Wouldn’t it be nice if the work we did in school amounted to more than just a letter grade? Students at SFU, and particularly at Beedie, are fortunate that this isn’t a far-fetched want. With platforms like SFU Innovates, the Beedie Student Engagement Office, Venture Connection, RADIUS and more, it’s easy for Beedie students to launch schoolwork into the world and have an impact on our local and global community.
One of the opportunities that was presented to SFU students was the STEM Spotlight Awards. The STEM Spotlights Awards are designed like a typical Entrepreneurship and Innovation course at SFU. They are meant to catalyze interdisciplinary team work, and showcase creative ways of solving real world problems with a hands-on approach to translate theory into action. The difference is that the winner of this competition is awarded approximately $22,000.
Our team consisted of Mason Chow, Pierre Carruthers, Aileen Wong and myself. What made our team unique was that we were all from different disciplines; we had a MSE, Comp Sci, SIAT and Business student on our team. Our diversity played a vital role in our ability to make it to the finals.
We represented SFU in a manner that warranted the CTO of Unbounce to approach us after the competition and encourage us to continue to keep in touch with them and develop our product. He described our product, which essentially entails creating the infrastructure for AI to “intuitively” navigate the web, as something that will redefine how we interact with the web. This opportunity allowed our team to connect with one of the leading marketing companies in the world, and develop a product that they could take to market. This is not normal.
I am extremely grateful for this opportunity as it allowed me to create connections with people in the industry, develop a product that can potentially be implemented in society, and work with an amazing team who challenged me to redefine how I think.
If you have any questions about this experience, or some of the other amazing opportunities at SFU, please feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn. You can also visit the SFU Innovates, Beedie School of Business Student Dashboard, Venture Connection, and RADIUS websites.
Amar is a fourth year Beedie Student concentrating in Entrepreneurship and Innovation and Marketing, who fully embraces the Be Engaged culture and believes in collaboration. Amar is pursuing a degree in business because, to him, business is about creating value to people in an ethical and sustainable manner. This aligns with his value of crafting genuine relationships and a positive impact in our community.