Three teams of Waterloo Engineering students delivered winning pitches at the recent Velocity pitch contest finals that focused on sustainable innovation.
The teams were awarded $5,000 each to invest in their startups which included a whale safe fishing device, a software solution that helps restaurants manage their stock and a wastebin powered with artificial intelligence to reduce landfill waste.
The winning teams
Whale Safe Fishing Gear (Collin Bolt, Ben Beazley, Jake Chateauneuf and Syl Yoston - mechanical engineering) for developing a whale safe fishing device that assists lobster and crab fishers.
Foodage Inc. (Osose Itua – mechatronics engineering) for a machine learning software solution that helps restaurants reduce food waste by predicting demand.
Trash Talk (Thanushon Sivakaran - mechatronics engineering) for designing an artificial intelligent mechanism to retrofit wastebins to direct users how to dispose their waste into the appropriate category.
The People’s Choice Award went to Milk it! (Aarzoo Chennankunnath, Camryn MacDougall, Megan Richer and Leah Veldhui - biomedical engineering) for a device that enables HIV-positive mothers to breastfeed without risk of transmission by deactivating the virus with UV-C light.
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