Innovations win accolades
Brampton Guardian | June 5, 2011
Brampton teenagers displayed their minds for business and a social conscience during a unique competition for high school students.
For the last several years, the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board’s Business Subject Council has organized a business conference and competition created to get students thinking about launching entrepreneurial ventures that are both environmentally and socially responsible.
Ideaopolis was held last month at the Renaissance Convention Centre. More then 450 Grade 10 students from 12 schools across Brampton and Mississauga participated. Students from Brampton’s St. Roch Secondary School were awarded gold and silver during the event’s competition portion that involved about 50 students.
“As Ontario is moving into the creative age it is critical that we teach our business students to use their left and right brain to come up with creative solutions to new problems that will be facing our communities, while being environmentally friendly and socially conscious,” said Diana Prior, a business teacher at St. Roch and co-chair of the event.
As part of the contest, students are asked to create an innovative product that meets a need in society and shows respect for the environment while remaining socially conscious.
Competitors must conduct product, business, industry and consumer research for their projects. They produce a prototype and present a report containing all aspects of the business venture, including such details as production costs, promotions and competitive analysis.
Members of the business community serve as judges. The top ten ideas are presented with certificates and the top three are awarded gold, silver and bronze.
St. Roch student Michelle Mazzucca won first place for her innovation called HushFonez, an alternative to traditional headphones associated with levels of hearing loss when used to listen to loud music. She came up with the concept of earphones worn like earrings.
The product reduces the direct passage of music to the eardrum, but can still deliver sound and vibration to the listener. Second place went to St. Roch’s Vanetia R for her product called Poop Vac— a small contraption pet owners can use to clean up after their dogs while out in public. Bags used for the product seal in the waste, are biodegradable and can be flushed down a toilet.
Third place went to Matt Song, Radu Gugustea and Zal Machado, of St. Francis Xavier Secondary School in Mississauga, for their innovation called Recycling Lid. They designed an easy to open lid that is placed on blue boxes to stop garbage from flying out around the neighbourhood.
The event also included guest speakers on handling personal finances, the importance of saving and the risks of buying on credit.
Original article link at BramptonGuardian.com
