Alisha was planning to be a doctor when she heard about the elevator to space. After reading about the long stretchy nanotubes that NASA had developed and hypothesized could make space elevators possible, Alisha set about acquiring some carbon nanotubes of her own.
She wanted them for a grade 12 project, but getting access wasn’t easy for a high school student from Calgary. She was told they could be bought only online, in bulk, by businesses, but she was undaunted. The challenge prompted her to call suppliers, looking for a way around the problem. And so she began, simultaneously, down two life changing paths: learning about nanotechnology and embracing the cold call.
These paths converged on the way to her current role: Co-Founder & Chief Engineering Officer of Scope Photonics, which is developing a liquid crystal lens that works in a series to achieve optical zoom without movement. With support from UWaterloo’s vast entrepreneurial support system, Alisha and her fellow Capstone Design team members have already, only a few months past graduation, raised more than $150,000 to take their technology to market through their startup company. Most recently they were named International Runner up in the prestigious James Dyson Award student competition.
Nanotechnology Focus
The more she learned about nanotubes, the more Alisha became “taken with nanotechnology.” With her career path changed, she looked into the opportunity to study at University of Waterloo.
Beyond its comprehensive Nanotechnology Engineering program, Alisha was impressed by UWaterloo’s co-op program – not just for the opportunity to try out exciting jobs, but also for the feedback loop it provided. “I could see the value of learning in class, using my knowledge in the workplace and seeing what was missing, and then acquiring those skills in the next academic term. It was a multi-year opportunity to self-evaluate and move my learning to the next level,” she says.
In her first year of university, Alisha Bhanji, seen here with friends at a Fashion for Change event, joined clubs to expand her network and learn new things.
Finding her first year co-op was challenging, and that influenced the way she handled the process in future years: “I identified the types of co-op jobs I wanted, researched who had those jobs and contacted them to learn what skills got them in the door. Then I figured out how to acquire those skills.”
The strategy worked. As she had planned, Alisha found co-op jobs in prominent research labs (MIT and Harvard), a startup (Thalmic Labs) and industry leaders (Apple and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory).
Connections
Alisha attributes much of her co-op job success to cold calling. She reached out, via the phone and email, to people who had jobs she wanted so that she could find out how they got them.
Her cold calling strategy went beyond her job search. Alisha was a co-founder of the student-run Waterloo Nanotechnology Conference, which brings together students and people actively working with nanotechnology in industry and research.
“Our goal was to connect students with people at the cutting edge of the field. There was so much potential! We wanted to help the students know it was there and let the employers know that the students were excited to be part of it,” she says.
In the course of finding speakers and panelists for the conference, Alisha contacted many experts. She was pleased to have so many attendees from around the world, including researchers, members of parliament and leaders from industry. The event is now entering its sixth year.
Exciting New Directions
When she started her nano journey, Alisha’s cold calls to nanotube suppliers helped her find someone keen enough to help her that he ‘sold’ her the nanotubes for the price of shipping and the opportunity to read her project paper. Now, she is having success by cold calling funders, investors and leaders of major smartphone companies and other manufacturers that could benefit from Scope’s technology: electrically tunable lenses that can quickly adjust their zoom without pixelation, correct for optical aberrations and adapt to any condition.
2020 NE grad Alisha Bhanji is working with her Capstone Design team to bring their electrically tunable lenses to market through their startup company Scope Photonics.
“At the beginning, cold calling is nerve-wracking, but,” she says simply, “people are nice. And sometimes it produces gems you wouldn’t find otherwise.”
With innovative technology and an enterprising spirit stoked in UWaterloo’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, Alisha looks forward to honing her business skills at Harvard Business School, where she was recently accepted into their 2+2 MBA program.
The elevator to space continues to take Alisha in exciting new directions.