Entrepreneurship workshop brings innovative ideas to life
- Wits Innovation Centre
The Wits Innovation Centre recently held its annual Entrepreneurship / Prospector @Wits workshop.
Every year, the WIC's workshop gives Wits staff and students the opportunity to get intensive hands-on experiential training in how to turn ideas into innovations ready to be taken to market.
The workshop director, Professor Surya Raghu, says that the week-long programme proves that the university engages with the community through innovation and entrepreneurship in ways that address society’s needs and try to better it. “Good ideas and innovations can be created at the university, and these ideas are taken to the market through entrepreneurship with the support of the entire ecosystem.”
Dineo Masokoane, the organiser of the workshop and the WIC’s senior innovation support manager, says the workshop demystified the journey from research output or concept to successful commercialisation. “By the end of the week, attendees could articulate a clear value proposition for their innovation and outline the first steps of a roadmap toward market launch.”
This development was clearly on display during the final day of the workshop, where the students presented their innovative ideas in groups to a panel of experts, who gave them feedback. One lucky team even got an investment towards their idea’s future.
Urban Harvest – Vertical Farming in Cities
The winning team was awarded R50,000, sponsored by Adams & Adams. This group chose to focus on the problem that a significant percentage of South Africans in cities face food shortages or eat food with low nutritional value.
Their solution addressed this by turning towards underutilised urban spaces by encouraging modular, vertical hydroponic farms in inner cities. Through a farm-to-shelf data platform, they aim to foster connections between property owners, microfarmers, retailers, vendors, and inner city residents themselves.
“Urban Harvest had the best overall coverage of idea to market and had the highest score according to the judging criteria provided to all the participants in advance,” Raghu said.
“They chose to tackle a problem that is personally meaningful to them, and this passion was clearly reflected in the strength and authenticity of their presentation,” Masokoane said.
XPair – Minimising prescription medicine waste
This innovation, led by a pharmacist, plans to track expiry dates on medicines. They stated that around R300 million is lost yearly in the country due to expired medicines, and that there are no searchable and verified systems to simplify manual checks.
Xpair’s solution addresses this through a web platform that works together with existing stock management systems and automatically alerts pharmacists of items that might soon expire. The team estimates that they could reduce stockouts and improve continuity of care while saving pharmacies money.
YouMeta – Edutech to facilitate college and career choices
This career platform helps high school students and other young people make more informed decisions about what to study, while connecting them with mentors and industries. The solution matches learners with possible careers and people in those fields through personalised AI and gamefied progress. It also aims to offer data to universities and funders.
The team aims to address how students dropping out of university can lead to funders of bursaries missing out on the return on investment, and how universities make less performance-based income, while students themselves suffer.
AirWise Solutions – Air quality monitoring and protective gear
This innovation came out of the personal experience of the team leader, Thandiswa Maseko, who grew up in an area with bad air pollution affecting the community’s health. Her team designed a wearable, personal air quality sensor that connects to an app to update a person about the air pollution risks around them.
The team has developed a prototype and hopes to be production-ready next year if possible. They aim to reach both people in high-risk areas or situations and fitness enthusiasts who are interested in their respiratory health.
ADBiologics – Affordable diagnostics of diseases
Targeting the problem of respiratory syncytial virus deaths (RSVs) and other diseases by developing locally produced antibodies. This would lower the price of these diagnostic tools in the country, bypass supply chain issues and address inequality and pandemic preparedness.
The team has a fungal technology in mind, which leads to a significantly lower cost of goods and a simplified process. They aim to target research labs to start off with and would like to prototype in the next year.
Blockchain Certificates - Validation and assurance of university credentials
This team is looking to offer verification of university credentials as a service. The product would be fully automated, making it cheaper and faster than its possible competitors. For instance, a verification may cost around R100 and be immediate, as opposed to taking three to five days and costing R175.
They plan to connect with the customer, authenticator, and user directly, to make the product useful to all. The team has also considered data protection and the local laws around personal data, and aim to protect this throughout.
BizVerse – Management support software for SMMEs
BizVerse was inspired by one of the team members’ experiences as a child, where their mother started a business. It failed within the first five years, not because of a lack of enthusiasm or finances, but due to a lack of managerial skills. To address this larger challenge, many small and medium businesses face, the team designed a business management app and learning platform.
They aim to set themselves apart by focusing on local communities, offering offline capabilities and multi-language support. They hope to offer both freemium and subscription services and to develop key partnerships.
'WOW', what a show!
Overall, the team behind the workshop was highly impressed by this year’s participants.
“I should say ‘wow’ for all the presentations – they exceeded my expectations by a mile,” Raghu said. He mentions that the other professional judges were also impressed, with one remarking that the presentations were better than many they had seen pitched by industry players.
Beyond the classroom, he said, the ideas are viable to be taken to market with some refinement of the value proposition and business model. “In fact, the judges even volunteered to talk to the groups later if they are still interested beyond the workshop and mentioned possible sources of support for them. “
“This was the best workshop in the series so far,” Professor Christo Doherty, the acting Angela and David Fine Chair in Innovation, said. “We had a full house in terms of registrations, and the participants were highly engaged and committed. “
Doherty explains that this enthusiasm was backed across faculties. In a new development for the workshop, Faculty Deans and WIC Associates were asked to nominate staff and postgraduate students for the programme. Those chosen were supported by bursaries covering the workshop costs.
Masokoane adds that there was a variety of students in terms of disciplines in this cohort. “It was inspiring to witness engineers collaborating with artists and health professionals, bringing diverse perspectives together to co-create innovative solutions.”
“We plan to continue the workshops as an annual event and also to extend this kind of training to reach more staff and students at Wits,” Doherty says.