Ribbit, a venture led by University of Waterloo student Jeremy Wang (PhD Mechanical Engineering, 2022) and Carl Pigeon (MASc Aerospace Engineering, University of Toronto 2016) will receive $5,000 grants for their pitch, which centres around incorporating software and sensor retrofits for the charter air market.
The four winners were chosen from a slate of 9 finalists who made their pitches in front of three judges and a crowd of about 150 on Wednesday.
The other three student teams include:
CodeGem is developing a feedback management system to quantify code improvements and promote better feedback.
Flowy is building AI-powered digital transformation tools to commoditize frictionless automation.
Scope is building lenses whose optical power is electronically tunable.
Camelia Nunez, Director of Concept, said it has been “fantastic” to see undergraduate and graduate students from across faculties building projects that solve large commercial problems.
“What excites me the most about today’s competition is the students, who all want to pursue bold ideas and solve real problems,” Nunez said. “This competition is about winning, but it’s also about inspiring the campus and other students to pursue their ideas, too.”
Concept is a pre-incubator program designed by Velocity to support University of Waterloo students in a competitive and entrepreneurial world. Its main focus is pre-incubation: turning students into founders and preparing them for entry to a top-ranked incubator.
To learn more about Concept, visit https://concept.uwaterloo.ca/
