Business pitches by Waterloo Engineering students captured the top three awards at this year's University of Waterloo Nicol competition held at the Conrad Centre on February 26.
Civil engineering student Emily Peat took first place for her business EcoPlace Organics. Chemical engineering student Eric Ho, mechanical and mechatronics student Doug Sherk and computer science student Hanson Wang were awarded second place for SciGit, a new media/Internet venture. Rounding out the top three pitches were electrical and computer engineering student Behroz Saadat and Haned Saadat for Game Press, an IT initiative.
A total of eight student teams from the university competed in the Nicol competition. Launched in 1997, the Nicol Award is "a national program designed to generate and reward interest in entrepreneurship on the part of undergraduate students in any faculty or field of study at participating universities across Canada."
The student teams each delivered a 10-minute pitch to a panel of judges that included Ignacio Mongrell, senior analyst from the Accelerator Centre, Aditya Bali, founder of BufferBox, Rob Scully, investment manager at MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund, and Corey Flatt, founder of Bonfire. Each pitch was followed by a 15-minute question and answer period.
The winners will move on to the national finals to be held March 26. [DB article]