SunGuard AI shines brightest at our latest student pitch night🌞

On Thursday 10 April, we farewelled Term 1 with an exhilarating night of student startup pitches and creativity. We had 10 teams, representing 6 schools, who had successfully completed the T1 Ideas Challenge and made the Top-10 according to our judging panel. They competed for $1,000 in cash prizes on the night and all benefited from valuable real-world feedback. It was an absolute blast for everyone involved! Keep scrolling to see all the prize winners who joined SunGuard AI at the big pitch night👇

The T1 Ideas Challenge was a free, 6-week (part self-paced, part instructor-led) online skills-building program for emerging innovators and entrepreneurs. It involved three extension tasks, which were assessed and each resulted in a microcredential if passed. With the addition of a fourth certificate for pitch night teams, 315 individual microcredentials were unlocked by our hard-working student cohort!

It was fantastic to see multiple school principals, deputy principals and teachers in attendance cheering on their students, especially given the extracurricular nature of this initiative. We truly appreciate them making time out of their busy schedules to attend and help celebrate their students' exceptional efforts through this program. We were also thrilled to be joined by local Ryde City Councillor Tina Kordrostami, and Community Development Officer Jessica Runge. Big thanks to Clr Kordrostami for not only attending but also joining us 'on stage' to award certificates to all our prizewinners at the conclusion of the event!

Big shout-outs must also go out to our student emcees, Thanvi, Adam and Aditi, for proactively volunteering to help our event run smoothly, and of course our judging panel made up of MQ Incubator luminaries: Georgia Muriti from Welv, James Daher from SoCreative, and our very own Director of Incubation and Entrepreneurship Melissa Ryan.

Here's a quick video (provided by James' video production startup, SoCreative) summarising the program and the pitch night event:

Now, let's introduce you to the finalists!

• Budget Buddies: A fun, educational app that teaches kids and teens smart money habits - building financial confidence for life.
• Edunify: An AI-based web application, unifying international students with their ideal universities!
• Memory Lane: Encouraging dementia patients to complete physical and meditation activities, enriching their wellbeing and promoting interpersonal connections.
• NextSTEP: Empowering students to shape their future with personalised and affordable career guidance — one step at a time.
• Spark Style: An intelligent fashion assistant that generates daily outfits, helps you find your style, and makes shopping easier — and cheaper.
• Redume: The perfect jobs targeted at students, for students.
• StoryCycle: Making reading more accessible and fun for kids wherever they go, helping them to learn and grow.
• Skillsync: Personalised, data-driven, and future-ready — helping students make career choices that lead to meaningful futures.
• TerraCup: Providing a sustainable and convenient way to enjoy your favourite hot beverage, and the only cup that will do good even after your last sip.
• SunGuard AI: Your virtual skin health assistant, using AI to support early detection, UV protection, and personalised cancer prevention.

Here's a bit more of a look at the composition of the finalist teams:

And just a reminder about how the broader cohort looked:

And now... 🥁our prize winners!

Huge congratulations to our prize winners, finalists and all program participants for such an awesome effort throughout Term 3 in the Ideas Challenge!

The Ideas Challenge will be back in Term 3, 2025 so stay tuned for our application link that will go live in Term 3. 

In the meantime, any interested teachers, parents and students can subscribe to receive our email updates to make sure you get all the latest info straight to your inbox!

About the Secondary Schools Program  

Macquarie University Incubator and Young Wisdom teamed up in late 2023 to create a range of entrepreneurial skills-building opportunities for young innovators and their supporters. To date, we've worked with over 7,500 students and 80 schools across NSW.

Macquarie University Incubator is a leading community of innovators being supported with facilities, mentorship, events and programming designed to help them launch and scale their groundbreaking ventures globally.

Young Wisdom is a Sydney-based social enterprise offering entrepreneurial upskilling opportunities and support services on a mission to help young founders launch and grow their new ventures with confidence.

See you next time!✌️

From Shahe and the Ideas Challenge team