We are thrilled to announce the 2023 regional winners of the Ingenious+ Innovation Challenge! These talented and innovative students from across Canada have captured our hearts and minds with their bright ideas and their passion for making a positive impact in the world.
From coast to coast to coast, these young innovators have come up with diverse solutions to the challenges facing their communities and beyond. Their entries cover a wide range of fields, from diversity and inclusion to technology to climate change, and they were chosen from among hundreds of applicants across Canada for their creativity, ingenuity, and dedication to innovating for good.
At Ingenious+, we believe that innovation is about doing things better and making positive change. Our youth innovation challenge is designed to give young people aged 14 to 18 across Canada the opportunity to generate solutions to community, Canadian, and global challenges. Ingenious+ offers monetary awards, and learning and mentorship opportunities to help young innovators grow their innovations. The regional winners will have the chance to participate in the national competition, where they will be eligible to receive even more monetary, mentorship and learning opportunities to further develop their innovations.
We are so proud of our regional winners and can’t wait to see where their innovations will take them next. Their achievements show that the future is in good hands and that Canada’s next generation of leaders, thinkers, and doers is already hard at work. Congratulations to all our regional winners, and keep up the amazing work!
See all the regional winners listed from East to West below and learn about their innovations:
New Brunswick
A.P.P. (Allergy. Protection. Program.)
Moriya Boyle, NB
A.P.P. (Allergy. Protection. Program.) identifies and highlights specific allergens in products by allowing the user to scan the ingredients list. Most of the time terms used in the ingredients list can be so scientific for such simple terms that can be the difference between life and death at times. Additionally, it goes a step further and provides alternatives for products.
Needles For Threads
Daniel Mooney, NB
Needles for Threads is a nonprofit organization in which the idea is to have a location where individuals who are homeless due to substance use and abuse can exchange used needles for essentials, such as various types clothing (Such as coats, shirts, pants, sweaters, underwear and socks), food and drink.
Port City Virtual Tours
Sepeh Bastani, NB
The Port City Virtual Tours company will help newcomers, seniors, students, tourists and people who suffer from fear of getting trapped in a building to be able to find their way around in the buildings and public places that they are not familiar with by using a virtual tour.
Refillable Hygiene Station
Paige Wright, NB
The refillable hygiene station will allow students from grade 6 to 8 free access to hygiene items such as body soap, conditioner, shampoo, which will be able to be in a refillable form by refilling the product from a dispenser with bottles. Toothpaste tablets and toothbrushes will also be provided to students that don’t have access.
Student Mental Health 120
Alexander Perkins, NB
A life role credit course for high school students to take that focuses on mental health resilience and education. This is a course on both the present state of someone’s mental health and how to manage it for the future of employment or post-secondary.
Student Stories NB
Lily Van Beek, NB
Student Stories NB is a digital, student-run publication, where high school students from around New Brunswick can submit articles and creative pieces about the issues that they deem important. The aim is to provide youth with opportunities to explore creative writing and journalism, whilst expanding their portfolios and developing essential writing and critical thinking skills.
The Period Project
Kaylee Johnson, NB
The Period Project is a way to provide free menstrual hygiene products for people who are unable to afford them. Period poverty is on the rise in Canada with one in three menstruaters experiencing the effects in their lifetime. The goal of collecting and providing these products for people will be accomplished through the donation boxes.
Voice Controlled Robot
Leah Brown, NB
My innovation consists of a voice-controlled robot with implemented machine learning to recognize certain words. Currently, it is in the form of a rover that moves to the voice commands front, back, left and right. This is a prototype for future large-scale projects.
Quebec
Calmos
Yasmine Ben Arous, QC
Calmos is an innovative application designed to remotely monitor anxious students in real time, providing them with the necessary support and resources to manage their mental distress. This is performed by an artificial intelligence synchronized to a wearable device that collects valuable data related to certain physiological symptoms of stress.
Clothes with QR code technology for companies and schools
Amir Frih, QC
We add a third dimension to clothing, a dimension made possible by QR code technology. We place promotional content directly on the T-shirt, such as videos, photos, website movies and many other things that can help the person wearing this garment to convey much more information than with a simple fabric.
Second Soap
Matis Leandre Cabrolier and Virgile Volclair, QC
Second Soap recycles unused soaps from hotels by collecting, cleaning and redistributing them to charities in need. This initiative helps the environment by reducing waste and social assistance by providing staples. Join Second Soap for a sustainable and more equitable future.
Take A Byte Out of CO2
Cassidy Engo and Lauren Engo, QC
Our innovation is a proven 3-part plan to effectively reduce our individual electronic CO2 (eCO2) footprint. We created an educational video and a simple integrated eCO2 calculator on a website to help people understand their screen time viewing’s impact on the environment, then implemented application limits. In minutes, anyone can effectively reduce their eCO2 footprint and help our environment.
Ontario
Abbey Business Club
Simone Beshtoev, ON
Abbey Business Club is an initiative aimed at equipping young women with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in the business world. Through mentorship programs, workshops, and networking opportunities, we empower young women to overcome the barriers they face and make a difference in the world of business.
Agro-Based Deicers
Errita Xu, ON
Recognition of the environmental and physical implications caused by the widespread use of road salts has sparked urgency amongst scientists and governments globally. Upon testing beet, corn, and grape skin deicing treatments, Errita’s innovation pinpoints the best composition of agro-based deicers after experimentally assessing their deicing abilities, environmental longevity, and social feasibility in comparison to traditional road salts.
B&Bee
Diara Jones, ON
What’s the buzz about B&Bee? Bug Hotels, Insect Houses; whatever you want to call them, and despite how greatly these structures can vary in shape, size, and material, they share the same goal: provide sanctuary to insects through shelter. B&Bee – my take on a bee hotel – has three main fundamentals that inspire change: restoration, education, and research.
Biofortification of wheat using Vitamin D
Naira, Kakkar, ON
This project features an innovation under the field of biotechnology. It consists of a design made for biofortification a staple crop- wheat with an important vitamin – Vitamin D. This innovation makes use of transgenic techniques like the CRISPR and the AMT method.
Computer Operating Assistance System Technology (COAST)
Meihuan Yu, ON
COAST technology transforms a regular optical mouse to allow people with upper limb motor disabilities to access computer technologies. Whether it be Nikes or dress shoes, this innovation fits into a variety of popular footwear to ensure that people of all abilities can strive to utilize optical mouse functions., ,
Conception of Contraception
Ada Yao, ON
My innovation focuses on solving the issues of poverty and climate change by providing contraceptive resources for a better standard of living for low-income households. I also help reduce carbon emissions from developed countries by reducing the number of unintended pregnancies in poverty, which benefits everyone around the world.
Eco L’eau
Olivia Day, ON
Eco L’eau leverages existing technologies in novel configurations to reutilize water for gray water and sewage applications in an ecological, responsible manner. Eco L’eau treats the gray water and sewage applications by using Ozone filtration system and a UV light as an extra precaution. The recycled water is treated and reused again.
Enviro-Filament
Aryan Jha and Ansh Vaishnav, ON
Our innovation recycles PET plastic (a common material in plastic water bottles, soda bottles, and beverage packaging) into PETG. PETG is a common 3D printing filament that is strong, food-safe, and non-toxic. PETG can also be recycled, leading to a real solution to plastic pollution instead of methods to delay the effects.
Eyelight
Avery Mullett, ON
The misuse of lights causes many problems that harm the environment and your wallet. Eyelight is a smart light designed to address electricity waste, LED-caused sleep issues, light intensity, and light pollution. My light is a weight sensor operated, naturally dims based on the natural lighting, is LED, and changes to a warmer tone at night.
GradeAssist
Daniel Martinez, ON
GradeAssist is the modern assistant for grading students’ written assignments. Equipped with innovative artificial intelligence technology including natural language machine learning, the platform provides feedback and creates graphs based on the criteria and other relevant information from the given writing piece. It will help teachers to streamline the grading process, avoid biases and focus their time on educating.
Hear Us Out: Amplifying Youth Perspectives
Marleah Roche, ON
My innovation aims to create a platform that amplifies marginalized youth voices through interviews, podcasts, and content featuring their perspectives and experiences on equity and inclusion issues. By doing so, we hope to broaden the understanding of these topics and empower youth to share their ideas and stories.
Inspo: For Caregivers
Allan Guo, ON,
Inspo is an app designed to help caregivers find the support they need. With its intuitive mobile interface, Inspo is revolutionizing the caregiving experience by providing caregivers with peer connections, expert resources, and tools to simplify caregiving.
Joey Helps
Ryan Shum, ON
Joey Helps helps destigmatize and demystify mental health to assist those between 18-24 find mental health practitioners and discover more about their own health. Our website is an educational platform and a dual marketplace where suppliers (early career professionals) and demanders (Gen Zs) meet.
Novel Carbon Sequestration Approach
Taira Mehta, ON
Graphene production creates gigatonnes of greenhouse gases and is incredibly costly ($100/gram). Using plasmonics, carbon dioxide caught in the atmosphere can be transformed into graphene at a cost 300% below market, offsetting the costs of running a Carbon Capture operation while creating a useful material in the process.
Tackling Canada’s Discriminatory Water Crisis: Optimizing SCOBY Biofilms to Develop Renewable Living Filter Membranes
Maya Lekhi and Lauren Robinson, ON
Our project explores how we may optimize SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast) biofilm growth to produce a suitable living filtration membrane to address the ongoing Indigenous water crisis. Growth was compared across test samples with varying exposure to external environment, heat, and container materials, and applied to 3D-modeling a sustainable filtration system to ensure accessible drinking water.
The Dive Deep Exhibit
Mia Siu Chong, ON
The Dive Deep Exhibit is an in-person and interactive exhibit, consisting of seven different immersive hands-on stations, each tackling a different aspect of ocean sustainability and how it relates to the climate crisis such as illegal fishing, bycatch, gillnets, and the process from bait to plate.
The Key of Sight Music Program for Disabled & Vulnerable Individuals
Thivya Jeyapalan, ON
The Key of Sight provides specialized music programs to disabled individuals in Canada. We hope to create resources and workshops that encourage neglected youth, adults, and other vulnerable people to express themselves through music. Free online curriculum will be curated for parents and educators to use with individuals via our website/course platform where they can deliver the music content independently.
Triage.AI
Vinaya Sharma, ON
Triage.AI is an AI-based chatbot and management system designed to optimize emergency call centres, specifically 911 hotlines, by answering, assisting, triaging, and streamlining call centre processes until a real dispatcher becomes available. Triage.AI combats the rising issue of increased emergency wait times and holds, gets information flowing into the system, and runs AI algorithms to aid in dispatch processes.
U-VAD – Ultrasonic Visual Assistance Device
Elijah Cosby, ON
My innovation is a wearable object detection assistive device for individuals who are blind. It utilizes ultrasonic sensors to detect obstacles in the user’s path and indicates the distance of the said obstacle by giving auditory messages through headphones/earbuds to help build confidence and bring comfort to its users when navigating unfamiliar areas.
Wave Care
Harsehaj Dhami, ON
Wave Care is a machine learning (ML) application programming interface (API) that analyzes brainwave (EEG) data to aid depression diagnostics. The technology works towards reducing the 65% depression misdiagnosis rate by adding a layer of quantitative data to current diagnostics procedures. Through its API model, it can be seamlessly integrated into hospital software and put into practice rapidly.
Northwest Territories
Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway (ITH): Vegetation cover classification and ground displacement assessments due to the permafrost thaw
Kieran McCarthy, NT
This project is divided into two stages. The first stage uses optical satellite imagery such as Landsat-8 and RapidEye for vegetation cover classification and its changes before and after the ITH is built. The second stage of the project uses Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) datasets such Radatsat-2 and Sentinel-1 to evaluate ITH ground displacement patterns due to the permafrost thaw.
Saskatchewan
Blitz Remedial Reading Project
Matraca Maxwell, SK
In the “Blitz Remedial Reading Program”, high school volunteers offer extracurricular time to read with students in grades K-3 to improve academic skills and reading comprehension due to educational deficiencies suffered during COVID-19.
Carbon Tracker: Your Personal Sustainability Coach
Leon Wei, SK
Carbon Tracker is a mobile app designed to help individuals reduce their carbon footprint and make sustainable lifestyle choices. With personalized recommendations based on location, lifestyle habits, and purchasing behavior, the app offers real-time feedback on the environmental impact of user choices. Users can track progress, earn rewards, and receive incentives for sustainable choices. Carbon Tracker aims to promote sustainability.
Plan Gratitude
Jaelin Caverhill, Eileen Danaee and Ashton McNamara, SK
Plan Gratitude is a mental health-based online platform that takes the stress and awkwardness out of thanking a loved one or even an acquaintance! Through our website, users can anonymously send gratitude messages in an easy and accessible manner. Our platform aims to promote random acts of kindness and positive mental health practices within the general population.
Posy Paks Initiative
Ava Christoffel, SK
Posy Paks is a community-based initiative, that strives to provide support to those experiencing “period poverty” and normalize the conversation surrounding menstrual periods. “Period Poverty” is a term used to describe the challenges that many women and girls face, to access supplies for their menstrual periods. Posy Paks has worked to counter that, by donations given through partnerships.
Shoes for Underprivileged Children
Rachel Engbers, SK
I became aware of a need for shoes, at one of the inner-city schools in Regina, Saskatchewan, where all the students live below the poverty line. I began collecting gently used shoes and was also able to secure some financial donations I could put towards meeting this need. To date, I’ve been able to donate over 50 pairs of shoes.
Treatment of New Ukrainians in Canada
Sofiia Koshelieva, SK
After the Russian invasion in Ukraine, many Ukrainians fled to Canada or other countries for their safety. The biggest problems the newcomers are facing are language and housing. Though a lot of other organizations try to help them by donating many things and support, many Ukrainians still do not feel welcome in new countries. What happens next?
Alberta
5iveFilter
Allison Yang, AB
A portable water filter that uses five layers of filtration to provide potable water. It can filter a variety of contaminants. It can filter up to 4000 liters of water – the equivalent of four years of use. Its aluminum casing can last for up to 65 years in rural communities. Ideal for outdoor enthusiasts and individuals waiting for longer lasting.
BlockVerify
Atharva Rao, AB
BlockVerify is a decentralized web app which allows businesses to record their transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. In addition to this, BlockVerify allows the recording of futures, a common type of financial instrument for small businesses. BlockVerify does all this through smart contracts, self-executing pieces of code.
End Hate: A Zine to Intervene
Ameena Taher, AB
I compiled and printed a zine with art from Muslim YEG youth. The goal of my zine is to spread awareness for racism and Islamophobia in our communities. 500 zines have finished printing in Calgary and will be distributed in cafes and bookshops across the city in the late spring.
INCITE (Introducing and Navigating Coding in Teens and Elementary)
Emily Morozoff, AB
Introducing and Navigating Code in Teens and Elementary, INCITE, is an initiative I started to educate and excite students in rural communities about technology. With support from my high school, I teach two technology classes (3 hours a week). This program allows me to incite a love for technology in the younger generation.
Toodle Tutor (AI)
Paul Sararu, AB
Toodle Tutor is an AI powered program that helps students receive a more personalized learning experience through the power of an AI language model in a safe and ethical way. It allows educators to decide what information the AI should reference to provide more accurate information and define how responses are made to maintain academic integrity in an educational space.
Youth Digital Talent
Max Du, AB
Youth Digital Talent is the first nonprofit in Canada dedicated to pair youth digital talent in project teams to develop digital solutions and accelerate digital transformation for nonprofits and small businesses. This solution uniquely solves the digital skills gap and prepares youth for future employment. Talent students gain hands-on work experience and contribute meaningfully for both social and economic good.
Yukon Territory
EV conversion
Jackson Berry, YT
The project consists of taking a broken-down gas-powered car, removing the gas-related components and sourcing and fitting an electric motor where the engine used to be. This is a very sustainable solution to get gas powered cars off the road and EVs into the hands of average drivers!
British Columbia
A Low-Cost, 3D-Printed Exoskeleton that Suppresses Hand Tremors in Movement Disorder Patients
Aaron Zhao, BC
The “ExoHand” is a low-cost, 3D-printed, wearable exoskeleton that suppresses hand tremors in people with movement disorders. When picking up objects, the ExoHand locks the two degrees of freedom of the user’s wrist, thereby allowing them to hold anything in a stable position.
Artificial Intelligent Text Identifier
Chloe Nguyen and Shenru Hu, BC
My innovation is a machine learning model that distinguishes between human and written texts. With the release of ChatGPT, artificial intelligence has become an increasingly popular tool in the mainstream that people use for a myriad of jobs, but how do we identify these texts to better analyze its reliability, as misinformation is a key concern nowadays.
Current Atlas Website
Elizabeth Anderson, BC
Current Atlas is a website where people can learn, share, and discuss current global events. With news articles, forums, and weekly online video calls for open discussions, keeping up to date with world news has never been easier!
ECORivalry
Zeyus Spenta, BC
ECORivalry is an easy-to-use application which fosters competitiveness – for a great cause! Utilizing our app, users can create and/or join teams made up of eco-conscious individuals from all parts of their life – from school to their local park stewards’ group. By completing innovative challenges, users contribute towards our planet’s health, socialize, and gain reward points for their team!
ReFila – Turning Tennis Bottles into 3D Printing Filament
Bryan Ma, Siugen Goh, Tianhao Chen, Sunny Liu and Pichaiyut Peekanone, BC
reFila, is a startup with a focus on tackling pollution and bringing benefits to our community. We create 3D Printing filament from plastic tennis bottle waste which is turned into our products. We provide a sustainable and affordable alternative to keychains and filaments, allowing Canadians the opportunity to help combat pollution.
Saverte Cardbag made of Innovative Grape Skin & Leaf Leather
Shuchen Jia, BC
Saverte Company offers local hand-crafted card bags. 100% using existing and waste grape fibers from vineyards in Italy, Saverte card bags not only have a texture feeling even more supple than fine genuine leather but also provide convenient two pockets meticulously covered with soft recycled synthetic fibers that can hold up to 4 cards each with clean diagonal cut.
Skating Vision
Patrick Gu, BC
My innovation Skating Vision is a mobile app for speed skating that uses artificial intelligence to record skaters’ speed automatically. The user, a speed skater or a club, mounts a smartphone to point the camera at the ice. Using computer vision algorithms, the app recognizes the skater and determines their lap time. This data can be used to analyze performance.
The Anxiety Monitor
Zi Wei Li, BC
The Anxiety Monitor is a small wearable device that is able to monitor heart rate, perspiration and muscle tension and trembling to inform users of possible upcoming panic attacks and anxiety as well as analyzing the extent. After alerting the user of it, the device begins a breathing exercise to calm the user down and draw attention away from anxiety.
The Game Box,
Nirmay Singh, BC
I created The Game Box to make learning fun and interactive for kids through educational games that combine education and gaming. The games focus on subjects like math and puzzles and have received positive reviews for improving learning outcomes. The website is used by teachers and attracts an average of 1,000 users each week. Gaming can be a powerful tool.
VisionFix
Andrew Chen, BC
Our innovation is an application that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze car damage. Users can submit a picture of damage sustained by their car, and our application will return the type of damage, parts needed to repair the car, and links to buy those parts.
ZinniX
Anushri Sharma, Emily Cai, Simran Kaur, Reentika Awasthi and Aqsa Agro, BC
ZinniX is an innovative solution to the deforestation crisis, using Zinnia Elegans cells to 3D bio-print wood. By extracting Zinnia Elegans cells, a commonly found plant, the addition of hormones, and a biopolymer, we can create a bio-ink to develop wood. Using an extrusion-based bioprinter, we can physically print our wood products and use them for various commercial purposes.
