Wolfson Student Wins at Deeptech Enterprise Challenge Day
Wolfson College Master’s student Anjali Waghmare and her teammates, Seb Wilkes (Queen’s College) and Erik Rydow (Trinity College), have been recognised with the Best Pitch by Popular Vote at the University of Oxford’s Deeptech Enterprise Challenge Day. The event, hosted at Reuben College, brought together DPhil students and early career researchers from across the University to explore innovative solutions to real-world challenges in three major areas: biotech, fusion energy and quantum technologies.
Waghmare and her team took on the Quantum Technologies Challenge, set by industry partner, Quantum Dice. Their challenge focused on combinatorial optimisation problems, asking teams to design a solution using quantum or probabilistic methods to make the best decisions under constraints.
The team chose to address a critical issue in satellite operations: how satellites prioritise tasks in real time, such as imaging, communication, or experimentation, while balancing constraints like limited power and storage.
“Our proposed solution was a lightweight, embedded chip that combines a Quantum Random Number Generator (QRNG) with FPGA hardware running Monte Carlo optimisation. This enables satellites to make adaptive, local decisions on task scheduling, without relying on continuous contact with ground stations” Waghmare explained.
Their concept is increasingly important as satellite constellations increase in size and operational complexity. By facilitating this kind of onboard decision making, the team’s chip architecture could enhance the responsiveness and resilience of satellite missions, even as conditions change dynamically.
The pitch resonated strongly with attendees, earning the team the Best Pitch by Popular Vote award. “It was a great opportunity to share our approach with a diverse audience of researchers, mentors, and industry experts and we appreciated the positive response to our pitch.,” said Waghmare.
The Deeptech Enterprise Challenge Day is part of Oxford’s EnSpire programme and aims to cultivate collaboration, innovation and entrepreneurial thinking.
