Posted on March 26: $25,000 grand prize nurtures student entrepreneurs

Life's been fun and games for Chris Benoit since winning the $25,000 CampusIncubator award.

The third-year McMaster software engineering student, with Peter Hitchcock, third-year McMaster arts and science student, and Mark Mikulec, a computer science student from Brock University, are recipients of the 2003 CampusIncubator Business Plan Challenge for Iron Fusion, an entertainment software development company.

“We supply the core software component of a computer game, which makes it possible for others to use this technology to make their own games,” Benoit explains. “The whole idea about this invention is that we are making it easier for others to create games. People have great ideas they just don't know how to separate the content of the game from the code.”

The $25,000 prize is welcome support for the start-up company, Benoit says. “The money will really help us make a lot of progress. Within the next year or two we hope to have the engine complete and by the end of 2004 we hope to complete a game called Dog Fight, which is a tactical space combat game.”

The software also enables urban visualization, he says. “Instead of using blueprints or schematics, you can use this software to get a 3-D model in its own virtual world, including wind and traffic.”

“This is something we have all been interested in for a long time,” says Benoit, who with Hitchcock and Mikulec leads a nine-member team. “We have learned a lot from what we have seen and feel we can make it even better. Games are still so new. They have really only been around for 20 years.” But, he adds, it is a growing industry, noting in 2003, it made about $7.7 billion in U.S. sales. “It rivals the music and movie industries. It's an exciting time to be in it because there are so many exciting things happening.”

Others have also indicated interest in the software, Benoit says. Niagara College, for example, is interested in investing in the Iron Fusion software to use as a model to teach students in a future post-graduate program in game development.

“Iron Fusion has a great product, revenue and team chemistry, the key ingredients for a successful startup,” says Khalid Nainar, founding director of the McMaster CampusIncubator Business Plan Challenge.

The Challenge, which runs each year from September to April, starts with a series of workshops designed to help participants better understand what's involved in starting a new company. It covers the basics of writing effective business plans, intellectual property issues and raising capital. Students from all faculties at McMaster at the undergraduate and graduate levels can enter the competition. A panel of experienced entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and legal professionals judge the business plans.

“The quality of the business plans submitted is testimony to the valuable service this program will provide the University in the years to come, to help find and nurture new companies from the McMaster community,” adds Nainar, associate professor and chair of Accounting and Financial Management Service. “The competitors and the winners are all budding entrepreneurs who will do McMaster University proud and benefit resource wise through the one per cent equity stake that McMaster will have in the new company.”