Two Nanotechnology Engineering teams, Vitameter and Suncayr, took home top prizes of $10,000 each at the 2015 Norman Esch Entrepreneurship Awards held on Thursday, April 2, 2015. The Norman Esch capstone award is open to student teams from all departments within the Faculty of Engineering and during the event, 15 teams had 90 seconds to pitch their businesses to a panel of judges who included engineering professors and faculty members of the Conrad Entrepreneurship, Business and Technology Centre. Judges weighed the overall pitch, and product innovation, market potential and viability. Judges selected the finalists for the competition from 60 applicants who all participated in March’s annual Capstone Design symposia.
Vitameter is developing a product to quickly determine your vitamin levels; first we have concentrated on vitamin D detection. Vitamin D deficiency is a major issue in North America, which has been linked to numerous diseases, and up to a third of the population is deficient. We design a test that is simple to use by the everyday person and can be completed within a few minutes in the comfort of his or her home. This device allows users to determine if they need to take supplement pills, and how many in order to manage their micronutrients.
Team Vitameter: Lucas Lim, James MacLean, Youssef Helwa, Nirushan Udayakumar
At Suncayr, we have developed a colour changing ink that tells you exactly when to reapply sunscreen. This is drawn on as a marker or pen and then sunscreen is applied as normal. When your sunscreen wears off, the picture that you drew is exposed to UV light and changes colour, instantly telling you when to reapply. The ink forms a thin film that is non-toxic, waterproof, and stays on the skin all day.
Team Suncayr: Derek Jouppi, Andrew Martinko, Rachel Pautler, Chad Sweeting, Hayden Soboleski