of the risks which they currently present.
Nick Lewis (1974) will be Dan’s mentor.

Cambridge Temperature Concepts: Scott Mackie, Chafic Ayoub, Shamus Husheer

Cambridge Temperature Concepts was awarded up to £20,000. Team members include Scott (MPhil Technology Policy), not pictured, Chafic (MPhil Management), and Shamus (Hughes Hall, PhD Chemistry).
Cambridge Temperature Concepts is developing a patent-pending (UK Application number 0608829.8) autonomous temperature-logging device for use in human healthcare. Their concepts combine recent radiofrequency technologies to provide the complete temperature history of a patient in a user-friendly and reliable manner. Access to this information is of great value to clinicians for diagnostic and patient management purposes.
Board members, Jonathan Lander (1986) and Chris Bartram (1968) will help the team secure further funding to bring the innovations to market.

-------
Following this successful start the aim is to hold the Downing Enterprise Competition every year. Development Director, Tariq Sadiq, said, “The College is extremely grateful to all the alumni who have given their time and money to make Downing Enterprise such a brilliant success in its first year. This is a unique opportunity for Downing students to show their potential in the world of innovation and enterprise and to put Downing on the map as an imaginative and forward-thinking College.”