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Current and Past Cohorts

Since 2017, we have awarded $350,000 in Innovation Fellowships grants to 7 projects involving 14 professors, PhD students, and post-docs (14% female participants) who have also received personalized mentorship along with the funding in order to help them advance their research towards commercialization.

2024 - 2025 Chwang Seto Innovation Fellowship

Ikei Systems

Development of an Automated In-Field Nutrient Ion Sampling System

Minh Tran and Professor Thomas Szkopek, both Electrical and Computer Engineering, for “Ikei Systems”

Executive summary:

Nutrient imbalance is a significant source of inefficiency in hydroponics and indoor farming. The common approachto address this issue involves flushing and replacing the water growth medium, which leads to substantial waste ofboth water and nutrients. Current nutrient-ion analysis techniques, such as atomic absorption spectroscopy andconventional liquid-filled ion-selective electrodes, are costly to acquire and maintain, making automated operationimpractical. Our patented ion-selective field-effect transistor and patent-pending solid reservoir referenceelectrode provide a cost-effective solution for nutrient-ion monitoring, enabling the development of an automatednutrient balancing system. This grant will support the creation of an intervention-free sampling system for oursensors, allowing us to conduct pilot projects with indoor and hydroponic farms across Canada. In turn, this willelevate the technology readiness level of our sensors and bring us closer to realizing a fully automated nutrientbalancing system.


phoela health

Biosensor for Detecting Specific Bacteria in Food Safety Applications

Reza Abbasi and Professor Sebastian Wachsmann-Hogiu, both Bioengineering, for “Phoela Health”

Executive summary:

Ensuring food safety is a critical challenge for the food storage industry, where bacterial contamination can lead tosignificant health risks, costly recalls, and reputational damage. Current solutions, such as ATP-basedbioluminescence testing, are costly and limited to detecting the presence of bacteria without identifying specific strains.
Our invention introduces a CMOS-based biosensor that not only detects bacterial contamination but also specifiesbacterial strains, addressing an unmet need in on-site food safety diagnostics. Leveraging a proprietary bioluminescentimmunoassay, our biosensor offers comparable performance to traditional luminometers at approximately 1% of the
cost. This device is portable, cost-effective, and user-friendly, providing essential strain specific information thatenables food safety professionals to make informed, targeted decisions to mitigate contamination. Initial results,published in a high-impact journal, and recent feedback from industry experts highlight the market demand andpotential impact of our technology in revolutionizing food safety practices. Support from the Chwang Seto InnovationFellowship will allow us to advance our prototype to a market-ready solution, validating its performance in real-worldenvironments with target users in food storage and processing facilities.


This program was made possible thanks to the Chwang Seto family, in honour of the late Ronald Chwang (B.Eng.'72, D. Sc.'12), a pioneering entrepreneur and venture capitalist who served on the Faculty of Engineering Advancement Board.

2023 - 2024 Chwang Seto Innovation Fellowship

Professor Odile Liboiron-Ladouceur and Dr. Dusan Gostimirovic

A high-throughput microfluidic setup for rapid, automated and multiplexed antibiotic susceptibility testing

Dr. Dusan Gostimirovicand Professor Odile Liboiron-Ladouceur, both Electrical and Computer Engineering, for “PreFab AI Photonics”

Executive summary:

The semiconductor industry can now integrate light on a chip, leading to higher data capacity in communications and many emerging applicationssuch as sensors, optical quantum computing, and optical neuromorphic computing. Light, however, is more susceptible to fabrication process deviations than its electronic counterpart. Our invention uses machine learning (ML) to predict and correct deviations in the design of photonic (optical) integrated circuits prior to nanofabrication, saving on cost, time, and energy. Since the publication of our paper and recent discussions with potential customers at an international conference earlier in November, it is evident that our solution addresses an invaluable need for better design tools that enable the next generation of photonics. Indeed, our technology is the first ML-based solution to correct design prior to fabrication, which will have considerable impact in the industry. The WRSA grant will enable us to deploy our next minimum viable product to gather feedback and validate its performance with a target group of users.


This program was made possible thanks to the Chwang-Seto families, in honour of the late Ronald Chwang (B.Eng.'72, D. Sc.'12), a pioneering entrepreneur and venture capitalist who served on the Faculty of Engineering Advancement Board.

2023 - 2024 Di Pierro Innovation Fellowship

Marc-Antoine CampeauProfessor Corinne Hoesli

Dr. Marc-Antoine Campeau and Professor Corinne Hoesli, both Chemical Engineering, for “Towards the commercialization of a pro-healing bifunctional surface modification to improve endothelialization of prosthetic vascular grafts”

Executive summary:

Prosthetic vascular graft of small diameter remains a challenging type of implants to use due to the high risk of thrombosis and the rapid loss of patency. Coatings have been developed and commercialized to limit these risks but they fail to fully address the current limitation of hemocompatibility, resulting in a lack of proper alternatives to autologous vein graft for bypass surgery. The proposed application aims to translate our patented coating technology to polytetrafluoroethylene, an inherently inert material extensively used in the manufacture of blood-contacting implants. Our coating consists of antibodies and biomimetic peptides which respectively enable the capture and firm adhesion of endothelial progenitor cells promoting the in situ endothelialization of the implant surface. In contrast to current solutions, this approach allows for the rebuilding of the artery lining, the endothelium, which has innate anti-thrombotic properties. Our coating technology has the potential to have broad implications for the manufacture of blood-contacting medical implants where enhanced regeneration and integration into human tissues is critical to avoid long-term complications.


This program was made possible thanks to the generosity of ƬƵ alum Pasquale Di Pierro.

2019-2020 Di Pierro Innovation Fellowship

Dr. Hamed Rafezi (post-doc) and Professor Ferri Hassani for “Drill bit condition monitoring system for mining applications”

Executive summary:

The proposed application aims to further develop our patent-pending approach (PCT/CA2018/051236) for tricone drill Bit Condition Monitoring System (BCMS) in surface mining. The mining industry is moving toward automation and autonomous machinery for increasing the efficiency, precision and safety in production. A successful automated blasthole drilling condition monitoring and control system is a vital step forward. Drilling and blasting are two preliminary tasks in large surface mining operations and constitute more than 15% of the total costs. Tricone bits are preferred in most rotary drilling applications for blasthole drilling in a surface mining operation. Bit wear and subsequent failure of drill in the hole create major delays in removing the detached cone(s) from the hole to avoid damage to the rock crusher equipment. Fully autonomous drilling would not be achievable without a machine-sensing system for recognizing when the drill bit is worn and requires replacing.


This program was made possible thanks to the generosity of ƬƵ alum Pasquale Di Pierro.

Inaugural Innovation Fellows 2017

Winners of the 2017 Engine Innovation Fellowship Awards Competition
Presented by Professor Benoit Boulet, Director of the ƬƵ Engine

Photo of Dr. William Lepry and Professor Showan Nazhat, both Materials Engineering for their project on "Treating Sensitive Teeth and Beyond: A Multifunctional Bioactive Borate Glass" and Dr. Sajad Arabnejad, along with Professor Damiano Pasini and Dr. Michael Tanzer for their project on "The Engineering and Manufacturing of High Strength Fully Porous Biomaterials and Implants for Orthopaedic Applications".

Dr. William Lepry and Professor Showan Nazhat, both Materials Engineering for their project on "Treating Sensitive Teeth and Beyond: A Multifunctional Bioactive Borate Glass" and Dr. Sajad Arabnejad, along with Professor Damiano Pasini and Dr. Michael Tanzer for their project on "The Engineering and Manufacturing of High Strength Fully Porous Biomaterials and Implants for Orthopaedic Applications".


This program is made possible thanks to the generosity of ƬƵ alumni Pasquale Di Pierro andCesar Cesaratto.

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