A student team at simonfraser University developed a method to monitor fishing activities using artificial intelligence, and won the highest prize of US $25000 in the 2022 Dempsey entrepreneurship competition hosted by the Burke entrepreneurship center of foster college, University of Washington.
The competition has been going on for 25 years. 36 teams of undergraduate and graduate students living in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska and British Columbia participated in the competition. The University of Wisconsin awarded a total of $90000.
Ondeck fishery AI aims to solve the problem of global fish population reduction by helping commercial fisheries automatically analyze their fish caught at sea with the help of machine learning and computer vision. The team won the Herbert B. Jones Foundation Award of $25000. It also won a $5000 glympse IOT award.
Here are other top award winning teams:
The cathconnect team developed a catheter that can be disconnected from the catheter to improve safety. The team won the second prize of BeCu for $15000. It also won the $2500 traveller capital best business to business innovation award.
Onecourt is a team that develops real-time software solutions that make sports entertainment easier for people with visual disabilities. The team won the third WRF capital award worth $10000.
Nstent connection is a team developing natural absorption stents for patients undergoing gastrointestinal surgery. The team won the fourth $7500 friend award of Dempsey startup. It also won the $2500 Perkins Cole Award for best innovation / technology.
Last year’s winner was the afterlife list, which was designed to simplify the funeral planning process.
The Dempsey entrepreneurship competition also announced a new $1million donation from the Buerk center of the Washington research foundation to establish the WRF student innovation fund.
The company also announced its first alumni entrepreneur of the year award, which was awarded to amber Ratcliffe, who co founded nanostring technologies. Ratcliffe is now the CEO of arbor health, another biotechnology company she founded.