Feedback from students
i-Teams students are different – in class and off class – as they are thinkers and they employ the design thinking skills gained in i-Teams to come up with innovative research and projects.
Professor Jackson Mbuthia, Strathmore University
I just wanted to drop you a quick note to say a big thank you for organising the i-Teams – your enthusiasm for the course really shows and I had come to look forward to your weekly emails!
Lots of the things we did as part of iTeams were way out of my comfort zone, but I really enjoyed the experience and I learnt a lot during this time.
Dr. Adelyne Chan, Cancer Research UK, Clinical Trials Management i-Team, Lent 2021
Thank you so much for hosting the Development I-Teams especially in the midst of a pandemic!
It was an honour to be accepted for the heart valves project. I have learned and benefited a lot from it and gained many invaluable connections. I appreciate this a lot and hope that more people can benefit from this program in the future. I look forward to joining future projects as well!
Koay Xian Jing, Polymeric Heart Valves i-Team, Michaelmas 2020
i-Teams is the highlight of my week! I got to establish connections with people through i-Teams I would not come across otherwise — what is the chance for me to meet someone who has decades of experience in their industry and is willing to share their experience for free?
I really enjoyed working with our team and the whole course!
Jenny Jiang, Flexible Printed Solar Cell i-Team, Easter 2020
I really loved all of the i-Teams programme! It was really great to get to explore so many new topics with a team coming from different educational backgrounds. Overall, it was great to feel really supported in the experience by having a dedicated mentor and so much input from experts in the field of commercialising inventions (Simon, Amy, Lara, Berk). Thank you so much for letting me be a part of it!! My team was really proactive and we worked well together, playing to everyone’s strengths.
Miranda Imperial, Sociology, Solar-powered Water Pump i-Team, Easter 2020
Participating in i-Teams has been one of the best things I did while being in Cambridge.
It inspired me to talk to the technology transfer office about whether we can patent my own research. As a result, next year we will be looking at whether we can work with an external company, which is very exciting. I wouldn’t have thought of trying something like this prior to participating in i-Teams.
PostDoctoral researcher, Pep2Smart i-Team, Michaelmas 2019
i-Teams is one of the most entertaining and inspiring projects I have ever worked on. It has helped to reshape and direct my future career towards entrepreneurship.
Vaclav Potesil, Computational Biology, i-Teams student
I was one of the first students who joined the i-Teams back in 2007. I have to admit that the experience really shaped my career, as I changed professional course and from an engineering student doing his PhD, became a business consultant, and then project manager.
George Lentaris, Intelligent Online Textbooks i-Team, Michaelmas 2007
i-Teams was a highlight of my time at Cambridge! My teammates were amazing, and I learned so much about business and entrepreneurship. I felt like I was part of an exciting new project and contributing to the development of an important technology!
Lindsay Moore, Psychology and Neuroscience in Education, i-Teams Easter 2011
This project was extremely attractive to me because of its potential to be applied in various areas and the possibility to completely revolutionize the current methods of initial drug screening. Working on this project has taught me an enormous amount about general business strategy, market analysis, team building, effective communication and presentation. This has been an invaluable experience for me.
Jing Zhang, Chemistry, i-Teams student, Lent 2010, CUE President 2011/12 & Founder of AQDOT
Our team was like a small company, working together to achieve a common goal
Salvatore Mascia, Chemical Engineering, i-Teams student & CUTEC President 2006/07
Feedback from researchers and Cambridge Enterprise
This round would not have happened without your help! You gave me a chance when it was totally not obvious what would happen! Today I want to give you my vehement protestations of gratitude. We raised our first £20k after the i-Teams presentation.
Dr. Botty Dimanov, Tenyks, after raising a $3.4million investment round
Cambridge Enterprise regularly refer inventions to i-Teams, in particular those that are clearly ground-breaking but do not have an obvious target market. As an example, in 2015 we referred Dr. Tuomas Knowles to i-Teams with his technology for stabilising silk protein into microcapsules. The i-Team’s key finding was that plant-based microcapsules would be much easier to commercialise than those based on silk. This resulted in a change of research focus that led to Xampla being founded in 2018 and raising £6m in investment in 2021.
Dr. Gillian Davis, Commercialisation Director, Cambridge Enterprise
I was impressed with what the group has done so far and the number of interviews that they have conducted, especially over such a short period of time.
Jobey Meacham, Neutreeno (and former i-Teams participant)
I am ecstatic! They did a fantastic job.
Professor Nigel Slater FREng, Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering & Biotechnology
This was too good an opportunity to miss. We recognised the value of i-Teams immediately and were pleased to have been chosen as the first project from outside Cambridge. We have been impressed with the high calibre team assembled and plan to stay in touch with them.
Professor David Russell, Chemistry, University of East Anglia, Chief Science Officer of Intelligent Fingerprinting
My feedback on i-Teams is truly excellent. I think they have done an exceptional job. They found new applications for our microhotplates and I am already thinking of starting one or even two new R&D projects in these areas.Dr. Florin Udrea, Electrical Engineering, University of Cambridge & co-founder of CamSemi
I usually stick with my decisions once I make them, but the student i-Team made me reconsider my own conclusions and adopt a different approach
Professor John Archer, Genetics, University of Cambridge
Feedback from the Cambridge technology ecosystem
Martlet Capital specialises in early-stage high-potential technology companies. We regularly attend the i-Teams final presentations to gain early visibility of future investment opportunities and are always impressed by the consistently high quality of the recommendations from the student teams. Many of the companies in our current investment portfolio are former i-Teams projects.
Paul Bailey, CEO, Marlet Capital Ltd.
i-Teams is an exciting programme which adds real commercial insight into technology projects at an early stage. Young companies need strong teams of people and a viable market opportunity to succeed, not just a unique technology. i-Teams helps both researchers and students to understand this through hands-on experience, and increases the chance of inventions leading to real fundable business opportunities. It has become a crucial part of the Cambridge ecosystem.
Robert Sansom, Chairman, Cambridge Angels
I watched i-Teams do the hard work the other night. They took new and innovative technologies and guided them towards a useful and potentially commercial purpose. Entrepreneurship animates innovation and drives change.. Amy Weatherup and her iTeams programme are showing how science and engineering will continue to drive us forward.
School for Startups
i-Teams has become a key element of our technology transfer process in Cambridge, and consistently delivers powerful and well-researched results to our inventors. Cambridge Enterprise strongly supports the i-Teams programme, and we are always impressed with the enthusiasm and energy that the teams bring to their projects.
Teri Willey, Chief Executive, Cambridge Enterprise, The University of Cambridge
i-Teams uniquely delivers critical industry feedback into university technologies at an early stage, greatly increasing their chances of later commercial success. The students gain hands-on skills which will benefit them throughout their professional careers, and the researchers gain valuable links into the local business community and into relevant industries. The programme is a very efficient and cost-effective way of leveraging the country’s investment in scientific research into commercial benefit.
Walter Herriott OBE, Chairman, Hauser Forum & Former Managing Director, St Johns Innovation Centre
“i-Teams is an excellent and innovative programme which allows students to gain real-world business experience. They have to face questions and issues which are crucial to an entrepreneur in any size of business and they can be seen to come a long way in a short time. The structured approach taken to identifying market opportunities identifies new possibilities which are unlikely otherwise to be spotted, and for some projects this has played a pivotal role in commercialisation of the technology.”
Dr. Philip Martin, Partner, Marks & Clerk LLP
“Taylor Vinters enjoy supporting i-Teams and are continually impressed by the enthusiasm, creativity and analytical skills demonstrated by the teams. The decisions which entrepreneurs make at the very earliest stage in the life of a business are absolutely crucial. i-Teams’ budding entrepreneurs learn those decision-making skills through the real-life projects they are offered by i-Teams and the mentoring they receive through the programme and gain experience of working in top-class teams with complementary skills. Cambridge is an exciting and dynamic place to do business and i-Teams is helping to develop the future of this innovation community.”
Patrick Farrant, Partner and Head of Technology, Taylor Vinters Solicitors
General Feedback
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