Media Advisories

November 17, 2009

Pig tracker takes home the bacon - $20,000 HATCH prize

WHAT: The inaugural winner of the YTP - HATCH student business plan competition is officially announced. JR Shaw School of Business student Konrad Misiewicz’s winning idea could potentially save the oil industry a lot of money and has earned him $20,000 in seed money to get his business off the ground. The product is an improved pig tracker. Placed inside the pipeline, a pig device cleans residue from the inner walls of the pipeline. The devices, which are valuable, can get stuck or lost, so they need to be tracked closely. Misiewicz says his pig tracker is better than anything else on the market; it is more durable, it has a longer tracking range and it can also be used with a number of receivers.

WHERE:   NAIT
Edmonton, Alberta
11762 106 Street NW
Bytes Cafeteria 
hp Centre 
      
WHEN: Thursday, November 19, 2009
10 am
  
WHY: There were three finalists who presented business plans to a panel of judges. The $20,000 in seed money Misiewicz receives is from Alberta Advanced Education and Technology’s Youth Technopreneurship Program (YTP) http://www.advancededandtech.alberta.ca/technology/support/entrepreneur.aspx.  
 
The winner will also receive one year of incubation from novaNAIT’s Duncan McNeill Centre for Innovation. http://www.nait.ca/52497.htm

HATCH is run by NAIT’s SIFE club (Students in Free Enterprise). The winner will also receive mentorship by SIFE. http://www.sifenait.com/

Manmeet Bhullar, MLA for Calgary-Montrose and Parliamentary Assistant to Honourable Doug Horner, Minister Advanced Education and Technology will be on hand to talk about the importance of programs that support young entrepreneurs.  http://aet.alberta.ca
                

For more information please contact:

Sandra Spencer
Project Manager Hatch
SIFE NAIT
C 780.722.6663
 
Rayne Kuntz
NAIT Media Relations Coordinator
Department of Corporate Communications
P 780.471.8450 C 780.916.8307 E raynek@nait.ca