Interdisciplinary team win Planetary Impact Award at 2021 Student Innovation Awards

The Student Innovation Awards, hosted by the Innovation Hub, recognise University of Sydney students' innovative solutions to real-world challenges. Bachelor of Commerce student Vivian Yu shares her experience of the Student Innovation Awards, how her team, Christina Liu, David Young (Dalyell Scholar), James Macintyre and Apurva Shukla, created their startup idea WasteLess, and what led them to win the Planetary Impact Award.

Team members: Vivian Yu, Apurva Shukla, David Young, Christina Liu & James Macintyre

What is WasteLess? 

Wasteless is a solution to household food waste. In Australia, households surprisingly waste more food than agriculture and hospitality – a problem we’re determined to tackle. We aim to create a tool that helps people waste less food by finishing what’s at home. 

To do this, WasteLess is an app that allows people to keep track of their groceries at home with smart expiry date approximations to remind you to finish your food on time.

How did you develop WasteLess?

My team including Christina Liu, David Young, Apurva Shukla, James Macintyre and myself initially developed WasteLess as part of the IBM Call for Code Challenge, a global hackathon for creating open source code to address the UN Sustainable Development Goals. We became deeply passionate about our idea so took it further by entering this concept into the Student Innovation Awards, winning the award for Planetary Impact. 

How have your Bachelor of Commerce studies helped create this startup and win the competition?

My degree in Commerce and majors in Design and Marketing allowed me to understand our concept as a tech product as well as a business. This allowed me to work with my interdisciplinary team to think of WasteLess beyond the technical components – including the business model, usability, metrics to indicate success and impact. These business components were crucial for the Student Innovation Awards as we were asked questions about market sizing and our business model by the judges. 

What were the highlights and challenges of participating in this competition?

When we entered the Student Innovation Awards competition, we were in the process of considering turning WasteLess from a competition idea to a real startup. The highlight of winning this competition was gaining support for our idea and some money to help us kickstart it. 

The key challenges included thinking about WasteLess as a startup rather than a hackathon project which it was initially created for. This included identifying target markets, value proposition, business model and impact measurement. To come up with this, it was challenging to conduct primary research and assess the viability of our idea as a startup in a short timeframe. 

What career skills do you think you developed through this opportunity?

This has been an incredible opportunity to develop my experience and skills in software development. My team included two designers and two developers where we worked together to develop the app, including the code. This has been invaluable to me for working in the tech industry in the future. The opportunity has also developed important research skills in customer interviews and user testing which will be used in my future career.

What’s next for WasteLess?

We’re continuously iterating WasteLess and are working to validate the concept to launch it as a startup. The first step is actually a name change – when entering the competition, we did not check if the name and domain were already taken! Currently, my team is receiving mentorship from two people with experience in start-ups and food related technology innovations. We’re also working hard to conduct more market research and to hopefully release an MVP for testing. If you’re interested in having a chat about WasteLess, please feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn.

Commerce students win the 2021 Student Innovation Interdisciplinary Impact Award and People's Choice Award

The University of Sydney Student Innovation Awards recognise student-led projects that offer innovative solutions for real-world impact. Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Advanced Studies students Alyssa Wong (Dalyell Scholar), Kate Coffey (Dalyell Scholar) and Douglas Chu from Hydrogic share their experience of the competition, how their startup idea originated, and what led their team to win the Interdisciplinary Impact Award and People's Choice Award at the 2021 Student Innovation Awards.

Team members: Li Wei, Alyssa Wong, Kate Coffey, Emma Glendinning, Margaret Huo & Douglas Chu

What is Hydrogic?

Hydrogic offers a scalable and decentralised method of producing hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂). Hydrogen peroxide acts as a disinfectant and is used across several applications, including water treatment, textile bleaching, surface cleaning and hand sanitiser, all of which could be transformed by localised production. 

Hydrogic’s new electrochemical synthesis production system allows H₂O₂ to be produced anywhere, overcoming key challenges associated with storage, transportation and most prominently, cost. Currently, the team’s focus is on water treatment where potential early adopters are looking to service homes, hospitals, and aged care facilities across Australia.

How have your Bachelor of Commerce studies helped create this project and win the competition?

With the Bachelor of Commerce and Advanced Studies degree, we completed the Entrepreneurship Project (BUSS4917). Our startup originated through this subject and five of us decided to form Hydrogic to collaborate and commercialise this piece of university intellectual property (IP) beyond this unit. BUSS4917 focused on market validation, that is, ensuring that there are people who would purchase our product. 

With hydrogen peroxide’s range of applications, we initially reached out to a variety of sectors from mining to textiles before targeting water treatment companies around Australia. By digging into their processes and problems, we received market validation from two of the largest players in the industry which gave us the confidence to apply to this competition. 

Our collective experience in Commerce helped to further our startup by networking and leaning on experts in the startup ecosystem. Reaching out to VCs, startup accelerators and fellow entrepreneurs ultimately helped us win both the Student Innovation Interdisciplinary Award and People’s Choice Award as they provided their invaluable insights and feedback. 

What were the highlights and challenges of this competition?

The highlight of this competition was gaining pitch practice and receiving feedback from a panel of experts. In any situation, and especially given persistent lockdowns, the opportunity to pitch to industry professionals is rare, but an extremely helpful tool to strengthen our presentation skills and network. We gained confidence and were able to refine our pitch for other uses, such as investor presentations to ZipCo x Youth Change Agents. We also got the opportunity to watch the other teams present which was fun as we heard innovative and exciting ideas, whilst gaining inspiration for future pitches. 

The greatest challenge we faced was having to adapt to Covid-19 imposed changes. As we approached the Innovation Awards, case numbers began to surge. Our planned lab demonstrations with leaders in the water treatment industry were pushed back indefinitely and prototype testing has halted as lab access has been restricted. Additionally, we missed out on the face-to-face aspects of the Awards which could have offered new connections, and potentially better pitch practice. Ultimately, we continue to overcome these issues with patience and focusing on the things that we can do with the time we have.