Three
À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ
Engineering
graduates
are
the
first
recipients
of
theÌýnew
Scientists
and
Engineers
in
Business
Fellowship,
created
to
help
turnÌýinnovations
into
businesses.
Armen
Bakirtzian,
JS
Rancourt,
and
Ryan
DenommeÌýeach
receivedÌý$60,000
in
the
first
round
of
fellowships.
Two
more
rounds
of
fellowships
will
be
awarded
in
the
next
eight
months.
Ìý
The À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ program is supported by the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario) and offers fellowships to À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ graduates and recent alumni (graduates who earned their last À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ degree within five years) in a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) program who want to commercialize their innovations and start high-tech/STEM related businesses.
For Denomme, a mechanical engineering graduate, the fellowship is helpingÌýadvance the operations of Nicoya Lifesciences, his new company thatÌýhas developed a unique home diagnostics technology that can monitor a wide range of medical conditions and illnesses.
The fellowship is helpingÌýRancourt, a mechanical engineering graduate, and his partners withÌýHockey Robotics, a company that started as a fourth-year engineering project.ÌýDuring the next year, the fellowship will provide the funds needed to develop a more advanced version of Slapshot XT that will result in the employment of several co-op students as well as spin-off employment for clients of Hockey Robotics as their products evolve.
AndÌýBakirtzian, aÌýmechatronics engineeringÌýgraduate and chiefÌýexecutive officer, director, and co-founder of Avenir Medical Inc., would like to see his concept for intelligent instrumentation that can be used in hip replacement surgery become the future standard of care.ÌýPelvAssistTM is under development and expected to be available to orthopedic surgeons by early 2014. The fellowship will have a significant impact on getting this new technology into the hands of doctors sooner by helping to accelerate the steps needed to commercialize the product. []