Held this weekend, the 2025 Lucy Enterprise Challenge saw 14 student teams present projects focused on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Guided by expert mentors, students generated cutting-edge concepts, received mentorship and pitched to win funding towards implementing their vision.
The Lucy Enterprise Challenge, generously sponsored by Cambridge Precision Ltd, continues to foster entrepreneurial spirit amongst Lucy Cavendish College students, inspired by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Participants formed diverse, multi-disciplinary teams, pooling their varied skills to tackle real-world problems. The College’s commitment to inclusion was clearly reflected in the diverse makeup of the participants, their educational and cultural insights, and their combined commitment to a better world. Over the weekend, they received bespoke, one-to-one mentorship from leading experts and serial entrepreneurs. They then had the opportunity to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges, competing to win funding towards implementing their vision.
This year’s judging panel included College President, Professor Dame Madeleine Atkins, CEO of Cambridge Precision Ltd, Richard Hefford-Hobbs, and Former College President, Honorary Fellow and President of the Anna Bidder Society for legators, Baroness Perry.
After careful consideration, the judges awarded the first prize of the day, the Lucy Enterprise Prize for Postgraduates, to NetList.ai, an idea by Lucy student Mihai Mesteru and Wolfson student Christos Margadji aimed at offering a modern solution to currently outdated circuit design software.
The afternoon prize for Undergraduates was awarded to Coexist led by Land Economy student Damsith Wimalasena. The project aims to tackle human-elephant conflict in Sri Lanka, where habitat fragmentation forces elephants into human settlements, causing economic losses, human casualties and elephant deaths.
A welcome addition to this year's Enterprise Weekend was the ‘Baroness Perry Prize for Women’s Enterprise’ in honour of Pauline Perry (Baroness Perry of Southwark). She is an educator, educationist, academic, and activist. Baroness Perry has been a driving force at Lucy Cavendish since 1994 and we are delighted to have this prize in her honour thanks to the generosity of a donor.
The prize was awarded to Learn4Life Namibia, an idea by Lucy students, Viktoria Ellmies, Oliver Almond, Falak Shabir and Tsz Hang (Conor) Fei, aimed at addressing the lack of quality education for students in Namibia, i.e. those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
All participants greatly benefited from this dynamic and enriching educational experience.
We are hugely grateful to the sponsors, judges, mentors and to the Enrichment team for making the weekend possible.
Learn more about the inspiring teams and mentors in our event brochure.
For a glimpse into the event, view our slideshow below: