Meditation, finance and engineering solutions will feature when a trio of Border innovators vie for $10,000 later this month.
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The finalists of the 2018 Life Tech Challenge – Damian Watson, Ashley Dunn and Sid Steele – will pitch their ideas to a judging panel at Wodonga’s TAFEspace on September 27.
A Hume Bank initiative, the challenge aims to promote community innovation and will also award a $2000 Rising Star prize.
Mr Watson, a business development manager who only heard about the competition two days before entries closed, wants to further develop his meditation app, mSpot.
“It helps people to find and share the best places in the world to meditate, people have referred to it as TripAdvisor but for meditation,” he said.
Mr Dunn, who works at The Border Mail as a media sales representative, plans to build a money-saving app.
“I’d thought about it probably for a few years now, but never really had the opportunity to let people know what it is,” he said.
Machine designer Mr Steele’s venture is well advanced but needs some extra help to launch it.
“My idea takes universal 3D models and translates them into a language robots can use,” he said.
“(Therefore) complex structures can be converted by robots, regardless of their complexity, without human interaction.”
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The three finalists appreciated the opportunity offered by the Life Tech Challenge, not just the cash prize but also the mentoring and networking available.
“Everybody’s got a good idea, but what do you do with it?” Mr Dunn said.
“We probably can’t bring it to fruition, but with the help of these guys, we can,” Mr Watson added.
Hume Bank chief executive Stephen Capello welcomed the diversity of entries in the challenge’s second year.
“For them to put their creative brains together, for them to get those creative, innovative thought processes going is great for this community,” he said.
Mr Capello said the three projects involved different fields and stages of progress.
“A lot of the ideas, great ideas in the community, don’t ever get the traction that they need,” he said.
“This challenge that Hume Bank is driving forward really provides opportunity for these guys, and anyone in the community, to come forward.”
More information available at humebank.com.au/lifetech.
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