King's College London

After a successful 2023 pilot, Change our City Challenge returned last week for the second year running in partnership between King's Entrepreneurship Institute and Enactus KCL. The event saw students from different subject areas and year groups come together to develop innovative solutions in just 48 hours.

Depending on their area of interest, students were asked to choose from one of five challenges based on real-life problem areas in London: Community, Hunger, Homelessness, Environment, or Health. 

Mentoring support

Alongside time in the Entrepreneurship Institute (EI) space to work on their ideas, ten multi-disciplinary teams were supported with workshops on ideation, disruptive thinking, and pitching. Teams also had time with mentors, who provided further advice and support through varying expertise:

• Izabella Brooks, Associate at Peachey & CO LLP corporate team
• Tasneem Ismail, NGO Officer, Arkadia
• Teiba Ahmed, Red Bull Basement Finalist (2021) & Mechanical Engineer at Team Consulting Ltd 
• Roxanne Stevenson-Brown, Founder of Find Care Compare, King's alumna & member of the King's Start-up Accelerator 
• Unsal Kaynak, Entrepreneurial Skills Officer at King's Entrepreneurship Institute
• Salim Dunam, Change our City Challenge winner 2023 & Enactus KCL project lead, Meal2Deal
• Fahan Ibrahim-Hashi, Founder of Nisa Invest, King's alumna & member of the King's Start-up Accelerator

 

Judging panel

The challenge ended with a pitch event, where each team presented their solution to a judging panel featuring experts aligned to the challenge themes:

• Ian Davies, Enactus KCL Advisor & Chief Underwriting Officer for SME Commercial & Head of SME Package & Commercial at AIG
• Kevin Fay, Venture Programme Manager at Venture Studio from Crisis
• Kiki Ajayi, Founder of Telos House
• Anna Lelek, Co-founder of Taka Taka Zero, Enactus UK National Champion

Winning teams

Three winners were selected based on how well the idea met the judging criteria and how well teams were able to effectively communicate the problem, their solution, next steps and potential impact.

Congratulations to:

1. Blood Link Encouraging students to donate blood regularly by increasing awareness and offering small prizes as incentives.	Dania Salhi, Year 3, Faculty of Arts & Humanities Yelena Sam, Year 1, King's Business School Aryan Sanvee Viyjayan, Year 1, Faculty of Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences Olivia Marshall, Year 4, Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine Vishnu Iyer, Postgraduate Year 1, King's Business School
2. Med Echo An AI assistant fine-tuned to recognise every doctor's dialect to improve the accuracy and speed of collating notes.	Naman Kanodia, Postgraduate Year 1, Faculty of Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences Vikram Nagraj, Postgraduate Year 1, King's Business School Afeef Hadi, Year 1, Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences Nabiha Binte Shoaib, Year 1, Faculty of Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences
3. Eco Kicks Shoes made from recycled and sustainable materials, which can also be returned to be recycled again after use.	Merag Al-Hashedi, Postgraduate Year 1, King's Business School Izac Zentar, Year 1, Faculty of Arts & Humanities Leung Sze Hang, Year 2, Faculty of Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences Tushita Agarwal, Year 1, King's Business School

 

All winning teams now have the opportunity to take their ideas forward with support from the Entrepreneurship Institute and will be invited to become official Enactus KCL projects.