With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/290301
bcbusiness.ca 54 BCBusiness april 2014 G iving back to a social or environmental cause is, increasingly, the cost of doing business, especially in B.C. If an entrepreneur can do both —help fellow man and the planet—then people start to notice. But the separation from the pack really starts when the marketplace is smitten with a product whose DNA is dedicated entirely to that cause. When that whole enter- prise is launched by a 16-year-old student, Google calls. Welcome to the suddenly jam-packed world of Victoria high-school student Ann Makosinski, who last year won the 2013 Google Science Fair competition in the 15–16 age category for her "hollow flashlight" pow- ered by body heat—specifically the hand of the person holding it. Her device utilizes Peltier tiles that produce electricity from a temperature differential between one side heated by the body, and the other, cooler side. "My mom is from the Philippines and a friend there told me about how she had failed at school because her family couldn't afford electricity," Makosinski says. "Without it there was no light for her to study." It was that propulsion to help a family friend that sparked innovation that she'd been cultivating since she explored the house as a pre-schooler, gluing things together in the name of invention and the inherent need to hack the world around her. A science fair regular since Grade 6, Makosinski entered the 2013 Google competition and proceeded to beat out thousands of teenaged scientists from around the world, including other world-changing concepts such as enhanced solar cells, a green method for cleaning water… even the Voter's Choice winner, a project titled "Creating Bioplas- tics from Banana Peel." Google judges saw the obvious application of her invention—seemingly self-charging batteries to power our wearable-tech future—but Makosinski sees another upside to disrupting the battery industry. "[Batteries] leach terrible chemicals into the ground when we don't dispose of them properly… It would be so wonderful if we could just try eliminating batteries more and more." Her new fame has her appearing on U.S. talk shows, speaking at TEDx events across Canada and entertaining conversations from global companies looking to invest. Not surprisingly, she's also made patents a key priority. But she's still in Grade 11 and looking forward to studying science in university. The US$50,000 she won for her innovation should help with tuition, if she doesn't plow it back into changing the world first. —T.G. A dam Woodhouse admits that coming to Vancouver two-and- a-half years ago from his home in London, England, wasn't a career move; like many before him, he met a Canadian abroad and followed his heart. Now firmly planted in Van- couver, the superstar of digital design wouldn't be anywhere else. The self-taught designer rose to stardom in 2009 when he topped Digital Arts magazine's Best of New British Talent list. Following stints in illustration and web design, today he works primar- ily in designing mobile apps, and last year art-directed the Seamless food-ordering app that was among Time magazine's 50 best iPhone apps of 2013. –D.J. Ann Makosinski President and CEO, Hollow Flashlight Age: 16 Adam Woodhouse Art Director, Invoke Media Age: 28 30 UNDER 30 p38-67_30Under30_april.indd 54 14-03-07 2:05 PM