AI-enhanced ‘sound sieve’ wins Imperial’s undergraduate innovation competition

Team Marigold, creators of an innovative AI-powered solution for those with misophonia, took home the £7,000 prize.

The Faculty of Natural Sciences Make-A-Difference (FoNS-MAD) competition is Imperial College London’s annual competition providing undergraduate students with a funded lab placement to develop startup ideas into proof-of-concepts.

The event challenges students to create impactful, low-cost technologies that address real-world issues. Over an eight-week summer placement, each team gains access to lab resources, funding, and mentorship.

This year’s panel of judges included Dr Ruth Allan, Professor Sir John Pendry, and Dr Allan Samuel, who assessed each team based on originality, societal impact, and technical feasibility. 

The 2025 competition is scheduled to launch on 14 November, and participants can register for the launch event here.

Supporting those with misophonia

Team Marigold’s project aimed to help individuals with misophonia, a condition in which certain sounds trigger severe emotional responses. Inspired by a team member’s sister who suffers from misophonia, Marigold initially explored noise-cancelling headphones before pivoting to software capable of filtering specific sounds in online media.

The team, consisting of Leo Kremer (Dyson School of Design Engineering), Maria Guerrero Jimenez, and Mele Gadzama (Department of Physics), focused on creating a Chrome extension that uses machine learning to remove trigger noises from YouTube videos. 

Over the summer, they refined their machine learning model through user testing, connecting with online misophonia support groups to enhance the software's effectiveness.

“Having the freedom to explore and develop our own idea has been incredibly empowering and fun. We are very grateful for the support the FoNS-MAD competition has provided us,” said the team. 

A remarkable display of innovation

Professor Ian Walmsley, Provost of Imperial, opened the awards ceremony with praise for the students' dedication and ingenuity.

On winning the award, Team Marigold expressed gratitude and ambition for future development.

There's nothing like this out there. Team Marigold FoNS-MAD 2024 Winneres

“The misophonia community has been mostly neglected by the world of online media, and our hope is to change that,” the winning team said, “There's nothing like this out there. It will allow people with misophonia to engage with the many opportunities online media offers without the constant struggle against trigger noises.”

“Our next steps are to keep developing our project so that people with misophonia can benefit from it as soon as possible. We plan to always keep their community at the centre of what we do to ensure we're properly addressing their needs,” they said. 

Diverse and impactful ideas from other finalists

This year’s finalists showcased a wide range of ideas with potential to address significant environmental and social issues:

• CO2llect: This team, led by Haotong Xiong (Department of Life Sciences), developed a hydrogel-based fertiliser that sequesters carbon dioxide while gradually releasing nutrients into the soil. Inspired by conversations with farmers in Thailand, CO2llect addresses the need for sustainable fertilisers and aims to support agricultural-driven carbon credit schemes​.
• Rubiscube: Focusing on sustainable rubber production, Rubiscube, led by Larissa Potapova (Department of Life Sciences) and her teammates, explored synthetic biology to produce rubber using genetically modified E. coli. Their innovation presents an eco-friendly alternative to traditional rubber extraction processes, which often involve extensive land use and deforestation​.
• YJJC: Aiming to convert sound energy from the London Underground into usable electricity, YJJC's acoustic metamaterials harness piezoelectric discs to transform noise pollution into power. Alina Zhang (Dyson School of Design Engineering) and her team envision this technology as a potential solution for reducing noise and generating renewable energy​.

Since its inception, FoNS-MAD has helped Imperial students bring innovative ideas to life, with past winners like Multus Biotechnology, a cultivated meat startup that went on to raise £7.9m in funding, and Matoha, a device that identifies plastics and textiles.