Homerton Changemakers Catalyst Fund Winners 2023

By Jane Mumford 23 June 2023 7min read

Catalyst Fund Initiative, in partnership with Cambridge Wireless

Homerton Changemakers is dedicated to equipping young individuals with the necessary tools and resources to transform their aspirations for a more just, sustainable, and regenerative future into reality.

Now in its second year, the Changemaker Catalyst Fund Initiative continues to ignite change. Homerton students who envision enterprises, products, or initiatives geared towards amplifying public good and societal impact were provided with an exceptional opportunity to secure up to £2,000 in Catalyst funding, complemented by hands-on mentoring from our esteemed supporters and mentors from the membership of Cambridge Wireless.

The groups were encouraged to explore the possibility of using technology to achieve their aims. From numerous exceptional entries, six winning groups were selected. From healthcare literacy to cutting-edge applications of artificial intelligence, the students and partners from these winning teams have started truly impactful and innovative change-making projects.

The final showcase event was also published in Business Weekly and Cambridge Independent

Read more about the winning groups below!

Compassion8

Lead Applicant: Bethany Clarke - PGCE: Founder

We design interactive, web-based tools, to support organisations with a mission to increase children’s wellbeing globally. We are raising funds to develop our flagship product: an AI-assisted tool that provides low-cost, problem-solving based training and ongoing support to those who interact directly with children in the UK (parents, carers, childcare professionals, volunteers, etc.) delivering timely interventions.

Our team's unique combination of skills, expertise and experience, brings together leading developmental, educational and clinical psychologist researchers and practitioners, with AI and technical development skills, underpinned by human-centred design and regenerative leadership.

This flagship product will allow us to test our assumptions with initial partners, and co-create a tool which will be useful for their beneficiaries. This will also provide us with initial data about the interventions these partners advocate and their efficacy.

Team

Marisol Basilio PHD: Developmental and Educational Psychology Lead; Dr Jen Kuk Ire: Clinical Psychology Lead

Development team

Mohd Sadiq: Developer & Data Architecture Lead; Aleksandra Jarosek: Human-Centred Design Lead; Shihan P: User Research and Administration Lead

Envirosia AI

Lead Applicant: Ruby Zhang - Land Economy, 2nd-Year undergraduate

ESG-oriented mutual funds and ETFs have expanded at an accelerating rate given the dire situation of rising environmental crises, subsequently leading to increasing demand for information that helps investors to identify funds with maximised ESG impacts. Our start-up Envirosia AI will focus on building the first AI-powered ESG fund analysis generator to facilitate the decision-making process of impact investors. Envisoria uses advanced generative AI technologies to produce comprehensive ESG fund analysis that covers the ESG performances of the fund's top holdings, portfolio construction criteria, as well as the asset manager’s ESG alignment. Our product could greatly expedite the analysis process that is currently carried out manually and offer accessible and transparent information for impact investors to make informed ESG investment decisions. By providing impact investors with accessible and transparent information, our product will contribute to mitigating climate-related financial risks and directing financing towards critical climate solutions.

Team

May Zhao - Land Economy, 2nd-year undergraduate; Eliza Zhang - Engineering, 2nd-year undergraduate

Health Heroes

Lead Applicant: Andre Lo - MB BChir, Year 6

"the strongest correlation to ill health...is health literacy" - National Voices, 2017

Health Heroes is a health education and leadership program for school children aged 10+ to improve health literacy and tackle health inequality. The program will educate and empower children, and through them, families and entire communities.

The blended learning program will first improve the health literacy of children through in-class lessons about health supported by a digital platform. The program will culminate in a challenge where school children are supported in developing and implementing a project to improve the health of their families and wider communities (e.g. school-wide cancer screening awareness for parents/grandparents).

Our aim is to tackle health inequality by improving health literacy in children, while also engaging with black and ethnic minority (BAME), migrant and deprived families and communities (who historically have lower engagement with health services and healthy practices) through these children.

Team:

Laura Curtis - MPhil in Education (Arts, Creativity and Education)

HydrAIted, an AI-Assisted Water Quality Checker

Lead Applicant: Samuel Wong - Economics, 1st-year undergraduate

A large percentage of households in countries that do not provide clean tap water rely on home filters for their daily needs. However, there are no current means of knowing when the filters have to be replaced without compromising health. Our AI, along with its companion sensors, will check for the quality of water and decide if the filter has to be replaced. It consists of two models that consider the filtered water's chemical and biological components to make a decision.

Team:

Raghavendra Narayan Rao - Engineering, 1st-year undergraduate

Lloyd Learner

Lead Applicant: Shukri Lloyd - Law, 2nd-year undergraduate

Lloyd Learner is a creative e-learning programme and a revision tool for GCSE students. This e-learning platform allows students to access content from anywhere, easily. The global pandemic alone has highlighted the need for a tool like Lloyd Learner, as this platform ensures quality teaching, supporting students inside and outside of the classroom. The internet is filled with many online resources and programmes for the core subjects of the curriculum - your conventional English, Maths and Science; but is bereft of many of the humanities-based subjects. Lloyd Learner has designed an affordable and effective programme to aid GCSE students in the long-forgotten subjects: Geography, History and RE.

Lloyd Learner has been created, considering socio-economic factors, and the vast differences in opportunities between students due to inequality. This is Lloyd Learner’s small contribution to making an impact in closing the inequality gap in the educational context.

Team:

Ziad Lloyd - Student representative of Lloyd Learner

Memory Lane

Lead Applicant: Yusuf Khalil - Land Economy, 1st-year undergraduate

Our website aims to help those affected by dementia. It will feature an animated virtual timeline that portrays the important events and memories from someone's life. We hope individuals can cherish the memories of their loved ones by mapping out their life, one adventure at a time. Memory Lane will do this by utilising the wonder of AI to help you create the perfect interactive timeline for your loved one. Users can work alone or collaborate, attach photos, and write down their memories.

Our platform will incorporate AI to create something personalised that reflects the unique interests and personality of your loved one. Through user-provided data, we'll choose the perfect soundtrack, colour scheme, and layout for each animation. AI will generate a heartfelt narration over the animated timeline. The final product will be a short animation celebrating the life of your loved one elegantly.

Team:

Muhammad Alam: Finance Officer, Economics, 1st-year undergraduate; Fatiha Rahman: Senior Social Worker, Specialist Advisor

Additional Prizes

In addition to their initial funding and mentoring, the winners of the Homerton Changemakers' Catalyst Fund had an exciting opportunity to secure additional funding through prestigious prizes presented during the showcase day (28 September 2023). Among these distinguished awards is the coveted Ivan Baines Prize, generously donated by Rupert Baines in memory of his son Ivan Baines. This esteemed prize, valued at £1.5k, not only includes financial support but also entails three months of invaluable mentoring from Rupert Baines himself. The two recipients of these prizes are: Lloyd Learner and Health Heroes

Additionally, the Lovely Naha Foundation Prize, graciously donated by Abhi Naha in honour of his entrepreneurial mother, Lovely Naha, offers a £500 prize along with three months of Abhi Naha's expert guidance as a mentor. The winner of this prize is HydrAlted.

We are excited to witness the journeys our winning teams will embark on and eagerly await the incredible impact they will surely make in their respective fields!