Jean Fahmy

I have the joy of teaching a Technology Entrepreneurship class at L'École Polytechnique de Montréal. Picture a class of 50 students who have been trained for 4+ intensive years to think inside the Engineering Box, to memorize what the box holds and to apply standards of the box in their jobs - and you get 50 minds hungry for creativity. My class is usually the last one of their engineering studies so it puts me in a great position to counter-act the brain-washing years they were subjected to. I know... I've been there.

The class is not a hard one. I believe the theoretical principles of entrepreneurship are quite easy. Everything is in
- the discovery of our personal values
- the application of those simple principles
- the determination to keep at it until the company has been built into something of value.

Their task is to come up with an idea, prepare a sensible business plan and, most importantly, present it convincingly to myself and a panel of VCs. They have 12 weeks to do that - and I know most of them wait till the last 2 weeks to really get started.

After almost 4 years of teaching the class, I've come across some surprising ideas and business opportunities which never ceases to give me hope in the fascinating inner-creativity engineers have when given the chance. Here is the list of projects from this year's creative crop.

- An innovative way to present science to primary school kids and elders alike
- A spit-alyser that measures marijuana consumption of drivers
- A Canadian-specific online movie rental and streaming solution
- An advanced, yet simple, pill-reminder and distribution system for elders
- A turnkey system to create an video inventory of your personal assets for insurance purposes
- A wireless SAAS system to collect hard-to-find data from municipal water infrastructures
- An interesting automated wall painting solution
- A unique 'gypse' recycling solution
- A tire-changing machine to avoid the back-related injuries of mechanics
- A power-consumption optimization solution for corporation and consumers
- A head-hunting firm specializing in the placement of semi-retired / retired individuals
- An ad network using LCD screens in public places
- A life-brokering solution for elders at home to increase their at-home  quality of life
- An innovation-based network for corporations and individuals to promote sharing and learning
- A process-optimizing solution for corporations
- An in-grocery store and web solution to quickly enter the basket, see the specials and map out the optimal route to fill the said basket

I get at least 2 groups a year that actually start a business project and take the next post-academic step into the world of entrepreneurship... and it makes me so proud. I end up coaching these teams in their growth to profitability and when it happens, I get that paternal 'snif-snif-my-kids-are-all-grown-up' feeling.

Hello, my name is Jean and I am a computer engineer. Hi Jean, I hear you utter in a fake caring voice.

I have had over 150 employees and more than half were Computer Engineers (CE). In this multi-part series (à la Discovery Channel), I will open a window about certain particularities I learnt of the CE in the wildlife of the Corporation. It's based on my own experiences and not on clichés I picked up.

I will use the we as to avoid being branded as a CE hater. Being one myself, I have full CE humorous-observation immunity.

We first and foremost learn to build specs and then apply them to systems to satisfy our own needs. Then, and only when our livelihood depends on it, we grudgingly do what the boss and clients asks of us.

When something doesn't work, we try to quickly find the bug...
if we can't find it, we restart all the systems...
if that doesn't work, we patch with a lengthy and risky workaround...
if we can't workaround, we try to find someone to blame. Since there are many actors involved in the product, we have a large variety of choices. The by default one is 'The client changing his mind'...
if the blamed won't take it, we call our work a demo version with a 0.x number attached to it...
if the spinners in marketing can't make that work, we innocently blame them...

If all else fails, we declare that the market, the clients and the consumers never understood how much of a brilliant product we created.