Alumni startup makes global finals in design contest

Wednesday, October 13, 2021

A flame-retardant product inspired by seaweed has earned two recent Waterloo Engineering graduates a spot in the finals of a prestigious international design competition.

Anneke van Heuven (BASc ’21) and Elias Trouyet (BASc ’21), co-founders of startup company AlgoBio, were named today to the global top 20 for the 2021 James Dyson Award, an annual showcase for student inventors.

That means van Heuven and Trouyet, who developed a safe, non-toxic coating to retard flames as their fourth-year Capstone Design project, are still in the running for a $50,000 prize in a contest that began with more than 2,000 entries from 28 countries.

Go to Inspired by seaweed for the full story.

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