Ideas With Impact – 2025

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Do you think your research idea could have an impact on the wider world.  Then consider the Ideas with Impact competition.  It is coming up again on Thursday May 1st. It will help you see another side of your work – by helping you think about how it might have a real-world impact. Plus you can win up to $3,000 and get a “leg up” on your career.

What do you see – there are two potential identifiable images; can you see both?

 

Key Dates:

Register to participate (free for all participants – grad students, postdocs, and faculty) – register here email

 Tuesday, April 8th, 5:15 pm – Zoom briefing and Q&A session

 Monday April 28th, 9:00 am – Poster submission for printing (details to come)

 Thursday May 1st, 3:00-5:00 pm – Ideas with Impact competition

 

“I might have something to share, but I’m not sure – can I talk to someone about this first?”

Great question! If you think you might want to present something but would like to talk it through before committing to preparing a poster, please join us for a 45-minute briefing session on April 8th at 5:15pm by Zoom. We’ll explain more about what we’re looking for in the posters and will answer all your questions.

 

Ideas with Impact – Background on the Competition:

“What do I have to do?”

The Ideas with Impact competition is based on your existing research work focuses on another side of your work – its potential impact on the world – by preparing a poster that answers the following questions (we suggest using graphics and numbers and just a little text to do this):

    1. What problem are you trying to solve?
    2. How big is this problem? i.e., how many people does it affect, and what economic orimpact would it have?
    3. Why haven’t other approaches worked?
    4. What’s your insight about how to solve this problem? (or How is your approach different from what others have done?)
    5. Do you have an idea for a product or service that could solve the problem? (tell us what you can that’s not confidential)
    6. Do you think your idea is patentable or otherwise protectable? (if so, tell us the outcome of the idea/ solution not the patentable parts)
    7. If you think your idea has commercial potential, what segment of the market would you serve?

 

“What was that about prizes?”

There will be three prizes of $3000, $2000, and $1000 to the ideas that have the most promise to be impactful, if put into practice.

The winners will also be offered a guaranteed spot in our Summer Entrepreneurship Program (SEP), in order to develop your idea further if you choose.  The program offers one-to-one mentorship and brief modules on starting a business.  If you are interested in SEP you can go to here.

 

“What are the event details?”

The Ideas with Impact Competition will be held in the ICICS lobby on May 1 from 3-5pm with snacks and drinks.

You will be asked to present the commercialisation of your idea to the judges, and they will ask a few question in order to generate a score.  The highest scoring three posters will receive a prize.

Winners will be announced at the event

Ideas With Impact – 2024

Ideas With Impact is a new annual showcase and competition that invites ICICS graduate students and postdocs to look at their research from a different perspective and ask what impact their research can have in practice. Students and postdocs work with our Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Francis Steiner and HATCH Operations manager, Fatima Damji, along with our e@UBC / HATCH MBA summer interns, to think through what it would take to translate their research into practice and how much of an impact that translation could have on the world. We held our inaugural Ideas With Impact event on May 30, 2024 in the ICICS atrium, and saw a wide variety of projects presented from many fields. Congratulations to all the entrants for taking the time to re-imagine their research from a different perspective.
Special congratulations to this year’s IWI winners:

1st prize ($3000)

Musanna Galib, PhD student, Mechanical Engineering (Supervisor: Prof. Mauricio Ponga) – High-performance, safe, and inexpensive zinc-based batteries for stationary energy storage

2nd prize ($2000)

Gargi Mitra, Postdoctoral Fellow, Electrical and Computer Engineering  – Med-AI-Sentinel: AI-enabled software tool that identifies security risks when integrating medical devices into networks

3rd prize ($1000)

Maryam Aliabadi, Postdoctoral Fellow, Computer Science (Supervisor: Prof. Margo Seltzer) – Autograding for short- and long-answer questions in the Prairielearn platform

Special thanks to our judges:

Dr. Jane Wang, Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering

Dr. Sean Lumb, Interim Director, entrepreneurship@UBC

Karen Boodram, Entrepreneur in Residence

Michele Wallcraft, Executive in Residence

Francis Steiner, HATCH Entrepreneur in Residence

Dr. Tony Hodgson, Interim Director ICICS

And to the e@UBC / HATCH Venture Development Specialist Team:

Smruti Savkur, Engagement Specialist

David Lim, MBA Intern

Mengjiao Ma, MBA Intern

Nicole Pinto, MBA Intern

Debbie Adejumo, MBA Intern

Raman Chawla, MBA Intern