Plymouth University students crowned national Flux winners for fifth year
STUDENTS from Plymouth University have once again been crowned national Flux champions, successfully defending last year’s trophy.
It is the fifth year that students from the University have won the national title in the competition’s eight-year history.
The annual competition invites students to pitch a business plan to a ‘Dragon’s Den-style’ panel of judges. At Tuesday’s final in Lancaster, students were set the challenge of developing a product incorporating wearable technology and a healthcare application.
Plymouth’s winning team, Igniting Enterprise, was made up of students Usaj Basnet, Marc Rowbury, James Roberts, Francesco D’Alessio, Mingaile Rutauskaite and Michelle Singh.
Team leader Francesco said: “We are delighted to become 2015 winners of the national FLUX competition. After a fantastic weekend of hard-work, fun, self-development and concentration we pulled together an idea that focused on wearable technology in the healthcare market."
The team’s idea was called Gluco-band, a wristband designed to monitor blood glucose through sweat sensors inside the device. By reading blood glucose levels from the e-link display on the wristband it would eliminate invasive testing and reduce the risk of hypoglycaemia.
Francesco added: "As a team, we all contributed effectively, worked efficiently and created a innovative idea fixing the solution of the scenario.
"We want to make aware how hard Plymouth University and some of our mentors work towards making everything fluent, especially our Enterprise Champions who have brought us and guided us throughout the last three days, Francesca, Sarah and Claire from Plymouth Uni Employability."
The team was entered into the final after winning their regional heats held at Plymouth University last month. The event, sponsored by Cornish energy brokers Total Energy Solutions, saw them challenged to find short and long-term business solutions for Callington Foodbank.
Total Energy Solutions has supported the Plymouth heats for eight years. Its managing director, Alastair Carnegie, provides business tips and advice for the teams of students preparing to do battle.
He said he was ‘extremely proud’ of the team’s efforts in once again bringing home the title. He said: “It is fantastic news that Plymouth has once more retained the crown as Flux champions. It just goes to show some of the amazing talent and potential business brains we have down here in the South West.
“Flux is a great opportunity for local businesses to see the superb talent coming up through Plymouth University, right on their doorsteps.”