Since 2020, the 91社区 Engine has hosted an annual Women in Entrepreneurship Panel to highlight 91社区 Faculty of Engineering alum or student entrepreneurs in Tech. This event is co-hosted with , a student-run club dedicated to creating an open community to support self-identifying female engineers. Operating under the .
2025
Event Details
Date: Thursday, March 20, 2025
Time: 5:30 - 7:30 pm ET
Location: 91社区 Engine Centre (FDA 5)
Event registration will open in the week of March 3, 2025!
About our panelists
Georgia Powell
Co-Founder & CEO @ NURA Medical聽
Madison Santos
CSO & Co-Founder @ TissueTinker聽
Madison Santos is the CSO and co-founder of TissueTinker, an early-stage biotech venture developing 3D bio printed in vitro tumor and organ models to pre-screen cancer therapeutic drug candidates to improve the to-market rate of new cancer therapeutics. Madison is a Biomedical Engineering Master's student in the 91社区 Biomedical Technology & Cell Therapy (BTCTRL) Laboratory, and current PGSS Innovation Commissioner, supporting the 91社区 graduate innovation ecosystem.
Kimia Shafighi
CEO & Co-Founder @ Biocene聽
Kimia Shafighi is the CEO and co-founder of Biocene, a clean tech startup dedicated to developing sustainable solutions for water ecosystems impacted by harmful algae overgrowth. Biocene's innovative technology, Algo, harnesses eco-friendly mechanical systems to clean water bodies while transforming algae biomass into valuable products such as biofuels, bioplastics, and biocoke. With a bachelor鈥檚 in bioengineering and a master鈥檚 in neuroscience and machine learning from 91社区 and Mila, Kimia has led Biocene from its inception to its current pilot projects with Parks Canada. She is passionate about sustainability, innovation, and empowering women in entrepreneurship.
2024
About our panelists
Maria Calderbank, CEO & Co-Founder @
- provides an innovative and better way of managing chronic lower back pain. Their unique orthotic device provides on-demand support to the wearer during movement, increasing spinal stability.
- 91社区 BEng, Mechanical Engineering
Cynthia Hitti, Co-Founder & Team Lead @ CRCTS
- (Cricket Rearing, Collection, and Transformation System) is a novel semi-automated device designed to rear and harvest crickets to produce a nutritious powder for human consumption.
- Bioengineering Master's student at 91社区
- 91社区 BEng, Bioengineering
Dr. Yun Yao, Co-Founder & CEO @ Soralink
- offers a complete solution for industrial machine condition monitoring, failure prediction, predictive maintenance, as well as productivity tracking.
- 91社区 PhD, Electrical and Computer Engineering
- 91社区 MEng, Electrical Engineering
- 91社区 BEng, Electrical Engineering
2023
About our panelists
Amy Lorincz, Co-founder & CEO @ Vope Medical
- has developed an AI-driven software to address a significant unmet need for clear vision in minimally invasive surgery (MIS).
- 91社区 MSc, Experimental Surgery, 2022 graduate
- Concordia University, BEng, Industrial Engineering, 2019 graduate
Chaity Tarafder, Co-Founder @ NameShouts
- is a SaaS startup that is simplifying the way people make first connections, one name at a time.
- 91社区 B.A., Economics
Flora Uwadiegwu, Technical Program Manager @ Lyft & Co-Founder @ WeTechNG
- is a community of women that intersects through various areas of technology: a community that collaborates, innovates and supports. Join the next generation of Women in Tech today by being an ambassador or fellow at
- 91社区 MEng, Chemical Engineering, 2017 graduate
Justine Massicott, Co-Founder & CTO @ Lighthouse
- is a powerful navigation platform allows users to query for items across and within worlds - significantly facilitating discovery and improving the industry鈥檚 cross-world search capabilities.
- HEC Montreal, Masters, Data Science, 2018 graduate
- Universit茅 de Montr茅al, Masters, Philosophy, 2017 graduate
Nathalie Myara, Co-fondatrice Pr茅sidente Directrice G茅n茅rale @ Eduplan Solutions
- is a company specializing in education, health and social services technologies, which provides various professionals, parents, and students; in particular, learners with disabilities or learning and/or adaptation difficulties intelligent platforms for the development and management of intervention plans, as well as other related platforms and services.
- Universit茅 de Montr茅al, MEd, Orthop茅dagogie, 2006 graduate
- Universit茅 de Montr茅al, PhD, Psychop茅dagogie, 2011 graduate
2022
About our panelists
Guanbingxue (Shirley) Huang 
- Studying Mechanical Engineering
- Co-Founder of
Nina-Marie Martinez 
- Studying Mechanical Engineering
- Co-Founder of
- Vice President External of
Zhi Xin (Joey) Koay 
- Studying Software Engineering
- 2020 Schulich Leader
- Co-Founder of
- VP Products of
2021
About our panelists
Chlo毛 Ryan
- Studying Mechanical Engineering
- Co-Founder of , Director of BRIDGE and Next36 Entrepreneur & Assistant Project Manager at WSP
Celeste Nantel
- Studying Mechanical Engineering
- Co-Founder of , Next36 Entrepreneur
Shlesha Van
- Studying Mechanical Engineering
- Co-Founder of
Christina Katsari
- PhD Candidate in Materials Engineering
- Co-Founder of Alpha Iota Alloys
2020
About our panelists
Naureen Anwar
- Studied Electrical Engineering at 91社区 from 2005-2010
- CEO of NameShouts, a free a web app which helps you pronounce a person's name correctly
Boyana Stefanova
- Studied Mechanical Engineering at 91社区 from 2002-2007
- Community Builder at MAIN, Qu茅bec's first network of business accelerators and incubators
Laura Al Khoury
- Studied Mechanical Engineering at 91社区 from 2013-2017
- Co Founder of Yuma, a weekly meal subscription for employees starting at $7/meal
