Cal Wilkes

Cal Wilkes is an experienced entrepreneur and engineer. In 2019 they founded HotSpot CookTop and served as the Product Architect. Cal raised $160k USD from Comcast and WeWork's venture capital arms and conducted a $13,000 paid pilot with B/S/H (Bosch). Cal designed, assembled and tested a proof of concept single burner, a fully functioning prototype and a paid pilot run of the cooktop with Bosch. In 2018, they were a part of the Next 36 - 2018 Cohort. In 2017, they worked as a Research Assistant at the University of Calgary where they designed and prototyped an insole with a low-energy electromechanical actuator and an electrochemical sensor for measuring the wearer's blood glucose concentration. Cal tested the insole on 6 human volunteers with a 100% success rate collecting blood samples, producing blood glucose reading in 44% of tests. In 2016, they worked as a Junior Mechatronics Engineer at Power in Motion where they decreased the width of battery packs for ebike conversion kits by 25% so that their kits could fit a wider range of bikes, including folding bikes. Cal also repaired motors and controllers for electric bikes from a wide variety of manufacturers often with no prior information on the systems using debugging equipment to interrogate the systems.

Cal Wilkes attended the University of Calgary from 2015 to 2019, where they earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering.