On November 30th, 2023, seven teams competed in the finale of the Faculty of Engineering’s Entrepreneurial Idea Competition. Open to any graduate or undergraduate student with a start-up idea, the goal of the competition is to incite an entrepreneurial spirit in our students, while also giving them experience pitching their ideas to a panel of judges, and the potential to win prize money.
All projects presented were outstanding demonstrations of innovation, passion, and ingenuity, but three in particular stood out to our judges, winning the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prices.
1st place: Flipped Toys – Demsey Kirkwood
As a kid Demsey Kirkwood contented himself on taking his toys apart instead of playing with them, trying to learn why and how things worked. As an adult, he recognized the value in that childish curiosity and created Flipped Toys. Using STEM principles, he caters to curious children looking to learn more. His goal is to provide a fully finished toy kids can learn and play with at the same time.
The prototype consists of a handheld device accompanied by an app with downloadable games, making the toy customizable to each child’s interests. With this product he attempts to give a more affordable toy for kids as young as 3 years old to start having more technology literacy, preparing them to navigate our highly technological world. With this victory at the Entrepreneurial Idea Competition, Demsey plans to start developing a prototype with custom printed circuit board (PCB), more functionality, and a design for manufacturability (DFM) improvement. He is also looking for a co-founder with coding and embedded systems expertises.
2nd place: Snap Cover – Rahul raj, Hana Gorab, Artak Kirakosyan, and Evelyn Wattenbarger
In Canada, there are around 227 000 people who are amputees, but there only exists a few options in prosthetics and their designs, making the idea of personalizing your prosthetic an expensive one. This team of students have come up with the idea of SnapCover to give options to amputees in the customization of their prosthetic. Their main product is a plastic base with neutral or skin toned colours with fabric covers that are easily changeable and affordable. According to the research made by the team, their competitors’ covers range from 500$ to 1200$, with only one other option costing 50$.
The team’s goal is to 3D print their bases and sell a wide range of designs for their fabric covers to combat the current static and costly market.
3rd place: SherlockAI – Albino Nikolla, Nicholas Laflamme and Matt Ross
The average wait time to get a diagnosis on an x-ray range from 50 to 82 days in today’s healthcare system. A group of three friends with varying expertise in science and medicine, mechanical engineering, and experimental psychology, got together and created a deep learning software, SherlockAI. The team hopes to help reduce not only wait time for patients, but also radiologists’ workloads, improving patient outcomes while optimising work efficiency.
The software analyzes x-rays outside of work hours and classifies them with a diagnosis, so that the radiologists can save time during the day as they will only have to confirm the work that has been done already. It is a data and personal information safe software as no names or identifiers go into the systems once put in place.
