News

Three chemical engineering graduate students won in the Academy of Research Commercialization (ARC) inaugural pitch competition.

ARC is a new program launched jointly between the Faculty of Engineering and the Conrad School of Business in collaboration with Velocity and WatCo (Waterloo Commercialization Office).

ARC provides programming such as fund preparation, and workshops for PhD students aiming to transform deep-tech research into for-profit ventures. 

Three entrepreneurially minded chemical engineering graduate students were winners of the competition.

Drew Davidson’s start-up ArcticEdge Technologies Inc. was one of the winners. Davidson, who is co-supervised by Professors Milad Kamkar and Valerie Ward, was inspired by his mother, Kelley Willemze who was a firefighter in Cambridge for over 30 years.

Evercloak Inc., a start-up co-founded by Chemical Engineering Professor Michael Pope has secured $2 million in funding to expand the production of its energy-efficient building cooling membranes. Evercloak, a Velocity-based company, aims to significantly reduce energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions associated with building cooling.

Pope co-launched Evercloak with University of Waterloo alumna and now Evercloak’s CEO Evelyn Allen, based on innovative technology that he and his team designed in 2015.  Pope, Evercloak’s Chief Scientific Officer, utilizes 2D nanofilms to improve energy cooling systems thereby increasing their efficiency and sustainability. 

Nanotechnology Engineering alumna CT Murphy (BASc ’23) created CELLECT, a new start-up which aims to improve access to cervical cancer and HPV screening. CELLECT's technology uses nanomaterials in menstrual products to diagnose HPV and cervical cancer using menstrual blood, potentially eliminating the need for Pap smears.

Murphy’s fourth-year design project served as inspiration for their Masters thesis under the supervision of Chemical Engineering professor Marc Aucoin. Murphy was awarded the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN)-Velocity scholarship for the project. They also received funding from Velocity’s Up Start Program and Cornerstone Program.