Several years before Clearpath Robotics’ founders were named to Business Insider’s “People to Watch in 2015” list, Matthew Rendall, Ryan Gariepy and Bryan Webb were University of Waterloo mechatronics engineering students.

In April 2009, the three students entered the annual U.S. Army-sponsored Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition with a low-cost robot that could detect and remove land-mines without risking human life. Although their robot finished dead last in the autonomous portion of the competition, traveling a distance of only 7 feet in 23 seconds, the team decided to form a robotics company later that year dedicated to automating the world’s dullest, dirtiest and deadliest jobs.