Moving the Cambrian College Student Innovation Challenge online led to some innovations by students using Zoom as their presentation platform.
College director of Cambrian R&D programming, Mike Commito says the students have come up with innovations that will assist the wider community.
He says this year’s grand prize went to a team of four who designed a device that uses machine vision to detect objects and recognize people’s faces, which will be used to assist visually impaired people.
Commito says second place was a tie with one group of three using social media to help people get discounts on food and buying in bulk, the second a mobile app augments reality allowing students and others to navigate the campus.
He adds all the students received cash awards for their efforts supported by local area businesses.
“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,” adds Commito.
Cambrian College also thanks to 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).
The winners of the 2020 Cambrian R&D Student Innovation Challenge are:
Grand prize winner:
Smart Vision designed by students Gowtham Ravindrau, Sarath Kumar, Reddy Sontam and Roshan Sivasankar. Smart Vision is a device using machine vision to detect objects and recognize people’s faces to assist visually impaired people. They are the winners of a $2,500 grand prize and $250 for best use of technology 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.
They are the winner of $750 sponsored by XPS.
The other second-place winner is Hunger Connect designed by Harish Ramakrishnan, Vineeth Harikumar, and 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.
They will share in the $750 sponsored by The Workshop (GSU) and XPS.
For more information about Cambrian R&D, visit www.cambriancollege.ca/rd.
