Hatchery

U of T startups turn heads at virtual events around the world

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 18:38:32 +0000

U of T startups turn heads at virtual events around the world

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 09/09/2020 - 14:38

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Clockwise, from top left: Daniel Szulc of Integral Health; the team from Genecis; Qoherent founder Ashkan Beigi; Mark Elias and Emile Maamary of Steadiwear; Livia Guo, Keith Pardee and Seray Cicek of LSK Technologies (photos supplied)

Peter Boisseau

Topic

Global Lens

U of T Entrepreneurship

The Hub

Alumni

Creative Destruction Lab

Entrepreneurship

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Arts & Science

Global

Hatchery

Health Innovation Hub

Impact Centre

Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

ONRamp

Rotman School of Management

Startups

U of T Scarborough

UTEST

Startup companies from the University of Toronto are racking up impressive performances at international pitch competitions – even as the pandemic forced the high-stakes events online.

“Two of the largest global pitch competitions that have happened in the last few months were both won by University of Toronto startups,” says Jon French, director of U of T Entrepreneurship, the umbrella organization for U of T’s 11 entrepreneurship hubs.

“It’s a testament to the caliber of entrepreneurial talent at U of T and the fact that programming for student founders has not slowed down – it has ramped up virtually in response to COVID-19.”

U of T cleantech startup Genecis is one of the big winners. The company harnesses bacteria to turn food waste into polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), otherwise known as biodegradable plastics that can used for everything from sustainable packaging to 3D printing.

Founded four years ago by U of T alumna Luna Yu, the startup was selected a Global Winner at this year’s Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC) in July – an event featured more than 2,400 competitors from nearly 90 countries.

“Winning at XTC over more than 2000 other startups really speaks to what we've been working on and the ability of our team to execute,” says Abdul Khogali, the company’s chief operating officer.

He added that the prestigious competition helped connect Genecis with potential investors, including Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang.

Genecis, founded four years ago by U of T alumna Luna Yu (far left), harnesses bacteria to turn food waste into biodegradable plastics (photo courtesy of Genecis)

U of T quantum computing tech startup Qoherent also notched a big win this summer – at Startupfest in Montreal, where it competed with over 500 startups from around the world and took home a $100,000 top prize.

Meanwhile, LSK Technologies, another U of T startup, won the $25,000 RBC Entrepreneur Award, the top prize at Toronto-based TiEQuest 2020 in June. Also at TiEQuest, medical device startup Steadiwear – which produces a tremor reducing glove designed for people with conditions such as Parkinson’s disease – walked away with the $2,500 Baylis Medical People's Choice Award.

Steadiwear also captured the Montreal Startup Festival’s highly sought Grandmother’s Choice Award, which is judged by a panel of seniors who serve as a kind of focus group for emerging products aimed at their demographic. At the same festival, U of T startup Integral Health, which is developing a smart digital assistant for surgeons, won the Next 36 Young Entrepreneur Award, joining an elite cohort of emerging company founders.

Daniel Szulc of U of T startup Integral Health, which is developing a smart digital assistant for surgeons (photo courtesy of Daniel Szulc)

While going virtual created enormous logistical challenges for pitch competition organizers, it also seemed to encourage a record numbers of competitors, making wins by U of T startups that much more impressive, according to French. He says entrepreneurship, innovation and research commercialization are more important than ever as Canada looks to bounce back from COVID-19 by rebuilding its battered economy.

“I'm looking at these virtual pitch competition victories as a proof that our companies are heading in the right direction,” he says.

The Genecis team says being nimble and adaptable have been key to its success this year – not only at XTC, but at the Novo Nordisk Innovation Challenge, where it captured the top prize of nearly $40,000, and at the 2020 Mondi Lead2030 competition, where it was also among the winners.

Khogali says the company – which earlier this year completed a program at Silicon Valley-based Y Combinator, one of the world’s premier startup accelerators – has shifted its initial focus away from manufacturing to the less capital-intensive business of licensing its process to industry partners.

He credits mentorship the team received from U of T professors and alumni, well as U of T incubators and accelerators such as The Hub at U of T Scarborough, the Entrepreneurship Hatchery and the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), for helping the Genecis team transform its ideas into a potentially disruptive business.

From left to right: Livia Guo, Assistant Professor Keith Pardee and Seray Cicek of LSK Technologies, which is developing a portable, “lab-in-a-box” technology to diagnose COVID-19 and other diseases (photo courtesy of LSK Technologies)

Qoherent founder Ashkan Beigi also says U of T played a key role in helping him grow his company, which aims to help scientists and engineers create wireless technologies and harness the power of machine learning.

Beigi says CDL, based at U of T’s Rotman School of Management, provided him with intensive entrepreneurial training, networking opportunities and a “road map” for the company. He also says the startup co-working space at U of T’s ONramp, shared with partner universities, provided him with an ideal working environment, albeit one he has had to abandon in recent months because of the pandemic.

“I’d love to go back to ONramp when we can because it’s a good space to be in, one of the best I’ve ever seen – and a great community to be part of,” he says.

Winning the Montreal festival suggests Qoherent is on the right track and underscores the value of the guidance he received from CDL and others, Beigi says.

Ashkan Beigi of Qoherent, which aims to help scientists and engineers create wireless technologies and harness the power of machine learning, says the Creative Destruction Lab played a key role in helping him develop the company (photo courtesy of Ashkan Beigi)

LSK Technologies, co-founded by U of T alumna Seray Cicek and Keith Pardee, an assistant professor in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, also credits U of T support as a key factor in the startup’s success. The company, which has also just been accepted into Y Combinator, received support from two of U of T’s campus-linked accelerators: H2i (Health Innovation Hub) and UTEST.

The portable, “lab-in-a-box” technology developed by the researchers was originally focused on other diseases, but the pair pivoted quickly to make COVID-19 a priority when the pandemic hit, Cicek says.

She is hopeful about getting their disease screening device to market early next year.

“We are looking forward to a world where we won’t be looking at a pandemic situation again,” Cicek says. “If we had been able to screen people better earlier this year, then perhaps we could be all meeting in person right now.”

Mark Elias and Emile Maamary are co-founders of Steadiwear, which makes a tremor reducing glove to help people with conditions such as Parkinson’s disease (photo courtesy of Steadiwear)

For their part, Steadiwear co-founders Emile Maamary and Mark Elias say U of T’s expansive entrepreneurial ecosystem helped prepare them for high-pressure pitch and marketing competitions.

After spending early days working at the Impact Centre at the Faculty of Arts & Science, the pair are excited about getting a new, miniaturized version of their glove to customers.

“The original version essentially is like a sleeve that goes halfway up the forearm,” Elias says. “The miniature device doesn’t have any forearm elements and will be available for pre-order before the end of the year.

“It's a big difference when you’re competing in the market.”

Learn more about U of T Entrepreneurship

U of T entrepreneur to put reliable power in the hands of Nigeria's people

geoff.vendeville — Wed, 03 Jul 2019 19:15:37 +0000

U of T entrepreneur to put reliable power in the hands of Nigeria's people

geoff.vendeville Wed, 07/03/2019 - 15:15

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Olugbenga Olubanjo and his startup Reeddi aspires to supply clean, affordable and portable power to Nigeria. He's holding two electricity capsules containing lithium-ion batteries (photo by Phill Snel)

Phill Snel

Topic

Global Lens

Alumni

Faculty of Engineering

Global

Hatchery

Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Startups

Olugbenga Olubanjo remembers fist-pumping in celebration on Victoria Day when he found out his startup had won an award of US$10,000.

Olubanjo, a master’s student in civil engineering at the University of Toronto, and his team at Reeddi (pronounced “ready”) aim to bring clean, affordable and portable power to the people of Nigeria, freeing them from an expensive and unpredictable energy grid.

The Reeddi team includes two other U of T students: Osarieme Osakue, a master’s student in civil engineering and the company’s director of communications, and Joshua Dzakah, who is completing a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering.

Reedi Inc was a runner-up in the Cisco Global Problem Solver Challenge, its third award this year. It also secured a provisional patent.

The seeds of Reeddi were sown in 2017 while Olubanjo was in Toronto. While speaking to friends or family back home, he was often suddenly disconnected. He found out the interruptions – and the source of his frustration – were caused by all-too-frequent power outages in Nigeria.

Olubanjo recalls being “at Massey College at night with light everywhere” and couldn’t imagine returning home where it was like “going back to darkness.” In his native Nigeria, there was sometimes access to just two hours of electricity a day. Olubanjo set out to find a solution to a daily problem faced by many back home.

Some 600 million Africans, including 70 million Nigerians, live without access to electricity. Alternatives for household lighting, cooking and other needs can be dangerous and expensive. Kerosene lanterns are hazardous when used indoors due to the risk of fires or air poisoning. They also often require travelling long distances to obtain fuel.

Vast amounts are spent on creating electricity from polluting sources, further degrading air quality in Nigeria.

Olubanjo’s initial idea was to create a solar “umbrella” capable of charging mobile phones, but after discussion with friends and engineering colleagues he began to envision something on a larger scale.

The current project proposal outlines a large standalone, solar-powered structure that is about half the size of a bus shelter. It has interactive screens at eye-level that control the user experience and provide access to removable Reeddi capsules. Each watertight capsule is about half the size of a 12-pack of soft drinks and comprises a lithium-ion battery with external USB and AC plug.

Customers would pay rent of up to 50 cents (US) per 24 hours for a 250 watt-hour (Wh) capsule. A standard 250Wh capsule is enough to provide a combined seven hours of lighting via two 150 lumen LED bulbs, fully charge three mobile phones and provide four hours of laptop power. Capsules can also be connected and scaled up in a modular fashion. Doubled-up, they would create a 500Wh unit, and so on, for greater power needs such as running appliances.

The capsule can be returned within the rental period or earlier if depleted. As an incentive to return the capsule on time, customers are awarded points to be used towards future exchanges.

“The impact it can bring really drives me and makes me excited,” said Olubanjo. The clean and affordable power source would provide households with more stable energy with scalable options.

As proof of concept, Reeddi created a mock-up prototype of one capsule last December, then created a working prototype of a capsule as a contest entry. The company is on track to run a micro-scaled pilot in Nigeria with five interactive working capsule prototypes this summer.

Reeddi has been internationally recognized for its innovative technology and business model. In February, it won the North American Regional Award for the Best Emerging Startups in Decentralised Energy Track at the IEEE Empower a Billion Lives Challenge held at Georgia Tech. And, in April, Reeddi won $5,000 as the winner of the MIT 2019 Clean Energy Prize, in the national grid track.

Olubanjo says he’s had a lot of help with the project. Ideas, prompts, expertise and questions from friends, colleagues and faculty contributed to its development.

He also benefited from U of T Engineering’s Hatchery NEST program, which provided 3D printing, business questions and opportunities for collaboration.

Yu-Ling Cheng, a professor in the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry, acted as an adviser and mentor, as did Bill Nussey, the CEO of Solar Inventions.

Olubanjo says the project has led to a “lot of sleepless nights.” But, he adds, “what kept me going was the possibility of having an impact on millions of lives.”

U of T startup that turns food waste into high-quality bio-plastic eyes next phase of growth

noreen.rasbach — Mon, 24 Sep 2018 19:41:39 +0000

U of T startup that turns food waste into high-quality bio-plastic eyes next phase of growth

noreen.rasbach Mon, 09/24/2018 - 15:41

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Luna Yu, founder and CEO of Genecis, completed her master's degree at U of T Scarborough. Genecis is scaling up operations and looking at developing other materials from food waste (all photos by Don Campbell)

Don Campbell

Topic

Our Community

Alumni

Creative Destruction Lab

Environmental Science

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Hatchery

Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Startups

ThisIsThePlace

U of T Scarborough

Luna Yu is passionate about not wasting food.

“I was taught at an early age by my grandparents never to waste food since it was throwing away the hard work of farmers and food producers,” says Yu, a recent graduate from the Master of Environmental Science program at the University of Toronto Scarborough.

“More than $1 trillion worth of food is wasted globally every year. What we’re able to do is take this waste and turn it into something of higher value.”

It’s no wonder that passion led Yu to team up with a talented group of scientists and engineers – many of whom are U of T students or recent graduates – to form Genecis. The company uses recent advancements in biotechnology, microbial engineering and machine learning to take food destined for the landfill and convert it into PHAs – a high-quality, fully biodegradable form of plastic.

It’s not Yu’s first foray into entrepreneurship. She worked at a software company as an undergrad before moving to another startup that converted restaurant food waste into biogas. It was there she met several talented engineers, learned about the microbiology of converting discarded food into other materials, and discovered a valuable lesson in the economics of recycling food waste.

“Converting food waste into biogas is time-consuming process and the end product is fairly low value,” she says.

After connecting with a fellow environmental science student in The Hub, U of T Scarborough’s entrepreneurial incubator, they started looking into what else could be made from food waste.

“We looked at different types of bio-rubbers and bio-chemicals before landing on PHAs. We felt it had the biggest market potential.”

PHAs, or polyhydroxyalkanoates, are polymers produced by bacteria that have many benefits over other forms of bio-plastics, explains Yu. For one, they can be a thermoplastic, meaning it can be easily moulded and remoulded into different products. Another benefit is that, unlike many other forms of bio-plastics, it won’t ruin the recycling process.

“Many people throw bio-plastics into the recycling bin rather than the compost, but if it’s not a thermoplastic it can’t be remoulded and this disrupts the physical properties of new recycled products. They will end up falling apart,” she says.

PHAs won’t cause this problem if they accidentally end up in recycling bins, making them much easier for waste management companies to handle.

But what really sold Yu on the benefits of PHAs is the fact that they’re fully biodegradable. PHAs degrade within one year in the environment, and fewer than 10 years in water. Synthetic plastics can take hundreds of years to degrade in similar environments.

While PHAs can be used to make pretty much anything out of plastic, Yu says the ones made by Genecis are best suited for higher-end, multi-use products like toys, flexible packaging, 3D-printing filament and medical applications including surgical staples, sutures and stents.

Genecis uses a three-step process to create their PHAs. First, a bacteria culture breaks down the food waste into volatile fatty acids.The fatty acids are added to another bacteria culture specially selected to produce PHAs in their cells. Finally, an extraction process breaks open the cells, then collects and purifies the plastic.

The entire process takes seven days. “Making biogas, on the other hand, takes an average of 21 days,” Yu says.

The company’s main lab in U of T’s Banting and Best Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship houses pilot-scale bioreactors that can complete the three-step process. The other location in the Environmental Science and Chemistry Building at U of T Scarborough is responsible for research and development in looking for ways to optimize their production process. When Genecis opens its demonstration plant with an industry partner later next year, it will be able to convert three tonnes of organic waste into PHAs weekly.

In less than two years of existence, Genecis has already won more than $330,000 in prize money from startup competitions. Yu says the support, guidance and mentorship they’ve received from The Hub, the Creative Destruction Lab, and the Hatchery, a startup accelerator at the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, have also been instrumental in their growth.

As they aim to ramp up production, Yu says this support and the lessons learned from her work in other startups will be invaluable.

“Our goal is to create the highest value from organic waste,” says Yu, adding they have cultured and isolated hundreds of species of bacteria that currently don’t exist in databases.

“Soon we will be able to synthesize speciality chemicals and other materials from organic waste, all at a lower cost than traditional production methods using synthetic biology,” she says.

Those specialty chemicals can be used in a range of products, including those found in cosmetics and the health and wellness industry, says Yu.

“It’s a really exciting time for us.”

McLean Award given to professor developing eco-friendly batteries

noreen.rasbach — Fri, 20 Jul 2018 18:46:21 +0000

McLean Award given to professor developing eco-friendly batteries

noreen.rasbach Fri, 07/20/2018 - 14:46

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Dwight Seferos is this year's recipient of the $125,000 McLean Award. “No-strings-attached awards like the McLean are unique and very crucial,” he says (photo by Geoffrey Vendeville)

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

Graduate Students

Hatchery

Research & Innovation

Startup

UTEST

Nature knows best, but sometimes a tweak here and there can make things even better, says University of Toronto chemistry professor Dwight Seferos.

Together with his team of graduate and postdoctoral researchers, Seferos is at the forefront of using modified natural compounds – like a vitamin found in leaves – to make high-tech items such as eco-friendly batteries and potentially clothing that can act as the wearer’s personal cooling system.

“We’re trying to take inspiration from nature,” said Seferos. “You can modify natural compounds to make them better. That’s been done in the drug industry, but not so much in the high-tech materials industry.”

Seferos is this year’s recipient of the $125,000 McLean Award, which he will use to delve deeper into developing new biodegradable polymers or plastics that can store energy from solar, wind and tidal power.

The importance of the research is not just about energy storage, he said. Used on a large scale, it could also mean a substantially reduced carbon footprint, a decrease in extractive mining fossil fuel usage, as well as less waste in landfills and oceans.

The McLean Award is jointly funded by the university’s Connaught Fund and the McLean endowment, the latter of which is the result of a $1-million gift to the university from alumnus William F. McLean over two decades ago. The award is designed to support the basic research of an outstanding early career researcher in physics, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, engineering sciences, or the theory and methods of statistics. The funds help the recipient attract and support graduate students and post-doctoral researchers of great promise.

“Congratulations to Dwight Seferos on receiving this year’s McLean Award for his impressive and cutting-edge work in eco-friendly batteries,” said Vivek Goel, U of T’s vice-president of research and innovation and the chair of the Connaught Committee.

“No-strings-attached awards like the McLean are unique and very crucial,” said Seferos.

This is “an award that allows you to form new ideas, to do things that you normally wouldn’t be able to do – to take risks – which I think is extremely important for researchers at a university.”

Freedom to do basic, or fundamental, research is where everything starts, said Seferos, who is also the co-founder of Pliant Power Devices, a startup formed with his former student Tyler Schon out of his PhD research and the help of U of T entrepreneurship hubs UTEST and the Hatchery.

“We did not start this project thinking we were going to make a battery company or anything like that,” said Seferos. “We were developing new concepts in chemistry and engineering [and] those turned out to be fruitful – and we went from there.”

Their vitamin B2 polymer, which is made from leaves and other organic materials, is a relatively simple compound to make that’s just “a few steps from natural compounds,” he said.

“We’re just modifying it enough that it serves what we want it to do. It’s a very eco-friendly and renewable resource. You can scale it up and make kilograms of this compound. It stores a great deal of energy.”

It’s also printable and flexible, offering virtually limitless potential applications. Large-scale production of the B2 polymer batteries is not far off – within a year or two, he added.

“We’ve been out front of the polymer space in energy storage for a number of years,” said Seferos.

His group is also highly interested in thermoelectrics, and is collaborating with groups in the United States and China to use soft materials made from their polymers to recycle heat and turn it into electricity and the growing field of personalized cooling.

In a developed country like Canada, he said, many people have air conditioning in their car, in their home and in their office – which leaves a huge carbon footprint.

By making clothing that can cool people, “they won’t need the huge AC unit in their home or their car,” he said.

“As professors, we’re not trained as businesspeople but our students can certainly acquire those skills,” he said. “When they develop new technology during the course of their PhD, they become such great champions of that technology that they’re the natural leaders for spinning it out.

“I am supportive of that.”

The application deadline for the next round of funding for the McLean Award is Jan. 15.

U of T startups take home prizes at health challenge event

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 16:47:49 +0000

U of T startups take home prizes at health challenge event

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 02/07/2018 - 11:47

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Pooja Viswanathan, the CEO of Braze Mobility, accepts a $7,000 prize on behalf of her startup during H2i's HealthEdge Challenge (photo by Chris Sorensen)

Chris Sorensen

Topic

Our Community

Alumni

Department of Computer Science Innovation Lab

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Graduate Students

Hatchery

Health Innovation Hub

Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Startups

Braze Mobility uses sensors to help motorized wheelchair users avoid collisions with the obstacles that surround them. Now, with its latest product, Braze hopes to one day help eliminate the obstacles themselves.

Pooja Viswanathan, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Toronto and the CEO and co-founder of Braze, says she’s hoping to use the data collected by her startup’s sensors, which can be attached to motorized wheelchairs, to create a sophisticated data analytics platform.

The crunched data could then be used by clinicians, insurance companies and even city planners when making decisions that could impact wheelchair users.

“This could collect data on where collisions are actually happening in the environment,” Viswanathan told attendees at a recent health-care pitch competition.

Braze was one of four startups to take home $7,000 in prize money at H2i’s HealthEdge Challenge. The competition is organized by three U of T accelerators – Health Innovation Hub (H2i), The Hatchery and the Department of Computer Science Innovation Lab (DCSIL) – and is designed to encourage innovation to address real-world health-care problems.

An attendee at the HealthEdge pitch competition poses a question to one of the startups (photo by Chris Sorensen)

Also taking home a prize was surgical device startup Xpan. The company, co-founded by U of T biomedical engineering alumnus Zaid Atto, makes an expandable version of a surgical device called a trocar that’s used to create a tunnel into the abdomen for laparoscopic surgeries.

At present, surgeons must swap out trocars if they need to insert larger instruments, which can slow down procedures and raise the risk of complications, Atto said.

Xpan won a similar H2i pitch competition back in October and another in September organized by The Hatchery, which is affiliated with the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.

Zaid Atto, the CEO of Xpan, explains the need for his startup's expandable trocar device at the HealthEdge Challenge (photo by Chris Sorensen)

The other two winners of this week’s competition were Sunny Stroke, which connects physicians providing care to stroke patients and was represented by U of T biomedical engineering graduate student Shaurya Gupta, and Opti-fold Cosmetics, which makes a special tape to encourage double eyelids and is led by Ray Tang.

In addition to the cash, the four winning startups will receive further support from the accelerators supporting HealthEdge competition as they fine-tune their business plans.

Learn more about U of T Entrepreneurship

#UofTGrad17: How a U of T startup is helping disabled children walk like 'Iron Man'

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 19 Jun 2017 14:44:29 +0000

#UofTGrad17: How a U of T startup is helping disabled children walk like 'Iron Man'

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 06/19/2017 - 10:44

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U of T students and Trexo Robotics co-founders Manmeet Maggu (right) and Rahul Udasi built a robotic exoskeleton for children after Maggu's nephew was diagnosed with cerebral palsy (photo by Chris Sorensen)

Chris Sorensen

Author legacy

Chris Sorensen

Topic

Global Lens

Entrepreneurship

Startup

Rotman School of Management

Convocation 2017

#UofTGrad17

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Alumni

Hatchery

Creative Destruction Lab

Subheadline

“Why do mechatronics engineering if you can’t build something to help someone?”

Few product tests are as emotional as the one Manmeet Maggu performed at his brother’s house near Delhi last summer.

The MBA student at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management was watching as his eight-year-old nephew Praneit, who suffers from severe cerebral palsy, was hoisted into a robotic exoskeleton device built by his startup, Trexo Robotics.

Moments later, Praneit’s robotically assisted legs began tracing delicate steps across the floor as a grin crept across his face.

“He gave us a smile,” said Praneit’s mother, Jasmeet Maggu, who battled back tears in a short video that was filmed following the initial tests. “That was the very first sign – a good sign that said, yes, he was going to take his steps and was going to walk.”

Maggu, who graduates this week, says the moment was incredibly satisfying on both a personal and professional level.

“It showed that it can be done,” he says. “So now we’re working on the next version of the prototype and, when it’s ready, we’re going to build another one for my nephew and take it to India again.

“Watching Praneit take his first steps using our device was an incredibly proud moment for us.”

The idea behind Trexo was first planted while Maggu was studying mechatronics engineering at the University of Waterloo several years ago. After learning about his nephew’s devastating diagnosis back in India, he and fellow student Rahul Udasi began tinkering with the idea of building a child-sized robotic exoskeleton to help Praneit – and other children like him – escape life in a wheelchair.

But it wasn’t until the pair arrived at U of T in 2015 – Udasi graduated with a master’s in engineering from U of T last year – that they realized their side project could be a full-time business. They focused their efforts, perfected a prototype and took advantage of U of T’s expansive network of 10 campus-linked accelerators to transform the idea into a startup.

Trexo Robotics recently joined the inaugural cohort of Hatchery LaunchLab, a new program in U of T Engineering’s Entrepreneurship Hatchery accelerator that provides support and funding to enable follow-on investment for engineering research-based startups. Last fall, the company took home the $20,000 Lacavera Prize at the Hatchery’s annual Demo Day competition, which sees startups pitch their business models to panel of entrepreneurs and investors.

Trexo is also a recent graduate of Rotman’s Creative Destruction Lab, the Department of Computer Science Innovation Lab, and a member of the Faculty of Medicine’s Health Innovation Hub (H2i).

Jan Andrysek, an assistant professor at U of T's Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering, is the company's scientific advisor.

Manmeet Maggu's nephew Praneit takes Trexo Robotics's exoskeleton for a test drive in India

Building an exoskeleton — particularly one for kids — isn’t easy. Children are small, with weak muscles and limited cognitive development. Most existing exoskeletons, by contrast, are big, heavy and relatively difficult to operate.

For safety reasons, Maggu and Udasi decided to build their device around a walker-type frame. Keeping the weight down meant using a mix of metal and plastic parts. Miniaturizing key components tested their engineering skills.

The result was a unique design that reduces the weight of a child’s body on his or her legs, while also stimulating a walking motion in the hopes of gradually retraining the brain. “It’s like reducing the effect of gravity while, at the same time, it’s also providing mobility to your legs to actually walk,” Maggu says.

Given the young age of potential patients, Maggu says he was also conscious that his exoskeleton had to be fun to use. “We call it the Iron Man,” he says, referring to the comic book superhero and popular movie franchise. “For them it’s a bit like a ride – this robotic thing they’re getting into that’s really cool.

“We also added exciting things. For example, we put a tablet on the device so the child can be watching his favourite Paw Patrol episode while he’s getting to walk around in the device.”

This summer Trexo is launching its first partnership with Able Bionics, a Toronto-based distributor providing exoskeletons direct to physiotherapy clinics.

While Trexo is currently focused on the pediatric market, Maggu says the long-range plan is to make robotic mobility devices for an aging population. The wheelchair, after all, was invented more more than 400 years ago. "It's high time some disruption happened in that area," he says.

For now, he’s content with seeing the positive impact Trexo is having on his nephew and his family.

“Why do mechatronics engineering if you can’t build something to help someone?” Maggu asks. “That is the kind of impact that you want to have in life.”

Less satellite, more data? U of T startup will connect the world from space

ullahnor — Fri, 24 Mar 2017 16:28:28 +0000

Less satellite, more data? U of T startup will connect the world from space

ullahnor Fri, 03/24/2017 - 12:28

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Kepler Communications, an award-winning team of engineering alumni, is building satellites so small that they're no larger than a loaf of bread

Jennifer Robinson

Author legacy

Jennifer Robinson

Topic

Creative Destruction Lab

Hatchery

Startup

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

An award-winning team of alumni from U of T’s Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering is building satellites so small they could fit in your gym bag. Their startup, Kepler Communications, plans to place 140 of these low-cost “cubesats” into space over the next five years. The first one will blast into orbit this November.

Kepler’s orbiting system will make air travel safer, let us instantly detect leaks in remote oil pipelines, help improve crop yields and monitor the heart rates of far-flung emergency
rescue workers.

Working with U of T’s innovation incubators, Kepler secured more than US $5 million in funding to develop its technology and bring its first cubesats to market. But their five-year strategy is just the beginning. As Kepler co-founder and CEO Mina Mitry says, “Our vision is to provide ubiquitous connectivity to gather the world’s information.”

U of T News spoke with Mitry and Jeff Osborne, co-founder and vice president, business development of Kepler, ahead of Entrepreneurship@UofT Week.

What is your startup?

Mina Mitry: Kepler is on a mission to connect the people and devices that gather the world’s information. We’re deploying the largest constellation of small telecommunications satellites to connect devices on the ground – like oil pipeline monitors and devices in space like satellites that take pictures of the Earth.

Jeff Osborne: In order to reach this mission, what differentiates Kepler is the use of small, low-cost nano satellites. Each one of our nano satellites is around five kilograms in weight and no larger than a loaf of bread.

As engineering students at U of T, when did you first come up with the idea?

Mina Mitry: Jeff and I were both doing graduate studies at U of T. Prior to Jeff starting his PhD, he had been roommates with other people who were founding space companies and had recognized there was this underlying trend of growth in the space sector.

So we started together, and then we brought on board two other co-founders, Mark [Michael] and Wen [Cheng Chong], two of the smartest people that I knew in my network who could really help us see this vision through. The four of us left all of our commitments. I turned down further studies and job offers. Jeff left his PhD. Mark left his PhD, and Wen left his full-time job.

We’re now a team of 10 and hoping to be a team of 25 next year.

Jeff Osborne: What was really the root of the company...was that we had all spent a number of years doing student design projects out of the university. We spent three years on the U of T aerospace team where we built small rockets, drones and small satellites together. That was really where we learned how to work together and build those strong bonds of cooperation that still exist and allow us to thrive.

What gives your startup an advantage?

Mina Mitry: Our core advantages are technology and regulatory nature.

This is very difficult to explain in layman’s terms...you need certain frequencies in order to be able to operate. They’re allocated on a first come, first served basis. Doing them first gives us the priority to be able to use them. Later entrants will have to either abide by constraints that we set out for their systems . . . or they’ll have to lease, buy or do something to work with us.

Another key advantage is the really small form factor radios and antennas that we’ve been able to build at a very very low cost. We’re at about one one-hundredth of the next comparable telecommunications satellite [in terms of the size and cost].

How are you going to get your satellites into space and when?

Jeff Osborne: For the size of our satellite, in a launch, it is what’s called a secondary payload. Effectively, what you do is piggyback into orbit.

When a big launch vehicle goes up – like the next generation Space X – it will have a primary payload on the launch vehicle. But for each launch going up, there’s always excess mass on the vehicle...there’s always extra space in the trunk to put additional satellites on board. Those are called secondary satellites.

So, we buy up those secondary tickets for a fraction of the price, and we hitchhike to orbit! Our [first] launch is in November with Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). It’s an Indian rocket.

How to actually deploy satellites into orbit is with a glorified jack-in-the-box. It’s basically just a box with a spring. They open the lid [of the launch vehicle’s cargo area] and satellites get thrown out [into orbit].

How many of your satellites are you putting up at that time?

Mina Mitry: We’ll put up the first one at the end of this year and we’ll put up the next generation probably in mid-2018. They’ll provide the initial service to our customers. With only two satellites up in orbit, you can look at applications that have latency requirements of about 12 hours. If you can get the data back to them within 12 hours in an economical way while layering on other services then there’s value to be had there.

From there, we want to scale to 20 to 40 spacecraft within the 2018-2019 timeframe, eventually building our way to about 140 [in our] satellite constellation.

The satellites remain in orbit for upwards of 10 years. We’re putting up new satellites every three years so that we can put up better technology that will improve our network.

Jeff Osborne: On every new batch of satellites we’re putting up, we can improve date rates and connect to more devices etc. It’s really about applying Moore’s Law to the space industry, which historically hasn’t happened.

What are examples of some time-sensitive applications?

Jeff Osborne: Let’s say you want to measure the strain on your bridge in a remote area. It doesn’t necessarily matter if you get the data back in milliseconds – the bridge probably isn’t going anywhere.

Or, let’s say you want to measure the flow through your pipeline in the middle of Alaska to identify leaks. It doesn’t really matter how long it takes for the data to get back because you can’t get a crew out to fix the leak for another week.

Conversely, there are other applications that are very dependent on latency. Let’s say you want to measure the heart rate of an emergency responder in a disaster situation. You need to know that information instantaneously so you can deploy response measures.

What is the range of applications?

Jeff Osborne: Fundamentally, what we are trying to build is the pipe to connect remote devices. It doesn’t really matter what you’re measuring, whether it be strain, heart rate, temperature, flow or GPS positions.

We’re relatively agnostic about the type of data that is flowing through. We’re just providing the capabilities for customers to be able to connect their devices.

What kind of support did you receive at U of T to get Kepler started?

Mina Mitry: U of T was very, very impactful in helping us get this startup off the ground.

We started at Start@UTIAS, a program run by [alumnus] Francis Shen who generously donated a fair amount of money to the university to support and encourage entrepreneurship specifically within the aerospace community. That program helped us get started and seeded us with $25,000 of capital to help build our ideas.

We then moved on to the University of Toronto Hatchery, another really impactful program that helped us understand how to tell our story, how to communicate with various stakeholders and how to focus our attention and time on things that really mattered for the company.

From there, we went to Creative Destruction Lab, which was another incredible U of T program. That was really the catalyst to expanding and growing our network. It helped us understand the players in the startup community outside of aerospace, how the funders work, how customers could work, and it helped us develop a more focused scope.

All three of those helped us from ideation to fundraising and scaling the company.

Jeff Osborne: When we started working on student design projects, that experience gave us was the confidence to think we could actually do something like this.

When you’re staying up until 6 a.m. to test fire a rocket engine, or when you crash your plane three days before a competition, and you have to bring the entire team together to rebuild it, that not only shows you what can be done by the team, but it also gives you the confidence that when you have these big problems, these big challenges, you can actually address them.

Is there an advantage to being located in Toronto for your startup?

Mina Mitry: Being a Canadian company, there are a ton of advantages.

There’s the [federal] Scientific Research and Experimental Development [tax incentive] program. For our company, which is a high technology venture, the government is willing to support our development by giving us 40 cents on the dollar [for research and development costs].

In Toronto, we also have a huge talent pool with resources coming in from the University of Toronto, the University of Waterloo – some of the top engineering schools [in the world] – feeding our talent pool.

And now we have this huge catalyst in the United States [President Donald Trump], and a number of expats wanting to come back to Canada. Of the regions you’re going to choose within Canada, Toronto is a pretty key location.

Jeff Osborne: In the last couple of days, the regulatory environment for space station operations in Canada is becoming much more favourable for small players. Without going into too many details, there are a few rules the Canadian government is implementing that will make it much easier for small companies to get access to frequency, to get space station licenses that don’t exist in other countries.

In closing, what would be your advice to students right now at U of T who are in the infancy of their startup or just have a really great idea?

Mina Mitry: I got the bug for startups running a university design team. I’d get involved in design projects. That’ll give you a flavour of what it’s like to run a company.

Find a killer team. [Those student design projects] gave us the team we’re working with today, which we otherwise probably wouldn’t have found. Most of Kepler, as it exists today, is that team. We have technology, but it’s not nearly as valuable as the team that built it.

Jeff Osborne: If someone has ideas, just do them. Do them! And figure out everything else along the way. There’s not many times in one’s life where you have the opportunity to potentially build something exciting with people that you know and work well with. It's a no-brainer!

Kepler Communications is one of more than 150 research-based startups launched in the last five years at U of T. Learn more at utoronto.ca

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Startups to watch from Demo Day at U of T Engineering’s Entrepreneurship Hatchery

ullahnor — Thu, 15 Sep 2016 20:00:00 +0000

Startups to watch from Demo Day at U of T Engineering’s Entrepreneurship Hatchery

ullahnor Thu, 09/15/2016 - 16:00

Cutline

Hatchery director Joseph Orozco (right) poses with 2016 Demo Day winners Rahul Udasi (left) and Manmeet Maggu (centre), co-founders of BOMBERobotics (photos by Roberta Baker)

Tyler Irving

Author legacy

Tyler Irving

Topic

Breaking Research

Research & Innovation

A robotic exoskeleton for children with physical disabilities, an electronic “smart skin” that helps surgeons avoid errors and a meal replacement that promotes cognitive health — these were just a few of the U of T Engineering innovations featured at the 2016 Hatchery Demo Day.

A total of 14 student teams pitched their business ideas to a panel of expert judges as part of the Dragon’s Den-style event, hosted annually by t he Entrepreneurship Hatchery, a startup accelerator at U of T Engineering. Competitors were vying for a share of $32,500 in seed funding and the attention of potential investors.

“Thank you to all of the teams for your energy, your passion, and for being hungry,” said Joseph Orozco, executive director of The Entrepreneurship Hatchery in his opening remarks. “You are the future.”

Demo Day is the culmination of the Hatchery’s intensive summer program, where student teams work with experienced mentors to develop their business ideas and competencies, getting guidance on everything from patent applications to building prototypes, which they create using 3D printers and other resources.

The seed funding at stake for the top two prizes is donated by alumnus Anthony Lacavera, founder and chairman of Globalive Holdings and former CEO of WIND Mobile. A third-place prize is provided through funds raised by the students themselves.

“The University of Toronto was recently named the top University in North America for research-based startups, and the presentations we have seen tonight are a testament to that position,” said Cristina Amon, dean of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “We are very proud to celebrate the creativity, talent and hard work of these emerging entrepreneurs.”

This year’s winners were:

Manmeet Maggu's BOMBERobotics took the first place prize

$20,000 Lacavera Prize: BOMBERobotics — Exoskeletons for physiotherapy

Manmeet Maggu was a mechatronics engineering student at another university when he learned that his nephew had cerebral palsy.

He and his friend Rahul Udasi began investigating ways that robotic exoskeletons could be used in physiotherapy for children with cerebral palsy and other physical disabilities. They learned that although some robotic therapies exist, the exoskeletons typically cost a whopping $500,000, and are found in only a handful of clinics worldwide.

So they set about building a smaller robotic exoskeleton, dubbed Trexo, that would be more portable and less costly and provide the same benefits as larger systems. They also designed Trexo to be modular so that it can adjust and grow with the child.

“We are really fortunate to be part of the Hatchery,” says Manmeet. “We had access to amazing resources and amazing mentors.”

The team plans to use the prize money to pursue regulatory approval from Health Canada. Their initial plan is to target the 120,000 physiotherapy clinics across North America. They also believe some families will want to purchase the device for themselves.

BOMBERobotics also received support from U of T’s Health Innovation Hub (H2i) and from the Department of Computer Science Innovation Lab. Read more about the team

SensOR CEO Robert Brooks presents at Hatchery Demo Day

$10,000 Lacavera Prize: SensOR — Force-feedback for safer surgery

Approximately two-thirds of modern general surgeries use minimally invasive techniques, with smaller incisions and longer instruments, to reduce trauma and accelerate healing time. But remotely operated or robotic tools make it harder for a surgeon to feel the response of the tissues they are operating on. This can increase the chance of causing additional injury: up to 12 per cent of medical errors are caused by inappropriate application of force during surgery.

SensOR has a solution: a thin film that easily wraps around any surgical instrument and translates physical force into electrical signals. The force-feedback data is wirelessly transmitted to a receiver and a visual display, making it easy to see how much force is being applied. These visual cues can be integrated into the monitors that surgeons already use to see inside the body.

SensOR’s CEO Robert Brooks credits the team’s Hatchery mentors with helping them to articulate their vision.

“We had this wonderful technology, and we knew exactly what we were doing, but the only people who understood it were surgeons,” he says. “Our mentors were absolutely instrumental in helping us nail down exactly what our value proposition was so that we could connect with investors.”

SensOR’s initial market will be surgical training programs. Once the product is approved by Health Canada, the team hopes to start using it in real surgeries.

SensOR also received support from U of T’s Health Innovation Hub (H2i). Read more about SensOR.

Ricardo Harripaul, co-founder of Enrich Bioscience, at Hatchery Demo Day

$2,500 Orozco Prize: Enrich Bioscience — Earlier cancer detection

Enrich Bioscience formed around a technology that could detect cancer earlier using a fast, simple and non-invasive diagnostic test. It was founded by Ricardo Harripaul, a PhD student in the Faculty of Medicine, and Tarang Khare, who completed his PhD in molecular genetics and is now pursuing a part-time MBA at the Rotman School of Management.

All human DNA is tagged with small molecules called methyl groups, which attach to the DNA strand. The pattern of these molecules, known as the methylation profile, varies from cell to cell, and can act as a kind of molecular fingerprint. Each type of cancer has a distinct methylation profile. By extracting DNA and examining the methylation profile, the team can identify which cells are cancerous and which are not, as well as the type of cancer.

“Our Hatchery mentors have done so much for us,” says Harripaul. “We are scientists and didn’t know much about business. They spent a lot of time teaching us how to present to people who aren’t scientists.” The team has applied for a provisional patent on their technology and aims to start the validation experiments next year.

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Startups to watch from Demo Day at U of T Engineering’s Entrepreneurship Hatchery

$20,000 Lacavera Prize: BOMBERobotics — Exoskeletons for physiotherapy

$10,000 Lacavera Prize: SensOR — Force-feedback for safer surgery

$2,500 Orozco Prize: Enrich Bioscience — Earlier cancer detection