Meet the 2026 Peter Farrell Cup winners
29 September, 2026
Once a year the most ambitious UNSW student startups, the Vice Chancellor and the whole UNSW Founders community gather to see who will be crowned the top student startup in the annual Peter Farrell Cup!
Established in 2001, the Peter Farrell Cup (PFC) is NSW's longest-running student pitch competition. Coming under the support of Dr Peter Farrell AM, founder of ResMed in 2006 its program and pitch competitions has launched thousands of startups and careers of UNSW students, providing them mentoring, entrepreneurial education and the first cash investment to get their idea off the ground.
On Friday 18 September, the Peter Farrell Cup hosted the 2026 finals. From 230 program applications to 97 teams pitching in the semi-finals, only the top 10 teams making it to the finals.. These top 10 teams compete in one FINAL live pitch battle in from of 300+ people, judged by an esteemed panel of industry leaders, startup founders and the Vice Chancellor, Professor Attila Brungs AO.
The goal? → Win a share of a $90,000k prize pool to continue building their startup.
The Judges:
Attila Brungs - Vice-Chancellor and President of UNSW Sydney, Professor Attila Brungs leads one of Australia’s leading research and innovation universities.
Luan Atkinson - a UNSW Council member, entrepreneur and investment leader with experience spanning climate technology, investment management, banking and corporate governance.
Parisa Glass - Parisa Glass is a leader in health innovation and entrepreneurship, heading up The George Institute for Global Health and JENIA, with a focus on translating research and ideas into real-world impact.
Hiranya Jayakody – Hiranya Jayakody is co-founder and CTO of HEO Robotics, a globally leading space technology company using satellite-based imaging and analytics to monitor objects in orbit.
The Teams:
To be eligible for the Peter Farrell Cup one of the team members must be a current UNSW student and actively participate within the full PFC program.
The program acknowledges the difference between undergraduate and postgraduate students (in both their experience and possible depth of insights based on their research work) so the program and awards are designed to support two separate streams – one for the undergraduate students, “The Next Big Thing Award” and the postgraduate award, “The Trailblazer Award”.
You can read more about the ten teams that made it into the 2026 finals 👉 here
So, with the stage set, and we’re proud to announce the winners for the 2026 Peter Farrell Cup!
The 2026 PETER FARRELL CUP WINNERS:
🏆 Trailblazer Award- $10,000
Team name: OsseoThread
Team members: Dr Max John Lloyd, Dr Vedran Lovric & Prof William Robert Walsh
Description: Osseothread is a new material designed for ACL reconstrucion surgery, with applications across tendon-to-bone fixation procedures. Ossothread aims to replace standard materials with it’s unique material that actively promotes healing at the site of implantation, without changing surgical technique.
🏆 Next Big Thing Award - $10,000
Team name: Prockets
Tem members: Guntas Sandhu, Charlotte Rogers, Kavin Maran, Chandara Oeng & Felix Mathew
Description: Prockets is focused on delivering social impact by developing affordable, modular lower limb prosthetic solutions that improve mobility and access for people with limb loss. Prockets approach combines cost effective manufacturing and modular design to create prosthetic components that can be more easily adapted to every individual’s needs.
🏆 2nd Place General Award - $4,000
Team name: Civly
Tem members: Yash Mittal, Hassaan Shamshiri
description: Architects spend the majority of their time not designing but resolving structural loads and proving compliance line by line. Civly is the fastest way for firms to go from brief to a full 3D BIM model.
Civly turns a brief into a coordinated, buildable model, and gives the profession back time to focus on what they love: design.
🏆 People’s Choice Award - $1,000
Team name: WhoSays
Tem members: Charlotte Cheng, Yuka Maruyama
description: WhoSays is an accessible communication mobile application that helps Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing people fully participate in dynamic group conversations through real-time captions, speaker identification, sound cues, and type-to-speak.
Celebrating standout ideas across the PFC cohort
For the 2026 Peter Farrell Cup, UNSW Founders partnered with DVC Global and UNSW Justice Inclusion Access
to introduce a new set of Specialty Awards, recognising teams who demonstrated excellence in specific areas.
Unlike the main PFC awards, these awards were open to any of the 97 teams that participated in the semifinals. Acknowledging the standout work and potential from across the broader PFC cohort, beyond the Top 10 finalists.
🏆 The UNSW Justice Inclusion Access - JEINA Awards - $30,000
Team name: BreatheEasy
Tem members: Ruvini Perera & Manoj Perera
Description: BreatheEasy is a wearable device that continuously monitors swallowing in stroke patients with dysphagia. It measures swallowing movements and sounds to identify potential aspiration risks, providing clinicians with real-time alerts and objective data through a clinical dashboard. This helps support earlier intervention and safer, more personalised recovery between traditional assessments.
🏆 The UNSW Justice Inclusion Access - JEINA Awards - $10,000
Team name: Rehabit
Tem members: Raymond Liu & Paige Tinyow
Description: Traditional hand bike rehabilitation struggles to maintain patient engagement and consistency, which can limit participation and reduce the effectiveness of therapy. Rehabit uses a smart handle that tracks rotations in real time and connects to an app, giving patients instant visual feedback through a game.
🏆 DVG Global Progress for All Awards – $10,000
Team name: Renkind
Tem members: Marcel Cai & Nick Ma
Description: Renkind is a portable communication device designed for use in crisis zones and other low-resource settings.
It provides real-time voice translation without requiring an internet or mobile signal, helping people communicate across language barriers when traditional translation services or connectivity are unavailable.
🏆 DVG Global Progress for All Awards - $10,000
Team name: Simplifii
Tem members: Aaron Saint-James, Dianne Norman & Haris Habib
Description: Simplifii is neuroinclusive, pro-AI learning infrastructure that supports students across the full learning journey, from understanding and planning to research, writing and reflection. While giving universities privacy-governed, de-identified and aggregated insights to strengthen academic integrity, retention and completion, particularly for equity cohorts.
🎓 Faculty Dean's Awards
The PFC is embraced and supported by the wider UNSW community, providing students from every discipline with an opportunity to explore ideas, collaborate beyond their core studies and develop their entrepreneurial potential.
The dedicated Faculty Dean’s Awards celebrate emerging talent across the university, recognising both the strength of ideas coming from individual faculties and UNSW’s collective commitment to fostering entrepreneurship, innovation and student-led impact.
Dedicated Faculty Awards:
Dean of Science Award - $5,000
Dean of Medicine & Health Award - $5,000
Dean of Business Award - $5,000
Dean of Arts, Design + Architecture Award - $5,000
Dean of Engineering Award - $5,000
Dean of Science Award
Team Name: Myodot
Tem Members: Kanishk Aggarwal & Ulysse Dupont
Description: Myodot is re-engineering recovery by eliminating subjective guesswork from motor rehabilitation for everyone, everywhere. Myodot is the world’s-first bio-sensor fusion wearable that delivers real-time biofeedback to patients at home and
streams data directly to clinicians.
Dean of Medicine & Health Award
Team name: OsseoThread
Tem members: Dr Max John Lloyd, Dr Vedran Lovric & Prof William Robert Walsh
Description: Osseothread is a new material designed for ACL reconstruction surgery, with applications across tendon-to-bone fixation procedures. Ossothread aims to replace standard suture materials with it’s unique material that actively promotes healing at the site of implantation, without changing surgical technique.
Dean of Business Award
Team name: Nemanta
Tem members: Yison Fong & Federico Dalmagioni
Description: Youth exposure to mistargeted alcohol advertising is associated with 50% higher alcohol consumption, yet digital billboards still can’t stop inappropriate ads from reaching vulnerable audiences. Nemanta uses face-free detection to identify when vulnerable viewers are present and automatically filter inappropriate advertising. Helping brands, advertisers, and billboard owners meet their social responsibility, while serving more relevant ads to the right audience.
Dean of Arts, Design + Architecture Award
Team name: Forte
Tem members: Jesaiah Creek, Dania Creek
Description: Learning an instrument takes a lot of practice, and most of that practice is done alone. Forte gives musicians a way to share that journey with others. Musicians can share a summary of their practice session to their socials, including how long they practiced for, the instrument they were playing, and what they worked on. Forte is live on the App Store, and invites you to share your creative practice today.
Dean of Engineering Award
Team name: Prockets
Tem members: Guntas Sandhu, Charlotte Rogers
Kavin Maran, Chandara Oeng & Felix Mathew
Description: Prockets is focused on delivering social impact by developing affordable, modular lower limb prosthetic solutions that improve mobility and access for people with limb loss. Prockets approach combines cost effective manufacturing and modular design to create prosthetic components that can be more easily adapted to every individual’s needs.
A huge congratulations to all award winners, and to every team who particpated within the 2026 Peter Farrell Cup!
Want to relive it?
You can watch the full 2026 finals here
The Peter Farrell Cup is where entrepreneurial potential becomes entrepreneurial action — giving students the opportunity to test an idea, build the skills to pursue it, and take their first steps towards creating something of their own.
We can’t wait to see where these students take their innovations.
Congratulations to all 2026 participants and we invite all UNSW students to sign up and join the PFC in 2027!