The winners of the Spring 2019 Quantum Valley Investments® Problem Pitch competition

This semester’s finalists demonstrated a deep understanding of important commercial problems affecting multiple industries – from the music industry to pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Congratulations to the winners and all the finalists in this semester’s Problem Pitch competition.

Two winning teams each walked away with $7,500 in R&D funding to finance the development of a solution to the problems they presented. The teams had 5-minutes to pitch their problem to a panel of judges and an audience of students and professionals. After each pitch the panel of judges had 5-minutes of Q&A where they dug deeper into the problem and how well each team understood their problem. The winners were able to demonstrate that their chosen problems are of significant scale and they had the most thorough analysis of the problem.

"The focus of this pitch competition is like nothing I've ever seen or experienced. By its nature, this program forces the teams to think hard about the size and impact of the problem they're trying to solve, instead of the solution, said Carol Leaman, CEO of Axonify Inc. and member of the judges at the Problem Pitch."

Quantum Valley Investments® Problem Pitch winners

Billion Dollar Problems Stream

Aagasa Aagas: Harmohit Singh Bindra (1B Honours Physics) pitched the problem of inefficient and slow space propulsion systems for research and commercial applications. Current propulsion systems not only hinder our ability to transport scientific equipment in space, they also limit our ability to mine resources from asteroids.

Open Problems Stream

Rivet: Jeremy Chan-Hao Wang (PhD candidate Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering) and Carl Pigeon (MASc, Aerospace Engineering, University of Toronto) highlighted the problem of flight delays at today's airports due to ground operations. In addition to the inconvenience felt by consumers, delays cost airlines $4.2 billion in the U.S. alone¹. 

All finalists presented important and well-researched problems. The Problem Lab commends each of the teams for the time and hard work they put in during the competition process. Please see the news post for the list of Spring 2019 Problem Pitch finalists.

The Quantum Valley Investments® Problem Pitch happens each semester on the UWaterloo campus. Compared to previous semesters, the Problem Lab was able to offer an increased amount of funding to competition winners.

“The focus of this pitch competition is like nothing I've ever seen or experienced. By its nature, this program forces the teams to think hard about the size and impact of the problem they're trying to solve, instead of the solution, said Carol Leaman, CEO of Axonify Inc. and member of the judges at the Problem Pitch, “As a result, the problems are really, really compelling. The quality of the pitches was astounding. I was blown away, and it gave me hope that there are smart, young people going to make this world a better place for all of us”. Other judges at this semester’s event included Sheldon Fernandez, CEO of DarwinAI, and Brian Stewart, CEO of MetricWire.

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. 

1. National Centre for Excellence for Aviation Operations Research (2010): Total Delay Impact Study. Published by U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.