Katie Alcott, founder and chief executive of Frank Water, a charity based in Bristol, studied fine art at the University of the West of England Bristol (UWE Bristol). She has been awarded an MBE and won many national and local awards for social entrepreneurship, including an award for young entrepreneur of the year, a women of the future award, and Ernst & Young’s Future 100 award.
I founded Frank Water a few years after leaving UWE Bristol in 2005. But my initial passion for human rights stemmed from my first trip to India in the year before I started at UWE Bristol. I taught English in Kashmir and noticed children, particularly girls, often skipped classes. I later realised it was down to water-related illnesses. Then I got dysentery myself, from the unclean water, and was so ill that I lost about two stone in four months.
After that, I started at UWE Bristol. While I was there I learned about different cultures through my course and in the process of working on my art. I also had the chance to go abroad – I spent three months in Barcelona on an Erasmus exchange. This helped develop my interest in the world. UWE Bristol was an amazing experience. It was multicultural and I met people from different walks of life. It was a real eye-opener. But it was also supportive and friendly. It was very much like a family environment and felt almost like a home away from home.
After I graduated, I spent six months working as a photojournalist. Then I returned to Bristol and noticed everyone was drinking bottled water. I thought: “This is crazy.” It was strange to me, because I was aware of people in other countries not having access to clean drinking water. I thought: “Maybe I can create a business around this,” and that’s how Frank Water was born.
I was bowled over by how supportive UWE Bristol was in helping me to get my business off the ground. They picked up on Frank Water in the early days and stocked the water across their campuses. Students at UWE Bristol also got behind the product and volunteered to help. In the early days, I would travel in a van to festivals to sell our water. Now we’ve grown and this year we have more than 300 volunteers.
I’m also currently working on a research project with Darren Reynolds, a professor of health and environment at UWE Bristol, as well as with the Bose institute in Kolkata. We’re testing technologies to improve water quality in rural areas in India. I have a great working relationship with Reynolds and his team. It’s been great for us because it’s connected us with the Bose Institute who are well thought of in India, so we’ve built our network further through this research.
I’m particularly impressed by the way UWE Bristol is collaborating with the University of Bristol. It’s been inspiring to see. They’re sharing facilities and collaborating on research projects and, as a result, they’re bringing students together. It’s great behaviour to model and be seen by students.
UWE Bristol is still involved in all areas of the business. They even help match us with students who want to be interns. I can ask UWE Bristol if there are things I need and they’ve got an amazing network – they’re well connected. It would have been hard to [have set up Frank Water] without them.
Silas Adekunle is the co-founder and chief executive of Reach Robotics. The company makes robots that entertain and educate people. Their flagship robot, called MekaMon, is the world’s first gaming robot. Adekunle studied robotics at UWE Bristol.
Robotics is an opportunity to combine my passions: electronics, engineering and biology. In robotics, there’s an element of looking at nature and taking inspiration from that to create something.
From about 10 years old knew I wanted to work with robots. I loved to tinker and take things apart; that was when I was in Nigeria, where I’m from. Then when I moved to the UK I would go to after-school robotics clubs. As a child, you develop your passions, and the skills you learn mould and shape you.
My course at UWE Bristol was amazing. They have one of the best robotics labs in Europe, and during the course I spent a lot of time building different robots; for example, robots with legs and robots that jump. Throughout the course, I got a full understanding of robotics, which has helped me get to where I am today.
As chief executive of Reach Robotics, there’s a lot of joy in having a vision and seeing it through to the hands of our customers. We go on this journey with them and see them fall in love with the robots – that’s a satisfaction you can’t get anywhere else. Some of the highlights are seeing videos of customers viewing our robots for the first time and them being just wowed by them.
Over the years I’ve spent running the company I’ve met a lot of amazingly talented people. It’s the team you work with that makes all the difference, and my two co-founders have been enjoying running and developing the business.
Throughout the process, UWE Bristol has been there to support us and shout about what we’re doing. In the early stages, they helped by providing us with desk space and we also got funding through the university. And their support hasn’t stopped there. One of my lecturers is still an adviser to the company, so they’ve been able to see the growth of the business, as well as my personal growth. Reach Robotics took its first steps in UWE. Along with funding, the base at Future Space gave us the capacity to make vital advancements with MekaMon and start to strike out as a startup business. In short, we couldn’t have done it without them.
