Contact the Problem Lab
Mathematics and Computer Building, room 2057
University of Waterloo
519-888-4567, Ext. 36421
Monday, July 13, 2020
To be a successful entrepreneur, it is essential that you find an important problem to solve, and thoroughly understand its scope, scale, and history. That’s why the Problem Lab hosts the Quantum Valley Investments® Problem Pitch Competition, where teams of students are tasked with the challenge of identifying important industry problems and conducting research, before pitching their findings for the chance to win a share of up to $30,000 in funding.
This term’s competition will see the student teams competing in two different categories: Open Problems and Billion Dollar Problems.
Twelve teams were selected as finalists from over 40 applicants, and each team has recorded their five-minute pitch on their research for online audiences and a panel of judges, competing for $7,500 of funding and 1st place in their respective categories. Teams will also have the opportunity to double their funding following the event, as they work with the Problem Lab to develop a solution to the problem identified. Below are the finalists and the problems they’ve identified:
OPEN PROBLEMS
Citrus: current diagnostic technologies for detecting Lyme Disease.
De La Forêt: potentially dangerous substances found in commercial skincare products.
Eight Stories of Modesty: the modest fashion industry in the North American market.
LeadBench: Sales Lead Fraud
Murshid: the one-size-fits-all pedagogy and course management in education.
Ribbit: the growing global shortage aircraft pilots.
BILLION DOLLAR PROBLEMS
CreatIdea (Creativity Tools): creativity tools designed to help companies innovate and generate quality ideas quickly.
Fitable (Fitness Technologies): lack of scalable fitness solutions for people with disabilities (PWDs).
Hapi Food Technologies (Engineered Foods): engineering meat alternatives to increase taste and health value while decreasing cost.
Masque (Infection Control): current masks used for personal protective equipment (PPE).
Talent Triangle (Talent Identification): recruiting and assessing potential candidates.
C-Debris [formerly UV & Debris] (Space Debris): the increasing space debris is Low-Earth Orbit.
The Judges
The panel of judges this term will be drawing on their developed industry knowledge and their own entrepreneurial experience to select the two competition winners on Friday, July 17th, 2020:
Peggy Jarvie retired as associate provost, co-operative and experiential education (CEE), from the University of Waterloo in 2018, having been the first person in that role. Peggy has broad-based experience in marketing, information technology, corporate finance, team building and change management in a variety of roles in a twenty-five year career in financial services, perhaps most notably leading a project to introduce a new corporate name and brand for a 120-year-old insurance company. She joined the University in 2005 as executive director, co-operative education and career services. Co-op enrolment grew by about 50% during her time at UWaterloo, employer recruitment and retention was enhanced, and new programs, organization structure and processes were introduced to support co-op, career preparation and experiential learning for all undergrads. Focused on enabling career-oriented learning, the CEE team supported all students and alumni in career preparation, and operated Canada's first, and the world's largest co-operative education program. Career advising and resources were provided to grad students, undergrads, staff and alumni, career skills education was provided to undergrad students in co-op and the EDGE program, and the centre for research in co-op and work integrated learning increased in publications, collaborations and reputation globally.
Mike McCauley was co-founder of BufferBox (acquired by Google) a network of automated packagee delivery lockers. One year after its founding, Buffeerbox was awarded the 2012 Velocity Fund, and went through the Y Combinator program in Silicon Valley. Later, Mike became a Product Manager of early stage Google X projects in Silicon Valley. He is the co-founder of Garage Capital, a start-up fund to help early-stage technology companies. Mike completed a BASc, Mechatronics Engineering from the University of Waterloo in 2011 and is passionate about sharing his expertise as a founder with others.
Alim Somani is the Managing Director of Hatch Digital, a organization with expertise in metals, energy, infrastructure, digital, and investments market sectors. Previously, Alim was the President of Infusion, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2017, and later became the North America Sales Leader for Avanade, a leader in digital and cloud solutions.
The Spring 2020 Quantum Valley Investments® Problem Pitch Competition is virtual and you can see the finalists on our YouTube page. We invite members from the university and the broader community to watch the pitches. Congratulations to all the finalists!
The Quantum Valley Investments® Problem Pitch Competition is made possible by $300,000 in funding from Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fregin, principals of Quantum Valley Investments® and founders of Blackberry.