Waterloo Engineering students pitch for $60,000 to fund their ideas

The 15 finalists competing in the third-annual Norman Esch Entrepreneurship Awards for Capstone Design have 90 seconds make the case for their projects. Judges selected them from a field of applicants who participated in the Capstone Design symposia recently held at Waterloo. More than 700 senior engineering students spent months designing and building the more than 150 projects showcased at that event.

Date: Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Time: Pitches start at 2 p.m.

Location: Sedra Student Design Centre, Engineering 5, University of Waterloo

The finalists are:

• Antimicrobial Polymer:  Strong, food-safe plastic for use in 3D printers
• Arylla: Anti-counterfeit solutions that use nanoparticle tracers that can evade detection and replication by counterfeiters, while providing an easy method of authentication
• Bioflex: Biodegradable orthopedic implants for children
• Cuttlefish: A robot that’s designed like a cuttlefish with the potential to survey underwater environments beyond the reach of other vehicles.
• Eve: Automated medication system that dispenses the correct dosage at the appropriate time
• GraFET:  Sensor that uses a graphene-based transistor to quickly detect toxic gases.  Designed to be incorporated into smartphones or wearable electronics.
• Hocus Focus: Dynamic bifocals that adjust lenses to the user’s distance or reading prescription
• Landmine Boys:  Autonomous robot designed to defuse land mines safely and without detonation
• Medical Image Search: Technology designed to quickly and accurately retrieve medical images to improve patient diagnosis and treatment
• Nurhachi: A virtual energy market place that would allow buildings to trade energy between each other instead of purchasing it from a traditional utility
• Parkaid: Wearable device that provides audiovisual cues to help people with Parkinson’s disease avoid freezing episodes and recover gait control to help prevent falls
• Project Reservoir: Agricultural water control and environmental monitoring system consisting of low-cost field sensors which collect real-time soil and environmental conditions
• Sportacus:  Wearable technology that displays speed and acceleration in real time to help athletes train and compete at their highest levels
• Unav: Technology designed to provide indoor navigation of complex buildings on a global scale
• Wall-E: Energy storage system that supports renewable energy generation while reducing greenhouse gas emissions

The Esch Foundation funds the awards, which support creative and entrepreneurial students in the pursuit of research and development and its commercialization for the benefit of Canada.

The emcee for the event is Kevin Wright, a graduate from Waterloo Engineering and co-founder of Alert Labs, a startup located in the Accelerator Centre.