There’s a fire. You’re at sea. What do you do?
Having spent almost a decade at sea fixing maritime machinery and travelling across the world, third-year UTS Engineering student Sarah Battenally knows that human error and complicated maritime firefighting procedures can have catastrophic results.
That’s why she co-designed the innovative Breach and Attack Tool (BAT) and Deck Box – a low-cost product and emergency firefighting access for mariners that detects fire or explosion and helps put it out safely. It can be operated remotely, removing personnel from danger, and making it easier for firefighters to extinguish the fire quickly.
Her innovative design won her first place (and $12,000) in the IBISWorld 3P Innovation Competition, a 6-week innovation and entrepreneurship program open to UTS students with a business idea.
“The program opened my eyes to another world of innovation, business innovation and all facets of managing and operating a business that can drive growth for new and innovative products,” Battenally says. “I learnt how to prepare a business plan, commercial strategy, build research for financial modelling and learnt how businesses make financial decisions.”
Sarah Battenally won first place in the 3P Innovation Competition for her firefighting product, designed to save lives at sea.
A member of the UTS Startups community, Battenally believes the prize money will help her take valuable steps towards manufacturing and testing this innovation in firefighting technology.
And she’s not the only one who’s been rewarded for her innovative solutions.
Taking second place, and $8000, in the competition was third-year student IT student Bhavya Popli’s software Trustable, that detects scam calls before the receiver picks up the phone (an idea that came about after his mother gave her credit card details to someone claiming to be from Amazon).
And winning the third-place prize of $5000 was Study Abroad student Thomas Birk Frederiksen’s Snacksaver, which attempts to tackle the problem of food waste.
Have a business idea of your own? The 2023 3P Innovation competition is now open to all undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Header photo: Kaiyan Zhang.