Ten senior student teams from the Faculty of Engineering competed in this year’s Norman Esch Entrepreneurship Awards for Capstone Design, pitching their startup ideas to a panel of judges tasked with awarding $60,000.
All 10 pitches showcased innovative thinking and entrepreneurial skills. Six teams delivered winning pitches and walked away with $10,000 each to invest in their projects’ commercialization.
The pitch competition’s 10 qualifying teams were drawn from more than 300 projects developed by over 1,500 fourth-year engineering students and showcased at the University’s annual Capstone Symposia.
The six winning teams presented creative solutions to challenges ranging from an affordable at-home robot that helps non-verbal autistic children learn how to communicate, to a smart intervention that prevents tennis elbow.
“Supporting entrepreneurial engineers with funding is so important because it helps us deliver much-needed innovation faster," said Osose Itua, the fourth-year mechatronics engineering student who delivered a winning pitch for the Bexter team. "Thanks to this grant we plan to move forward with R&D and apply for a patent!”
The pitch competition, funded by the Esch Foundation, launched in 2014 to support creative and entrepreneurial senior engineering students who are pursuing research and development and its commercialization for the benefit of Canada.
Go to Pitching to win for the full story.