How a hackathon connected Aashna Manocha with a community of changemakers
Experience Ventures placement fosters collaboration, innovation, and purpose-driven teamwork
Aashna Manocha is a third-year student pursuing a Bachelor’s in Accounting at Humber Polytechnic. She keeps a busy extracurricular schedule, and in October 2024, she participated in the Futuristic Fashion hackathon at Myant — a company that designs human-centered computing solutions intended to improve and extend lives.
The hackathon challenged 52 students to explore how the intersection of design, advanced materials, and technology can be used for equity in women’s reproductive health.
“I’m just someone who really likes participating in hackathons and case competitions,” Manochas beams. “So, when I saw that there was an opportunity to take on a challenge I personally resonate with, I thought: ‘I should definitely not miss this’.”
She heard about the event through the Longo Centre for Entrepreneurship at Humber Polytechnic — which is an Experience Ventures partner.
Experience Ventures is powered by the Hunter Hub of Entrepreneurial Thinking at the University of Calgary and funded by the Government of Canada. The program’s goal is to enable college and university students to practice entrepreneurial thinking alongside real-world innovators.
The hackathon at Myant is just one type of entrepreneurial thinking placement that Experience Ventures makes possible. Dr. Georgette Zinaty, the Chief of Staff at Myant, describes how her company got involved.
“Humber was one that we connected with,” she recalls. “They actually have a department that intersects fashion and engineering. And then what we ended up doing was speaking to the Longo Centre for Entrepreneurship. They said ‘Hey, what are your thoughts about doing a hackathon?’”
After touring the Myant facilities, the students were given a real-world problem related to demonstrative health — with two days to innovate and then pitch a solution.
“We gave them some context. We gave them some data points. We did the first part of the info session,” Dr. Zinaty says.
In the afternoon, Myant filled the room with mentors — everyone from their design and engineering teams, to senior executives, and the head of women’s health from McMaster University.
“I feel like this is something that everyone should experience once,” Manocha adds. “Just being in a group setting with like-minded individuals. It’s really important to surround yourself with people who you want to be. So just going into any experience — hackathons, case competitions — anything that they’re passionate about, I would definitely recommend.”
At the end of the two days, Manocha’s team won first place for their presentation.
Their idea addressed the shortcomings of period and menstrual tracking apps — while noting that different combinations of life stage, menstrual phase and biological cycle make it a challenge to address every woman’s concerns.
“The main problem with these apps is that you have to manually input data, and if I don’t input something, of course it’s not going to track it well,” she says. “We came up with the idea of having a bodysuit which could track your sleeping patterns, because Myant can do that, which is awesome. It can track your body heat and it can actually provide body heat if you’re going through cramping.”
“The technology is actually embedded into the thread,” says Dr. Zinaty.
That data could then be integrated with tracking apps, making them more effective and useful.
For the team at Myant, hosting this Experience Ventures event felt like a success.
“It was a great way to get them to see, hands-on, the role they could play in the future of Canada,” Dr. Zinaty says. “In the future of healthcare and in the future of solutions to some of the biggest social problems.”
For Manocha, the hackathon result fulfilled the event’s purpose of facilitating entrepreneurial thinking.
“I’d say entrepreneurial thinking is taking action,” she explains. “Because anyone can complain about having a million different problems in their life. But only a true entrepreneur will actually take action in wanting to change it and making something new out of it.”
That perspective has provided some momentum for her team.
While the hackathon at Myant was the first time Manocha met her fellow members, the experience has inspired the group to continue working on their idea at Enactus — an international non-profit organization that encourages university students to use entrepreneurial action to create positive social and environmental impact.
And after that? Manocha doesn’t rule out returning to Myant with a proposal.
“It’s really important to have these connections and have this sort of exposure where you can meet industry experts,” she says. “You never know where it’s going to take you.”
As for her future career, the hackathon has reinforced an idea Manocha had already been considering.
“It made me see that entrepreneurship is something that I’m deeply passionate about,” she says. “Entrepreneurship is something that I was born to do.”