Category Archives: Press Releases

Press Releases

IoD Appoints Sainsbury Mangement Fellow, Patrick Macdonald as New Chair

SMF and Chair of IoD, Patrick Macdonald

The Institute of Directors has appointed Sainsbury Management Fellow, Patrick Macdonald as its new Chair after a comprehensive search process.

Patrick, who takes on the role on from 22 March, brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the organisation. He replaces John Watson who has been interim Chair of the IoD since September 2020.

The process was overseen by the IoD’s Nomination Committee. The Chair of the committee and Senior Independent Council Member, Jean Church, MBE said Mr Macdonald was an outstanding choice to take over as Chair.

“We had a number of excellent candidates to choose from and after a rigorous selection process, we were delighted to appoint Patrick. I would like to thank John Watson for stepping in as interim Chair last year and helping to lead the IoD during the last seven months.”

Mr Watson, who led the Board’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and will remain as part of the IoD Board when the new chair starts, also welcomed Mr Macdonald.

“I am delighted that we’ve been able to bring someone with Patrick’s experience and broad range of skills on board for the next stage of the IoD’s development. Our drive to make the IoD membership more reflective of the country as a whole is progressing well. I’m looking forward to Patrick’s leadership of the Institute at a crucial time for our members and the country.

“Finally, as I step down, I’d like to pay tribute to the IoD teams, our members and volunteers everywhere who have done a magnificent job in helping us get into the right shape to grow after what has been a very challenging year.”

Patrick said: “I have been a member of the IoD since 2001 and am delighted and honoured to take over as Chair today. This is a hugely important and exciting time for the IoD.

“All businesses and business organisations have faced enormous challenges over the last year. It’s clear the IoD had already done a lot before the pandemic struck to get into shape for the long term.

“This excellent work, led by John Watson and the team, has brought us closer to our members in many important ways. The IoD will continue reinvigorating the value it delivers to existing and new members.

“The Institute is a true members’ organisation that represents the authentic voice of British business. Our members will be at the heart of the economic recovery. I am looking forward to working  with Director General Jonathan Geldart, his team and all our members across the UK and beyond to help them play their part in that recovery.”

Patrick has held both executive and non-executive roles across a wide range of businesses over the last 35 years.

He started his professional career as an engineer at the Ministry of Defence before joining Unilever. Patrick worked for Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in Germany and the UK, then joined General Electric (GE) in the USA. Patrick became CEO of John Menzies plc, based in Scotland, and has subsequently worked in private equity-backed businesses including Reconomy, the waste management company. He  chairs Moneypenny, the call answering and live chat service and Arcus FM, the tech-based facilities management business. He is co-founder and Chair of the School for CEOs, the senior-level executive development business. He is a Non-Executive Director of NatureSpace, the environmental consultancy.

Patrick is also Vice Chair of the Scottish Advisory Committee of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE) and was until recently a Trustee of the Woodland Trust.

Director-General Jonathan Geldart also welcomed Mr Macdonald to the IoD.

“Patrick joins us at an important and exciting time for the Institute.  In a challenging external environment, John Watson has led the organisation through a successful internal restructure and established a much more efficient cost base. That has enabled us to be in a strong position to make the important changes we need to drive the future growth of the IoD.

I’m really looking forward to working closely with Patrick as we move onto the next stage of that programme.”

We would like to thank the IoD for permission to publish this article.

Press Releases

Imperial College Business School MBA Students Now Eligible for SMF Scholarship

The Sainsbury Management Fellows MBA scholarship, which enable engineers to gain the highest quality commercial and business education, has added Imperial College Business School in London to its roster.  Imperial joins 13 other top international business schools offering the scholarship.[1]

Imperial has been incorporated into the SMF scholarship scheme because there are strong links between its  faculty of engineering and Imperial College Business School, which will ultimately produce business leaders who understand both technology and how to manage businesses successfully in a digital-driven world.

Leila Guerra, Associate Dean of Programmes at Imperial College Business School said:  “We share a joint vision with Lord Sainsbury – to connect management, entrepreneurship and technology and drive business forward.  I’m delighted that this partnership will allow exceptional engineers to develop their management and leadership skills to increase their impact on business and society, something that is part of our DNA at Imperial College Business School.”

Building a community of engineers with business skills is the core remit of the SMF scholarship scheme, which was set up by Lord Sainsbury of Turville 32 years ago.  The scholarship is open to engineers via the Royal Academy of Engineering and was recently extended to embrace technology graduates including computer sciences.  Each year 10 scholarships are awarded, and each successful applicant receives £50,000 towards their MBA study at one of the 14 business schools on the roster.

SMF President, David Falzani MBE said, “We now have 365 graduated Sainsbury Management Fellows who are using their engineering, technology and business skills to help firms in a diversity of sectors to excel and grow UK and global economies.  Looking at just our entrepreneurial SMFs, 170 of them have founded businesses valued at nearly £5 billion and created over 19,000 jobs.  Adding Imperial College Business School to the scheme creates even more opportunity for SMFs to help business and economic growth.”

The apply for a scholarship, visit the Royal Academy of Engineering’s website.

Note
[1] The 14 SMF scholarship business schools are: Imperial College Business School, INSEAD, IMD, RSM, IESE, SDA and HEC in Europe.  And in the USA; Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Wharton, Columbia and Kellogg University of Chicago.

Press Releases

Simfoni Raises $3M to Accelerate US Expansion of Its Spend Analytics and Spend Automation Platform

Serial entrepreneur and Sainsbury Management Fellow (SMF) Chirag Shah raises Series A for Simfoni

 Simfoni, a next-generation digital solutions provider for Spend Analytics and Spend Automation, today announced that it has raised $3m in Series A financing. The investment was led by BOOST&Co, a global leader in Venture Debt with support from private investors.

Simfoni has established itself as a technology innovator in the field of Spend Analytics and Spend Automation, It works with leading enterprises globally and partners with consultancy firms, GPO, BPO and private equity organizations to deliver spend visibility, cost reduction assessments and risk management. Simfoni operates from regional headquarters in Chicago, London and Dubai.

Its Analytics platform deploys state of the art machine learning to harmonize and auto-classify large and complex data more accurately and much more quickly than was previously possible. The Artificial Intelligence powers out-of-the-box performance measures (KPIs & Benchmarks) on cost, risk and process optimization and delivers insights using beautiful visualization within pre-configured dashboards & proactive alerts.

Simfoni also offers an innovative and award-winning spend automation platform that uses artificial intelligence to automate the process of buying for tactical and occasional spend. It combines an out-of-the-box marketplace of the most common items with a requisitioning tool that leverages the analytics to predict product requirements and identify suitable vendors. Ideal for use in tail-spend management, the platform cuts the long tail of vendors, reduces process and purchase costs and supports vendor diversity and other CSR objectives.

The cloud-based SaaS solutions are also offered through a disruptive subscription-based commercial without the licensing and implementation fees associated with traditional procurement technology.

“I am absolutely delighted to have secured Venture Debt through BOOST&Co,” commented Simfoni Executive Chairman, Chirag Shah. “BOOST&Co stands out as a venture debt financier that is truly global in outlook and that is a perfect fit for us given Simfoni’s global profile as well. Of course, the criteria to qualify for Venture Debt is much higher than for Venture Capital – requiring technology companies to have not just strong growth but a demonstrable runway to profitability. I am extremely proud of the Simfoni team and in particular our senior management in successfully managing against both these criteria. I would like to thank all our customers for their continued support and much-appreciated feedback.”

Before becoming an entrepreneur, Shah pursued a career in engineering which was followed by an MBA funded by Sainsbury Management Fellows. He remains an active supporter of the scheme.

“We have been really impressed by Simfoni’s ability to deliver rapid cost reduction opportunities for its customers. The customer feedback we received was amongst the best we have ever heard and Simfoni’s growth demonstrates the fact that their products are quick to deploy and are loved by their customers. It is a very experienced team whose track record repeatedly establishes market leadership through innovation,” said Lauren Couch, Principal at BOOST&Co. “We also like how the business is run with an experienced management team and an amazing global presence achieved in a short space of time.”

About Simfoni
Simfoni provides spend analytics and spend automation products to leading global enterprises. Products employ machine learning and artificial intelligence to accelerate and automate key aspects of the procurement process, saving customers both time and money in the process. Based in USA, Europe and Middle East, Simfoni works ‘in harmony’ with its customers and their vendor community to improve vendor diversity and other CSR objectives.

About BOOST&Co
BOOST&Co is a UK-based independent asset manager specialising in growth-lending solutions for UK SMEs. It has offices in London, Manchester, Bristol, Cambridge and Cape Town. Its funds come from large pension funds, as well as insurance companies.

Press Releases

Libertine demonstrates intelliGEN opposed piston 2-stroke developer platform

SMF Sam Cockerill, CEO of Libertine announces that the company has completed a lab demonstration platform that it hopes will accelerate the development of a new generation of clean, high efficiency opposed piston 2-stroke (OP2S) engines for distributed power and transport applications.

Initial testing of the demonstration engine started in December 2019, aiming to validate the mechanical build, align simulation models with test performance, and demonstrate opposed piston synchronisation and motion control. So far the intelliGEN platform has exceeded performance expectations and demonstrates exceptionally low vibration which will be a key feature for automotive applications.

The platform has now completed a series of short commissioning runs operating at 20Hz and is expected to be capable of operation at frequencies up to 50Hz with compression ratios in the range of 10:1 to 50:1. Such flexibility makes this an ideal platform for both conventional and advanced combustion methods, as well as for low carbon fuels such as biogas, bioethanol and methanol.

Each run generates a detailed quantitative output data set describing the system condition and trends, and which Libertine expects will form the basis of transient control, advanced diagnostics and predictive maintenance functions implemented by its OEM clients.

Libertine’s intelliGEN platform will allow engine developers to ditch the crankshaft, instead using its linear electrical machines and advanced control software to deliver real-time compression ratio control. This feature, not practical with conventional engines, is believed by Libertine to be a key tool for developers of advanced ‘Low Temperature’ combustion systems – as well as to reducing harmful tailpipe emissions formed when an engine starts from cold.

The potential of opposed piston 2-stroke engines has recently caught the attention of Formula 1’s chief technical officer Pat Symonds, who says that the best way forward for the sport’s future engine development might lie in opposed piston two-stroke engines.

“The opposed piston engine is very much coming back, and already in road car form at around 50 per cent efficiency” he is quoted as saying by Motorsport Magazine. “We need to look at what our future power units will look like. At F1 this is what we are engaged in at the moment. I’m very keen on it being a two-stroke,”

Sam Cockerill, Libertine’s founder and CEO, is presenting at the Smart Mobility Start-up Forum in Automotive World at Tokyo Big Sight on 17 January 2020.

You can see an example run here and an animated concept for the engine platform here.

Motorsports Magazine article.

Press Releases

Nottingham University Appoints David Falzani MBE as Professor

We are pleased to announce that our President, David Falzani MBE, has been appointed to the eminent position of Professor of Practice in Sustainable Wealth Creation at Nottingham University.  David brings to the role significant experience having been involved with a variety of programmes as an honorary professor at the University’s business school for eight years.

During his term at Nottingham University, David has had the pleasure of teaching a wide range of seminars, lectures and workshops.  Undergraduates, MSc, MBA and PhD students have been able to gain insights into many areas of business innovation and finance from sessions that challenged conventional thinking – these included Innovation Management and the role of cognitive bias, Entrepreneurial versus Traditional Management Methods, Innovation and How to  Predict Success,  Raising Funds (venture capital and private equity) and Managing Risk.

Drawing on his commercial experience, David also delivered a thought-provoking range of seminars to both the SME and corporate sectors.  These included The Importance of Strategic Sales Skills, Sales & Marketing and Negotiation Skills for SMEs, and for corporate executive education, Sales Strategy, Market Analysis and Improving the Customer Experience.

These subjects will continue to be part of David’s remit.  He said, “As a formal professor with all the duties and responsibilities of that position, I will be able to support and work more closely with colleagues.  I very much look forward to this new role and to build on the courses that I have been privileged to teach.”

Through teaching at this level for the past eight years, David has learnt the importance of infusing world-relevant entrepreneurial instinct and skills as early as possible, to give new start-ups and innovations the best possible chance of post-graduation success.

As well as being able to share his own commercial experiences and expertise, David also looks forward to helping to expand the opportunities offered by the University as a whole. He hopes to help develop executive education programmes and to try and integrate Sales and Negotiation topics into more student programmes. He also hopes to help develop the ecosystem around the university. Working with real-world businesses and other stakeholders, helping develop interactions that provide benefits for the wider community.

David has a real passion for his role in educating innovators and leaders of the future and continues to work tirelessly to improve the UK economy using his skills and knowledge of both business and engineering.  No doubt this new post will help him further this ambition and will benefit many students.

Press Releases

2019 Hard Hat Index Reveals 37% Fall in the Use of Hard Hats in the Engineering Media

In the final year of the Hard Hat Index, Sainsbury Management Fellows (SMF) is pleased to announce that there has been a 37% drop in the use of hard hats in articles in engineering magazines that were monitored between March 2018 and April 2019. This year’s Hard Hat Index recorded 84 images of hard hats in editorials compared to 133 editorials with images of hard hats in the 2018 Index.

SMF launched the Hard Hat Index to highlight the fact that hard hats have become synonymous with the engineering profession, and to raise a debate about how the industry can create more realistic, diverse and exciting representations of engineering jobs.

SMF President, David Falzani MBE said, “The launch of the Hard Hat Index was supported by independent research conducted by YouGov for SMF. The nationwide survey asked 2,000 respondents what items they thought engineers primarily wear on an average workday and the hard hat came top with 63% of votes, whereas, a business suit received just 25% of votes.  Engineers were seen to work mainly on building, construction and industrial sites – a far cry from reality. The Hard Hat Index was conceived to challenge the limited portrayal of engineers in professional media and to start a debate on change.”

The path to this year’s positive editorial result has not been consistent, as the number of hard hats featured in the media annually fluctuated during the life of the Hard Hat Index. Therefore, the 37% fall in editorial hard hats is significant and encouraging – it appears that more creative visuals are being used to promote engineers. Conversely, this year, the use of hard hats in advertising increased by 29% (from 89 to 115) from a five-year low of 89 hard hat images in the professional media.  Still some work for the industry to do in this area!

David Falzani concluded: “The Index has given Sainsbury Management Fellows, the opportunity to raise awareness of the problem of making engineers synonymous with hard hats.  We would like to thank those in the media and the engineering profession who have been supportive of the issue. It is particularly heartening to see the Royal Academy of Engineering’s ‘This is Engineering Campaign’ bring the diversity and excitement of engineering jobs to life and help to change perceptions about engineering.”

 

Press Releases

Engineers in Business Prize for Imperial College London’s Pioneering Women

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Engineers in Business Fellowship recently became a proud supporter of We Innovate, a women’s entrepreneurship programme run by Imperial Enterprise Lab which inspires and accelerates the progress of women entrepreneurs.  At the final held during Enterprise Month 2019, five finalists battled it out to win a share of a £30,000 prize pot, sponsored by BP.

For the first time, the Imperial Enterprise Lab incorporated an Engineers in Business Prize of £3,000 into We Innovate, enabling it to make additional awards.  Two prizes, funded by Engineers in Business Fellowship, were awarded to outstanding engineering projects from the WE Innovate cohort.

Sophie Paisley-Marshall (PhD Student Sustainable Civil Engineering) of Orbit Materials received £1,500 prize for the development of carbon-negative construction materials from waste residues. Orbit Materials promotes a circular economy through the development of a treatment which successfully improves the quality of a waste product so that it can be repurposed within construction applications.  Sophie said, “Our technology reduces the strain on virgin raw materials whilst capturing carbon, thus making our residues carbon negative.”

The second £1,500 prize was awarded to semi-finalist Lauren Dowling (Undergraduate Design Engineering) of Rock N Roll which is developing a collapsible log-fence to prevent rotational falls in equestrian cross-country competitions.

Professor Maggie Dallman, Vice President (International) and Associate Provost (Academic Partnerships), said: “The lack of gender equality in the startup world is well documented. In the UK, only 1% of venture capital invested goes to all women-founded teams, with 89% going to teams founded entirely by men. Clearly, we still have a big problem.

“Since 2014, WE Innovate has supported more than 250 women, equipping them with the skills and confidence they need to develop into successful entrepreneurs. It is wonderful to see this community of female student entrepreneurs grow and the fantastically diverse nature of their inventions.”

SMF James Diaz-Sokoloff, Portfolio Advisor (Intern) at BP who is pictured with Sophie and Lauren said: “It’s exciting to see the dynamism and creativity of the We Innovate competitors and it was a privilege to be at the final.  We are delighted to be part of We Innovate which is doing such an important job in encouraging women’s role in innovation.”

You can learn more about the Engineers in Business prize fund for university enterprise competitions here.

Press Releases

£70,000 Awarded to Universities for Enterprise Competitions  

Engineers in Business Fellowship (EIBF) inspires engineering students, graduates and postgraduates to engage with their entrepreneurial instincts.

EIBF works with universities that run enterprise competitions, providing them with a £3,000 prize fund so that they can encourage more engineers to participate in their business competitions and to reward those who develop the most imaginative and viable solutions to real problems.

The EIB prize fund was successfully piloted at the University of Nottingham and then rolled out to the University of Bristol, Kingston University and City, University of London with great success.  These early successes led to Lord Sainsbury’s charitable trust, The Gatsby Foundation, granting Engineers in Business Fellowship £700,000 to fund more HEI/FEI  competitions over a three-year period.

The expanded prize fund got off to a flying start with 23 universities awarded a £3,000 prize fund – more than £70,000 awarded and there is more to come.

“The expansion from four to 23 universities integrating EIB prizes within their enterprise competitions shows the appetite for the fund and its value to the universities.  In 2019, we want to award a further 25 universities and FE colleges a share of  £75,000,” said EIBF President, David Falzani MBE.

Paula Gouldthorpe, Entrepreneurship Manager at the University of Hull which recently received a prize fund said: “Our Global Challenge is a module dedicated to all our 2nd year engineering students. This year, 300 students, creating 50 interdisciplinary groups of engineers, will solve current real-world problems.  The Engineers in Business competition prize crucially helps highlight the importance of enterprise, entrepreneurial thinking and business acumen of our future engineers – encouraging them to look beyond their technical capabilities.  The prize fund provides students with the additional inspiration; for the University it builds upon the careers and entrepreneurship links with our Science and Engineering Faculty and I am hopeful too of some fresh, innovative solutions for social, economic and environmental change.”

Kate Beresford, Head of Membership and Operation, Enterprise Educators UK commented on the EIBF funding: “Our member universities find enterprise competitions to be a really effective way to inspire students, graduate and postgraduates to consider enterprise and entrepreneurship. But funding can be a massive challenge, so we welcome the Engineers in Business Prize Fund and look forward to seeing a wealth of innovative engineering solutions come forward.”

A TASTE OF ENGINEERING INNOVATION 

The Engineers in Business Prize Fund has already generated fascinating ideas from teams that comprise engineering students, graduates and postgraduates and here are just two:

Lancaster University – The ‘Quench Spike Free Cup’: The top team in Lancaster University’s competition created the ‘Quench Spike Free Cup’ which is designed to alert the owner if their drink has been spiked or tampered with. The plastic cup uses coloured detection strips within plastic cups to warn of this. As first prize winner the team received £1,750 and a business mentor from the Sainsbury Management Fellowship to support them as they move forward to develop the product and test prototypes.   

The remainder of Lancaster University’s £3,000 prize fund went to 2nd prize winner Buddyup; a sports app that would allow users to find sports companions at similar levels of skills and 3rd prize winner Tech Test, a  service where users can test new technology over short trial periods before committing to buy their own devices.

City, University of London: E-Mobility Bike: First prize went to a hybrid sharing bicycle system, called E-Mobility Bike, a lightweight half manual and half electric bicycle designed to make city travel easier, healthier and more accessible. Unicorn Electrics, the team behind it, has already secured pilot locations to trial the system and have used the EIB cash prize to perfect their product.

The incentive of the EIB prize fund has enabled City, University of London to increase the level of participation by engineers in its competition by 114%.

Alex Elkins, Head of Entrepreneurship at the university said: “The launch of our EIB competition resulted in an impressive jump in the quality and number of business ideas entered by our engineering students. The EIB support has been instrumental in launching this dedicated award within our broader innovation competition. We are very happy to have had the opportunity to establish this partnership!”

For details on how to apply for an Engineers in Business Prize Fund visit our competitions page or contact us at EngineersinBusiness@smf.org.uk.

 

 

Press Releases

Concept for Lower Cost Bionic Arms Wins Edinburgh University’s Engineers in Business Prize

The LAUNCH.ed Team at Edinburgh Innovations, University of Edinburgh, launched its first dedicated Business Ideas Competition for engineering students to inspire them to develop business innovations, with cash prizes provided by Engineers in Business Fellowship.  The Engineers in Business Prize was created to encourage more engineering students, graduates and postgraduates to get involved in business innovation early in their studies/careers.

The top Engineers in Business prize was awarded to the Augment Bionics team which developed the idea of designing and manufacturing affordable and functional bionic arms for use by amputees and people born without upper limbs. The winning team comprised four students – George Dzavaryan (Mechanical Engineering with Management), Moritz Muller (Chemistry), Iman Mouloudi (Neuroscience) and Will Saputra (Sociology and Quantitive Methods).

The Augment Bionics team was presented with a £500 cash prize at the event, How to Win at Business Competitions, which was co-hosted by LAUNCH.ed and the University of Edinburgh Entrepreneurship Club.  The event was designed to help the 60 attendees learn more about strategies for winning business competitions and included a host of entrepreneurs including Denny Schenk as the Climate-KIC Entrepreneur in Residence and Lorenzo Conti, Founder of Crover and winner of last year’s Business Ideas Competition.  As part of the prize, the members of Augment Bionics can also avail themselves of a Sainsbury Management Fellow as a mentor.

George Dzavaryan, Technical Director of Augment Bionics, said: “Applying to the competition was an easy process, especially with a project that was already several months in the making. We had developed a more mature vision for the future and had some results to show for our hard work. Winning first place was a nice surprise for us, as I’m sure it will be for future contestants. The £500 cash prize has been spent well on purchasing electrical components for the first version of the bionic prosthetic and to buy a domain for our website. It definitely gave us a much-needed kick start early on in the academic year, which is important for many student-led projects since it is a period of time when they are not as busy and can dedicate more time to projects like ours.”

Arthur Chee

There were also second and third Engineers in Business prizes: Arthur Chee, a postgraduate student studying Mechanical Engineering and Dilyana Karavasileva (Informatics), were awarded £300 for their idea of developing a robotic strawberry harvesting arm that is more efficient and less bulky than existing designs in development.  The design improvements would be achieved through greater degrees of freedom and an internal conveyor belt system.

Dileep Dasari

In third place was Dileep Dasari, second year undergraduate student at the School of Engineering, who created DASSUN (patent pending), an easy and cost-effective vortex generating system which can potentially decrease fuel consumption of Turbofan engines by up to 10%.  Dileep was awarded £200 cash prize.

Teodora Handrea, Enterprise Executive, University of Edinburgh said, “The Engineers in Business prize has been a phenomenal success. Run in parallel with the university’s established Business Ideas Competition, the two competitions attracted 81 entries from teams of students and alumni, with the Engineers in Business Prize stimulating 45 entries from the College of Science and Engineering and 24 entries from the School of Engineering.  Overall, we have seen a 137% increase in the total number of entries to both competitions from the College of Science and Engineering, and over 600% increase from the School of Engineering.”

LAUNCH.ed is now working with all other competition entrants to offer further assistance to develop their ideas through workshops and one-to-one support with a business advisor.

LAUNCH.ed will be running the Engineers in Business prize alongside its general Business Competition again this year and in 2020 and is aiming to encourage even more engineering students, graduates and postgraduates to participate and develop creative solutions to real problems.   LAUNCH.ed will again be supported by an Engineers in Business Prize Fund.

 

Press Releases

Engineering Student wins £1,000 for Cybersecurity Business

Engineers in Business supports City, University of London’s CitySpark business ideas competition which is open to students and recent alumni.

A special category, MakerSpark, was created to recognise the innovations created by engineering students, and this element is supported by a £3,000 EIB prize fund.

The CitySpark competition focusses on finding problems, identifying real gaps in the market and building evidence-based start-ups from day one.  CitySpark places a core focus on encouraging students to ‘get out of the building’, meet target customers and develop a full understanding of the problem to be solved. This provides an excellent starting point for brilliant ideas to develop into fully-fledged business ventures.  The competition is split into two challenges taking place throughout the academic year to help students develop entrepreneurial skills and launch a business.

The MakerSpark prize covers the two challenges and we are delighted to announce that Alien Security, a new cybersecurity consultancy, has won £1,000 in the first challenge.

Alien Security, which already has clients, provides ethical hacking services for the purpose of finding security vulnerabilities that a malicious hacker could potentially exploit.

Founder and CEO, Noor Alrayes, who is studying the  MSc Cyber Security course said: “Cybersecurity is not only a technology problem but also a people problem, which is why we offer cybersecurity support to clients and tailor our services to their needs”

Working with clients, Alien Security causes ‘serious chaos’ testing IT environments and physical cybersecurity to maximise cybersecurity defence.

We will be back later in the year to update on the final winner of the MakerSpark prize in the grand final!