Queen's students win Kingston Mayor’s Innovation Challenge

Post-secondary students from across Kingston recently brought their biggest and brightest ideas to the town's historic city hall for the 2025 Mayor’s Innovation Challenge, and two teams of Queen’s students won the top prizes. This annual competition hosted by the City of Kingston calls on students to develop proposals for projects that would help improve the lives of people in the local community. The teams with the most promising projects are then invited to take part in a pitch competition where they present their idea to a panel of six judges composed of local leaders and experts, including representatives from Queen’s.

This year’s two winning teams directed their efforts to two very complex challenges. The students behind Handfluence developed a tool to assist deaf and deaf-blind individuals and the Lawtonica team is using artificial intelligence to help people better understand the law.

“For eight years now students from Queen’s and St. Lawrence College have shown incredible ingenuity and a strong commitment to the Kingston community during the Mayor’s Innovation Challenge,” says Jim McLellan, Academic Director of the Dunin-Deshpande Queen’s Innovation Centre (DDQIC), who has served as a judge for each annual pitch competition. “It is wonderful to see the breadth of participation from many different programs and backgrounds. The winning projects this year both tackle important issues and show real promise for improving lives in our local community and beyond.”

Handfluence – winners of the Dunin-Deshpande Innovation Centre Prize

Members of the Handfluence team (from left): Christopher Gill, Derek Youngman, and Emil Mathew. (City of Kingston)

Handfluence is a solution that aims to bridge the communication gap between deaf and hearing individuals in critical settings like banks, hospitals, and government offices. Using AI-powered computer vision, the tool translates American Sign Language (ASL) to English in real-time, while an animated avatar converts English to ASL. For users who are deaf-blind, the technology translates speech into tactile sign language through a robotic hand.

"AI and computer vision have the power to break down barriers and create more inclusive communities,” says Emil Mathew, member of the Handfluence team and fourth-year Queen’s student in mechatronics and robotics engineering. “For deaf and deaf-blind individuals, communication in everyday settings can often be challenging. Our goal is to bridge this gap and make conversations more accessible for everyone. Winning the Mayor’s Innovation Challenge has strengthened our belief in the potential of technology to drive meaningful change, and we’re excited to see how our work can make an impact, starting here in Kingston."

The team will gain admission to the Queen’s Founders and Innovators Initiative (QFII) program, a transformative, part-time program that helps aspiring innovators and entrepreneurs take their early-stage startups to the next level. They will receive world-class entrepreneurship training, mentorship from industry professionals, and the opportunity to unlock up to $4,000 in seed funding. The team will also compete for a chance to win seed funding from a prize pool of up to $80,000 in the DDQIC Regional Pitch Competition.

Lawtonica – winners of the Public Sector Innovation Prize

Members of the Lawtonica team were congratulated by Mayor Bryan Paterson after the competition (from left): Ethan Stassen, Zain Al Sudani, Mayor Paterson, Yafet Beyene, and Walelign Sumoro. (City of Kingston)

Lawtonica is an AI tool designed to simplify the process of finding and comprehending local bylaws. It uses a specialized AI that users can chat with named Tonica, which handles all the time-consuming research by searching through hundreds of pages of legal documents in a matter of moments. Tonica makes complicated legal language easier to understand while maintaining accuracy.

“Learning about local bylaws and how to follow them can be really overwhelming,” says Yafet Beyene, member of the Lawtonica team and first-year computing student at Queen’s. “Lawtonica uses AI to make it much simpler for everyone to follow the rules and be a good citizen and neighbour in their community. We’re honoured to have been selected by the judges of the challenge and can’t wait to realize the full potential of the tool we’ve developed.”

Sponsored by Bell, the Public Sector Innovation Prize includes a $10,000 cash award to help bring a great business idea to life. Winners will also gain access to the Summer Company Program, funded by the Government of Ontario and delivered by Kingston Economic Development Corporation, which provides hands-on training, mentorship, and financial support to young entrepreneurs aged 15 to 29.

Learn more on the City of Kingston website.