Student from the University of Bath advances to the final of Keyloop’s 2022 Dealer Tech Competition

 

A student from the University of Bath received £1,000 along with all 10 additional semi-finalists, and moves forward to Keyloop’s grand final

Keyloop, the global automotive technology company, today announces the individual university winners of the second annual Keyloop Dealer Tech competition. Over 1,000 students from leading universities registered their interest in the competition.

One Computer Science student, Tom Christensen, from The University of Bath has advanced to the final of Keyloop’s Dealer Tech competition. Tom’s idea is a platform for consumers to compare and recommend the most suitable electric vehicle based on their typical daily routine.

 

Tom Christensen

A platform for consumers to compare and recommend the most suitable electric vehicle based on their typical daily routine

 

Tom said: 

“I participated in the competition because I wanted to challenge myself and learn some new skills that I wouldn’t be taught on my course. I benefitted most from developing a product all the way from the ideation stage to the development stage and then through to the pitching stage, giving me a wide range of useful experience and skills to help me in my career.” 

 

Siobain Hone, Enterprise Education Manager at the University of Bath, added: 

“The Dealer Tech Competition is an important part of our enterprise education offering to our students at the University of Bath.  Being able to feedback to Keyloop and shape and adapt the competition has meant that we can give the students the best learning experience possible.  Our students can use their creativity and innovative flair within the structure of the competition and learn ways of working that will be invaluable whatever their chosen careers.  This is a fun, exciting and rewarding way to develop key skills.  Keyloop are always a pleasure to work with and I look forward to this competition growing year on year.”

Following several university judging days over the past three weeks, six finalists have been selected from the university winners to progress to the international final, where they will compete to win the £10,000 prize (or local currency equivalent).  

The six grand finalists are:

  • King’s College London, team: Christian Grinling

  • The University of Manitoba, team: EasyCar

  • The University of Exeter, team: ExeTerminators

  • The University of Bath, team: Tom Christensen

  • The University of Warwick, team: The Testroyers

  • Munster Technological University, team: REVVV

The Keyloop Dealer Tech competition provides an opportunity for students to team up with their friends, network with industry professionals, gain new skills and win big prizes. The initiative was founded by Keyloop in 2021 to encourage innovation in automotive retail amongst the next generation of car buyers, and to promote the industry as an exciting and dynamic career choice for students.The 2022 competition was open to teams from leading universities across the UK, Ireland and Canada, and has unearthed some strong STEM and business talent, as demonstrated by the quality of the final presentations. 

 Tom Kilroy, CEO, Keyloop comments:

“We created the Keyloop Dealer Tech competition to nurture new talent and encourage them to discover the great career possibilities which exist within the automotive retail industry. In 2022 the competition equipped all our entries with new skills and experiences to help them succeed in the competitive graduate employment space. We have provided masterclasses and mentorship in business strategy, product design and development and in return we are seeing some truly ground-breaking ideas that could have a very positive impact on the way consumers buy, service or use cars.”

This year’s competition saw each student team tasked with developing an innovative tech-focused product idea that could make an impact on the automotive retail industry. The 30 successful proposals progressed to the ‘Idea development phase’, during which students built out their proposals into product ideas, with the help of industry experts, learning materials and mentors.

They were then asked to present their ideas to a panel of expert judges at Keyloop.  The presentations were done in professional settings and included a demonstration of the product, plus a Q&A to mirror a real-world pitch scenario.

The top-scoring team from each university received £1,000. Details of all winners can be found below. From all the universities, the six best entries will progress to the grand final, where teams will get the opportunity to present their ideas on 9th March to the full judging panel of Senior Keyloop Leaders and industry experts, where an overall winner will be selected, and receive a further £10,000.

Michelle Wells, Director Brand Strategy and Corporate Communications, Keyloop ends:

“The Keyloop Dealer Tech Competition provides an opportunity for undergraduates to gain first-hand experience of industry challenges, current technology trends and entrepreneurship. It is also an opportunity for them to gain valuable experience with a global automotive technology company that strives to support their future job aspirations. My congratulations go to all the university winners so far for their game-changing ideas, and I look forward to congratulating the international winner.”

The winners of the second annual Keyloop Dealer Tech competition university rounds were:

The University of Bath

  • Winning team: Tom Christensen

  • Team members: Tom Christensen

  • The idea: A platform for consumers to compare and recommend the most suitable electric vehicle based on their typical daily routine.

The University of Bristol

  • Winning team: EDes

  • Team members: Kareem ELAHEE DOOMUN, Isfaaq JADAKHAN

  • The idea: Incorporate devices (cameras, wearable, AR/VR) to measure and recall an immersive test drive experience to help support car buying decision.

 

The University of Buckingham

  • Winning team: Zube

  • Team members: Oliver Delas, Gabriel Nzubechukwu Nwankwo

  • The idea: An AI system to analyse car buyers’ information including the demographics, budget, car preferences, etc., which helps dealers to provide the accurate vehicle suggestions to customers and help car buyers to make decision efficiently.

 

The University of Exeter

  • Winning team: ExeTerminators

  • Team members: Barnaby Gill, Ryan Storey, Oskar Oramus, Isaac Cheng

  • The idea: A web application that provides insights into people's travel habits including suggestions to reduce the environmental impact.

 

King’s College London

  • Winning team: Christian Grinling

  • Team members: Christian Grinling

  • The idea: A mobile application that allows the consumers to book, track and engage with their car servicing, as well as allowing the garage to monitor their upcoming and current service orders and effectively update the consumers on the car repair/service status.

 

The University of Warwick

  • Winning team: The Testroyers

  • Team members: Sai Kommuru, Lukasz Stanaszek, Laurence Reynolds

  • The idea: A platform that allows consumers to book and then manage their test drives quickly and easily online with all relevant information about the vehicles that consumers want to buy.

 

The University of York

  • Winning team: Just Drive

  • Team members: James Hensman, Kyriakos Antoniou

  • The idea: A platform that allows customers to review the local garages and book/track the service online, and garages is able to communicate with customers digitally.

 

The University of Manitoba

  • Winning team: EasyCar

  • Team members: Leon Stetefeld, Jared Rost, Omar Bileha, Joseffus Santos,Tanvir Ahmed

  • The idea: A search engine to compare and recommend potential new cars for customers by using a matching algorithm.

 

Munster Technological University 

  • Winning team: REVVV

  • Team members: Eoghan Boyce, Domonkos Peter, Alana Neenan, Shri Charan Kandhasamy Saravanakumar, Ajeet Kanojia

  • The idea: A mobile application that shows customers the personalised vehicle service history (visually) with price breakdown and allows customers to prepay before collecting the car at their preferred time.

 

The University of Surrey

  • Winning team: SaFeT

  • Team members: Bhaldeep Bhogal, Yankho Mpokosa

  • The idea: Incorporates the details of a car deal within an NFT including mileage, make/model, colour, tax status, MOT status and service history, which helps the transparent and trustful used car buying and selling process.

 

Swansea University

  • Winning team: Garin Arthur Lloyd

  • Team members: Garin Arthur Lloyd

  • The idea: Online global database to connect raw material suppliers, manufacturers and dealerships to help make a more efficient global car supply chain.

 

Find out more about the Keyloop Dealer Tech university competition here.

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