Engineering team off to Hong Kong for business competition

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/collapsible-bike.jpg” caption=”The collapsible bike trailer, invented by Lindsey Kettel and Cory Minkhorst.”]A team of four engineering students from McMaster are among the finalists heading to the first annual Hong Kong Polytechnic University Innovation and Entrepreneurship Student Challenge being held in Hong Kong from June 3 to 9.

The McMaster team, one of only 30 chosen from 120 applicants, will be pitching their business plan for commercializing a collapsible bicycle trailer. The members are Lindsey Kettel, mechanical engineering and management, Cory Minkhorst, mechanical engineering and management, Deborah Lee, chemical engineering, and David Russell, software engineering and management.

Kettel and Minkhorst invented the collapsible bicycle trailer for their final year capstone project and went on to win the Innovative Design category at the Ontario Engineering Competition in February and place second at the Canadian Engineering Competition in April, where they also won the Environmental Award.

The Hong Kong competition will see competitors presenting to an international panel of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and academics. Twelve of the 30 teams presenting on June 5 will go on to the final round on June 6. Teams are competing for cash prizes of ($US) $5,000 for first place, $3,000 for second, and $1,500 for third. There will also be theme awards of $2,000 each for categories such as Health and Wellness, Lifestyle, and Environment and Sustainability.

Of the 30 university teams that qualified from around the world, seven are from Canada. The competition web site can be found at www.polyu.edu.hk/polyuchallenge/index.php.