OmaScan, which aims to make homes safer and more accessible, has captured the $25,000 first prize at the 10th annual Mel Woodward Cup at the Memorial Centre for Entrepreneurship, or MCE.

In the competition finals Wednesday night, OmaScan beat out four other competitors for the top student entrepreneurship award at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Co-founded by engineering students Rohith McKim, Liam French, and Jordyn O’Brien, OmaScan modernizes home safety by using smartphone 3D scanning to help occupational therapists and families create accessible home environments.

The Mel Woodward Cup was created through a 2017 donation to the Faculty of Business Administration from the family of the late Dr. Mel Woodward, founder of the Woodward Group of Companies. It has awarded $350,000 to student entrepreneurs, several of whom have gone on to build successful companies.

In fact, the first winner was CoLab Software, founded by engineering grads Jeremy Andrews and Adam Keating. Late last year, the company closed a US$72 million (C$100.9 million) Series C funding round, the largest VC financing in the region in the past two years.

At the Woodward Cup finals Wednesday night, the $15,000 runner-up award went to Seam Fishing, founded by engineering student Isaac Batten and engineering alum Rowan Meaney.

Seam Fishing builds high-quality, modular and affordable landing nets, meeting growing demand from modern catch-and-release anglers.

Engineering student Liam Yandon was awarded $2,500 as winner of the Fry Family Foundation Entrepreneurship Award for an Early-stage Idea for his company TerraEos. This company aims to develop a biodegradable solvent for cement processing that improves the efficiency and affordability of carbon capture. 

The Fry Family Foundation Entrepreneurship Award for Women and Non-binary Leadership, also worth $2,500 went to engineering student Chelsea O’Hara for her company DCXIX Consulting and Technical Services.

DCXIX plans to launch Scenecast, a performance capture tool that allows real people to be present and interact in virtual 3D environments.

The other finalists for the Woodward Cup were: EsseReale, which is creating a new class of compact, hands-free personal mobility device; and RespAI, which delivers real-time, personalized exposure intelligence for firefighters through a wearable, multi-sensor device and machine-learning platform.

In honor of the 10th Woodward Cup competition, the Centre for Entrepreneurship this year named several winners of the special Decade of Impact Awards. Keating and Andrews of CoLab Software won both the Founders in Motion Award, which recognizes ventures that have moved decisively from idea to influence, and the Journey Award, which recognizes resilience, growth, learning and community engagement.

The Trailblazer Award, which recognizes a woman or gender-diverse founder shaping ventures, markets and future founders, was awarded to Nikitha Kendyala, Co-Founder of Nucliq Biologics.