Nine student entrepreneurs who have received funding through Carleton’s Nicol Entrepreneurial Institute showcased their products to donor Wes Nicol, special guests, and members of the Institute’s board.
The interns are undergraduate and graduate Carleton students who receive $8,000 in funding office space in the Invest Ottawa start-up incubation centre. The showcase was arranged for the interns to present their innovative solutions and provide an update on their progress.
Natasha D’Souza was one of the interns who presented in September.
She created what she describes as a virtual therapy system for children with special needs, with a focus on children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Asperger’s Syndrome, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
D’Souza said the virtual therapy is meant to help give special needs children the help they need by comparing technology-based help versus one-on-one help. It uses learning modules to help develop the social skills that some children lack.
“Say your child comes home from school with a note for you saying that your child was bad in class today,” D’Souza said, pointing out that the lack of understanding is probably what created the initial frustration with the child, but teachers don’t have the means to properly communicate with parents.
D’Souza said her main inspiration was trying to find solutions for her own child, who had special needs and was finding working with schools to be challenging.
She tried different therapies and found an issue in the fundamental core of the problem which led her to create this product.
Combined with her course work in business and the Technology Innovation Management program on campus, D’Souza said she saw this as an opportunity to not only help her own child, but others.
D’Souza said the most challenging aspect was sticking to her budget. She said most prototypes take millions of dollars and her budget was nowhere close enough.
D’Souza said the project has really helped to open her eyes and allowed her to see the world differently, as well as work with a versatile team to create it.
Although the project remains unnamed, the team has taken to calling it the Virtual Therapy System. More information will be available closer to the launch, tentatively scheduled for the end of the year.
