Following their success having come second in the University of Oxford’s annual Student Entrepreneurship Programme (StEP), a team of four students – three from the Department of Physics – went on to win first prize in the Reuben College Entrepreneurship Forum 2026 pitching competition.
The team, Cloq, won £25,000 for their work exploring how a miniaturised, low-cost atomic clock could bring high-precision timing to applications where existing solutions are currently too expensive. The fourth Reuben College Entrepreneurship Forum took place on 4 September and included talks from a range of experts, keynote speeches and networking alongside the pitching competition. The prize comes from the Reuben Foundation, the forum’s main sponsor.
The Cloq team comprises David McMahon, who is completing his DPhil in Atomic and Laser Physics, Joel Klein who is just starting the MPhys programme and Aria Puri who is in the final year of her undergraduate degree, all from the Department of Physics, along with Yuanzhu Wang who is in the second year of his engineering degree. As Cloq, they are investigating the commercialisation of a University of Oxford patent developed by Professor Arzhang Ardavan from the Department of Physics and colleagues, for a new type of compact atomic clock.
‘We are delighted to have won this pitching competition on top of our recent StEP success,’ comments David McMahon on behalf of the team. ‘Taking research from the lab and turning it into something that can have a positive impact in the real world is an incredibly exciting process, but there is a lot to learn along the way, so programmes, events and initiatives like these are invaluable. Physics is particularly fertile ground for commercialisation: the drive to understand and solve fundamental problems often leads to new technologies, techniques and intellectual property with applications far beyond the original research. It is fantastic to get an insight into that journey first-hand.’
Cloq have also been nominated to represent the University of Oxford at Stage Two, an international competition that takes place in Berlin in October.