16 minute read
OXFO programmes
Announcing Oxford’s First Scholarship for UK Black students from disadvantaged backgrounds
In December 2019, the University of Oxford and Oxford Foundry Honorary Advisor Arlan Hamilton, Founder of Backstage Capital, announced Oxford's first scholarship scheme for UK undergraduates of Black African and Caribbean heritage from disadvantaged backgrounds, following Arlan's role as an OXFO L.E.V8 Women Ambassador. The Oxford-Arlan Hamilton & Earline Butler Sims Scholarship, named in part as a living tribute to Arlan’s mother, will provide a full non-repayable scholarship covering fees and living costs for one undergraduate student per year, for three years. Each beneficiary will be provided with an internship grant of £3,000 to enhance their employability. They will also have the opportunity to work closely with the Oxford Foundry, and ventures on the OXFO accelerator, to enhance their leadership skills and entrepreneurial mindset.
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“I just saw this beautifully manicured campus, and college grounds, and I thought about the history, and how wonderful it must be to study here. I saw some Black people – more than I was expecting, but not as many as I would have liked. I found out more about the thoughtful work that Oxford are doing to widen access for all students, and boost inclusion, and I said out loud, ‘I want to start a scholarship for Black students at Oxford.” – Arlan Hamilton, Founder, Backstage Capital
AI Impact Weekend: Tackling Climate Change
This year our AI Impact Weekend challenge, delivered in collaboration with EY, focused on tackling challenges related to Climate Change. the 5-day challenge was opened by a panel discussion with Professor Cameron Hepburn and Roz Savage on the important role of technology in solving the climate crisis
The event brought together 140 students from different disciplines, with 40 industry and academic mentors, to form diverse teams and build ethical AI-enabled solutions that had the potential to limit global warming and mitigate Climate Change. Live data sets were provided by IBM.
Best overall idea went to team Cinderella, who created an AI tool to predict more accurately the arrival time of cargo ships into port, which could dramatically cut carbon emissions and save fuel. The best technical solution went to the Climate Development Lab for their AI-enabled solar cells for windows. The prize for best business solution was won by Pyre-ates, which uses AI to predict wildfires. “I think the interdisciplinary nature of our team really helped. We combined our expertise in artificial intelligence, engineering, law and business to develop a holistic plan. Several members of our team had never met before, but the cooperation was seamless. We plan to use the £6,000 prize to perform market research and develop a prototype. I never imagined that participating in a single competition could create such a change in my life. I encourage anyone with an interest in entrepreneurship to participate in the events at the Foundry. Our team serves as proof: no previous experience is required!” – Dylan Barratt, member of winning team Cinderella, DPhil student Engineering Science, St Cross College, Oxford
Oxford Graduate students were able to explore their entrepreneurial side by participating in a brand new 7-week Entrepreneurship course from the Oxford Foundry, tailored for graduate students in Physics. The course was a collaboration between the Oxford Foundry, Saïd Business School, and the University of Oxford’s Physics Department, and was the first such course to be included in the Physics curriculum. Led by Professor Pegram Harrison, Senior Fellow in Entrepreneurship at SBS, over 30 students took part in the weekly online seminars led by expert start-up coaches, Physicists-turnedentrepreneurs, industry experts, and senior Oxford faculty members. In 2021 the course will be rolled out to Physics undergraduates, as well as other departments at the University.
“I have spent a lot of time focusing on the technical side of my research, but here, I was shown that there is so much more to consider. Our team wanted to address global inequalities, and we came up with a new product to address the effect of power fluctuations and blackouts on key medical equipment in hospitals in low- and middle-income countries.” Entrepreneurship and Innovation for Physicists course participant
We launched Cohort 3 of the OXFO Elevate Accelerator community joining. What an inspiring and memorable Dan Channer Sir David Dalton evening! 89% of entrepreneurs David Ford In November 2019 we welcomed our brand new cohort of 13 purpose-led ventures. Spanning diverse sectors, and using AI, Robotics, Machine Learning, satellite imagery and more, they're committed to tackling big challenges that range from predicting brain disease, to environmental monitoring and reporting, to rapid, early-stage cancer diagnostics and democratising the university admissions process. Over the programme they have been exposed to an incredible array of mentors, experts, and opportunities designed to dramatically accelerate their businesses, and to empower them to leave a positive footprint on the world. The stages of the accelerator have focused on: Fundamentals, foundations and validating assumptions; leadership, community and deep-dives; re-iterating/ developing your GTM strategy, mentor matching & client introductions, building pipelines, product building, and getting investment ready. To date, ventures on Cohorts 1-3 have raised £40m and created 146 jobs. They have been valued at over £100m. Ventures on cohorts 1-2 have raised £34m. From Dec-Sep, the OXFO accelerator ran over 120 workshops, 121s and office hours, culminating in a virtual demo day in November with 250+ investors and members of our accelerator who took part found the accelerator 'Extremely valuable' to their venture, the remaining 11% found it very valuable. 100% of entrepreneurs said the programme had a significant impact on making them better entrepreneurs, 100% would recommend the programme to another start-up, with a Net promoter score of 8.9. 100% of ventures said they are planning to mentor Cohort 4 ventures to help them in their journeys. One venture grew their team size by 400%, another by 450%. Thank you to our Resident experts, mentors, coaches and experts including: Aggelos Mouzakitis Alan Gleeson Alex van Someren Alexa Knight Amit Oberoi Andrea Giustina Ashley Wiltshire Amazon Web Service (AWS) Ben Legg Ben Rhodes Beth Susanne Professor Bill Aulet Brad Wilson Chris Chamberlain Cindy Gustavsson Claire Davenport Chris Smith Christer Holloman David Mott David Nihill Defence Academy of the UK Dominic Jacquesson Ed Lee Ed Matthews Erik Abrahamson Farzana Baduel Fred Krahforst Gayle Curry Glen Drummond Gordon Messenger Henry Bao Hugh Tebay Husayn Kassai Igor Tikhturov Iris Good Ismail Jeilani Irwin Zaid Jack Thompson James Homan James Pattinson James Tarin Jawad Bhatti Joe de Sousa June Angelides Kal Patel Kevin Roberts Kieran Hill Dr Kyle Grant Larry Shapiro Lorenzo Alberton Marc Abraham Marcus East Martin Lambert Mary McKenna Masha Feigelman Matt Lerner Matthew Woolsey Mike Smith Mikesh Udani Nicholas Edwards Niresh Rajah Oleg Tikhturov OSI Paul Domjan Paul Reader Peter Garratt Raif Jacobs Randy Weeks Robin Saunders Rudi Sellers Santander Universities Saqib Awan Sathya Smith Shannon Low Simon Bennett Srin Madipalli Stephen Scruton Steve Connell Steve Moyle Stuart Small Taylor Vinters Taylor Wessing Teneo Twilio Dr Vreni Schoenenberger Will Cowell de Gruchy
"This has been a transformative journey at a personal level. The positivity and support of the programme - the people as much as the information - provided me with confidence to press forwards."
Further social impact of ventures in Cohort 3 of the OXFO accelerator include:
iLoF
European hospitals have been using a tool originally developed for Alzheimer’s Disease to sort Covid-19 patients into low, medium, and highrisk groups, with a pilot project in Portugal screening more than 400 infected people. This daily ‘stratification’ of tens of thousands of people affected by the virus allows for the effective allocation of clinical resources and the ability to target care at the most high-risk patients. ‘Right from the beginning of the pandemic it was clear that one of the biggest dangers was that healthcare systems would be overwhelmed,’ said Mehak Mumtaz, Cofounder and CEO of iLoF (Intelligent Lab on Fiber, the OXFO portfolio venture behind the tool). ‘This would affect care for patients not only with coronavirus but with all other diseases and conditions too.’ The iLoF platform uses AI and biophotonics to screen patients for clinical trials. Its current focus is Alzheimer’s Disease, but the team has also developed search and stratification tools to help primary care teams identify people with long-term conditions, such as asthma, COPD, diabetes and hypertension. Developing a stratification tool for Covid-19 was an obvious next step and a high priority. ‘Managing clinical resources is critical – it’s a piece that we have to get right to beat the virus,’ said Mehak. ‘By developing a stratification tool, we have been able to optimise resources and send patients with mild symptoms to quarantine in their homes while ensuring that the serious cases can quickly get the treatment and attention they deserve. By having first-hand contact with the physicians on the front line of the Covid-19 battle, we were able to swiftly understand the key asks and implement our solution.’
Peergos
Peergos uses cutting-edge technology to deliver private and secure online storage. Data is secured with quantum computer resistant end-to-end encryption so files are always kept secure in transit and at rest. They are decentralised so the end user is always in control and no metadata is shared with servers. It is also resilient against network attacks and service outages. Peergos now has over 1200 accounts on their alpha network, are very well respected within online communities, and were awarded a £200,000 grant from the EU Next Generation Internet Initiative.
Sibyl
Sibyl's B2B SaaS solution helps law firms investigate fraudulent and exaggerated claims more thoroughly by freeing up time, automating specialised tasks, and providing data-based insights (such as likely settlement valuation). Sibyl has completed a paid PoC with a top 50 UK law firm, improving accuracy by 30% and saving 30 mins per claim (5.7k hours / year total). Sibyl was the winner of “Coolest Tech” at the Online Courts hackathon, sponsored by HM Courts and Tribunals Service, Legal Geek and the Society of Computers and Law, and was featured in KTN's AI for Services, The Artificial Lawyer and the Impact Lawyers.
Novoic
Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias will affect 1 in 3 people. The disease progresses silently for decades before symptoms become obvious and a diagnosis is made. But subtle changes do exist in the silent stages – in episodic memory, executive function, and language – and, with sophisticated enough technology, these changes can be detected in the way someone speaks. Novoic is a clinical stage biotechnology company. Novoic is a clinical stage biotechnology company developing algorithms to detect neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease in their preclinical stages, by analysing audio-linguistic patterns of speech. Novoic has raised £2 million in Seed funding from leading institutional investors, is working with the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation and Gates Ventures to develop a global standard for speech biomarkers, and is the only speech company to have been backed by the NHS to test out its algorithms in 7 common neurological indications.
Deep Planet
Deep Planet uses machine learning, satellite imagery, and agricultural data such as ground sensor, yield and weather data, to support supply chain companies and growers. They help growers to predict yield at 90% accuracy and lower irrigation and fertiliser usage by 10%, predict crop input and output over large areas and substitute and complement manual scouting. They have received grants of £380k from the European Space Agency, Copernicus, SPRINT, and Innovate UK 2018-2020. 500,000 hectares of land has been monitored to date and Deep Planet's data is supporting sustainable tree harvesting, deforestation mitigation, and farmer training in Somalia, regenerative grazing and holistic management of African Masaai Mara rangelands in order to reduce animal fatalities, and is enabling increased fruit production with lower water usage in grape farms in Australia. Their client list includes large wine growers and supply chain companies; with more than 40 growers currently using the platform.
Our flagship All-Innovate ideas competition, supported in 2020 by Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI), saw a record 150 teams from across 30 Oxford colleges enter. 60 quarter finalists attended a startup bootcamp in early March, and 30 semi finalists pitched their idea to a panel of judges, who selected the final 10 ventures.
Through a partnership established this year between the Oxford Foundry and The Prince’s Trust, young people from The Prince’s Trust enterprise programme were able to attend the Foundry’s Creativity, Design Thinking and Idea Exploration series of workshops in Oxford in early 2020. Entrepreneurial skills workshops were also facilitated for a group of 25 young Prince’s Trust entrepreneurs in London, delivered by Rudi Sellers of IBM iX and Yo Percale of Mykagami.
At the competition final, which took place online in early August, the 10 finalist teams – including two teams from The Prince’s Trust – pitched to guest judges Mohamed Amersi of the Amersi Foundation, Jim Wilkinson, CFO of OSI, Aneeqa Khan, Founder of eporta, and Jenny Tooth OBE, CEO of the UK Business Angels Association. Best overall idea, awarded £10,000 went to: Neurolytic Healthcare who are building the first ever prescription optimisation platform to determine the optimal treatment for migraine - from Brasenose College, founded by Inna Thalmann, DPhil Candidate in Health Economics, and Roman Rothaermel, DPhil Candidate in Neuroscience, who met at the Foundry. Best undergraduate ideas, each awarded £5,000 went to: 1. Cibus Health, who are developing a smart bottle that gives parents realtime feedback about infant physiology during feeding, linked to cues of hunger and satiety, from Magdalen College, cofounded by Adrian Kozhevnikov, Master's student in Engineering.
2. Genei - Learn Smart, who are using AI to reduce the time taken to research and produce written work, cofounded by Billy Richards, Mbiochem Research student at Trinity College. Best postgraduate idea, awarded £5,000 went to: VitaGUM a multivitamin-infused chewing gum that combats malnutrition and poor oral healthcare in refugee populations - from Wolfson College, founded by Harriet Lester, DPhil Biochemistry. Best idea from The Prince’s Trust, awarded £5,000 went to: Mini Mealtimes, an app that helps parents track their children’s food ad nutrition, founded by Marie Farmer.
Creativity series, Idea Exploration series and public speaking masterclass
150 people attended our Creativity workshop series and 71% said that the workshops helped them to think more creatively. 420 students attended our Idea exploration workshops, 90% said that the workshops increased their confidence to take their idea forward. 88% of participants said the workshops helped them to define their next steps in developing an idea. 100% of attendees at David Nihill's public speaking masterclass said the sessions would improve their public speaking. Workshops were facilitated by Rudi Sellers from IBMx, Farzana Baduel, Entrepreneur First, David Nihill, and Anthemis.
Through the Foundry’s Tech Series, in partnership with Ripple and its University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI), Oxford students were able to gain new skills in blockchain, AI and machine learning across different industries, and to learn how to code in Python.
Our Python for Beginners coding course took the form of two weekend bootcamps, delivered in collaboration with two student societies: Oxford Coding Society (CodeSoc), and Oxford Females in Engineering, Science, and Technology (OxFEST) Society.
In total, 84 students across all four academic Divisions of the University completed the course, and 65% of them were women. 83% said that the course increased their confidence in their ability to code using Python, 93% felt motivated to continue their learning of Python, 87% said the course increased their understanding of coding and its applications. Our Blockchain and Smart Contracts for Beginners course in November 2019 saw 70 participants learning the basics over 4 weeks, facilitated by Oxford alumnus Laurence Kirk, CEO of Extropy, with 63% of participants being women.
The Data Science & Machine Learning for Beginners course saw participation from 186 students, across all four academic Divisions. The course comprised three 2-hour workshops, delivered by Ajit Jaokar, Course Director for Artificial Intelligence at the University of Oxford.
Our Blockchain Tech Talent networking event in December 2019 provided opportunities for talented, techspecialised Oxford students to connect with leading Blockchain companies to explore future hiring and internship opportunities.
Outreach activities and speaker series
In early March 2020, we welcomed inspirational speaker Mark Pollock, in discussion with Srin Madipalli, Cofounder of Accomable. They discussed resilience and perseverance as part of the Trailblazer Chronicles, a joint series between the Entrepreneurship Centre at Saïd Business School, Skoll centre for Social Entrepreneurship and the Oxford Foundry. In November 2019, 150 entrepreneurs and thought-leaders joined us for a discussion and dinner as part of Silicon Valley Comes to the UK (SVC2UK). Husayn Kassai, Cofounder of Onfido and Abby Harrison, aspiring astronaut from the Mars Foundation, discussed the ethics of technology and how technology can benefit society, chaired by Senior Editor at The Economist, Kenneth Cukier.
In 2019/20, OXFO Booster Grants have been awarded to 15 student societies; from the Polish and Africa societies to the Drone and Robotics societies, helping to upskill 2000 students from all four academic Divisions of the University, giving them the knowledge and skills in entrepreneurship and technology they need as the future workforce, as well as an understanding of alternative career pathways available to them. Booster grant activities included an Oxford African and Caribbean society (ACS) event with Sangu Delle, Chief Executive Officer at Africa Health Holdings Limited (AHH), chaired by Ana Bakshi, discussing his book 'Making Futures'. The OXFO Student Advisory Board has 38 student President representatives. They were invited to an OXFO leadership day at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom where they were given a crash course in leadership from royal marines and leadership experts.
Oxford Foundry building used for FACT Covid-19 study
The ground floor of the Oxford Foundry is being used for a research project called FACTS (the Feasibility and Acceptability of community Covid-19 Testing Strategies), led by Saïd Business School. The aim is to see if it is feasible and acceptable to test people regularly for coronavirus (SARSCoV-2) infection when they don’t have symptoms. The study aims to find out if regular self-testing with rapid tests is feasible at the University of Oxford. The tests are rapid tests that take a few minutes to get a result, followed by short questionnaires about symptoms and how the experience of testing was. The study is being done by researchers from the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, at the University of Oxford. Rapid tests for Covid-19 could potentially be used to allow quick access to infection status, even when people are feeling well, and have no symptoms, so that they can self-isolate if necessary and halt the spread of the virus as early as possible, a great initiative from the School.
