uuni Big Idea final
A solar oven designed to tackle world hunger won first prize in the CII's Big Idea competition this week at the CII Group's annual graduation ceremony at the Guildhall. John Tilleman from Brown University in America picked up the £20,000 prize money for his idea aimed at solving the cooking needs of the world's poorest people through his innovative solar oven made from a single piece of reflective plastic.
With the intention of giving student entrepreneurship a truly global focus, the Big Idea competition attracted over 1,000 entries from top universities including Cambridge, Oxford, Stanford, Harvard, Sydney, Beijing, the National University of Singapore and the Indian Institutes of Technology and Management making it one of the largest student entrepreneurship competitions anywhere in the world.
Following a 'Dragon Den' style presentation and questions in front of over 700 people in the Great Hall, judges Sian Fisher, CII board member and Head of Agency Operations at Oxygen Insurance, Peter Hubbard, CII board member and former Chief Executive of AXA Insurance UK, Dr. Sandy Scott, Chief Executive of the CII Group and Graham Wessel, Managing Director of City&Law.
- First Prize of £20,000 awarded to John Tilleman, Brown University, USA, representing Solar Oven
- Second Prize of £2,500 awarded to Dan Nicolau, Oxford University, representing Altitude Medical.
- Third Prize of £1,500 awarded to Yasmina McCarty, NYU / LBS representing Green Mango
Sian Fisher said of the winner: "What I loved about this idea was its simplicity, its practical nature, and the technology is risk free. Overall was it has an obvious benefit to humanity."
To find out how you can get involved with next years Big Idea competition contact Paul Travis: paul@cityandlaw.com