We are excited to announce the 2024 regional winners of the Ingenious+ Youth Innovation Challenge! These talented and innovative students from across Canada have captured our hearts and minds with their bright ideas and their passion for making a positive impact in the world. 

From coast to coast to coast, these young innovators have come up with diverse solutions to the challenges facing their communities and beyond. Their entries cover a wide range of fields, from diversity and inclusion to technology to climate change, and they were chosen from among hundreds of applicants across Canada for their creativity, ingenuity, and dedication to innovating for good. 

At Ingenious+, we believe that innovation is about doing things better and making positive change. Our youth innovation challenge is designed to give young people aged 14 to 18 across Canada the opportunity to generate solutions to community, Canadian, and global challenges. Ingenious+ offers monetary awards, and learning and mentorship opportunities to help young innovators grow their innovations on both a regional and national level.

Regional award recipients receive:

Download the Regional Awards overview (PDF)

We are so proud of our regional winners and can’t wait to see where their innovations will take them next. Their achievements show that the future is in good hands and that Canada’s next generation of leaders, thinkers, and doers is already hard at work. Congratulations to all our regional winners, and keep up the amazing work! 

See all regional winners listed from East to West below and learn about their innovations:

Nova Scotia

Cleatcycle

Charles McEwen, Aleksandar Kunovac, NS

Cleatcycle provides free soccer coaching and footwear for families in need. Cleatcycle helps families integrate into their community, create lifelong friendships, and improve their physical and mental health.

Mycelium Mix

Madeline McIntyre, NS

The innovation is a mixture of organic matter and oyster mushroom mycelium to lower the amount of contaminants in soil.

The Junior Community Dance Collective

Amanda Sia, NS

The Junior Community Dance Collective is an innovative dance initiative rooted in affordability, inclusivity, and artistic growth. The Collective is committed to making dance accessible, to a holistic dance experience, and creating a community.

The Sea Hive

Emma Creelman, Sophia Mulak, and Mayar Ibrabah, NS

The Sea Hive works with micro-ecosystems to promote natural filtration for improved water quality. It helps shellfish growth by growing mussels in the presence of seaweed and kelp to reduce heavy metals and bacteria.

Screening for Retinitis Pigmentosa with Smartphones

Harry Nickerson, NS

Retinitis Pigmentosa is a degenerative eye condition. Using a smartphone and the image classifier, Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) can be detected using a database of fundus photos.

Newfoundland and Labrador

Smart Prosthetic Hands for Enhanced Living

Frank Chen, NL

The smart prosthetic system uses embedded sensors to monitor and track external conditions of the prosthetic hand. Smart prosthetic hands with 3D–printed back bone fingers can mimic a human hand, enhancing the lives of people with partially lost fingers.

Tech For Community

Natalie Mitchell, NL

Tech for Community adapts toys for children with dexterity challenge and a chance to play. Student volunteers, aged 10 to 18, learn how to make and assemble switch-adapted toys.

New Brunswick

A Woman’s Perspective with Sophie – A Women’s Health Podcast

Sophie Fillmore, NB

Featuring interviews with medical professionals and young women, the podcast breaks the stigma of women’s health by educating young women about their health.

New Brunswick Investment Clubs

Issac Hierlihy, NB

The New Brunswick Investment clubs provide financial literacy and skills to high school students across New Brunswick.

A drone that saves lives

Maxim Michaud, NB

A drone that speeds up the search process for missing people. It uses artificial intelligence and a thermal camera to identify potential leads or people. It is a tool that will enable search teams to act faster and more effectively, and thus save lives

Quebec

Calmos

Yasmine Ben Arous, QC

Calmos is a web and mobile application accompanied by a connected watch for monitoring anxious students. This system also helps prevent anxiety attacks while providing support and tools to students during their time of distress. AI analyzes anxiety biomarkers accompanied by a self-management app.

Ontario

3D Bioprinting Soft Microrobotic “Niches” for Stem Cell Delivery

Cindy Cheng, ON

3D bioprinted Soft Micro-robotic ‘Niche’ systems (SMOREs) bridge the gap between theoretical and practical applications of stem cell therapy. A biomimetic microrobotic design allows for locomotion to target sites while embedded stem cells thrive, proliferate, and differentiate in a novel approach towards treating degenerative diseases.

A Brighter Tomorrow Activity Book

Shiven Taneja, ON

A Brighter Tomorrow is an educational environment-themed activity book for children ages 8 – 12. The book will explain potential solutions to global issues through fun activities and the steps children can take to help.

A Prototype of an Individualized and Portable Air Quality Monitor for Outdoors and Wildfires

Kendra Nayanka (Osa), ON

An outdoor portable air quality monitor (AQM) measuring fine particulate matter (1.0, 2.5, 10.0), number of particles, temperature, humidity, air pressure, and air quality index. Showing real-time data through display and audio messages, with a handheld device flagging times when users feel uncomfortable, thus offering individualized alerts based on each user’s sensitivities and tolerance level.

Aceflow

Krishiv Thakuria, ON

Aceflow is an evidence-based study tool that lets students turn their study material into unlimited practice questions and custom AI tutors, to prepare for tests efficiently and fill in knowledge gaps fast. Students can upload study material in the form of PDFs, URLs, and YouTube videos; that means items like textbooks, their teacher’s review material, recommended videos, and more.

Aidify

Edlyn To and Nico To, ON

Aidify is a free typing analytics tool that allows teachers to evaluate students on their writing process, not just on their final document. Teachers can generate a report on any Google Doc that they have edit access to. The report helps to evaluate student work habits, writing process, collaboration, and effort.

An Experiment with Microalgae!

Aliyan Boodhwani, ON

Using microalgae to remove nitrogen and phosphate from the wastewater, while also removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and reducing the environmental impact of wastewater plants.

BETTER MY CITY: Making Cities Safer using AI and Social Media

Arushi Nath, ON

“Better My City” app empowers young people to enhance urban safety and accessibility using AI-based image recognition and social media. It identifies urban issues from user-uploaded photos, such as litter or missing crosswalks, generates complaint messages, and submits them to city helplines.

BioBytes

Vinaya Sharma, ON

BioBytes is a platform automating data analysis, visualization, and insight generation for scientists with AI. By simply talking to your data in natural language, the AI agents help biologists and chemists save hours on time-consuming data processing tasks.

Bioinspired Alternative Asphalt

Sterling Huang and Luyu Vankerkwijk, ON

Developing a bioinspired alternative lignin-based asphalt material with aquaporin proteins doped into the molecular framework and waste product of paper production, to create an environmentally friendly and longer-lasting asphalt alternative.

Chronic Kidney Disease Risk Prediction Model

Krish Mendapara, ON

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) prediction model by analyzing specific protein biomarkers in this small blood sample with machine learning. This method offers earlier detection of CKD with greater accuracy and less invasiveness.

Cultura

Unmol Sharma, Bagavan Marakathalingasivam, and Alexander Yevchenko, ON

A tech-based, non-invasive, community-based farming management app for small scale farmers. It can help the average family farm manage its operations using the integration of technology and agriculture. The app includes weather alerts and forecasting capabilities, crop phenology tracker, a predictor for crop growth stages and optimizing resource use, financial tracking system and the ability to analyze communal market trends, leveraging collective user data for localized insights.

DIY Air Filters

Shiven Taneja, ON

Quiet and affordable DIY air filter box comprises four furnace filters, eight computer fans, and 3D-printed panels secured with duct tape. The fans suck in air through the filters eliminating almost 98% of particulate matter in a 500 sq. ft room in approximately 15 minutes.

Efflora: Trans Health

Ilya Robinson, ON

Created a database of trans healthcare information in Ontario to empower trans youth in Ontario to find information about healthcare providers, see reviews, learn about the effects of hormones or surgery, and find support.

ElectroRelief

Reeya Pandya and Krish Mendapara, ON

Developed a treatment using an infrared emitter and sensor to adjust for individual kidney membrane resistance, ensuring effective, safe stone disintegration with minimal side effects, all within a 5-minute procedure.

EmpowHER

Anita Vasserman, ON

EmpowHER is a two-month entrepreneurship incubator that hopes to change that. Through in-school workshops, pitch competitions, and exposure to local female entrepreneurs through Q&A panels, our project aims to inspire middle school girls to launch their own small business ideas.

GlaucoGlasses: Ultrasound Embedded Spectacles for Glaucoma Management

Soham Chakraborty, Brandon Ling, Jeffery Zhang, and Owen Choy, ON

GlaucoSolve glasses, an ultrasound-based wearable sensor to measure excessive intraocular pressure (IOP) and alert patients to apply prescribed eye drops at optimal timings.

Gorg – Mental Health for Teens

Daniel Martinez, ON

An AI-powered app that fosters the well-being and self-development of young individuals. Through an intuitive interface, users can engage with a personalized chat buddy in 95 languages, creating a supportive environment, while eliminating barriers of language, judgement fears and financial constraints often associated with traditional mental health therapy.

Hope For Hearing

Daniel Xing, ON

Hope For Hearing is a student-led nonprofit organization with 300+ students in New Brunswick and Ontario that raises funds and awareness about hearing loss and its stigmas.

Hully

Dave Grewal and Shourya Seth, ON

Developing an autonomously robot which cleans ship hulls with steel-crimp-wire brushes and hydro-power jets, reducing fuel consumption by 40%.

MarineMatch

Dev Katyal, ON

MarineMatch is an app which uses image classification for users to upload an image of over 60+ different types of ocean animals and fish species for easy identification of the species of the fish.

Infrascan

Daniel Morgan, Arwyn Hicks, Seher Mukadam, and Muhammad Mamdani, ON.

Infrascan uses an algorithm to analyze urban areas, identifying and categorizing underutilized spaces in neighborhoods. An interactive map offers users easy access to assessing new communities they are interested in within seconds.

Natural Made-Ez

Venika Sem, ON

The Natural Made-EZ offers natural hair workshops for young generations, and we provide unique products, like our detangling brush innovation, to help the Afro-textured community feel empowered.

Ocularity

Shlok Panchal and Ameen Neami, ON

An eye-tracking communication system for patients with ALS and other muscle dystrophy disorders. Eye movements are tracked on an on-screen keyboard through a high-resolution camera and utilizing Raspberry Pi and IR LEDs. Users can input text simply through eye movements, crafting sentences intuitively.

OrganLink

Reeya Pandya, ON

OrganLink matches donors and recipients based on genetic encryption, it ensures higher compatibility and reduces transplant rejections. OrganLink promises a more efficient, accurate, and secure method of connecting life-saving organs with those in dire need.

PowrHub

Abbie Li, Vaughan, ON

PowrHub aims to transform pediatric healthcare through empowerment and efficiency, as the only full automated system which provides visual toy selection by patients and families and reducing wait time for toys by 93%.

Project HeartScope

Prerana Manoj and Diane Gui, ON

Project HeartScope is an initiative aiming to use machine learning for cardiovascular disease diagnosis. Currently, it consists of a model that uses machine-learning systems to detect cardiomegaly (a cardiovascular condition) from X-ray scans.

SensorGuard

David Yang, ON

SensorGuard is a cost-efficient, easy-to-access, data terminal in the form of a smartwatch, designed as a supportive system to help senior communities. Aimed at a multitude of health concerns seniors face, a wireless attached sensor monitors and transmits the user’s information, allowing the terminal to display the information and notify necessary parties when an issue is detected.

SolarCo: Dye Sensitized Photovoltaics

Luyu Vankerkwijk and Sterling Huang, ON

SolarCo is developing optimized dye-sensitized solar cells thought the use of aluminium strips and numerical density functional theory analysis, to dramatically raise our cell’s IPCE (incident photon to current efficiency), leading to a DSSC that is more competitive in the solar energy market.

Students4Students

Willian Li and Avi Shah, ON

Students 4 Students is a non-profit organization providing free after-school extracurricular programming opportunities, programs are diverse, ranging from debate to tennis to competitive math, for elementary aged students.

The Gluten Sensor

Claire Marsh, ON

The Gluten Sensor uses Artificial Intelligence and TinyML to detects gluten in foods, or cross contamination, and provides people with celiac disease with an extra sense of security when eating out.

The RECAP Module

Jason Huang, ON

The RECAP module is a mobile smart tracker for weight-related workouts, tracking metrics like repetitions and calories burned, which are converted with AI processing into accessible workout regiments and tips, synchronized to a custom app and web page to promote personalized workouts for all.

The Young and The Wise podcast

Simone Beshtoev, ON

The “Young and The Wise” podcast helps young adults answer: “What do you want to do with your life?” Through honest conversations with professionals, each episode explores the essence of different careers, including industry secrets and keys to success. By demystifying the career selection process, the podcast aims to empower listeners to feel confident when making decisions about their future.

Treating Avascular Necrosis of the Femoral Head

Araf Reshad, ON

 A novel method of combining core decompression with Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) therapy to treat early-stage Avascular Necrosis of the Femoral Head, a degenerative bone condition.

TurtleShell

Arav Mathur, ON

TurtleShell is a tourist safety application that can identify trends in crime patterns for geographical locations and provide preventative measures with the help of Neural Networks. TurtleShell uses real-time data and analytics to identify areas with high crime rates or safety concerns in unfamiliar locations and provides warnings and suggestions to users traveling through those locations at precise “danger periods.”

Youth Tech Labs

Gursaaz Gund, Aasha Khan, Elaine Xiao, and Sakina Syed, ON

Youth Tech Labs is committed to cultivating AI literacy for youth, recognizing the pivotal role youth play in shaping society’s technological future. Our mission is to equip young minds with the knowledge and skills necessary to navigate and lead in a world influenced by AI, ensuring they are not just prepared for the future, but are instrumental in creating it.

Youths for Hospice

Gregory Perri and Lucas Perri, ON

An online platform designed to redefine hospice palliative care for youth, focusing on education, advocacy, and shared experiences. By demystifying palliative care, we empower young Canadians to support peers in grief, engage in hospice care, and create a compassionate community.

Manitoba

Biodegradable and Treated Wood chips as a Winter Alternative for De-Icing Road Salts.

Casper Dong, MB

The innovation is biodegradable chemically treated wood chips to serve as an alternative for de-icing salts by binding 50% calcium chloride crystals to wood chips and coating the other 50% with nitrogen rich plant soil. Wood chips cover more ground area then conventional salts, last at tested temperatures of -31 degrees Celsius, and offer added grip when lodged into ice.  With this innovation, residents near endangered freshwater ecosystems won’t have to rely on toxic salts to keep their driveways, roads, and sidewalks safe.

Saskatchewan

AI-QUA Savior: Harnessing Artificial Intelligence in Subaquatic Rescue Operations

Yurui Qin, SK

An affordable submersible autonomous diving robot equipped with machine learning algorithms, the robot can effectively scan designated areas, detect humans, and transmit precise GNSS data via SMS messages during search and rescue missions.

Alberta

Combatting Digital Misinformation Through Artificial Intelligence

Yunhe (Aaron) Zhang, AB

Developing an AI-powered checker which will determine digital sources’ credibility based on past accuracy, other current sources, and bias to prevent the spread of digital misinformation.

TradeSynth V2

Atharva Rao, AB

An automated machine learning app that allows users to perform exploratory data analysis and allows users to automate repeatable features of the machine learning pipeline like hyperparameter optimization and model selection. The app also allows users to download the best performing model at the end.

FoodWise Mobile App

Parth Sakpal, AB

FoodWise is a mobile app which tracks the food inventory of a household and automates the process of creating a grocery list to help mitigate food waste produced at a household level. The user can track of the food items they already have, receive expiration date alerts, and see when an item needs to be restocked.

Utilizing Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to Repurpose and Optimize Drugs Against the EGFR Cancer Causing Protein

Ali Usman, AB

A machine learning and AI algorithm that ranks 9,508 potential drug candidates to help find a new anticancer drug that can slow down the growth of cancer cells. The AI algorithm also generates new drug candidates with optimized drug-like properties like weight and solubility to ensure these potential drugs can be taken safely by mouth.

EcoComposites Sustainable Culinary Supplies and Biocomposites

Ethan Ng, AB

EcoComposites turns crop byproducts, such as hemp, into biodegradable/sustainable culinary supplies for airlines, cafeterias, food courts, and restaurants and prototyping cardboard alternatives.

Harry Ainlay Pre-Medical Club

Aishat Azeez and Amtul Aleem, AB

A pre-medical club takes a unique approach by engaging directly with current medical students, offering insights, mentorship, and is comprehensive, ensuring those who feel underrepresented receive targeted support for success in their medical pursuits.

NeuroSpectrum: A Brainwave-Powered Vision Enhancement Device

Shayan Awan, AB

NeuroSpectrum device utilizes Ultracortex MarkIV EEG headset with Electroencephalogram (EEG) technology to collect data from the frontal and occipital lobes where visual processing occurs. The device can accurately monitor and reduce symptoms Irlen patients face while completing simple tasks that involve the eyes.

NeuroPulse

Ignacio Gimon Lopez, AB

NeuroPulse is a wearable device that aims to treat epilepsy, movement disorders, and sports injuries through haptic feedback, or vibration. This vibration is placed on muscles throughout the body to create the illusion that the muscle is slightly stretching, which can discourage seizure start, extreme muscle movements in movement disorders, and improper muscle use in sports injuries.

HeartHear: An Ear-Wearable Heart and Circulation Disease Prediction Device

Saras Agrawal and Rateb Ajamieh, AB

HeartHear is a machine-learning-powered wearable device that continuously tracks and records various vital sign information, then uses this information to predict if a user is exhibiting vital signals that may indicate a future circulatory disease or event. 

British Columbia

20/20 Mission

Kobe Li, BC

20/20 Mission is dedicated to collecting used eyeglasses and donating them for reuse globally, as well as promoting environmental conservation about sustainable eyewear during their weekly club meetings.

A Novel Visual Impairment Aid Tool Utilizing Automatic Postural and Ocular Reponses and Artificial Intelligence

Jing Quan Peng, BC

The Novel Visual Impairment Tool is a device for the safe navigation of visually impaired persons utilizing a galvanic vestibular stimulation technique, 3-dimensional depth cameras, and artificial intelligence for object detection. This will steer people with vision challenges away from a collision.

Anikoun Neighbours

Jiamei (Linda) Chen, BC

Anikoun Neighbours is a cutting-edge platform that helps young immigrants get a sense of community and belonging when first arriving in Canada. It provides an all-in-one package for all the resources that young immigrants need in a secure and welcoming experience.

ARTex Coding Society Hackathon

Kendra Lee and Reine Huang, BC

The ARTex Coding Society Hackathon is a two-and-a-half-day event where aspiring high school student coders can collaborate towards solving real-world game development challenges. By fostering creativity and exploring new ideas, students will gain valuable skills, not only in coding but also in teamwork and cooperation.

Bee Climate Friendly

Maile Yamaguchi, BC 

Bee Climate Friendly is a mobile app that encourages youth to engage with conservation in their communities through activities, reflection, and exploration. The app provides direction for learning about and connecting with the environment, specifically pollinators like bees.

CarieGuard

Yufan Wang, BC

CarieGuard is a natural health product used to prevent dental caries and contains a cranberry extract. This all-natural substance helps prevent caries by inhibiting an acid-producing bacteria, Streptococcus mutans, from adhering to tooth surfaces.

C.U.P.I.D.: Convenient Urinary Proteinuria Identification Device

Andre Chen and Arabella Mew, BC

C.U.P.I.D. screens for early-stage kidney disease by checking for elevated protein levels in urine, a symptom of kidney disease. It is a device that automatically dispenses fixed amounts of a protein-activated colour-changing compound into urine to provide a warning system for patients.

Detecting and Preventing Human Falling with Lateral Stability

Rui Han Huang, BC

Using a camera-based software program that assesses an individual’s stability in real-time to warn the user when they’re at high-risk of falling. The algorithm aligns human motion with specific mathematical models, evaluating the motion’s consistency with these curves.

Gen2

Navkaran Bagga, BC

Gen2 is an activity kit service for seniors in retirement homes. The service helps tackle the emotional isolation residing seniors might face by engaging seniors and youth, virtually through various activities.

Ink Again

Kasper Sim, Richard Xie, and Julian Jun Yu, BC

Ink Again is a student-founded enterprise that developed and implemented a system to collect and resupply schools with upcycled markers, all while offering a lower price than single-use competitors.   The product is a 3D printed marker adapter and a cap to unscrew for user-friendly refills.

JARVIS for the Visually Impaired

Prajwal Prashanth, BC

JARVIS is an AI voice assistant that runs on a Raspberry Pi computer. When the user asks a question prefixed by the word JARVIS, the large language model answers their question by using the image to search the internet, helping the visually impaired know more about their surroundings.

LifeHeat: The Self-Heating Survival Pack that Works in Water

Liam Pope-Lau, BC

LifeHeat is a water-activated self-heating survival pack developed to prevent hypothermia. It generates heat when immersed in water, with no activation.  It is made of recycled materials, is refillable and can retrofit any lifejacket.

Low-Cost Augmented Reality-Enabled Eyewear for Dynamic 3D Spatial Speech Captioning for the Hearing-Impaired

Jing Quan Peng, BC

The low-cost, augmented reality-enabled eyewear for hearing-impaired individuals integrates consumer-grade head-worn display technology, automatic speech recognition, and a novel visual speaker recognition algorithm. 

Napoleon

Si Moon Song, BC

Napoleon is a free app that provides students with productivity, self-improvement, study help, and time managing services to aid workflow with free tools available in one app.

NatureGate

Prabhnoor Sidhu, BC

NatureGate is a plantlike structure that can help prevent powerful and fast landslides called debris flows on slopes burnt by wildfires. It works by stabilizing the slope and reducing erosion. 

Paia

Lucas III Sugui, Wynn Ho, and Aidan Chan, BC

Paia is a website that focuses on environmental events and community cleanups containing an interactive map for any user to be able to view.  Paia provides an opportunity for anyone to keep our environment clean and provide a real-time outlook on the cleanliness of communities.

Predicting Active Tuberculosis using AI

In-Woo Park, BC

 This is an AI algorithm to predict active tuberculosis by utilizing machine learning to access a holistic set of patient biomarkers. This algorithm will help physicians prescribe antibiotics to only patients in need of them, ultimately reducing unnecessary prescriptions and the emergence of antibiotic resistance.

Project BMH (Bio Medical Hand)

June Choi, Leon Li, Nicole Zhang, Daniel Kim, and Arshia Sorourian, BC

Project BMH is a biomechanical hand controlled by mirroring hand motions of a real hand through tracking the motions of a user equipped with a glove with sensors.

Re-Vision

Ashlyn Ho, BC

Re-Vision is a revolutionary AI computer vision app that detects and differentiates objects, including groceries and signs, among other everyday items. Using real-time detection, the app allows users to walk around while providing voice identification of surrounding objects.

Smarker

James Raham, Maiya Peters, Raya Rehmat, Jeffery Lee, and Dmitri Folomeyev, BC

Smarker is a UV-sensing marker that changes colour when you are at risk of getting a sunburn. When applied to the skin, the photochromic ink will turn from completely clear to blue once enough UV light hits it.

The Game Box

Nirmay Singh, BC

The Game Box blends fun with learning through its innovative educational games. Leveraging AI and interactive gaming, it offers a unique approach to teaching vocabulary and math, proven to enhance learning in thousands of classrooms worldwide.

Turning Algae into Fibers:  Solution to Textile Waste

Angelina Hang and Noah Oliver Pang, BC

This innovation explores the process to produce algae cellulose by using substances derived from nature and how we can use algae cellulose to make sustainable fibers.

Vehicle-mounted Door-opening Warning System

Shiran Sun, BC

This vehicle-mounted door-opening warning system alerts both passengers inside the vehicle and approaching cyclists. The prototype was successfully tested on a vehicle, demonstrating reliable performance in preventing dooring accidents.

Yukon

EV conversion

Jackson Berry, YT

Converting gas-fuelled cars to electric cars may reduce the cost, reuse existing resources, helping the environment, and making it accessible to the do-it-yourself person.