Winners of the Soyoye Technology Innovation Prize
Fares Alaboud, a PhD student in Artificial Intelligence, and David Wexler, an undergraduate music student, have won the inaugural Soyoye Technology Innovation Prize.
Fares was awarded £20,000 for his venture The Medic App which uses Artificial Intelligence to make medication scheduling easier and to update the patient's carers.
David was awarded £13,000 for his invention ‘Smart Gloves’, portable wearable technology that uses pressure and movement to allow wearers to learn and play music.
The prize, founded by King’s alumnus Babatunde Soyoye, Co-founder and Managing Director of Helios Investment Partners, supports the brightest tech talent from King’s and is awarded to a student, staff or alumnus on the Entrepreneurship Institute’s King’s20 accelerator programme.
Fares and David were selected from 5 finalists who pitched to an expert panel made up of Babatunde Soyoye, Ed Wray, the serial entrepreneur and angel investor, Stephen Hayes, Managing Director at Beckhoff Automation Ltd, Julie Devonshire, Director of Entrepreneurship Institute, King’s College London, and Arthur Zargaryan, President of KCL Robotics Society.
Fares and David were chosen for the quality of their innovations, their passion and capacity to succeed as entrepreneurs, and the impact the prize money would have on reaching their potential.
Speaking about the win, Fares said, “I am over the moon to have won. My professors and the Entrepreneurship Institute have given me such support and the prize money means we can go even further. It’s a very exciting time for AI and for The Medic App.”
David said “Being able to turn my passion for music into a business and share it with others is a dream come true. The money will help us refine our prototype and develop new sounds. We’ve come a long way in the short time the team have been together and we want to be the best in this market and explore its potential.”
Julie Devonshire OBE, Director of the Entrepreneurship Institute said;
“King’s has some of the brightest minds in the world and our students, staff and alumni are harnessing the latest technologies to create potentially world-changing ideas. We’re delighted to have Babatunde’s support to help us advance tech innovation at King’s and enhance the futures of young entrepreneurs. Congratulations to Fares and David and we look forward to exciting new developments.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. The King’s20 Accelerator aims to give transformational personal and technical experiences to King’s entrepreneurs. Startups on the accelerator are using cutting-edge technologies including Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, the Internet of Things, Augmented Reality, Image recognition, Data analytics, Natural Language Processing, Virtual reality, Smart and wearable technologies, to develop new apps, products, software and services.
2. The Entrepreneurship Institute is King’s College London’s dedicated entrepreneurship hub. www.kcl.ac.uk/entrepreneurship-institute
3. 12 Shortlisted applicants were interviewed by Mischa Dohler, Head of the Centre for Telecomms Research, Arthur Zargaryan, President of KCL Robotics and Alex Telek, President of KCL Tech.