A change of format with students presenting their ideas by Zoom instead of inside the “dragon’s den” was just about the only difference at this year’s annual Cambrian College Student Innovation Challenge.
The event, which is hosted by Cambrian R&D, the college’s applied research department, sees students pitch deliverable, original and innovative ideas that can be applied in the marketplace or greater community.
“This turned out to be such a great event this year,” said Mike Commito, director of Cambrian R&D.
“We had to get innovative, but considering that’s all part of the challenge, the students this year really rose to the occasion. We had amazing, creative and inspirational entries. The winners this year are destined for a great future and I’m excited to see what that holds for them.”
The winners of the 2020 Cambrian R&D Student Innovation Challenge are:
Grand prize winner:
- Smart Vision (Gowtham Ravindrau, Sarath Kumar, Reddy Sontam, Roshan Sivasankar). Smart Vision is a device using machine vision to detect objects and recognize people’s faces to assist visually impaired people.
- Winner of $2,500 grand prize and $250 for best use of technology and proudly sponsored by Agilis Networks.
Second place winner(s):
- Tie Indoor Map mobile app (Shreya Pandya). This mobile app will use augmented reality to help new Cambrian College students navigate the campus. This app can also be used by other organizations such as universities and museums.
- Winner of $750. Second place prize was proudly sponsored by XPS.
Hunger Connect (Harish Ramakrishnan, Vineeth Harikumar, Bharath Dayalan).
- Hunger Connect is a concept created by three roommates that will leverage social media and community networks to help people get discounts on food by coordinating orders and allowing users to get discounts when buying in bulk or by time.
- Winner of $750. This prize was proudly sponsored by The Workshop (GSU) and XPS.
Cambrian College thanked its industry partners that sponsored this year’s challenge: Ethier Sand and Gravel, XPS – A Glencore Company, HLS Hard-Line, Agilis Networks, sofvie, Netspectrum and The Workshop (A GSU project).
For more information about Cambrian R&D, visit www.cambriancollege.ca/rd.
