BCIT’s Grace Soo Delivers Winning Idea for Student Innovation Challenge

By Gerald Narciso

Grace Soo was on the Skytrain when she received word about the fate of her 2011 BCIT Student Innovation Challenge submission.

“I got a call from the organizer for the contest,” says Soo, a BCIT financial management student. “I was thinking he was going to say, ‘sorry, thanks for trying.””

But the complete opposite happened. Her idea about a delivery service using zero-emission cargo tricycles called SHIFT beat out nearly 50 submissions to win the Challenge and pocket the $5,000 cash grand prize.

“I was overjoyed, like any person winning a prize,” says Soo smiling.

The Student Innovation Challenge, which is in its second year, was created by the BCIT Applied Research Liaison Office (ARLO) and aimed to give students a platform to showcase their ideas and entrepreneurial spirit. It was open to all students from all programs on campus, part time or full time.

BCIT was looking for the student or students with the best idea, whether that was a new product, service, website or invention.

Last year’s winner, computer systems technology student Michael Hubele won a $1,000 honorarium and up to $4,000 in BCIT commercialization services for his website idea: OnlineStudentPlanner.com. This year, organizers of the contest upped the ante with the $5,000 cash as well as adding a runner up prize of an Apple iPad courtesy of Best Buy Canada.

The number of submissions doubled from 23 entries last year to 47 this year with entries from each of the six schools. The judges – made up of BCIT faculty and staff – were able to narrow the field down to six finalists: Soo, Travis McCleland (Welding), Richard Bergen (Marketing Management), Rhonda Dent (Marketing Management), Wei Lei (Medical Laboratory Science), and the team of Maggie Zhao (Financial Management) and James Brown (International Trade).

On May 31, each finalist pitched their ideas in front of the panel of judges, and in the end, it was Soo who prevailed while Dent placed second for her idea of the Sun Center, a proposed wellness center for people who get Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), depression in the winter due to lack of sunlight.

For Dent, the benefits of competing in the Challenge went beyond her iPad.

“It gave me an audience to present my business concept in front of and to receive feedback and develop things to the next level,” said Dent, who is also a professional photographer.

For Soo, winning the Challenge adds to her growing list of accomplishments. In the past few months, Soo and her four partners at SHIFT won $12,500 for the Generation Green award put up by the Vancouver Foundation as well as Carrot Cache award, which included a $3,000 grant. Their zero-emission delivery service, which fits Vancouver’s green and active lifestyle, has been features in several publications including the Vancouver Sun, the Globe and Mail and the Vancouver Courier.

SHIFT plans on making deliveries out of downtown. Their tricycles also have the capability to pull as much as 600 pounds.

“All of us are big cycling enthusiasts,” says Soo, who partnered up with the rest of the members of Shift last December. “As for myself, I always thought that I could take my accounting degree and move it on to the sustainable sector or nonprofit sector. I saw this project was really in line with my values.” As a worker co-operative, Shift wants to make a social contribution to the market; creating a worker owned business that empowers newcomers in the workforce.

Soo initially found out about the Challenge by seeing a poster on campus. However, she was unsure her concept fit within the rules.

“When I thought Innovation Challenge I thought they were looking for a new product,” Soo says. “But when I read more in depth and I found out that new services were part of the criteria, I thought I might as well take a shot.”

Her leap of faith paid off as SHIFT is now 5 grand richer. Soo says they plan on using the winnings on wages and start-up capital. Despite operating as a worker co-op and having a business license, SHIFT has not officially launched yet. They are building relationships with a number of local businesses for their launch this summer.

With all the costs incurred with starting a new business, Soo says she is thankful contests like the Student Innovation Challenge exists.

“I’m extremely excited for BCIT to be linked to SHIFT,” she says. “I am grateful to this contest and this institution for the skills they’ve given me to start this project.”