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Egg Farmers of Canada is delighted to announce the winners of its latest Student Innovation Challenge. The initiative saw post-secondary students from across the country pitch their research ideas and creative solutions to help shape the future of Canada鈥檚 egg sector. Eligible students were invited to submit a short video that answered the question: What is your research project, and how is it bringing innovation to the egg industry in Canada?

鈥淲ith per capita egg consumption trending upward and further growth anticipated in 2025, we know there are great things on the horizon for Canada鈥檚 egg sector. Working with this next generation of researchers allows us to harness our shared passion for eggs and develop innovative solutions to challenges we face,鈥� said Roger Pelissero, Chair of Egg Farmers of Canada. 鈥淔rom leveraging artificial intelligence to learn about animal behavioural patterns to drawing on new approaches for enhancing hens鈥� diets to exploring new tools for responding to animal health matters鈥攖he opportunities are endless.鈥�

Several students responded to the call, showcasing how fresh approaches can help egg farmers achieve their goals. The winners were selected by a jury comprised of industry representatives, academics and stakeholders and were announced at an Egg Farmers of Canada meeting on March 19, 2025. Jo Ann Chew from the University of Alberta received the first-place prize, with Venkatraman Manikandan from Dalhousie University and Janan Shoja Doost from the University of Guelph receiving the second- and third-place awards, respectively.

Venkat's project was entitled "Decoding Poultry Vocalizations -- Natural Language Processing and Transformer Models for Semantic and Emotional Analysis".

Congratulations!