The SPARKies Awards 2024 shortlists three University of Bath female founders for Founder of the Year

The SPARKies celebrates the best of tech in the South West and this year includes a wide range of startups and spinouts from the University of Bath.

We are immensely proud that the following companies and individuals have been recognised across various categories in The SPARKies Awards 2024 from techSPARK:

Startup of the Year

Estudiamos, founded by student Iacopo Di Rico, BSc (hons) International Management and Modern Languages, is shortlisted for Startup of the Year. Estudiamos is an online learning platform designed to help students revise for upcoming GCSE and A level Spanish exams through exam-specific resources that mark themselves, letting users take control of the revision process. Iacopo has won an Innovation Award which he takes up in October 2024.

Most Innovative Use of Tech

LabCycle was founded by Dr Helen Liang during her PhD in Sustainable and Circular Technologies at the University of Bath. The company tackles single-use plastic waste in research/healthcare by recycling with innovative technology, promoting circular economy and sustainable practices. Dr Liang went through the Entrepreneurship Programme and met her co-founders at the SETsquared 3 Day Startup student enterprise event. She is also a past Innovation Award holder.

EnsiliTech spun out from the University of Bath in July 2022, Co-Founded by Dr Asel Sarbaeva, Department of Chemistry. The company develops ensilication, a platform technology, to remove the need for refrigeration when transporting and storing vaccines and biologicals.

Founder of the Year

Three female founders from the University of Bath are finalists for Founder of the Year.

Dr Asel Sartbaeva and her team from the University of Bath spun-out EnsiliTech in 2022. The spinout company aims to make vaccines that are safe and stable at all temperatures.

E.J. Root of Epowar is a visionary BSc Business student at University of Bath who graduated in 2022. Her app addresses the critical issue of women's safety pushing boundaries and setting new standards in personal security. EJ completed the Entrepreneurship Programme with Enterprise Bath and worked with mentor Laurence James who is also nominated for an award. She also went through the Innovation Award programme in 2022.

Dr Helen Liang of LabCycle is a changemaker for her vision to make research sustainable by addressing the 5.5 million tons of plastic waste from research institutions.

Data Data Data

Sam Linfield, University of Bath graduate has developed ECOZE, an innovative carbon footprint tracker, with support from the University's Innovation Centre. This innovative approach (product-by-product level carbon footprint tracking) is applicable to any retailer or supermarket that gathers users' non-anonymised data. In simple terms, ECOZE functions as a bridge between consumers and retailers - connecting individuals to their environmental impact in a way that's never been done before.

MoodMetrics AI was founded by Kyle Jensen, an MSc student in Computer Science at the University of Bath, using his fresh academic experience to pursue new lines of thinking in an ever evolving datascape. The company, which includes fellow Computer Science student Yatin Tanna, takes an interdisciplinary approach to the fields of psychology, behavioural science, data science, and advanced emotion recognition artificial intelligence.

Best Mentor

For the Best Mentor category Laurence James, Enterprise Bath mentor, has impressed the judges with his unwavering commitment to nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit among our students. With over 100 volunteer hours dedicated each academic year to mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs, Laurence embodies the essence of mentorship, guiding and empowering the next generation of business leaders. Laurence has mentored EJ, Helen Liang, Iacopo and the MoodMetrics team all mentioned in this article.

Awesome Human

Dr Asel Sartbaeva is a world-leading award-winning interdisciplinary chemist. With her team from the University of Bath, she spun-out EnsiliTech following over a decade’s research into technology to make vaccines stable at all temperatures by encasing them in silica – simple sand. This ground-breaking solution to the problem of vaccines 'spoiling' means more people around the world can be saved from vaccine-preventable diseases.

The Sparkies award ceremony is taking place 11 July in Bristol. Join us in celebrating these outstanding nominees and their contributions to their fields.

Stay tuned for the announcement of the winners, and congratulations to all the shortlisted nominees!