Engineering and Business students are winners of the Wes Nicol Business Competition 2011

March 04, 2011

The Nicol Award is a national program designed to generate and reward interest in entrepreneurship on the part of undergraduate students in any faculty or field of study at participating universities across Canada. Launched in 1997, this program now awards over $100,000 in prize money each year to individual students or student teams who submit winning plans for their entrepreneurial business ideas. Congratulations to our winners

Local Competitions

The central element of the Nicol Entrepreneurial Award is a local competition held at each participating university. Individual students or student teams begin by registering for the competition and submitting an outline of their plan to their university’s Nicol Award faculty advisor. Teams whose entries are accepted are then asked to prepare a more detailed plan, and after additional review, a set of teams is invited to make a formal presentation to a local panel of judges. Typically the local judges are members of the faculty, local business people, alumni, and other entrepreneurs from the local community. The local panel of judges selects three winners from that campus, and cash prizes are awarded to each of these three winning teams as follows:

* $5,000 for first place   * $2,000 for second   * $1,000 for third
The first-place team from each campus is then entered into the National Nicol competition.

1st place (Gold Medal):

Therma Technology.  (Business Model Summary)
Patrick Trahan (Engineering), Shea Murphy, Karl Clement, Nick de Bony

Therma Technology is a business run by four student entrepreneurs:  Patrick Trahan, a Masters in Engineering - Gas Dynamics student, Shea Murphy a 4th year Bachelor in Commerce student, Karl Clement a 3rd year bachelor in commerce student, and Nick de Bony, a 4th year Bachelor in Commerce Student. Our vision is to have a world where energy generation and consumption can be achieved to be sustainable, and our mission is that we are the leader in thermal storage technology and are positioning ourselves to become the market leader in geo-exchange technologies.

What Professor Bruce M. Firestone, B. Eng. (Civil), M. Eng.-Sci., PhD. Said about Therma Technology:

“The idea of using a thermal battery is not new—folks used to cut ice in the winter, pack it in sawdust and enjoy cold drinks and fresh food all summer. Therma Tech is taking this concept and applying it to heating and cooling homes and commercial buildings using an innovative, inexpensive thermal battery that has been proven to work—the Diefenbunker, in Carp, Ontario, which has a similar type of thermal battery, hasn’t needed a heating or cooling system for nearly 50 years,”

I believe that Therma Tech is an enormous opportunity to lower fuels bills for heating and cooling by as much as 85% over the next generation and I think we are going to hear a great deal about Therma Tech over the next decade and more.

2nd Place (Silver Medal):

Vertigrow
Duane van Gaalen, Luc Lendrum (Engineering)

By significantly reducing the number of sick days and increasing worker productivity and satisfaction, vertical gardens provide a clear bottom-line benefit to
businesses. Studies by NASA and various universities have demonstrated the capability of vertical gardens to dramatically improve workers’ health by cleaning the air that they breathe. Vertigrow has developed industryleading technology, minimizing maintenance and increasing longevity, and provides a comprehensive service plan with fixed costs and guaranteed results. Vertigrow’s vertical gardens are a beautiful and profit-generating tool for businesses to showcase their commitment to environmentally sustainable practises.

What Professor Bruce M. Firestone, B. Eng. (Civil), M. Eng.-Sci., PhD. Said about Vertigrow:

This group evolved a business model that allows medium sized and large enterprises to add vertical gardens to their workspaces to reduce workplace illness and improve workplace productivity. This group of student entrepreneurs was led by Mr. Duane van Gaalen. The engineer for the Vertigrow team is Luc Lendrum, in Civil Engineering.

3rd Place (Bronze Medal):

Platon.com (Executive Summary)
Matthew Conley, François-Xavier Bonneville (Engineering), Will Robertson, Benjamin Butty

Platon.com is an internet platform that allows users to track their carbon footprint while also providing free recommendations on how to save money by creating a greener lifestyle. Using an interactive online interface, users will have the opportunity to input information regarding their house, preferred mode of transportation and lifestyle. This information would include aspects such as the home heating system, the type of windows in the home, insulation, appliances, current total energy consumption as well as commuting time. By evaluating the results and comparing data of the average person in a user’s area, the platform will generate a PlatonScore which would indicate a user’s overall carbon footprint. In this system, a user would seek to lower their PlatonScore as much as possible. François-Xavier Bonneville is a 4th year Mechanical Engineering student at the University of Ottawa.

What Professor Bruce M. Firestone, B. Eng. (Civil), M. Eng.-Sci., PhD. Said about Platon.com:

This group has developed a method to scale CO2 emissions. What you can measure you can change and the objective is to give people a way to actively engage and lower their CO2 emissions. This applies to individuals and businesses. Unlike other CO2 services, the Platon Score shows you how to actually go about lowering your CO2 emissions by, for example, showing you that by buying a different vehicle and/or moving closer to work, your score can drop by X%. This group of student entrepreneurs was led by Mr. Matthew Conley.

This year’s National Nicol Competition and Gala will take place March 28–29, 2011 in Ottawa.

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