New round of student challenges announced

Student Challenge winner John Chetwood with the judging panel

Students from across Imperial College London are encouraged to submit projects that tackle global health issues to be considered for a prize of £5,000

The annual student challenges competition, introduced by the Institute of Global Health Innovation for the first time last year, supports Imperial research that focuses on improving people’s health throughout the world. Five projects were shortlisted in the inaugural competition, which was judged by a panel of experts, consisting of Sir Liam Donaldson, former Chief Medical Officer and Chair of Public Health Policy at Imperial; Jane Dreaper, BBC health correspondent and Sarah Brown,  Founder and President of PiggyBankKids and Global Patron of the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood.  

Last year’s projects covered a range of topics, from patient-centred care in Nigeria to the concept of frugal innovation. The winning project used urinary biomarkers to create a new diagnostic tool to detect Cholangiocarcinoma, an aggressive form of cancer that affects the bile ducts, and is caused by the parasitic worm liver-fluke. Medical student John Chetwood used NMR spectroscopy to identify liver cancer in Thai patients and to distinguish between healthy controls and infected populations. Another finalist and fellow medical student, Yu-Jeat Chong, was highly commended for his project which used satellite technology to monitor salinity in drinking water – a growing concern due to climate change.

Candidates competing for the £5,000 prize money to develop their projects further will be judged on how the project helps to improve health around the world; how innovative it is and on how they would go on to use the prize money to develop a prototype or the next stage of research.

The competition is open to students studying for a BSc, MSc, MEng, MBA, MPH or MRes with the students’ final-year projects being the basis for their entries. The deadline for submission is Monday 14 January 2013 – candidates are required to submit a 250 word abstract alongside their thesis and letter of support from their supervisor.

John Chetwood, winner of the 2012 student challenges competition, commented at the time “I’m extremely pleased to win the first Institute of Global Health Innovation student challenges competition, particularly as I had to rush back from playing hockey at Varsity to compete for the prize. It was very exciting to present my project to such high-profile judges, and such an award validates the emerging role global health is playing in international research.”

Another finalist, Bhavesh Patel has since presented his group’s submission to a global healthcare conference in Singapore and said, "The Institute encourages students to think about developing their work beyond just a piece of research, to bring about a positive change in the field of global health. We really appreciated the Student Challenges competition experience and the opportunity it has given us to present our research to a wider audience. It reflects Imperial’s standing as leading research hub”

The director of the Institute, Professor the Lord Darzi of Denham, said “Last year’s competition entries were of a high standard and covered a wide-range of topics. I am hopeful that this year we will have even more entries as global health continues to dominate research, policy and news agendas. Not only does the competition give students a chance to hone their pitching abilities, a valuable life skill, but also present their work to a wider audience. The competition is a central feature of the Institute’s contribution to addressing global health challenges at Imperial and I would urge all students from across the College, particularly those involved in research from different disciplines to get involved.”

Interested in entering the competition? Read the entry guidelines – deadline Jan 14 2013.  

View the photos from the 2012 competition.