E-Innovation, a Montreal-based company, was co-founded this year by Janine Mauzeroll, a McGill Chemistry Professor and her research team: Laurence Danis, Tomer Noyhouzer, Michael E. Snowden, and Ushula M. Tefashe. The startup is invested in developing the next generation of chemical sensors and online monitors to provide highly sensitive and reliable analytical instruments, all to satisfy the needs of academia and industry.

Prior to the official incorporation of E-Innovation in August, the SizeControlled Ultramicroelectrodes (UMEs) were featured in a paper by Danis, and the Chemistry team was awarded second place at the 2015 McGill Dobson Cup. By the time E-Innovation’s team launched their startup, they were already on the map. The launch led to a rapid cascade of opportunities for the team to showcase their startup, for which they have received both local and international recognition.

In September, E-Innovation pitched at the McGill X-1 Demo Day, and competed in the first ever MTL Blog Startup Challenge, where they placed third behind Evive, a pet food service that provides handmade meals for cats and dogs, and UVolt, a charging system that uses body heat, movement and solar energy for your phone. E-Innovation was also invited to the 8th International Workshop on Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy (SECM-8) in Xiamen, China, and is currently still in the running for the worldwide 1776 Startup Challenge Cup.

“If you’re confident in your product then follow it through so your dream can become a reality.” – Michael E. Snowden, co-founder of E-Innovation

So far, their products include SizeControlled UMEs and OptECHEM – a new type of electrochemical flow cell – both of which they hope to commercialize and apply to industrial settings.

Startups are known for their high failure rates, with estimates at 90 per cent according to Forbes, largely due to a lack of monetary resources. Since E-Innovation is still in the early stages of development, it still has many challenges to overcome if it wishes to stabilize its presence in the market. Snowden told The Daily, “If we manage to get successful market traction with the company, then we can envision going full-time into manufacturing and producing the products and delivering to the market, and, maybe, further refining the existing product […] or bringing in an additional product.”

So what are these products exactly, and more importantly, why have they been praised in the research domain? To put it simply, E-Innovation’s SizeControlled UMEs are ideal for high-resolution surface imaging, electrochemical mapping, and analytical measurements. This wide array of detection applications makes these electrodes of very high academic interest in the chemical, biological and physical frontiers of science.

OptECHEM, on the other hand, is a new type of electrochemical flow cell that can simultaneously record electrochemical and spectroscopic measurements. This product can be easily altered to suit the environment of its use, a perfect tool for both research and industrial applications.

Learning from E-Innovation is not limited to its applications in science. Snowdon says partnering with someone who has more connections and experience than a typical student, such as a professor like Mauzeroll, can be extremely helpful in becoming established as a company.  Even so, as for any startup, the future of E-Innovation is uncertain. For those just entering the world of startups, however, Snowden’s advice is clear: “If you’re confident in your product then follow it through so your dream can become a reality,” he said.

—With files from Jill Bachelder

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The event will exhibit the work of professors from the Faculty of Science as well as affiliated interdisciplinary departments. This year’s tentative lineup of professors includes Joelle Pineau, a computer science professor who will discuss her research on artificial intelligence and machine learning. Edward Ruthazer of the Montreal Neurological Institute, whose lab explores how one’s experiences early in life affect brain activity, will also explain his work.

Victor Chisholm, the undergraduate research officer for the Faculty of Science, has been involved with organizing Soup and Science since its inception in 2006. Chisholm told The Daily the event is important because it offers people the chance to learn about the broad range of research happening at McGill. “It allows us to showcase who we are and introduce students to the opportunities that are available to them during their degree,” Chisholm said.

“It’s one of the rare occasions that I had to interact with people that were truly outside of my department and were undergraduates.”

Soup and Science also attempts to create a space where students can network with professors. In the past, Chisholm noted, several students told him they “made connections at Soup and Science that have translated into research opportunities.”

At last fall’s edition of Soup and Science, undergraduate students gave positive feedback about the event, saying it breaks down the student-professor barrier felt so strongly in introductory courses. However, students have often noted the difficulty of procuring a spot; it is usually necessary to arrive at the event early to guarantee admission.

Sofia Lin, a U3 Psychology student, also noted that when she went to Soup and Science in her first year, the research discussed was a bit too technical for her to understand, and as a result she did not feel like she knew enough to start a conversation with the professors. “Maybe because it was my first year, I guess, so I didn’t know what kind of question I should ask,” Lin said.

“It’s a good experience, but in terms of actually talking to [professors] I remember there were so many people, I didn’t actually get to talk to someone,” she added.

Janine Mauzeroll, a chemistry professor at McGill who does research on electrochemistry and the corrosion of various materials, spoke positively about Soup and Science, but noted it could do a better job of introducing undergraduates to research opportunities. The event doesn’t really give students an idea of “how to better get a job in research for the summer or during the semester or something like that,” Mauzeroll said.

“I see [Soup and Science] more as a nice meet-and-greet [with] networking capabilities,” Mauzeroll told The Daily.

However, the event did allow Mauzeroll to meet students from a variety of faculties, whom she would never otherwise have met, outside of introductory-level classes, which have hundreds of students and tend to be impersonal. “It’s one of the rare occasions that I had to interact with people that were truly outside of my department and were undergraduates,” said Mauzeroll.

Ways for new students to try out research

Here are some options available to you for getting involved in research. Keep these in mind as you wander over to Soup and Science.

1. Undergraduate research (Science classes with course code 396): These courses offer students a chance to gain experience in a variety of possible areas. Since you’re not limited to doing these courses through your department, you can explore other areas of interest you might have. Worth three credits, the projects are most often assigned by a supervisor, whom you must find and contact in advance of the Add/Drop deadline.

2. Volunteering in a laboratory: If you like a professor’s research, you can always contact them and ask to casually help out with a project. Make sure to update your resume, and read up on their research before you talk to them to see if it interests you and to show them your motivation to get involved.

3. Emailing profs for research assistant positions: Taking initiative works! It’s often necessary to reach out to professors in order to find interesting research opportunities. Look at what is available on McGill Career Planning Services’ research opportunities database and take note of the professor’s preferred mode of contact, and you might just find some golden projects to work on.

4. Research awards: Of course, you can always apply for research awards in order to take on a project. Awards such as Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Undergraduate Student Research Awards (NSERC USRA) and Science Undergraduate Research Awards (SURA) are quite competitive, so this will require you to take time on your application and to find a supervisor well in advance. Most such projects are done at McGill over the summer.

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