Two former Aberdeen University graduates are hoping their innovative creation will see them win top spot in a national engineering competition.
Matej Papp and Ahmed Nassar have designed a portable boxing ring – GoSparTM.
The duo believe their portable training solution can transform the boxing world and will be pitching their innovation against nine other teams of student and graduate innovators in the Engineers in Business Champion of Champions final.
Mr Papp said with a set-up time of less than 10 minutes the product is easily transportable and lightweight to make training anywhere, at any time, as simple as it should be.
The pair believe it has the potential to transform how personal trainers do their boxing sessions with clients due to how compact it is.
Mr Papp, a personal trainer based in Inverness, said: “In its packed-away form, it is compact and can fit into the average UK car.
“As such, boxing personal trainers can now do their sessions outdoors with clients and are not limited to a single location.”
The pair will have six minutes to convince the judges, through their presentation and Q&A session, that they should be crowned a Champion of Champions and take home a share of the £15,000 prize fund depending on the award or awards received.
Inspired by love of boxing
Amongst other criteria, the judges will be assessing the positive impact of GoSpar within leisure settings.
Mr Papp first came up with the idea while boxing at university.
The 30-year-old said: “We used to spend a lot of time setting up before and after our session.
“It was really time consuming and I realised there could be something better as an option.
“I didn’t do anything about it for a couple of years because life happened.
“During the first lockdown like everyone else I had time on my hands and messaged Ahmed saying I had an idea and did he want to go for it with me.”
Get product in shops and gyms
It was in May last year that they set up their business BoxFluence and the next step is to get the product manufactured and find more investment to bring it to market.
The duo said market research conducted by BoxFluence shows that 82% of gyms and personal trainers believe GoSpar will increase their client bases and enhance their training sessions.
Mr Papp said: “We have such belief in our product and ourselves and feel like we deserve to be competing among everyone.
“It inspires us to continue our journey towards taking our product to market and provides us with a sense of recognition which is invaluable to us at this stage.”
David Falzani MBE, president of Engineers in Business Fellowship (EIBF) which sponsors the competition, said: “We are thrilled for the BoxFluence team – GoSpar is an inspired innovation and we look forward to seeing Matej and Ahmed Pitch on the awards night.”
The final takes place at the Royal Academy of Engineering on October 22.