A couple of University of Waterloo engineering students were recently awarded scholarships worth $4,000 dollars each distributed by the Enterprise Co-op (E Co-op) program. This program is administered by the Conrad Business, Entrepreneurship, and Technology Centre. The E-Launch scholarships, awarded at the start of each term, are the result of a donation from University of Waterloo graduate and entrepreneur, Nigel Stokes. Five winners were announced from a total of 16 business pitches on Friday, September 7th. The judges had a difficult task of choosing the winners from the several contenders.
Stephen Holiday, whose start-up SmugData won him a spot in the top five, is a 3B Computer Engineering student. The idea for his start-up was to use content-based image search to help corporations make sense of data. His conception is based on the fields of machine learning and computer vision, both related to artificial intelligence. Broadly, the idea is for an algorithm to take input data, in this case images, and analyze them in order to extract useful information and make intelligent decisions based on this information.
Jon Joel, who just finished his 2B semester in Nanotechnology Engineering, was another recipient of the E-Launch Scholarship. Along with his partner Lindsay Brock (3B Nanotechnology Engineering), he founded JoLi Cosmetic Solutions, a platform to provide premium in house products for salons, make-up artists, dermatology clinics, and photographers to create exclusive high-end lines of colour cosmetic products. An idea for the possibility of such a company was formed about six months ago, when Jon and Lindsay decided to start making lipstick in his kitchen.
“We take care of the tough chemistry by creating a bunch of product bases, and bringing our lab to the client, where we help them mix and match bases, effects, colours, etc. We also take care of the supply chain details, containers, and packaging,” said Jon. “The goal is to help our customers stop selling someone else’s products, and start creating a local beauty culture, even though this isn’t LA, Paris, London, New York, or Milan. We know there are incredible trendsetters hidden all over, and we’re going to find them, and start empowering them. “
Since its conception in 2011, the E-Launch Scholarships have resulted in many success stories from people of varied backgrounds. The E Co-op program is sure to enjoy a long and successful run in the University of Waterloo, where ideas are conceived all the time and are just waiting to change the world.
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