Back in September a team of undergraduates celebrated their win in the first Aegis Professor Undergraduate Competition, run by the Science Partnership Office.

The competition invited entrants to come up with scientific solutions to real-world problems. Dana Alismail (Earth Sciences), Lumi Long (Maths), and Ruby Page, Weronika Stelmach and William Terry-Wright (all Chemistry) proposed a slow-fashion app, ‘Refovo’. With the aim of helping the student community reduce consumption of new clothing, the app enabled users to digitise their wardrobe, then virtually try on and swap clothes, while sharing outfits, designs and projects.  

Their excellent teamwork, lively presentation and eye-catching poster all combined to win them the top prize of £5000, as well as a tour of the haptic and hand tracking tech company Ultraleap, offered by the company’s SVP Engineering, Aegis Professor Rowena Innocent.

William and Weronika visited Ultraleap on 21 November, and enjoyed a tour of their tech room where they experienced the latest developments in hand tracking technology. But they weren’t just there for entertainment – they also wanted to pick colleagues’ brains for tips on running a startup!

The team haven’t been resting on their laurels. They’ve taken their ideas forward into a new company, Weaving Change Limited. Aiming to reduce overconsumption in the fashion industry, the company will develop a ‘gamified fashion app’ to change attitudes to clothes shopping.

During their Ultraleap visit, William and Weronika met people from across the business to learn about different techniques that they could utilise in their own company’s development. They also met with CEO Tom Carter and discussed Ultraleap’s history as well as their own business plans.

"Both myself and Weronika thoroughly enjoyed visiting Ultraleap,” said William. “It was fantastic to see and try out the technology that they have developed including their hand tracking and haptic devices. Fruitful discussions with a number of experts covering a range of topics from marketing to machine learning has boosted our confidence in developing our own business, Weaving Change, and the app that we are hoping to release. We were particularly honoured to speak to the CEO of Ultraleap Tom Carter who gave us a great perspective on what it takes to start and run a successful start-up and was very complimentary of our ideas for the app. Overall the experience day was enjoyable for both of us, we learnt plenty and have come away with lots of motivation to continue with our idea."

Rowena Innocent was also pleased with the visit, saying, “It was a pleasure to welcome the winners of the Aegis undergraduate prize to Ultraleap. Weronika and William’s commitment to slow fashion is inspirational and we are excited to see how they build on this initial success to develop their new business, Weaving Change Ltd.”

As well as developing the app, Weaving Change will also run workshops with the local community to teach them more about clothes – where they come from, how they’re made and how to mend them. Schools and organisations interested in taking part should get in touch.

We look forward to seeing this company grow and develop – congratulations again to the team.