Recap: DDSA Research Day

Many thanks to all students, faculty members, speakers, panelists, and judges who joined us on Monday, March 4 for the annual DDSA Research Day.

Dr. Khaled Hassanein, Dean, and Dr. Manish Verma, Associate Dean, opened the event with words of encouragement for our PhD students and continued support for growth and excellence in our department. After the opening remarks, Dr. Rajendra Srivastava, CEO & Founder, SeekEdgar LLC and the 2017 Baxendale Innovation Award winner at the University of Kansas, provided expert views on commercializing research.

We had 8 Student Business Challenge (SBC) participants who competed for CAD$1,800 in prize money by presenting their innovative ideas to the following panel of judges:

• Dr. Vishwanath Baba – Human Resources & Management, DSB
• Gay Yuyitung – Executive Director, The Forge
• Dr. Paul Snowdon – Strategic Management, DSB

Dr. Nick Bontis, Area Chair of Strategic Management, DSB, offered a session on entrepreneurship for business researchers. He shared his 32-ingredient “secret sauce” for impact and provided a copy of his book titled “Information Bombardment” with everyone present at the event.

We also hosted a panel discussion on commercialization of research. The session was moderated by Dr. Elkafi Hassini, Associate Dean (Research), DSB, with the following panelists:

• Dr. Abubaker Khalifa, MD – Co-Founder and COO at Moonrise Medical
• Sarrah Lal – Director, Innovation, Waterloo Ventures
• Glen Crossley – Associate Director, McMaster Industry Liaison Office

To wrap up the event, the panelists and judges presented awards and prize money to the three winners of the SBC and the winner of the Popular Choice award:

• SBC Winners:
  •  1st place – Nicole Rakowski
  • 2nd place – Mahdi Abouei
  • 3rd place – Fatemeh Navazi
• Popular Choice Award Winner: Hesam Nojavan

Congratulations to the winners and thank you to all participants!