On Thursday 11 December Saranya Ashokkumar, industrial PhD student at Accoat, received her prize as winner of the DTU’s PhD Challenge Competition. This contest is part of Venture Cup 08. The award ceremony took place in the beautiful old Hall of Alexander at the University of Copenhagen which is located in the heart of the city. The event lasted the entire day, and was enjoyed by all.
The project ‘Smart surface materials in industrial food frying’
The subject that Saranya Ashokkumar studies is how ceramic materials can expand the use of non-stick surfaces in the food industry where Teflon® is less convenient. As Saranya explains, “Supplementary to Teflon coatings we are working on very thin ceramic surfaces that are wearable and can tolerate high temperatures of up to 1,000°.”
The project is conducted in cooperation between Accoat (SP Group R&D), Saranya Ashokkumar and The Technical University of Denmark (DTU), and is endorsed by the Danish Agency for Science Technology and Innovation.
The project was evaluated by Venture Cup’s professional jury and won the prize due to the following:
- Business potential
- Level of innovation
- Quality of the paper
About Venture Cup
Venture Cup is a business plan competition for students and researchers at Danish universities that has a total of DKK650,000 in cash prizes. In 2007/08, 203 teams participated in Venture Cup across the country, and over 50 companies have been started by alumni.
Venture Cup was started by McKinsey & Company in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1998, and exists today as a non-profit entity in Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden. Venture Cup is organised by the following six Danish universities:
- University of Aarhus (AU)
- Copenhagen Business School (CBS)
- Roskilde University (RUC)
- Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
- University of Copenhagen (KU)
- University of Southern Denmark (SDU)