York U students take first prize at UC Berkeley boot camp

FEATURED image for the story on Lassonde BEST Program company’s drone
Lassonde student winners
Team MIR: Berkeley engineering student Sirej Dua, York students Nikita Iliushkin and Linar Ismagilov, and Berkeley student Lucas Wiley

MIR, a company born in the Lassonde School of Engineering’s BEST lab has taken the top prize at the University of California, Berkeley Entrepreneurship Boot Camp.

Lassonde mechanical engineering student Linar Ismagilov founded MIR last year along with Schulich School of Business student Nikita Iliushkin.

At the Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship Boot Camp MIR competed against 18 other companies from all over North America who were participating in the semifinals. The week-long boot camp included a wide variety of participants including students from engineering, business and social science.

Ismagilov and Iliushkin won first place in the boot camp for their idea to invent a new kind of drone that will help make parcel delivery using drones a reality. The drone was developed in workshops at the Bergeron Centre for Engineering Excellence.

The duo continue to perfect their prototype, as well as build industry relationships and refine their business plan.