NEWS | ENGINEERING STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD MAKE IT TO THE FINAL OF THE ENGINEERS IN BUSINESS 2022 INNOVATION COMPETITION

Led by 21-year-old Mechanical Engineering graduate Arjun Bhanap, a team of graduates from the University of Oxford has secured a place in the final of the Engineers in Business Champion of Champions innovation competition, which will be hosted by TV presenter Rob Bell at the Royal Academy of Engineering on 28 October 2022.

Arjun is joined by fellow engineering students 24-year-old Jiale Wang and 22-year-old Catherine Ning, all of whom invented the ArJiCat Robot, which aims to prevent hospital medicine waste which results from hospital prescription cycles, by introducing ‘just in time’ medicine dispensing.

Arjun and his team will be pitching the ArJiCat Robot against nine other teams of student and graduate innovators’ business ideas in the national final. A sum of £15,000 is up for grabs, providing vital seed money to help the winners develop their innovation. The winners will also receive mentoring from business leaders who are members of the Sainsbury Management Fellows (SMF) network, plus CV packages from Purple CV and entrepreneurial books from Cambridge University Press.

The competition is organised by the registered charity, Engineers in Business Fellowship which champions business education for engineers and supports universities by giving them grants to award prizes to engineering students who develop ideas that can make a positive impact on society. The grants enable universities to inspire more engineering and technology students to participate in innovation and entrepreneurship, skills that they take into their careers.

Explaining the concept behind the ArJiCat Robot, Arjun comments, “Currently, leftover hospital medicines from a prescription cycle, which are often upwards of one week, are not taken home upon discharge, nor returned to the hospital pharmacy, but are thrown away. By offering a facility that provides scheduled daily medicine dispensation for up to eight patients, ArJiCats would autonomously deliver medicines to the patients’ bedsides, ready for nurses to administer.

“We estimate that each ArJiCat Robot has the potential to save around £4,500 a year in medicine wastage. Outside of medicine dose time, ArJiCat Robots could be used to deliver small food items, snacks and water to patients, as well as guiding hospital visitors to the correct patients’ rooms.”

The Engineers in Business competition is designed to inspire engineers to study business and innovation. Arjun explains, “The proliferation of new technology has truly revolutionised habits, transportation, communication, and many other fields. Mastering the science is only half the battle in getting new technology to market. The second, arguably equally important stage, comes in developing a business proposition that can attract capital investment. Ultimately, for the science behind engineering innovation to yield meaningful solutions, engineers must appreciate the full life cycle of their product, all the way from the low-level engineering details to the high-level marketing and the raising of capital. We believe that this requires training in both engineering fundamentals as well as business and market analysis.”

The dragons’ den style competition will be compered by TV presenter, Rob Bell. Competing against nine other teams, Arjun, Jiale and Catherine will have six minutes to convince the judges, through their presentation and Q&A session, that their team should be crowned a Champion of Champions and take home a cash prize. Amongst other criteria, the judges will be assessing the potential benefits to hospitals and patients, and in particular the savings in medicine wastage that could be achieved.

• SMF Caroline Cake, Entrepreneur in Residence at Oxford Science Enterprises

• Dr Terri Holloway, Ingenuity Lab Manager, Entrepreneur in Residence, University of Nottingham

• SMF Kwok Ng, Strategy Programme Manager, The Crown Estate

• SMF Chris Shelley, Chief Executive Officer, SolarBotanic Trees

Commenting on reaching the Engineers in Business Champion of Champions Final, Arjun said, “We are honoured to be given the opportunity to present at the competition, and we think this is an amazing opportunity for us to showcase our perspective on where we can add value in the NHS with our engineering solution ArJiCat Robot.”

Arjun and his team will be competing for an Engineers in Business Champion of Champions title against nine other teams from Imperial College London, University of Birmingham (two finalists), Queen’s University Belfast, University of Southampton (two finalists), Lancaster University, University of Nottingham, and the University of Greenwich.