The Converge Awards, Scotland’s annual celebration of academic innovation and entrepreneurship for staff, students and recent graduates across all Scottish Universities, honoured SENSEcity with the first-ever Creative Challenge Award.
Extracted from the Converge Challenge Website
The Converge Awards, Scotland’s annual celebration of academic innovation and entrepreneurship for staff, students and recent graduates across all Scottish Universities, took place on Wednesday 25 September at the spectacular V&A in Dundee.
Converge is Scotland’s leading entrepreneurial development programme for staff, students and recent graduates of Scottish Universities and Research Institutes. Converge represents all of Scotland’s Universities and Research Institutes, demonstrating a strong collaborative enterprise agenda in Scotland. The programme has trained 300 aspiring academic entrepreneurs and supported over 200 businesses, with an overall 84% survival rate.
Claudia Cavalluzzo, Director of Converge, said: “As ever, Converge has produced exceptional winners and finalists this year. Many congratulations to them all. What we have seen again this year is the incredible collective talent of our Universities to create transformative, game-changing innovations that have the power to change people’s lives for the better. From disrupting the healthcare market to novel, low cost solar energy collector, Scotland’s Universities have set a new bar for innovation.”
The newly introduced Creative Challenge category, part-funded by The National Lottery through Creative Scotland, was won by ‘architect-turned-entrepreneur’ Pooja Katara of SENSEcity Ltd, a new-age travel guide using augmented reality and immersive technology to bring to life stories from the distant past that remain tucked away in the corners of Glasgow. Runner-up was Marwa Ebrahim of Atypical Cosmetics Ltd, who offers bespoke skincare to people with allergies using AI customisation technology. Through Atypical Cosmetics’ online service, customers will be able to select the ingredients in their facial moisturisers to ensure allergy-safe beauty products. Both Pooja’s and Marwa’s projects are joint ventures between the University of Glasgow and The Glasgow School of Art demonstrating, once again, the power of collaboration.