Looking back at our Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 semesters and processing the final impacts of the Brilliant Innovation fund, we would like to take a moment to celebrate the incredible success of the inaugural Catalyst Innovation Fund pilot as well as some students who created opportunities from it. Our mission is to foster innovation and entrepreneurship at Ontario Tech University, and with this fund we empowered student innovators to utilize their ideas into tangible community impact. 

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Empowering Student-Led Innovation

The Catalyst Innovation Fund was launched to provide financial support and resources to clubs and recognized student groups at Ontario Tech University. We challenged those involved to create an initiative/pitch that centered around engagement, innovation, and entrepreneurial thinking. In order to secure funding between $100 and $1000, students had to submit extensive budgets and deliver a 5 minute presentation to a panel of stakeholders during our live pitch session in November 2025. Teams were evaluated thoroughly with a rubric based on Innovation & Creativity, and Impact & Execution, ensuring that the most forward thinking and feasible ideas received backing. 

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Creating a Buzz: The Fan Favourite Prize

The competition wasn't limited to the pitching room. Student groups also demonstrated their entrepreneurial hustle through virtual engagement to compete for the "Fan Favourite" prize. Teams earned points by participating in various social media challenges that promoted the Brilliant Catalyst brand across the student body. This included posting Instagram reels spotlighting the fund, sharing LinkedIn content about our experiential learning opportunities, and even tagging senior leadership to earn bonus points.

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Measuring Our Campus Impact

With 75 clubs and 5 societies on campus, this pilot allowed us to extend our reach across multiple campus communities. By supporting funded initiatives that were each expected to reach 200–300 students, the pilot successfully drove toward a total potential impact of up to 700 students. This strategy not only increased brand recognition for Brilliant Catalyst but also significantly lowered the cost of engagement per student, proving to be a highly effective model for spreading an entrepreneurial mindset.

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Club Highlights

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OTU Nursing Student Community 

We saw phenomenal ideas emerge from this pilot, including an incredible initiative led by Hugo Tam, RN and Valedictorian of the BScN Class of 2026. Through the fund, Hugo started an initiative with the OTU Nursing Student Community to help nursing students alleviate the heavy costs of buying scrubs. The Nursing Student Community collected gently used scrubs to help out fellow nursing students across both first-year and upper-year cohorts. 

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 “...truthfully from the heart with how helpful and supportive Brilliant Catalyst [is]…”

• Hugo Tam RN, 2025-2026 Co-President of the OTU Nursing Student Community & Valedictorian of the BScN Class of 2026

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Students were asked to ensure scrubs were washed and in good condition before donating, and could arrange drop-offs by connecting with the Nursing Student Community with their color, type, and size. The donation collection successfully ran until November 20th. This is exactly the kind of problem-solving and community support the fund was built to inspire!

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Computer Science Club 

The OTU Computer Science (CS) Club delivered an impressive pitch for their upcoming "HackHive 2026" initiative, a three-day hackathon scheduled for January 23-25 where student teams will tackle real-world problems through code and build innovative projects with startup potential. Looking to scale up from their previous events, the club is anticipating an estimated 250 attendees and requested the maximum funding amount of $1,000 to help cover food, venue costs, and prep kits. 

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Beyond just financial backing, the CS Club also sought in-kind support from Brilliant Catalyst, requesting access to event space, collaborative workshops, and marketing assistance. By providing a platform for students to pitch their ideas to industry experts and potentially turn their projects into direct job opportunities with local Durham companies, the HackHive event serves as a perfect stepping stone into Brilliant Catalyst's incubator programs and perfectly aligns with the fund's mission

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OT Media Pass 

Another standout presentation came from OT Media Pass, a student-run media team dedicated to solving the lack of accessible media training and equipment on campus. Founded in the Fall 2025 semester, OT Media pass wanted to create a space for photographers, videographers, editors, and creatives to hone their craft and build their portfolio. 

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“Brilliant Catalyst has always been so understanding, collaborative, and uplifting….” 

• Nathaniel Ambedkar, Founder/President of the OT Media Pass

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During their pitch, the team requested $520 in funding to launch a new "Ontario Tech Media Library" pilot for the Winter 2026 semester. This initiative aims to allow students to borrow accessible creative gear, such as ring-light tripods, Bluetooth microphones, and vlogger kits. Beyond the equipment library, OT Media Pass also outlined ambitious plans to host a "Careers in Media Job Fair" and a "Create-a-thon" competition in February to help students bridge the gap between media and their specific degree programs. By connecting students with hands-on resources and real-world creative opportunities, their proposal perfectly embodied the fund's goal of driving campus engagement and innovation 

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Looking Ahead

With all funded activities successfully concluded by March 20, 2026, this pilot has laid a strong foundation for the future. We are thrilled with the outcomes and are excited to use this pilot to set us up for widespread impact in the 2026/27 academic year with an even earlier recruitment and engagement strategy. Stay tuned to what we have in store for next year!