University of Toronto student Vincent Cheung has been named 2010 Student Entrepreneur Ontario Champion
by
Advancing Canadian Entrepreneurship (ACE), for founding
Shape Collage Inc "a software program that arranges hundreds of photos into custom shapes in seconds". According to the
Toronto Star the software developed by Cheung's company has
already been downloaded more than one million times since its launch last March.
"Cheung was recently named 2010 Student Entrepreneur Ontario Champion
by Advancing Canadian Entrepreneurship (ACE), a national charitable
organization. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce sponsors the national
competition.The provincial competition is in March with
nationals scheduled for May. The winner will represent Canada at the
Global Student Entrepreneur Awards in November. Canada took top prize
last year."
"ACE spokeswoman Jaime Szegvary said the award was
created to support students with a unique business plan as well as
provide them with access to a network of individuals with similar
interests."A lot of these students, they really don't think
of it as something they could be doing full time. It gives them the
extra little push," she said."
"Cheung, a PhD candidate in
computer engineering at the University of Toronto, came up with the
concept late 2007. "I wanted to share my photos with my friends and
family and didn't want to subject them to flipping through hundreds of
images," he said."
"The solution was to design an algorithm
that automatically ensures images are laid out in a visually pleasing
fashion and arranged in a variety of shapes; examples include hearts
and corporate logos. The program is compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux."
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original source Toronto Star