A pioneering undergraduate from the University’s Department of Computer Science is set to make finding exclusive and elusive fashion items easier, thanks to her innovative new website, Snap-Fashion. Jennifer Griffiths’ Ebay-meets-Facebook venture has won the University’s annual New Enterprise Competition 2009.
Visitors to the website upload an image of clothes or accessories similar to the one they want to find and the site, which works like a visual search engine, uses image-processing techniques to find suitable matches. The website also works as social-networking hub, where users can create their own profile and share their latest fashion finds with their friends. A resident fashion writer writes articles for the site and a weekly newsletter.
Snap-Fashion was awarded first prize at the University’s prestigious annual Enterprise Dinner on 30 June. The prize includes £15,000, free legal advice from Osborne Clarke, and 6 months’ managed office space at the Bristol SETsquared Business Acceleration Centre, which provides entrepreneurs with business mentoring, guidance support, access to business professionals and office space.
Srilakshmi Sharma, a member of staff in the Department of Ophthalmology, was awarded £10,000 as joint runner up for Selo, a low-cost device that aids the treatment of macular degeneration, a cause of blindness that affects 1 million people worldwide, particularly those over 50. The only treatment currently available is a drug that is injected into the eye every six to eight weeks, at a cost of £1,000 per injection. When the drug is injected, a small amount leaks out, and there is a small risk of infection. Selo stops about 20 per cent of the drug leaving the eye once it has been injected, which it anticipates will help reduce the number of injections needed, lower the risk of infection and blindness, and save the National Health Service in the region of £50 million a year.
The other joint runner up was Shamba Technologies for a social enterprise that will bring biodigester technology to the rural poor in developing countries. Some 2.6 billion people collect firewood every day for cooking and heating. In Africa alone, more than 400,000 people, mostly children, die every year from acute respiratory infections caused by inhaling smoke in the home. The biodigester technology, developed by undergraduate Edward Matos from the Department of Engineering Mathematics, will capture fuel from the bacteriological digestion of livestock excrement and has the potential to replace firewood as rural Africa’s fuel of choice.
The entries were judged by a panel of experts from the sponsoring organisations, including Bristol City Council, Business Link, Deloitte, EADS, Edwards, Ginko Investments, IP Group, North Bristol NHS Trust, Osborne Clarke, Santander, SETsquared Business Acceleration Centre (Bristol) and Wyvern Seed Fund.