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.