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Two Corporate Residency MBA students, Ryan Bunker and Priyanka Kochhar (pictured), won first place in the BMO Financial Group Apex Business Plan Competition at the University of New Brunswick in January. The team, representing Nexus Robotics, competed against graduate students from across the Maritimes for their win.

Nexus Robotics is an agricultural technology company developing an autonomous weeding robot for farming. Its aim is to alleviate the labour shortage and harmful environmental impact of herbicides through what it has coined “Weeding-as-a-Service” or “WaaS.” The robot will combine machine-learning to locate the weeds and a robotic arm to mechanically remove them, all while moving around on its own, letting the farmer focus on other, more valuable activities.

After submitting a business plan, the team travelled to Fredericton to present to other conference competitors and the panel of judges, which included industry representatives and investors. “The judging panel asked intriguing questions,” says Ryan Bunker. “They definitely challenged us to think differently about the problem we’re trying to solve and whether there is an economic case for such a service.”

“It was great to network with other students and professionals from across the Maritimes,” says Priyanka. “We definitely recommend that both undergraduate and graduate teams from Dal compete in the UNB Apex Competition next year.”