Canadian Youth Celebrated for Excellence in Innovation Français
OTTAWA, ON, May 27, 2025 /CNW/ - Young Canadian innovators take centre stage tomorrow as part of Canadian Innovation Week. The honourees, aged 14 to 18, are national winners and finalists of the Rideau Hall Foundation's (RHF) Ingenious+ youth innovation challenge, which provides young innovators with the opportunity to advance their projects through financial support, learning opportunities, and mentorship.
"Now more than ever, we need homegrown solutions to everything from climate disasters to healthcare," says Teresa Marques, President and CEO of the RHF. "Ingenious+ is all about empowering today's young changemakers through wrap-around support that will help them grow their innovations and create positive impact in their communities. We are thrilled to be celebrating these outstanding young people during Canadian Innovation Week."
The RHF will distribute awards to five national winners and eleven national finalists, all of whom moved on to the second stage of the challenge after winning regional awards. The national winners were chosen as the top entry in each of the five Ingenious+ categories: Community and Civic Engagement, Climate Change and the Environment, Equity and Inclusion, Health and Well-being, and Technology and Entrepreneurship. The national finalists were selected as the top entry in their province, regardless of category.
This year's top projects range from point-of-care skin cancer detection software to banana-peel-powered batteries, to a predictive tool for wildfire outbreaks. Together, they receive over $70,000 in funding, in addition to learning and ongoing mentorship opportunities from industry experts. The award ceremony takes place at Carleton University and will be livestreamed at Ingeniousplus.ca on Wednesday, May 28 beginning at 10 a.m. ET.
About the Rideau Hall Foundation
The Rideau Hall Foundation (RHF) is a non–partisan national charity that brings together ideas, people and resources to celebrate what is best about Canada while working with partners to meaningfully improve the lives of Canadians. The RHF celebrates excellence while creating opportunities and connecting communities, all towards the shared purpose of a better Canada. Learn more: www.rhf-frh.ca
National Winners
Warren Chen, National Winner: Naturacell: A Novel Biodegradable Cellulosic-Based Battery Cell
British Columbia, Technology and Entrepreneurship
Naturacell converts cellulosic fibres from agricultural waste into biodegradable batteries, delivering a 1.5V electrochemical performance. Scalable to AA/AAA formats and with potential applications in EVs and electronics, Naturacell offers a sustainable alternative to lithium-ion batteries—cutting costs and solving disposal challenges.
Anthony Efthimiadis: M-SCAHN: A Point-of-care Digital Dermoscopy Software System for Rapid Screening of Skin Cancers
Ontario, Health and Wellbeing
M-SCAHN is a point-of-care software tool for fast, accurate, and non-invasive skin cancer screening using computational image analysis. It addresses misdiagnosis, racial bias in AI, and clinical inefficiencies—reducing mortality, unnecessary biopsies, and healthcare costs.
Jasmine Wang: Wildfire Monitoring and Prediction system
Ontario, Climate and the Environment
This innovation addresses the two key bottlenecks of today's wildfire systems through a custom data pipeline designed from the ground up to scale across geolocation, time, and features, and tailored transformer models that deliver a 15% improvement in detection and a 61% boost in prediction recall over existing ML approaches. Additionally, a web app was developed to showcase the practical, real-world application of these models.
Célin e Zhang, National Winner: Student Innovation Lab
Quebec, Community and Civic Engagement
This social impact lab empowers marginalized youth by advancing accessibility, education, and civic engagement through scholarships, policy advocacy, and networking opportunities.
Joti Gokaraju, TouchTalk: A Comprehensive Braille Communication Platform for the Deafblind
Saskatchewan, Equity and Inclusion
TouchTalk is a braille-based communication system for the Deafblind. Using a mobile app and a custom device with a refreshable braille display and keyboard, TouchTalk allows for two-way conversation between non-disabled and Deafblind persons.
National Finalists
Sara Agrawal and Rateb Ajamieh, Prints4Play: 3D Printing Waste into Toys
Alberta, Climate Change and the Environment
Prints4Play recycles 3D print waste into usable filament, creating toys for underprivileged children both locally and globally.
Joy Akinkunmi, National Finalist: Pill Smart 2.0
Nova Scotia, Entrepreneurship and Technology
The Pill Smart is an automatic pill dispenser for seniors with mild and moderate dementia completed with an app for a caregiver. With adaptive features, the Pill Smart aims to increase medication adherence in this demographic.
Adaugo Alison-Ukonu, Flo-Oral Hygiene Network Inc.
Saskatchewan, Equity and Inclusion
Flo-Oral is a youth-led initiative focused on ending menstrual and oral hygiene poverty by providing essential items to underserved communities.
Aaron Bai, Ecotrack
British Columbia, Climate Change and the Environment
EcoTrack is an AI-powered app that recognizes bird species, predicts migration patterns, and tracks routes affected by climate change. It also offers a platform for collecting observation data, supporting research, and encouraging wildlife conservation efforts.
Eva Batal, Madeleine Siwick, Jiaqi Sun, and Julia Xing, Communicare
Quebec, Equity and Inclusion
Communicare is an app that connects people with healthcare professionals in Canada, by breaking down language barriers to improve access to care
Casper Dong, Canada Youth Aerospace Team | Accessible STEM Opportunities For All Canadian Youth
Ontario, Technology and Entrpreneurship
This organization provides mentorship, collaborative projects, and competition opportunities for youth across Canada, advocating for inclusion and access to STEM opportunities in aerospace.
Chinazam Igwe, Youth Innovation and Professional Empowerment
New Brunswick, Equity and Inclusion
This initiative empowers Black high school students through culturally relevant programs helping them be, become and belong with a focus on career development, entrepreneurship and STEM. By working with black professionals and collaborating with various public sector groups it provides hands-on training, resources, and mentorship.
Olive Passmore and Lilou Lefebvre: AI Powered Early Skin Cancer Detection
Yukon, Health and Wellbeing
AI Powered Skin Cancer Detection is an app that rural healthcare providers would use, in addition to their expertise in medicine, to help identify suspicious lesions on patients. The app would then indicate the likelihood of malignacy, which would then prioritize patients to see specialized doctors from outside of the community and or the territory.
Adam Peters, National Finalist: WindLab MB – Stratos: Manitoba's Educational Wind Tunnel
Manitoba, Climate Change and the Environment
Stratos is a small, affordable educational wind tunnel in Manitoba targeting 60 knots. It enables students to study aerodynamics, including lift, drag, and flow visualization with AI. The project promotes hands-on aerospace learning and supports sustainable design for greener transportation innovation
Owen Whynot, A Flexible Future – Sustaining the North with Flexible solar panels
Northwest Territories, Climate Change and Environment
This innovation develops a cover for flexible solar panels designed to work in cold, uneven terrain. By replacing PET plastic with durable and recyclable ETFE plastic, it increases energy production, lifespan, and sustainability. Reducing costs for northern Canadian communities as well.
Sophia Zhang, Flutter TENG
Newfoundland and Labrador, Climate Change and the Environment
Portable Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Everyday Wind Energy Harvesting TENGs is a portable device that uses power management to harvest wind energy supporting the transition to a greener future.
SOURCE Rideau Hall Foundation
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Toronto Sun
11 hours ago
- Toronto Sun
Canadian Centre for Cyber Security says network devices compromised in China-linked hack
Published Jun 21, 2025 • 1 minute read A person types on a neon computer keyboard. Photo by Uladzimir Zuyeu / iStock / Getty Images Canada's cybersecurity agency said Chinese-backed hackers were likely behind recent malicious activity targeting domestic telecommunications infrastructure, warning that three network devices registered to a Canadian company were compromised in the attacks. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation urged Canadian organizations to take steps to harden their networks against the threat posed by Salt Typhoon, a group linked to the Chinese government, in a bulletin issued late on Friday. 'The Cyber Centre is aware of malicious cyber activities currently targeting Canadian telecommunications companies,' the centre said. 'The responsible actors are almost certainly PRC state-sponsored actors, specifically Salt Typhoon,' it said, referring to the People's Republic of China. Separate investigations that revealed overlaps with malicious indicators consistent with Salt Typhoon suggest the cyber campaign 'is broader than just the telecommunications sector,' it said. The hackers will 'almost certainly' continue efforts to infiltrate Canadian organizations — especially telecom providers — over the next two years, the agency said. Beijing has repeatedly denied U.S. allegations of its involvement in Salt Typhoon, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal last year. In January, the U.S. sanctioned a Chinese firm accused of 'direct involvement' in the infiltrations along with the country's Ministry of State Security. — With assistance from Thomas Seal. Columnists Columnists Toronto & GTA Columnists Toronto & GTA
Toronto Sun
12 hours ago
- Toronto Sun
GOLDSTEIN: Prepare for more billion-dollar boondoggles
Reports by financial watchdogs of government spending suggest there are major concerns about how public infrastructure projects will be approved Get the latest from Lorrie Goldstein straight to your inbox Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks as he attends a tour of the Fort York Armoury in Toronto on June 9, 2025 in Toronto, Canada. Photo by Cole Burston / Getty Images What happens when Prime Minister Mark Carney's promise of massive new federal spending on public infrastructure and speedy approval of 'nation building projects' runs into the fact the federal public service routinely ignores the rules for spending public money and approving such projects? This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account The answer, potentially, is the waste of mega-billions of public dollars on projects that are so poorly administered, some may never be completed. The issue isn't the policies themselves. Carney's Liberals and the official opposition Conservatives agree with streamlining the process for green-lighting projects such as pipelines, mines and other forms of energy infrastructure, if they are endorsed by the province and Indigenous groups where they occur. That was evidenced by their rapid approval of Bill C-5, the One Canadian Economy Act on Friday, before Parliament adjourned for the summer. Liberals and Conservatives passed the legislation intended to boost the Canadian economy given the damage caused by President Donald Trump's tariff war and the fact the U.S. is no longer a reliable trading partner or ally of Canada. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The legislation is now headed to the Senate, scheduled to sit until June 27, for final approval before Canada Day on July 1. Read More But recent reports by Parliament's two financial watchdogs of government spending – Auditor General Karen Hogan and Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux – suggest there are major concerns about how these projects will be approved. Hogan reviewed the Liberal government's approval of the notorious ArriveCan app that was supposed to cost $80,000 and ended up costing about $60 million, as well as 106 other professional services contracts awarded by 31 federal departments and agencies and one Crown corporation to IT staffing firm GCStrategies Inc. from 2015 to 2024. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. They totalled up to $92.7 million – of which, $64.5 million was paid out. Hogan found a widespread failure within the federal public service to follow the rules in awarding these contacts intended to ensure taxpayers get good value for money. She said the same thing happened when she examined 97 contracts awarded by 20 federal departments agencies and Crown corporations valued at $209 million, with $200 million paid out, to management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, from 2011 to 2023. 'I said it back then and I'll repeat it now – I have no reason to believe this is unique to two vendors and that's why I believe the government needs to take a step back and look at why this is happening,' Hogan warned. Hogan took the unusual step of not making any recommendations on her findings, saying the problem isn't a lack of rules but the federal bureaucracy ignoring them. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. In a separate report, Hogan estimated the cost of replacing Canada's aging fleet of CF-18 fighter jets with 88 new F-35s, increased by almost 50% within two years – from $19 billion in 2022 to $27.7 billion in 2024. In addition, another $5.5 billion will be needed for infrastructure needed to make the new jet fighters fully operational, because the government relied on outdated data and failed to develop contingency plans for managing financial risks associated with the project. She also noted a long-standing shortage of trained fighter pilots. In a report released Thursday, parliamentary budget officer Yves Giroux said because Carney has delayed the federal budget until fall, he can't determine whether his claim he will balance the federal operating budget by 2028-29 is credible. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Nor can he determine whether Carney will achieve his commitment to increase federal spending on defence to the NATO target of 2% of GDP this fiscal year, and whether the government's overall financial plan is fiscally sustainable. In his election platform Carney's outlined $130 billion in new spending over four years with total deficit spending of $224.8 billion. That's 71% higher than the $131.4 billion in deficit spending the Trudeau government predicted during the same period last December. The problem, Giroux said, is that Carney is claiming he can balance the operating budget, the cost of running the government, within three years, while financing new capital spending on infrastructure with more public debt. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'There is no commonly accepted definition of what is defined as 'operating' or 'non-operating capital' spending,' Giroux wrote, meaning he 'is unable to assess whether the government's recent policy initiatives presented in Parliament … are consistent with achieving its new fiscal objective … This means the government could achieve its fiscal objective and yet be fiscally unsustainable.' Unless the federal government addresses the concerns of the auditor general and parliamentary budget officer, expect for more billion-dollar boondoggles of the type we've seen so often in the past. lgoldstein@ Columnists Toronto & GTA Columnists Toronto & GTA Sunshine Girls
Winnipeg Free Press
12 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Rejecting Trump's rhetoric, Maine's governor heads to Maritimes to build ties
HALIFAX – Maine's governor is heading to the Maritimes next week with hopes a charm offensive will slow the rapid drop in Canadian tourist visits to her state. In a release issued Friday, Janet Mills says she's aware the historically close relationship between New England and its northern neighbours has been challenged by U.S. president Donald Trump's tariffs and his rhetoric about Canada becoming the 51st state. According to U.S. federal border crossing data released Friday, 85,000 fewer Canadians entered Maine in May than in the same month a year ago, a drop of about 27 per cent. The governor says she will spend three days meeting with premiers, appearing in local media and visiting businesses in hope of sending a message that Maritimers remain 'welcome in Maine' despite Trump's trade policies. On Monday, the governor will stop in Saint John, N.B., where she intends to visit businesses with links to Maine and she then will travel to Fredericton to hold talks with New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt. On Wednesday, Mills will meet with Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston in Halifax and tour a marine technology centre. Last month, the governor unveiled new, bilingual signs welcoming Canadian visitors, which are being placed in windows around the state. On June 13, in her weekly radio address, Mills said she wants to ensure the 'historic friendship and deeply intertwined economies last for generations to come.' 'It's not just our economies – we are connected so deeply by mutual economic advantages and on centuries-old familial, cuisine, language, and cultural bonds that far supersede politics,' she told her listeners, reminding them that Canada is the United States' closest and most important trading partner. The Democratic Party member said Trump's 'roller coaster tariffs' are unsettling business in her state and 'making our Canadian neighbors feel unwelcome in the United States.' In 2024, nearly 800,000 Canadian visitors spent approximately US$498 million in Maine, according to the state's Office of Tourism. Overall, the data showed Maine welcomed 14.8 million visitors, who spent more than US$9.2 billion, supporting 115,900 jobs and generating US$5.4 billion in wages. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 21, 2025.
