From classroom to community: Student business venture benefits individuals with Autism

by Jevta Lukic

When five undergraduate students — Alice Chen, Matt Armstrong, Joanne Chen, Robbie Hsieh, and Justin Findlay — enrolled in the fourth year class “Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation” at the Beedie School of Business, they had little idea that their final class project would propel them onto the real-world business stage.

As part of their class assignment, the students started an innovative, market-oriented social venture with a goal to providing people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) with meaningful employment opportunities. These aspiring change makers, who worked under the aptly-titled team name “Aspire”, leveraged the characteristics of autism as a competitive advantage in the software testing industry. The result: Their venture will build a qualified network of software testers and match those individuals with employment contracts in the industry.

By doing so, they have shown a unique sensitivity and understanding of the uniqueness of autism. The innovative idea is based on the premise that high-functioning individuals with ASD are well suited for code verification software testing.

“We did not think of individuals with ASD as having negative traits, but rather as positive traits that can be used for software testing,” said Robbie Hsieh, one of the Team Aspire members and project co-founders. “We did not see it as a liability in the workplace, but rather as a unique opportunity.”

During their preliminary research, the students had located a similar venture in Denmark, which offered them support and guidance throughout their project. “We had to do a lot of testing of our ideas to see if they would actually be feasible,” said Hsieh. “We talked to the Autism Society of British Columbia and they were interested in working with us.”

The idea also resonated with the local business community. Team Aspire’s project took the top prize at Opportunity Fest- a Beedie School of Business entrepreneurship competition held at SFU’s Surrey campus. Judges from the wider business community, including academics and prominent industry leaders, named Aspire’s project as best among more than 50 student participants at the marketplace-style exhibition.

The ambitious project is a testament to the SFU class “Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation”, which aims to teach students to design sustainable, market oriented, and socially impactful ventures. “More than just community engagement I think it is entirely critical to instill a sense of responsibility, and possibility, in our emerging leaders,” said Shawn Smith, who teaches in the class and is a cofounder of Global Agents- a United Nations recognized organization that finds sustainable strategies to combat global poverty.

“Simon Fraser University has a lot of opportunities for students to engage with local organizations and projects in ways that both draw the school closer to the communities its rooted in, and create real value for both the partners and students.”

Moving forward, Hsieh says that two members of the original project group, Alice Chen and himself, are currently launching the pilot project. “We are taking the next steps and talking with different software companies and the Autism Agency of British Columbia to see if they would be interested in starting this project with us,” said Hsieh.

“The community helps the business, so it only makes sense that business should give back to the community. I think every business should give back to the community.”