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A joint project by Heriot-Watt University, the University of Edinburgh and the NHS has won the Elevator Pitch round of the 2015 Converge Challenge.
The pitch was nerve racking but gave us a great platform to present our business idea to a large group of interested parties.
The event, held at the Symposium Hall in Edinburgh, is the first phase of the annual competition, which is open to staff and students of all Scottish universities, and includes ideas at any stage of commercial development. Following three days of intensive business mentoring the 30 contesting teams each had a sixty second ‘Elevator pitch’ opportunity to impress the judges with their projects.
The winning pitch was for the e-finger, a probe which can measure the stiffness of the prostate gland in men which determines diseased areas of the prostate and aids screening and diagnosis of prostate cancer and benign growth.
The team comprised Steven Hammer, a post-doctoral researcher at Heriot-Watt and Daniel Good, a Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. Following their win Daniel said, "It has been a very insightful three days Converge Challenge entrepreneurial training as we try to bridge the gap between academic research and a spin out company. The pitch was nerve racking but gave us a great platform to present our business idea to a large group of interested parties. We were delighted to win the pitch and hope this spurs us onto further success in the Converge Challenge. Thank you very much to all the speakers, sponsors and organisers for putting together such a great few days."