By Iciar Fernandez
Last Monday, everyone gathered at the Gallery to hear fifteen teams try to convince the audience to use their vote as a catalyst for their venture to jump from paper to life. From healthcare solutions to environmental proposals and everything in between, the students presented their business ideas to win a cash prize that would help them with the first steps to develop their projects.
Shakil Jessa, a first-year student pitching a fashion line of modernized religious wear, said “pitching at RBC Get Seeded was such an amazing experience! Being in a room with like-minded individuals that all had pointed out problems in society that they were passionate about and using creativity to come up with solutions was extremely inspiring”. When asked if he was nervous, he continued, “I felt nervous but once I saw everyone there I was very excited to get started!”
These are the nine lucky (and brilliant!) teams that will have their idea “seeded”, all thanks to a one of a kind collaboration between the entrepreneurship AMS service, eHub, and RBC:
- Soneoyster Biotech. An environmentally oriented venture that aims to collect and process oyster shells to turn them into high-value attractive stone products and concrete.
- Ferrofluid filtration. A way to remove microplastic fibres generated in each cycle of your washing machine, without relying on current physical methods.
- C3. Convert carbon dioxide to solid carbon products at room temperature – reducing our emissions is simply not enough, and this initiative aims to remove and reuse them.
- Reimagine Technology. A product for the careful and conscious household parents that are worried about the produce going into their own and their children’s bodies, and a safer way to ensure proper washing technique of fruits and vegetables.
- Trackk. Smart clothing with embedded sensors that allows tracking the athlete’s movement in 3D, addressing the need for athletes to get actionable feedback while training solo.
- Chargepod. A product, an app, and a sustainable future for electric vehicles in Canada. Charge your electric car anywhere with Chargepod.
- Adapticlew. Imagine drugs could be delivered in a way analogous to the workings of the self-driving car; knowing where to go and reaching their destination seamlessly. This nanobot is designed to deliver targeted cancer drugs, mitigating off-target effects of conventional therapeutics.
- Atten.iv. Infiltration is a major issue of IV use; this device is designed to measure the primary cause of infiltration; IV dislodgement.
- Iknowagirl. A female-led network that organizes interdisciplinary female-exclusive events for women to develop their professional skills in a safe and welcoming environment.
These ventures will receive $500 from RBC, and automatic entry to Innovation OnBoards competition where they have a chance to compete for more funding and resources to keep their idea going. If successful, a few of those teams will move on to the UBC’s incubator program, the Lean LaunchPad!
“It was great to see pitchers, peers, and other community members from the University come and support innovation that is happening here” – Tahir Adatia, EHub Coordinator at the AMS, commented – “Being able to see a full crowd celebrating those who are working to solve problems, will always be a spectacular sight to see. And, we would like to thank all the participants and remind the ventures that did not win this time that they should continue to refine and improve their ideas”.
Here is a recap on the rest of the brilliant ideas that were pitched onstage:
- Appreciate. A line of clothing that seeks to erase the line between modern society and religion by bridging the two together.
- Nutricycle. A fertilizer that reduces paper waste and saves freshwater bodies from environmental concerns associated to fertilizer use – and a product that addresses the growing need for increased food production, with the consequences that it entails.
- Initech. Eases the process of learning or reviewing class materials for students by parsing handwritten pages into legible PDFs with deep learning technology.
- Multiply2. An app to create an incentive for students to dispose of waste correctly, where the more points you gather, the more points you can spend in different locations across campus.
- Reflex. An affordable and versatile carbon fibre shield that protects drones from a wide variety of accidents, minimizing the impact of damages caused by external forces.
- Prova. An app to find an optimal food spot to enjoy a meal with your friends, allowing students to upload their schedules, share them with other friends, and with incentives such as gift cards.
Do you also have an idea and don’t know where to start? Check the eHub and Entrepreneurship@UBC pages to find out more.