up:: [[People MOC]] tags:: #people # Maria Smirnova Maria Smirnova is the Founder and CEO of TaskMapper, an entrepreneur and interdisciplinary designer with a strong background in entrepreneurship and design. She founded TaskMapper to provide a new system that prioritizes balance and intervention to help individuals and teams avoid burnout. Maria earned an Honours Bachelor of Architectural Studies within the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Waterloo, where she also took four entrepreneurship co-op placements and courses surrounding venture creation. She was recognized for her entrepreneurial achievements with the Norman Esch Entrepreneurship Award in 2021. Maria’s areas of personal research include burnout, neuroaesthetics, vision and perception, data visualization, and developments in making digital user interfacing more naturally human-centred. Through these focuses, she is determined to develop tools and systems that will effectively promote positive habit formation. ##### Quotes "Architect knows how to design the ideal, but they don't know how to champion the ideal to investor and clients." - Maria Smirnova