Monash PhD student shows flair at Entrepreneurship Challenge

Lachlan McMillan in Canberra

Monash PhD student Lachlan McMillan took home 2^nd place in the prestigious Australian-French Entrepreneurship Challenge in Canberra last week.

Held at the Australian National University, the Australian-French Entrepreneurship Challenge is based on the ‘24 hours for Entrepreneurship’ challenge: a flagship event run in France since 2011 by the French National Association for Research and Technology and Novancia Business School. Teams work non-stop for 24 hours to develop a novel scientific business idea and pitch to a board of directors.

“My team developed a medical diagnostic device to be used by patients presenting to general practitioners with a nondescript, common cold,” said Lachlan, a PhD student in the Department of Medicine at the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health.

“The device takes a sample from the patient, and conducts rapid differential diagnosis in order to specify either a bacterial or viral infection, and more specifically which pathogen is likely present.”

Lachlan said the device may allow for more accurate prescription of antibiotics commonly used to combat common colds, and may attenuate the development of antibiotic resistance in bacteria commonly implicated in common colds.

“This competition allowed me to make significant professional contacts early on in my PhD, which may prove fruitful not only during the remainder of the degree, but perhaps for employment opportunity later in life,” said Lachlan.

The Australian-French Entrepreneurship Challenge was attended by current PhD students from around Australia, along with recently conferred PhD candidates from France.

The event was brought to Australia by the Novancia Business School and ANRT ( l'Association nationale de la recherche et de la technologie), France's foremost collaborative research and development association. 

Lachlan is currently undertaking his PhD investigating the role of wearable technology for the monitoring of bone health. As a part of his research, Lachlan is developing a novel wearable device that can detect forces experienced by bones.

Watch a video about the event here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAONnqC_7DY