Audacious is a nine-week programme in which University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic students take an idea to solve a problem in the community and turn it into a working business.
Georgie Northcoat’s business idea, "Lynk", is a device that connects to a washing machine and removes microplastics from the waste water before it flows back into the ocean.
For her business case, Ms Northcoat won $2000 as well as $250 for the Audacious alumni best entrepreneur award.
The winner of the "best positive impact" award was Tahere Siisiialafia, with her Le La’afa Translation Hub translating important documents — such as the United Nations’ sustainable development goals — into the many Polynesian languages and dialects.
The idea behind it was to obtain more engagement and involvement of non-English speakers in strategies to improve the world.
Kirsten Anderson’s Canine Clean won the "best physical product" award.
Canine Clean is a device attached to small dogs to make teeth cleaning easier. She hopes to save dog owners thousands of dollars in dog dental health.
Gabriel Dykes and Alex Thomson won a $10,000 prize to go towards building an app for their business, Split.
Split is a platform to help people who want to invest in horticulture but who do not have a lot of disposable income.
Other prize winners included Jonathan Storm’s mixes of wood-smoked salts and blends, Lydia MacLean’s MT Legs that aims to offer more access to empty flight charters and Jordan Frost’s app, Phlow, which synchronises runners’ music with their heart rate.
