Forget Dragon’s Den, University of British Columbia entrepreneurs have an opportunity to pitch their business concepts and products directly to Silicon Valley venture capitalists at an August 31 alumni event at the Plug and Play Tech Centre in Sunnyvale, California.
Hosted by UBC President Prof. Stephen Toope, Accelerating Entrepreneurship: UBC’s New Venture is a panel discussion aimed at defining and expanding the role of universities in encouraging entrepreneurship.
Six companies founded by UBC students and alumni have won a competition for the opportunity to present innovations in event planning, online shopping, microchip manufacturing and water quality testing to a panel of business leaders and investors, including Plug and Play Tech Center President and CEO Saeed Amidi, after the panel discussion.
As part of the new entrepreneurship@UBC program, a campus-wide initiative designed to facilitate and encourage new business ventures, an open invitation was extended to companies created by current students and recent alumni to join Prof. Toope and the UBC deans of Applied Science and the Sauder School of Business at the California event.
A judging panel of local business leaders – including UBC entrepreneur-in-residence Andrew Csinger, biomedical device entrepreneur Geof Auchinleck and technology start-up veteran Peter van der Gracht, all of whom are UBC alumni – chose three student- and three alumni-founded companies from 54 applications.
“The number and outstanding quality of the applications is a reflection of the creativity and resourcefulness we have come to expect from UBC students and alumni,” says Prof. Toope. “We are delighted to facilitate opportunities where UBC entrepreneurs can advance innovations that impact local and global communities.”
Accelerating entrepreneurship: UBC’s New Venture
Tuesday, August 31, 2010 6:00 – 9:00 pm
Plug and Play Tech Center, 440 N. Wolfe Road, Sunnyvale, CA, 94805
For more information or to participate, visit http://www.alumni.ubc.ca/eBlast/Networks/bayarea-plugplay-web.html or contact Marguerite Collins Olding at marguerite.olding@ubc.ca or 604.827.3294/toll free 1.800.883.3088.
The six winning companies are:
Dragonfly Instruments
The time it takes environmental field technicians to achieve lab quality water testing results could be reduced from weeks to just minutes with Dragonfly Instruments’ innovative on-site testing device, created by engineering students Lin Watt and Tagg Jefferson.
Optemo
Founded by Faculty of Science graduates Maryam Mahdaviani and Jan Ulrich, the company’s intelligent shopping platform for browsing product catalogs has already been validated by Best Buy Canada.
Veridae Systems
Founded by Applied Science PhD graduate Bradley Quinton, the technology at the core of Veridae Systems vastly reduces the time it takes engineers to get their microchip designs to production.
RedRovr
Founded by Sauder graduate Chris Coldewey, RedRovr enables “demand-driven events” by generating collaborative interaction among audiences, performers and event organizers.
Clinicbook
Finding health care will be less of a pain with online booking and real-time wait times for walk-in clinics provided by Clinicbook, founded by Applied Science alumni Winnie Lai and Robin McFee.
Aeos Biomedical
Based on a business idea generated as students, Colin O’Neill (Applied Science), Wylie Spencer and Nicolas Seto (Business) founded Aeos Biomedical to develop “Target Tape,” a product that increases accuracy in applications ranging from thoracic to plastic surgeries.
About entrepreneurship@UBC
Led by the Sauder School of Business, the Faculty of Applied Science, the Faculty of Science and the University-Industry Liaison Office,
entrepreneurship@UBC is a University-wide program designed to foster and support a culture of entrepreneurship among students and the campus community. At the heart of this program is the entrepreneurship@UBC Fund, which provides students with pre-seed capital financing to take their ideas from concept to investor readiness with the aid of experienced mentors from the business community. The fund is provided in partnership with the BC Innovation Council. For more information, visit www.entrepreneurship.ubc.ca.
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