Alumni Innovation Fund: 2022 Updates

In June 2023 we announced the winners of the Henley Alumni Innovation Fund. A year on, we caught up with the alumni to see how their projects have progressed. 

Tangible Africa: Ryan Le Roux (MBA)
Teaching coding to learners across Africa, particularly those with no regular access to electricity, computers or the internet.

• Tangible Africa beat over 900 applicants to become the first runner up in the African Union Innovating Education in Africa 2022 Awards
• Ryan: “A solution from Africa for the world. Helping learners to enter the economy by crossing the digital divide.”
• The Tangible Africa team plans to visit Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe to further spread coding skills across the continent by training teachers and other master trainers; and in December Tangible Africa will be hosting its first international coding tournament when teams from SA will take on teams from Ireland.
• Unplugged coding has already been successfully introduced by the Tangible Africa team to coding clubs in Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Zambia.
• Since the project launched in 2017 it has impacted over 100,000 school learners in 500 schools across 10 African countries.

Gulab Haveli: Pushpender Singh (MSc Real Estate)
Renovating a 19th Century heritage building in Rajasthan state, India. Preserving the site and turn it into a sustainable new development.

• Have taken on board, Mr. PK Jain, Former Director of Archaeology and Built heritage conservation consultant with State Government.
• We also have been able to take on board structure consultancy JaitlyAssociates for review and planning of intervention in the existing structure.
• To preserve its fresco paintings, The ShekhawatiProject, a Paris based painting restoration organisation has been taken on board for consultancy and renowned fresco artist Ms. Mrinalini Bangaroo(Ex-National Museum, New Delhi) has started samplings to conserve its interior walls without the use of any plastic paints whilst consolidating the original layer.

Eran Ogun: Jubilian Ngaruwa(NICE Programme)
Producing a documentary film as part of a wider project into the indigenous communities of the Osun region, SW Nigeria near the UNESCO Heritage site of the Osun Osogbo sacred grove.

• Published KEEPERS: Keepers is a brief introductory documentary film that focuses on gold, gods, a polluted river, and the virtuous Osun women. This story is about the natural history of Osun State, Nigeria. It focuses on the maids of the Osun River Goddess, who have taken it upon themselves to stop gold mining from polluting their "ones," a long stream of fresh water that is both their place of worship and their source of income. This project investigates the age-old custom of the Osun people as it links to nature conservation.

Josh Elliot: Catenna(MSc International Business Management)
Creating a consultancy and software development platform to connect research and business, utilising artificial intelligence to match suitable companies with research institutions to help take research forward and apply it commercially.

• Recently took up premises within Hartpury’s entrepreneurial Tech Box Park community, a space dedicated to enabling the growth of innovative local businesses looking to develop new or existing products and accelerate them into the agri-tech market.
• “Catenna was born out of intrigue and my innate curiosity to unlock information that sits within the UK’s leading universities and how to recombine knowledge from different domains to solve societal challenges more effectively. My aim is to create a melting pot of ideas where the best university minds are matched and combined with innovative businesses to find solutions to real-world problems.”
• Josh continues to develop the business and idea, whilst also working as Chief of Staff at Insource Ltd