McMaster researchers celebrated at 12th annual Innovation Showcase

McMaster’s top innovators were celebrated at yesterday’s Innovation Showcase. Held at McMaster Innovation Park, the event featured thought-provoking panel discussions and presentations from McMaster researchers and startup companies about their ground-breaking discoveries and  how they are addressing a market need. The event closed with an awards ceremony to recognize the winners of the McMaster Innovator of the Year award, the Lifetime Innovator award and the poster competition.

Gina Agarwal, a professor in the department of family medicine and the McMaster Family Medicine Levitt Scholar won the Innovator of the Year award, which recognizes outstanding success in research innovation. Agarwal is the creator of CP@clinic – a chronic disease prevention, management and health promotion program that seeks to improve older adults’ health and quality of life by better connecting them with primary care and community resources. CP@clinic is already well-established in Ontario with 51% of paramedic services having implemented the program in their local communities.

“I am so pleased that this award recognizes the innovative nature of CP@clinic. The program serves vulnerable populations and has a huge impact on the lives of seniors. By connecting older adults living in social housing with health screening, education and referrals to health and community services, we’ve been able to improve their health and save health care spending through fewer calls to 911,” says Agarwal.

The Lifetime Innovator award, which recognizes career-spanning achievements in research innovation, went to Ali Emadi, Chair of McMaster’s CERC@MARC program – one of the world’s leading academic research programs in transportation electrification and smart mobility. Emadi is also founder, president and CEO of Enedym Inc. and Menlolab Inc. – two McMaster spin-off companies. Enedym is powering a new paradigm in the electric motor industry through novel switched reluctance motor (SRM) drive technologies and MenloLab is connecting engineers across the globe through secure Cloud data sharing.

“This award recognizes the excellent work of our diverse interdisciplinary team of researchers, engineers, students, and staff at CERC@MARC, Enedym Inc., Menlolab Inc., and Auper Motorcycles. Our story is part of the comeback story of Hamilton—The Electric City. Through innovation and commercialization, we are contributing to building the sustainable and equitable energy systems of tomorrow, together, today,” says Emadi.

Karen Mossman, McMaster’s vice-president, research presented the Innovator awards.

“Dr. Agarwal and Dr. Emadi are among McMaster’s best and brightest innovators. They have achieved so much during their illustrious careers at McMaster, and we are proud to recognize them as key leaders of our research community,” she said.

Gay Yuyitung, executive director of the McMaster Industry Liaison Office (MILO) presented the poster competition prizes. This year, 28 posters were created by faculty and students to showcase their research and technologies.

The Commercial Potential poster award recognizes a McMaster project that is most likely to be developed into a marketable product and make a strong socio-economic impact, as evaluated by the judges. The award went to biochemistry and biomedical sciences students Paige Chandran Blair and Justin Alvarado for their poster, “Mod3D: A low-cost, flexible modular system of live-cell microscopy chambers and holders.”

The People’s Choice poster award winners were voted by Showcase attendees. Four students from McMaster’s integrated biomedical engineering and health sciences (iBioMed) program and health, engineering science and entrepreneurship (HESE) program – Lily Shengjia Zhong, Hunter Csetri, Emnpreet Bahra and Esa Ahmad – took home the award for their poster, “The Manipulable Endotracheal Tube.”

“Thank you to everyone who participated in the poster competition for your fascinating research displays. Your inventions present solutions to some of our most pressing problems and hold tremendous potential for commercialization,” says Yuyitung.

For updates on next year’s Innovation Showcase and for research commercialization support, visit MILO’s webpage.