A SMARTPHONE app that allows farmers to better select livestock at auctions won top prize in the University of Adelaide Australian eChallenge late last year.
The app – dubbed an “ingenious idea” by the university – will allow farmers to filter through large numbers of animals available at auction using multiple prioritised breeding preferences and identify which animals are best suited to their enterprise.
They will have access to an Australia-wide genetic pool of livestock.
Trait Select was devised by a team of third-year agricultural science students made up of Tom Gameua, Hector Mackenzie and Liam Vanschaik, who all hail from South Australian farms.
The annual Australian eChallenge is run by the university’s Business School and Pro-Vice Chancellor (Entrepreneurship), and Dean of Business, Professor Noel Lindsay, said the eChallenge teams developed an “exciting and surprising breadth of innovations”.
“Each team has carefully considered some of the problems we all face, individually and as a society, and successfully developed interesting and novel solutions that have real potential for commercial success,” he said.
“The aim of the Australian eChallenge is to help students build entrepreneurial capability, develop new ways of thinking about problems and solutions, and increase their capacity to think creatively and act decisively.
“In whichever direction these students head next, we know that we have helped prepare them to be agile and resourceful, adaptable and resilient, and to harness failures and build on them for success.”
As overall winners, the team of three took home $10,000 in cash, $1000 worth of consultancy services from Madderns Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys, and a package worth $4000 including permanent residency for 12 months and Accelerator business workshops at the university’s ThincLab business incubator.
Teams competing in the eChallenge pitch business proposals for their new, previously unfunded business concepts, to potential investors from the local business community.
They compete for a share of the total prize pool of more than $62,200 in cash and prizes, and the prestige of being awarded the most outstanding Australian eChallenge entrepreneurial venture of the year.
Other entrepreneurial ideas from the teams of undergraduate and postgraduate students focussed on solutions to solve ambulance ramping, assist with rehab after serious injuries, help people manage money better and help domestic violence victims contact the support agencies discreetly.
The Australian eChallenge is a competition-based learning experience that develops strategic business thinking for early-stage entrepreneurial ventures.
Run since 2001, it is the longest running program of its kind in Australia and the pre-accelerator program is a proving ground for future entrepreneurs.