A team of London students that have created realistic surgical models to help train medical staff and test new technologies have picked up two prizes at a national awards ceremony.
The Peach Simulators team of biomedical engineers from King’s College London have developed the models to let doctors and students research and practice without risk to patients or animals.
Made from soft materials that look and behave like human tissue, their simulators cover heart, chest, ear, nose and throat, and urology procedures.
Entrepreneurial trio Steven Morris, 23, Zixi Wang, 25, and Carlo Saija, 24, in collaboration with their supervisors Professor Kawal Rhode and Dr Antonia Pontiki, came up with the idea on the back of their collective research.
After winning their university enterprise competition earlier this year, the team have now won two awards at the ESBF Champion of Champions Competition.
They won the Enterprise Award of £5,000 and the StartUp award of £3,000 at the event held at the Royal Academy of Engineering on Friday 7 November – a competition which saw them compete against nine other talented science and engineering teams from universities across the UK.
Carlo said: “The competition was amazing and has brought about so many new opportunities every day since we competed. We really couldn’t have hoped for anything more. We are all looking forward to where this new wave of opportunities is taking us. Thanks to the ESBF mentorship and some of the connections made during the competition, we are now preparing to initiate conversations with new investors and potential collaborators.
“Our idea was inspired by the high cost, ethical issues, and limited access of cadaver and animal-based medical training. By creating reusable, lifelike simulators from our patent-pending materials, we provide safe, ethical, and affordable training tools. This innovation improves patient safety, accelerates surgeon training, supports MedTech innovation, and makes world-class training accessible to more institutions. The result is better-prepared clinicians, faster technology development, and safer care for patients and communities.”
As part of their win, the Peach Simulators team will also receive mentoring from business leaders who are members of the Sainsbury Management Fellows network, plus CV packages from PurpleCV and entrepreneurial books from sponsors.
The event, hosted by TV presenter and engineer Rob Bell, is the culmination of a year of ESBF-sponsored enterprise competitions held across UK universities, with thousands of undergraduate and graduates taking part.
Each year, ESBF champions business education for engineers and supports universities by giving them grants to award prizes to engineering and science students who develop ideas that can make a positive impact on society.
