• Posted on 29 Oct 2018
  • 5-minute read
A wide range of UTS Startups teams took to the stage, presenting their solutions to diverse problem spaces ranging from bad sleep to stroke recovery.
Each team pitched their startup to a panel of judges, who allocated prizes from a series of categories to the teams.
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Descriptive transcript

[Text on screen: UTS Startups Awards]

Murray Hurps: In less than four months, 105 startups, 233 team members, 166 students, and 115 connections made to the world outside of UTS.

Annette McClelland: Therefore, we solved the problem, allowing one person to intuitively control the drone, robot, or other device with one hand, freeing up the other hand to control the peripheral, in most cases the camera.

I'm here to tell you why I left a traditional law firm partnership to start an employment law disruptor.

Sebastian Chaoui: So we've built a simple user interface that allows anyone to access satellites and makes rocket science really easy.

But security isn't sexy and it's not easy to sell. So ANCAP doesn't sell car crashes; they sell safety, and we're selling peace of mind and security.

Earn a bit of cash and save the planet at the same time.

[Text on screen: Resolution123 Carly Stebbing & Genevieve Barry Most promising social-benefit UTS Startup] Super excited, very excited, probably the best category we could have been picked for.

[Text on screen: Annette McClelland & Michael Griffin Best application of research in a UTS Startup] Annette McClelland: Resilience. Getting up and trying again and again and again. We've been bootstrapped for two and a half years at this point, so resilience is definitely the number one thing.

[Text on screen: Arlula Sebastian Chaoui & Arran Salerno Most investible UTS Startup] Sebastian Chaoui: Cut some deals. Arran Salerno: That's the idea. Cut some deals, that's all we're focused on. Cut some deals. Simple as that. That's it. Nothing else.

It's just been really, really good being part of UTS Startups.

If you're not involved, please get involved. If you have ideas, or just want to come down and visit and see what we're doing, please do.

[Text on screen: For a full list of UTS Startups Awards winners visit startupsawards.uts.edu.au]

Judges for the night were Brad Twynham (Enterprise Technology founder), Leila Alem (Business Innovation Consultant), Joanne Jacobs (Disruptors Handbook Co-CEO, UTS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences) and Albert Ong (UTS Faculty of Transdisciplinary Innovation).

With each team pitching with a chance to win in one of eight categories, individual awards for founders were also up for grabs.

Judge Joanne Jacobs said it was hard for judges to match each prize with just one startup.

"What we found most exciting was the variety and passion of all of the founders. We were so excited about all the ideas, and we thought that there were several projects that are going to go a long way," she said.

Photo by Alessia Francischiello
Photo by Alessia Francischiello

Following deliberations, the panel awarded gongs to the following startups:

  • Most investible UTS Startup: Arlula, a space marketplace for under utilised satellites and spacecraft in orbit.

  • Most original UTS Startup: Airsticks, a new musical instrument, that allows dancers, musicians, health therapists and educators to pluck sounds from thin air.

  • Most promising social-benefit UTS Startup: Resolution123, who provide quick, simple and affordable employment law advice for employees.

  • Best application of research in a UTS Startup: Tekuma, who revolutionise tactile control for drones.

Audience members also got the chance to choose their winner for the night, awarding 'UTS Startups' People's Choice Award' to PETspot, a marketplace for the ethical sale and purchase of pets.

Each winning team received $500 and a special trophy designed and built by UTS Protospace, and all startups pitching at the awards received tickets to the 2018 StartCon startup conference.

Special founder awards – a trophy and $500 – were also given to those individuals who had left their mark on the UTS Startups Community since its founding earlier this year.

Sebastian Chaoui (Faculty of Engineering and IT) of Arlula was named 'UTS Startups Hustler of the Year', while Asher Lee (Faculty of Engineering and IT) of CSecOT - a security testing and rating system of IoT devices, was anointed ‘UTS Startups Community Champion of the Year'.

Vanouhi Nazarian (Faculty of Business), founder of Kindershare, a marketplace for children's equipment was also recognised for her efforts, awarded the title of 'Most Inspiring UTS Founder'.

UTS Director of Entrepreneurship Murray Hurps said the awards were a testament to all the work that had come out of UTS Startups over the preceding months.

"I've seen a lot of pitches, but these were honestly amongst the best. I was particularly impressed by how the community rallied to help each other improve their presentations, and it reminds me that the best part of the UTS Startups is definitely the growing population of incredible people inside our community," he said.

The award ceremony was also a chance to recognise the support coming from other areas within the UTS community.

A trophy was presented to the UTS faculty whose students were best represented in the UTS Startups community. The Faculty of Engineering and IT was named as the 'Leading Faculty for UTS Startups Founders', with 30% of the UTS Startups community coming from FEIT.

Meanwhile, feedback from the UTS Startups community saw UTS’ Faculty of Transdisciplinary Innovation (FTDI) recognised as 'Most Supportive Faculty for UTS Startups'.

"While we've seen amazing levels of support from all faculties, FTDI has gone above and beyond to support and promote UTS Startups to their incredible students," said Murray Hurps.

UTS Startups is a community dedicated to growing and supporting student-founded ventures, powered by the UTS Innovation and Entrepreneurship Unit. For more information, visit UTS Startups and sign up to our newsletter.

Byline: Liam Kennedy, UTS Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

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