VeloCity Fund finalists finalized

Ten startups will compete for their share of $100K in grant funding at the VeloCity Fund Finals on Thursday, November 28. The finalists will pitch their startup ideas for a chance to win one of four grants of $25,000 and a place as one of over 30 startups operating at downtown Kitchener's VeloCity Garage.

The ten Fall 2013 VeloCity Fund finalists are:

GamePress - GamePress lets users create fun mobile games without any programming experience and share them with users around the world.

Light-bot - Light-bot is getting today's generation of kids hooked on Computer Science by playing games.

MetricWire - MetricWire accelerates groundbreaking research by enabling academic researchers to easily collect rich scientific data via smartphones.

PiinPoint - PiinPoint uses machine learning to identify optimal new store locations while centralizing demographic, real estate, traffic, and municipal data.

Realtime Labs Inc.- Realtime Labs Inc. develops real-time audience feedback technology for a variety of industries including education and entertainment.

Sesame IO - Sesame IO provides a free service that streamlines a teacher’s day from lesson planning to capturing and assessing student work into personalized portfolios.

SparkGig - Online marketplace to connect performers with event planners.

TrendRadius - Defensible Product Decisions. All Customer Feedback. One Simple Solution. Let your Product Managers do what they do best!

uMentioned - uMentioned is a college-based location app that lets you anonymously flirt and make new friends with people nearby.

Velatron Labs Inc. - A personalized tailor app that helps you find or order perfect fitting clothes online.

“The wide range of industries and the diverse business models of these VeloCity Fund finalists shows the breadth of entrepreneurial talent that is fostered at the University of Waterloo,” said Mike Kirkup, director of VeloCity. “The VeloCity Fund Finals process helps to draw out innovators and entrepreneurs from the university and prepare them for the transition into the global startup community."

VeloCity Fund finalists undergo a month-long qualification process. The finalists submit written proposals then and present a 20-minute pitch to a panel of independent judges from the Kitchener-Waterloo business community before they are accepted. At the VeloCity Fund Finals, the ten final teams present 3-minute pitches on-stage before a live audience and a second panel of judges, including Cameron Hay, partner at Front Burner Consulting, Karam Nijjarof iNovia Capital, and Mike Stork, president of Stork Holdings.

An additional ten entrepreneurs will pitch their early-stage startup ideas for one of three $1,000 grants.

The $1,000 competition starts at 11:00 a.m., with the $25,000 competition starting at 1:00 p.m., Both events take place in the Great Hall of the Student Life Centre. A live stream will be available.

 

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As relevant as it gets

by Shannon Tigert. A version of this piece originally appeared in the Spring 2013, ed. 2 issue of the Inside sCo-op newsletter.

Brodie Germain (4A Chemical Engineering) spent two rewarding co-op work terms at Suncor Energy. With his first two co-op jobs completed elsewhere, he was hired for his third work term as an Environmental Health and Safety Intern at Suncor’s wastewater treatment plant at the Mississauga Lubricant Facility. In this position, Brodie sampled the water the plant was using to ensure it was within government regulations.

Brodie’s position in his subsequent term at Suncor was Technical Services Intern, a support role for different engineers in the department. Each engineer is responsible for a different section of the plant, and by assisting all of them Brodie gained a variety of experiences.

A major project of Brodie’s during this term was a management of change analysis involving a heat exchanger problem; fluids passed through tubes to be heated and cooled. One of the fluids was picking up too much heat, reaching dangerously high temperatures. Various concerns and issues needed to be addressed, but Brodie appreciated the challenge. That’s because he connected what he was learning with things he had already done in school, like hydraulic calculations, collecting drawings and data sheets, and using logical thinking. Doing this kind of work was “as relevant as it gets” to his engineering degree, says Brodie: “I was able to find my strengths and weaknesses while developing my communication skills and technical foundations. A solid technical skills foundation is the most important practical thing to have as an engineer.”

To solve the heating problem, the engineers at the plant opened a bypass line that allowed some of the water to go around the heat exchanger. Brodie prepared a package including all of the calculations, a step-by-step procedure of how to implement the changes, and the measures he took to ensure that all of the calculations were sound.

This was presented at the end of his term to the Hydrogen unit engineer and Brodie’s direct supervisor.

Brodie’s work terms at Suncor were invaluable: “Suncor has a great co-op program. They make it pretty obvious that they care a lot about the people they hire. They’re genuinely trying to create some quality talent.” As Brodie has learned, co-op is an important component of engineering degrees at Waterloo in many ways.

Michael Fowler, Associate Chair (Undergraduate Studies) in chemical engineering has this to say:

"Brodie’s experience with Suncor represents many of the traditional roles a Chemical Engineer can fill in a plant environment.  Certainly, chemical engineers support the design and maintenance of the chemical process itself and all of the process infrastructure. Safety and environmental concerns are very important to all industries, especially petrochemical.  Our chemical engineering students are ideally suited and very often fill positions in the environmental and safety departments, because they have an understanding of the process itself which is critical in that role.  Waterloo greatly appreciates the support from Suncor in the form of scholarships, co-op positions in both upstream and downstream petrochemical processing, as well  as careers for many of our graduates.  In Brodie’s case, he’s been exposed to different fields that he may follow in the future, including selection of his academic technical electives which will help to prepare him for his career."

Brodie is currently working at Suncor for his last work term.

 

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BABU & You, open house and other notes

A message from the Keystone Campaign: "The Keystone Campaign proudly presents BABU & You today at noon in QNC - 0101.

When Waterloo students Lana Vanderlee (BSc Kin, PhD student – 2015 expected) and Andrew Mitchell (BSc Kin, MSc Kin, PhD candidate) travelled to Nepal, they learned that many sick children were not receiving the medical care they so desperately needed.  The pair decided to help change that, and Bringing About Better Understanding (BABU) was born.

BABU coordinates donations of ventilator equipment, surgical supplies, dental equipment and hand hygiene supplies to Kathmandu’s new International Friendship Children’s Hospital (IFCH). It has also sent more than 70 health-care volunteers to IFCH and other facilities in Nepal.

Lana and Andrew will speak to faculty, staff and retirees about their experience in Nepal and how BABU is changing the face of children’s health care there. Seating is limited. Please RSVP via email."  

Information Systems & Technology (IST) is hosting an Open House to share an update on the IT Directions resulting from the IT Strategic Plan project, including a review and discussion of the initiatives started, and in some cases finished, during the first six months of the time line. Some initiatives include:

• A browser and mobile-friendly Student Portal;
• The new Promissory Note;
• WiFi upgrades;
• IT governance discussions; and
• Service and Operational Level Agreements (SLA and OLA).

Initiatives for the period 6 to 18 months will also be reviewed. The open house will take place on Wednesday, November 27 from 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in DC 1302.

Organizational & Human Development (OHD) is offering a course entitled "Preparing Your Taxes & Finances" this December. Mark Lisetto-Smith writes:

"As we approach the holidays, the subject of budgets, year-end donations, paying off holiday spending, or saving for a winter vacation begin to come to mind. We all have a goal of getting our finances under control, too. The path to achieving that goal is sometimes unclear. To assist with this process, Organizational & Human Development and Libor Piruchta, Chartered Financial Consultant and Certified Financial Planner, are launching a three-hour course on Preparing Your Taxes & Finances (OHD703) taking place on December 5 at 9:00 a.m. The components of this interactive seminar work in balance to produce a sense of control, accomplishment, and peace of mind about your finances."

In this session, you will:

• Review your tax and financial situation so that you can implement beneficial strategies before year-end.
• Find out what deductions/credits/expenses you can claim on your income tax return.
• If time allows, there will be a brief one-on-one consultation with the presenter about your individual tax situation or questions.
  
  

To register for OHD workshops, visit myHRinfo.

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