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For millions of people, menstrual pain is quietly endured.

Three University of Calgary students believe that reality needs to change, with their women’s health startup drawing national attention.

Most recently featured in the Nationals, SmartHeat is on a mission to revolutionize menstrual pain management.

“It’s not just about building a startup. This is about building something that makes people feel seen,” says Cindy Cheng, a biomedical engineering and business dual-degree major and SmartHeat’s business lead.

The students’ flagship product is an intelligent, wearable heating belt. The heating belt is targeted to deliver constant, uniform heat application, unlike traditional heating pads.

“It heats exactly where you want it,” says Vaneeza Upal, engineering lead (and biomedical engineering student) behind the startup. “Using our companion app, you're able to select the region where you feel pain, and heat is delivered exactly to those regions.”

Their innovation is timely and necessary. "Half of menstruating individuals — 50 per cent — experience pain every month. That's a billion people globally,” Upal says.

Beyond heating pads, other current solutions for menstrual pain include painkillers, which don’t always work. “They often have unwanted side effects, too,” Upal adds.

The heating belt designed to be wearable, discreet under clothes and portable. “Our goal is to change how people look at women’s health. We’re starting with menstrual pain, but this is a much bigger conversation,” Upal says.

Bringing their innovation to the Hult Prize Program

Cheng and Upal met as classmates last fall. At the same time, Cheng met and befriended Yansing Huang (a neuroscience major), who would eventually become their research lead.

“The idea started in a design course but became so much more,” Cheng says. “We immediately knew that this was the right team to navigate this journey."

Together, the three students decided to bring their startup to the Hult Prize, a year-long program that challenges students to build for-profit startups that tackle global issues.

Over five progressive phases, teams hone their ideas, receive mentorship, and compete to win $1 million in seed funding. Program participants also gain access to educational opportunities, perks and scholarship opportunities, mentorship, and investment connections.

Out of roughly 18,000 teams that entered globally, only 28 advanced to the Canadian finals, a huge milestone for SmartHeat. They were the only team representing Western Canada.

“We feel really lucky to have participated in a program of this scale,” Upal says. “It feels especially aligned with our startup. The Hult Prize is focused on how you address an issue that's affecting a large population, especially populations that might not be as well represented,” she says.

Huang adds: “Pitching alongside the best from across Canada and seeing their work was really inspiring.”

Building the business with Launchpad

The SmartHeat founders credit ԰������’s Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking with helping transform the project from a prototype into a viable startup.

Through the Hunter Hub’s Launchpad program, the team spent six months refining their business model, conducting customer discovery, and developing skills outside their technical backgrounds, including market analysis, revenue planning and legal strategy.

Winning the Female Founders Award at the culmination of Launchpad, Liftoff, gave the students added momentum heading into the Hult Prize.

When attending the National Finals in Montreal, the team says they gained a new appreciation for the entrepreneurial ecosystem at ԰������.

“We were talking to students from other universities, and it made us realize how unique the Hunter Hub is,” says Upal. “A lot of schools didn’t have anything close to that level of support.”

For Cheng, participating in the program was a true manifestation of ԰������’s entrepreneurial slogan, “Start something.”

“We’re grateful we had the chance to represent what the University of Calgary stands for,” she says.

What’s next for SmartHeat

Although SmartHeat did not win the $1-million Hult Prize, the experience reinforced something equally important for the founders: confidence built through action.

The team is now focused on patenting, refining the device, expanding user testing and pursuing incorporation as their next major milestone.

“We’re already looking to the future and thinking about how we can give back to the Alberta medtech innovation ecosystem that supported us,” says Upal. “Our long-term vision is to keep engineering jobs right here in Canada, contributing to the economy at a time when building local industry matters the most.”

Long term, the founders see SmartHeat growing beyond menstrual pain management into a broader startup for women’s health monitoring and diagnostics.

“Our goal is to revolutionize how people look at women’s health,” says Cheng. “We’re starting with menstrual pain, but it has the opportunity to become much more.”