Emergicool wins first place at Experience Ventures Solutions Lab finale

The Experience Ventures Solutions Lab program wrapped last week, crowning team Emergicool as its first-place winners during the live finale at the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking.

Every year since its inception in 2021, Solutions Lab has selected a chosen local or regional challenge, inviting University of Calgary students to leverage entrepreneurial thinking as they develop solutions.

For this year's six-week program, students worked in teams to develop potential solutions to address the development and support of resiliency in communities in the face of natural disasters. For their efforts, each participant received an honorarium, with additional prize funds for the three teams that placed. 

The program was presented by Experience Ventures and powered by the Hunter Hub. Funded by the Government of Canada, Experience Ventures enables college and university students to make an impact alongside real-world innovators through entrepreneurial-thinking placements.

First-place winners propose a unique temperature-regulated storage box solution

During the finale, four teams pitched their solutions live to a panel of judges.

Emergicool, conceptualized by Rudrani Mukerji, Chloe Glenn and Isabelle Horsman (all three undergraduates from the Faculty of Science), proposed a temperature-regulated medical storage box. Incorporating ammonium nitrate ice packs, the box is ideal for safe transportation of medications during evacuations.

The second-place title (and people’s choice award) went to the team behind Eco-Prep, including Agamjot Singh and Jasnoor Bassi (both Faculty of Science), Felipe Rodriguez (Faculty of Law), Lujaina Eldelebshany (Schulich School of Engineering), and Sanjeevani Uppal (Haskayne School of Business). Eco-Prep presented a modular disaster-preparedness pack, customizable to address specific environmental risks across regions.

In third place was Ralli, an app that mobilizes community members to provide timely skill-matched assistance during natural disasters, empowering neighborhoods to support each other in times of crisis. Ralli was ideated and presented by Reeshad Faiyaz (Schulich School of Engineering), Moyin Sanyade (Faculty of Arts, Psychology), Grace Glenn (Faculty of Science), Sukriti Sharma (Schulich School of Engineering), and Youssef Abdelrhafour (Schulich School of Engineering).

Rounding out the final team was Tyra Lodriqkes (Communications and Media Studies, Faculty of Arts), Huda Syed (Cumming School of Medicine), Bradley Brunton (Social Sciences, Arts), Sofia Malhi (Science) and Cole Atkinson (Haskayne). Their solution, Sky-Relief, proposed using AI and drones to locate disaster-stricken areas in Canada, enabling efficient delivery of emergency supplies.

Helping students build entrepreneurial thinking skills through Solutions Lab

For Mike Procee, manager, project enablement at TC Energy, serving as a judge was a rewarding experience. 

“It was amazing,” says Procee, BSc (Eng)'13, MBA''21. “It was great to see all the teams come together, especially so quickly. It was very clear that everyone understood the assignment. They really took the time to understand the problem, and the solutions put forward were (thoughtful and meaningful).”

The finale is a testament to UCalgary’s continued dedication to its entrepreneurial activities. “It’s amazing to see everything the university is cooking up here, and I was glad to be a part of it,” says Procee, a current Doctor of Business Administration candidate with a focus on corporate innovation.

Along with Procee, the the judging panel included an impressive lineup of experts: Richard Lee-Thai, founder, Excuses to Connect; Tara Barnas, BGS'03, manager of the Social Innovation Initiative within UCalgary's Office of the Vice-President (Research); Rachelle Haddock, MEDes'10, manager of partnerships and engagement with the Office of Sustainability; and Justin Walford, a consultant and consumer-brand executive in the Canadian retail industry.

Seeing the program through from beginning to end is always a favourite project for Hunter Hub social innovation specialist Kurt White, who has been leading the delivery of Solutions Lab since 2022.

“The most fulfilling part is seeing the evolution of their ideas,” says White, MBA'23. “At the start of the program, they’re faced with a challenge question to sort through, and seeing them go from the very beginnings of ideation all the way to presenting a fully fleshed out idea is quite exciting.”

Solutions Lab helps students foster entrepreneurial thinking as they gain the skills they need to become career-ready, outside the context of a classroom. To learn more about the ethos behind Experience Ventures placements, visit its website, or follow on social media.