Terry Young, President Emeritus of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), is the founder and editor of Beyond the First World not-for-profit organization/blog, where global news and best practices for managers of innovation and intellectual property are published bi-weekly.  

Mr. Young has 20 years experience in managing innovation in both the public and private sector. He has been recognized internationally for his role in developing economies based upon innovation and entrepreneurship. Mr. Young is an accomplished author, contributing to academic journals as well as chapters in several books. He also was the writer/editor of a proclaimed news source – Innovation Matters – from 2002 – 2004.  

Last month, on July 6^th, Mr. Young published on his blog the responses he received to a survey of 40 tech transfer professionals representing a cross section of the industry, including CEOs of tech transfer service companies, university TTO managers, start-up executives, researchers, and patent officials. Thirty-six individuals responded to Young’s single question, “What are the top three reasons for failure of university start-up companies?”  Instead of using a survey form, participants were encouraged to respond with their own comments. “This ‘survey’ was not proposed or promoted as a scientific survey in any manner,” Young explains. “Rather, it was a free-form attempt to learn from experts their opinions regarding the reasons for the failure of university start-up companies.” The complete list of reasons can be found here: http://www.technologytransfertactics.com/content/2010/07/14/survey-suggests-top-10-reasons-university-start-ups-fail/ 

After reading the list a few times and discussing it with some of my colleagues in the office, I decided to take on the task to try to counter each one of the reasons, by using Precarn’s collaborative, three-party model. I intend to show that Precarn, with its model, processes and procedures in place, is helping start-ups to build a solid business case, put in place appropriate commercialization strategies, identify potential risks and mitigation scenarios, as well as identify key personnel, milestones, and stages of project and product development. As a result, companies that have completed projects with Precarn have better chances to survive, since they are better prepared to face the challenges of tomorrow. With that, Precarn is working towards reducing the number of failures of start ups, which translates into greater and more rapid economic growth for Canada to the overall benefit of all Canadians.  

Here are the top 10 factors as cited by Young’s respondents to the question “What are the top three reasons for failure of university start-up companies?” and my personal comments for each one of them.  

1. Management failure (22 mentions). Start-ups are doomed when academics seek to be corporate managers and stay in control too long; management teams lack start-up experience; management fails to accurately project the company’s needs for capital, employees, product development, and technical expertise; or management fails to identify the market opportunity and, therefore, misses it.

Through its collaborative model, Precarn requires each project to have a developer, customer and an academic research participant. For each project, participants are required to submit a project proposal, which among other things, outlines key personnel within each organization, their academic and professional background, as well as past working experiences and capabilities. Each participant has a role to play providing for technical and marketing expertise, necessary for the overall project success. Further, Precarn’s expert reviewers determine the capability of the team to carry on their project responsibilities as well as to work under unpredicted circumstances. Precarn requires for each project a business case, which ensures that the participants have not only management capabilities, but also a business vision about the future development of their organization and the roll out of the eventual product.

2. Failure to raise sufficient capital (15 mentions). Some academic start-ups begin with no capital (”zero stage minus one”) and cannot overcome this deficit, according to respondents. Others don’t secure follow-on investment rounds because they fail to resolve technical challenges or reach major business plan milestones, encounter a cash flow crisis before they have a chance to succeed, or lose their original VCs to other projects.

Precarn not only requires all participants to present financial statements and plans on how they intend to fund their projects, but it also requires a business plan in the final report upon project completion. In this final report, the lead participant is expected to provide an estimate of future sales, revenues, number of employees, sales support, and number of customers. In doing so, Precarn is stimulating business initiative and a clear financial vision by the lead participant about the future development and growth of their organization. As well, Precarn funding allows the company to get to a stage whereby it can then seek out additional VC or Angel investment.

3. Innovation does not meet a commercial need (12 mentions). Many start-ups succumb to problems such as “laboratory-push versus market-pull,” the entry of a technology into the marketplace too early or late, a “$5 solution for a 25 cent problem,” the inability of an innovation to compete with existing products, or the threat of “neat science” — when a start-up falls in love with its technology and fails to identify a market need.

For each of its projects, Precarn requires the participation of an end-user/first customer. The role of the end-user is crucial, since it not only tests the new product, and provides constructive feedback, but it also represents market validation of the technology being developed – the all important market pull. This ensures that there is an identified need for the new technology, as well as potential market niche.  

4. Geography (7 mentions). “Small country start-ups must be successful in their home country before they can think about going international,” according to one respondent. “This is especially difficult when there are no buyers in their home country.” VCs also want their portfolio companies nearby, which may limit investment opportunities to in-country VCs. In other cases, companies run out of cash because the local market — consumers, capital, and suppliers — is too small to sustain.

Here again, the fact that Precarn requires an end-user is important to notice. From a marketing perspective, it is much easier to enter national and international markets once you have the support and the positive evaluation from a happy user who has already bought and used your products. There are no geographic boundaries for good ideas that have already been tested by an established industry entrepreneur.  

5. Cultural factors (6 mentions). Start-ups stagnate when the country’s culture devalues risk-taking because there are “no young people with entrepreneurial spirit, no risk money supply, no vibrant IPO market, and no market willing to buy state-of-the-art technological goods,” according to one respondent. “In Europe, despite all the EU propaganda of a ‘single market,’ the reality is that linguistic barriers, geographical trading cultures, and other country-defined factors place severe limitations on the ability of any company to grow beyond the level of a 50-employee company.” In many countries, a company’s failure can damage the reputations of a researcher, university, and company managers, according to another respondent, although in the U.S., such failure “is a ‘badge of honour’” that has little negative impact on the principals.

There is no progress without risk taking. This is particularly true for the North America’s individualistic culture. However, there are reasonable and unreasonable risks, and Precarn, for over20 years now, have always made sure that Canadian entrepreneurs are taking only well calculated risks. As a confirmation of Precarn model’s success are the many companies that have completed projects with us, a number of which are well positioned and established global corporations today. To read more about their successes visit our blog at http://www.precarn.ca/Blog/ .  

6. Government laws, bureaucracy, and programs (6 mentions). Start-ups often are handicapped by poor IP protection through national laws, such as constraints on protection of computer software and biotechnology in Europe. In other cases, “government funding programs, such as the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR), actually have a detrimental effect by causing start-ups to be logical extensions of technology-development, not market-pulled technology needs.” One respondent adds that legislated entrepreneurship rarely works, as government does not understand the technology commercialization process.  

Precarn works closely with project participants in determining existing IP issues and how to overcome them. This takes place right at the beginning, when companies submit their project proposals. Since Precarn has been around for over 20 years now, it is able to provide valuable advice to participants on how to protect their inventions within the Canadian business environment.  

 

7. Infighting within the start-up team (6 mentions). Start-ups cannot survive without a common objective among key players: inventor, university, management, investors, and government, according to one respondent. The survey also cites the failure of a university and/or investor to give control of a spin-off to the management team and the “clash of cultures” that occurs when start-ups focus solely on technology while investors focus solely on money.

 

Precarn’s distinctive model is all about collaboration between technology developers, end users, university and colleges and governments and investors; as shown above, all participants have different roles; however, they all have one goal in common: the successful completion of pre-commercial collaborative projects, which eventually lead to a better Canada for the benefit of all Canadians.  

8. Problems with IP (6 mentions). In general, technology needs a clean patent estate to allow a start-up to operate freely, according to participants. “The IPR estate is too weak without issued patents,” one respondent notes. “This is a significant challenge as universities cannot afford the expense to ‘prosecute to completion’ internationally, but investors do not want to invest without allowed claims and start-up companies cannot wait that long without investment. It is a ‘lose-lose-lose’ situation.” In many countries, lack of clarity about IPR ownership also impedes investment.

Precarn provides funding for provisional patent applications for the new technologies. While holding a patent is important, the protection of the patent is a whole other matter costing more than the patent itself. Sometimes it is more advantageous for the company to protect its IP as a trade secret rather than a patent. In any case, IP protection is paramount in Precarn’s model.

9. Poor business plan (5 mentions). A business plan that ignores critical first steps to survival precludes start-ups from raising capital. “A business plan may have a misdirected focus upon the technology and the IPR, without seeing the market,” according to one respondent. “Too many start-ups fail to consider the competition in their business plans, especially competition from market leaders, even when the competition’s product is not as good,” another adds.

As already mentioned, Precarn requires  a final report and a business case where lead participants outline their plans for further development and commercialization of the new technology. Potential risks and risk mitigation are thoroughly discussed; revenue estimates and forecasts are made; competition is considered; potential markets and customers are identified as well as near future goals are put in perspective.  

10. Unrealistic expectations (4 mentions). “The probability of having a blockbuster invention is so low that the chance that any start-up company in America — much less in smaller countries of the world — will be significant is very remote,” one respondent says. “The failure rate is too high to warrant a significant number of investments.”

Precarn is a not-for-profit organization, which has in its mission the obligation to make the best possible investment for the future prosperity of the country and its citizens. The Precarn selection process makes use of highly respected business leaders, university professors, government scientists and investment mangers with extensive experience in the field of innovative technologies, marketing and product development. All proposals receive the same level of scrutiny and only the best are selected for funding support.

 

 

 

I believe I have made a strong case about Precarn’s role in reducing the failures of start-up companies and in helping to establish Canada some day as one of the global leaders in R&D, technological innovation, productivity, and excellence. I invite you to share your opinions with us, by posting a comment on our Blog.  

 

“Out of clutter, find simplicity.

From discord, find harmony.

In the middle of difficulty, lies opportunity”

                                                                                                                                                   Albert Einstein

The world is rapidly changing today and it is essential for us to change with it if we are to survive. The future belongs to those who are most open to changes and most prepared for sacrifices. Einstein called this opportunity; Thomas Friedman calls it “compassionate flatism; Steve Jobs calls it inspirational, technological breakthroughs. To be able to accommodate and adjust, countries around the world will need to invest more recourse in education, science, technology, R&D and infrastructure. As stated in a 2006 Industry Canada report, “Canada has tremendous strengths, such as genuine people, strong fiscal position and research base”. However, we also need to face our own challenges, the biggest one among which is Canada’s productivity gap, which continues to widen in comparison to our largest trading partner, the United States. The only way to overcome this obstacle, the report suggests is by “improving our productivity and competitiveness through innovation”/ http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/ic1.nsf/eng/00871.html/ 

Fortunately, Canada has been and still is considered one of the global leaders in technological innovation and research; we have a long and proud history of research excellence and scientific success, which dates back in time when the insulin was first invented, the computerized weather forecasting systems, the T-cell receptor and the CCD chip of camcorder and telescope, to name just few. Then one will ask: why Canada still lags behind other nations in regard to its productivity and innovation excellence? And in particular with our major trading partner, the US where Canada's business sector productivity in 2007 was 75 per cent of that of the U.S, compared to 90 per cent in the early 1980s.

According to Canadian government officials, who recently committed to launch a Digital Economy Strategy, Canada lags in its adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), which according to them would tremendously speed up innovation and productivity and will increase the country ability to compete worldwide. According to Professor Friedman, countries like the USA and Canada will be challenged by developing nations such as China and India. According to Denys Cooper, a former National Research Council program director, one of Canada’s solutions for faster and greater economic growth and development is in reducing the time between when R&D is completed and when it produces a benefit for the society. So who is right?

The last theory by Denys Cooper manages to explain, in part, why Canada is among the nations that invest the most in academic R&D and yet at the same time lags international standards in innovation, competitiveness and economic development.  

Today, I would like to pose a challenge to all of you: let’s try to find out whether any of the above mentioned theories have any substantial ground to be Canada’s explanation and/or solution for the future, or maybe it is a collaboration of them all. You are invited not only to elaborate on the above mentioned theories, but also to propose different perspectives on how should we make a Canada worldwide leader in research and innovation with the maximum benefits for Canadian society.  

 

 

This article was written in collaboration with Mister Denys Cooper. I would like to thank him sincerely for all his help and contributions to Precarn's blog! It's been an honour and a real pleasure to work with you Denys!

 

3D Sherlock Inc. is a recently incorporated start-up based in Ottawa. Its product, 3D Sherlock, is a software tool that will replace or augment standard facial composite methodologies. Originally developed at the National Research Council (NRC), the goal is to commercialize a new methodology for generating virtual faces for easy recognition by event witnesses.  

3D Sherlock is a radical departure. It is the first user-centered approach using visual navigation to recover visual memory, i.e. visual search to recover visual memory. To learn more about this disruptive and game-changing technology, we spoke with Dr. Marc Rioux, VP Research at 3D Sherlock.  

Marc Rioux is a Physicist who led the development of 3D digitizing and modeling technologies at the NRC from 1981 to 2008. Marc has 15 patents in the field, and more than 200 publications. More than 20 technology transfers have been made to industry, and the combined annual revenues from those Canadian companies are in the range of $300 million. Projects of high visibility are: the laser scanning system for in-flight tiles inspection of the space shuttle, the participation in the Digital Michelangelo Project and, the scanning of the Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris.  

 

 

1.How did you come up with the idea for this technology?

3D Sherlock grew out of opportunities to spin out results of a massive anthropometric study, code named CAESAR, conducted by the US Air Force, in 1998, in collaboration with the NRC and other 30 private organizations. Utilizing NRC expertise in 3D database searching and visualization, plus image encoding and image search technology, the CAESAR project did full body scans of 5000 people from North America and Europe. 3D Sherlock offers a method congruent with human vision psychology: It is based on an iterative visual searching method which uses our basic human vision recognition and recollection. Successive virtual face "line-ups", each more targeted than the last, allows the witness to converge rapidly to a match. Initial testing indicated that this is a great improvement on the existing market offerings. The 3-D Sherlock technology may even be the best possible methodology to extract visual memory evidence from an eyewitness.

 

 

 

2.Is there a market need for this new invention?

Traditional methods of extracting witness memory as evidence – the facial composite sketch and its derivatives – suffer from a need to work contrary to the function of human vision perception. The result is that sketch artist results are highly unreliable representations of the target face. We propose to introduce a next generation approach to witness investigation for all security forces, i.e. “3D Visual to Visual” to assist “2D Visual to Verbal and Sketch Artist” which is the current prevalent method. Current face recognition 2D software tools have a very low reputation with police forces.

3.What would be the greatest benefits for Canadians and the Canadian economy?

Sketch generation is regarded as high cost: generating a sketch can take as long as four hours and can be gruelling for all especially in the case of an already traumatized witness/victim. Artists require special training and this is costly to the organization as well. Our technology significantly reduces the time needed to generate an initial head shape, which is considered the most important part of a sketch. In 10 minutes, the system generates a head shape that is known to be correct, which saves lots of time, and allows trained artists to concentrate more on the specifics of the face.  

As to the Canadian economy, we here in Canada, have the patents and the know-how to do it, when it comes to 3D searching and digital modeling. The software application we are developing at 3D Sherlock has the potential to be sold worldwide and to bring millions of revenues.  

 

 

4.3D Sherlock was the lead participant in one of Precarn’s most successful T-GAP projects, the 3D Software tool for Eyewitness Face Recognition project. Was this initiative helpful in any way for the overall development of your organization? How?

This project was very useful: Precarn provided the funding needed to complete a scientific study conducted at Queen’s University in the field of witness psychology. The results of this study were extremely beneficial to us and in turn helped us design our next Beta 2 version of the 3D Sherlock product. The funds provided by Precarn were spent during the GovSec and U.S. Law 2009 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, where we were not only able to establish key contacts with US Security Agencies, but also to get their constructive feedback, which provided for our Beta 2 version definition.

5.What are the biggest challenges 3D Sherlock faces today?

Our biggest challenge right now is to find funding for our Beta 2 version. We have already received the conclusions from the Queen’s University’s study and just need funding in order to be able to implement the new features and specification for the next version of the product.

6.What are the company’s near- and long-term goals?

First, we need to get funding to develop our Beta 2 version. Then, we need to get it evaluated by researchers and scientists at Queen’s University. After the final edits are complete, we would like to get few end-users, like the RCMP, OPP, and FBI to test it, by employing it in their every-day operations. Based on the results of the pilots and the experiences of the end users, we would then proceed towards the development of the commercial prototype.  

7.In your opinion, is Canada the best place to do business and to invent new technologies? Is there room to improve? How?

Yes, Canada is one of the best places to do business and to invent. I believe that organizations like Precarn are really helpful in the overall development of Canadian economy. Precarn, for instance, have been always very successful in spotting good technologies with significant potential for further industry development and growth. In the USA, compared to Canada, a lot of the funds for new research and innovation come from former engineers and scientists. They have the capability to evaluate the scientific proposition and to foresee its economic potential. In Canada, on the other side, it is very hard to find private funds for science and technology-based new ventures. We rely more heavily on government funding to bridge the gap between R&D and commercialization; but we are getting there slowly!

 

 

If you are interested in doing business with 3D Sherlock, you can contact its President, Mister Guy Bélanger, via email: Guy.belanger@bga-inc.com or tel.: 613 724-0812

 

To post a comment or a question in regard to this interview, please visit us at http://www.precarn.ca/Blog/ 

 

 

This week Precarn is featuring GeoDigital International, a world leader in LiDAR and imaging technology for engineering surveys and right of way mapping for electric utilities, pipelines, telecommunications, highways, railways and other industries.  

To learn more about GeoDigital and the disruptive technology they are developing, we spoke with Mister Doug Parent, Director, Corporate Development at GeoDigital International. Mister Parent brings over 12 years of diverse experience in the field of Geomatics Engineering, holding key positions in operations, sales and marketing, and product management. His extensive experience in this field includes managing operations for aerial and terrestrial surveys, consulting with clients on the topic of photogrammetry software solutions, and leading cross-functional teams to deliver on critical projects. At GeoDigital, he is responsible for maintaining key strategic relationships and for commercializing innovations that emerge from various R&D initiatives. As a professional engineer, Mr. Parent has a Bachelor of Science degree in Geomatics Engineering from the University of Calgary and a Master of Business Administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business.

 

1.Explain as simply as possible the technology that your company is developing. What system do you have in place to be able to monitor on a daily basis power line corridors?

The technology we are developing is in support of complete automation, and thereby near real-time access to actionable information for rights of way corridor management. What I mean by that is we are removing the pain of technology from the end customer and providing specific deliverables in a form that they are comfortable adopting into their existing business processes rather than burdening them with an overwhelming amount of data and complex software integration issues. The first type of client that will benefit from these advancements will be the transmission line corridor operators, and include a simplified offering for each stakeholder within the organization that is responsible for vegetation, engineering, and asset maintenance management. We are also actively expanding this technology’s reach into railway, roadway, telecom, and pipeline corridor applications.

2.How did you come up with the idea for it?  

GeoDigital’s founder and CEO, Alastair Jenkins, is recognized as one of the leading visionaries in this industry and as such is always pushing the limits of technology as it can be applied to a specific business need. This project evolved from this mindset of continually challenging the status quo and finding innovative solutions that met the simple standard of producing more valuable information, more cost effectively, within a shorter period of time.  

3.What are the technology’s greatest benefits for Canadians and for the Canadian economy?

Many current vegetation management programs rely on manual observations by a human while walking along the power-line corridors or flying over them, which results in high acquisition costs and unreliable results. The importance of effective monitoring is evidenced by the Northeast Blackout of 2003, one of the largest blackouts in North America. This catastrophic failure, which left without power near 10 million people in Ontario and about 40 million in 8 states in the USA, could have been mitigated by early diagnosis and appropriately targeted vegetation management.  

Further GeoDigital is building technology foundations and the corresponding business models that will allow it to emerge as a world leader in LiDAR mapping, which will provide for rapid expansion in core IP and associated high quality employment opportunities that are critical in improving productivity that leads to sustainable and competitive businesses for the overall benefit of Canada.

4.You were the lead participant in the Powerline Corridor Monitoring project partially funded by Precarn. Was this project helpful in any way for the overall development of your organization? How?

The Precarn project was very helpful for the overall development of our organization – it was great to see support specifically aimed at commercializing innovations. Furthermore, the partnership model of involving a university-based research and a client throughout the process is a great way to ensure the ideas coming out of the lab are validated by a person who will be making the purchasing decision when it is all said and done. During the course of this project, we have formed an innovations group that follows this model by spanning across R&D and Product Management to ensure that the development priorities are being driven with real time client feedback.

5.You have been in this business for over 20 years, what have been the biggest challenges you have faced to date?

Market adoption of technology – often we have a better mouse trap, but it is the client education and change management that is the challenge for a solution provider to effectively influence.

6.What are the biggest challenges you are facing today?

The biggest challenge GeoDigital faces today is balancing rapid expansion, both into new verticals and international expansion. Can’t complain though, it is a good type of challenge to have!

7.What are the company's near and long-term goals?

GeoDigital’s corporate mission is to become the leading supplier of simple, accurate, and affordable information technology solutions for the effective management of rights-of-way using airborne and terrestrial LiDAR and digital imagery. We have established a beachhead and continue to expand market share in serving electrical utilities, as well as other verticals including railways, telecom, roadways, and pipelines, and new geographies in Australia and Europe.

8.In your opinion, is Canada the best place to do business and to invent new technologies? Is there room to improve? How?

Canada is a great place to build a business and specifically new technologies. Government funded programs aimed at supporting innovations are critical in building sustainable businesses and the associated high quality careers that go with them. There is always room for improvement and Precarn is a great example of forward thinking for an effective R&D program that connects researchers, with clients, with commercialization vehicles. More support for programs such as this are extremely valuable to a rapidly growing technology company such as ours. For instance, Precarn’s support allowed us to justify doubling our investment into R&D, which effectively means we can grow twice as fast as we would have otherwise (or compared to our friends south of the border).

9.Which is harder -- to invent a new and disruptive technology or to turn it into a product?

Ideas are only the tip of the iceberg – execution is the real challenge. It is definitely the process of commercializing a new product that is the harder because it involves coordinating change, both internally and externally. This involves balancing the natural excitement that builds through the product development and validation phase as everyone starts to see the power of the new technology or products, without disrupting the current established technology or products which are the core part of the offering. Without effective management from the inception of the innovation to the product launch, confusion and chaos could prevent a great idea from ever realizing its full potential.

10.What is like to be named by VIATeC “Product of the Year”?

We are fortunate to have a lot of extremely talented individuals continually coming up with and executing great ideas. This award was particularly for an industry revolutionizing approach for delivering rapid reports within 72 hours compared to what typically took months to accomplish. It is great to receive recognition and, perhaps more importantly, it is a great excuse for an organization that is rapidly growing to pause for a moment and celebrate such an important accomplishment.

11.Who is your biggest customer at the moment?

This is a difficult question to answer with just one example – we have a large number of great clients that actively work with us to tailor our solutions. Currently, most of these customers represent large electrical utility companies from all regions in the United States and Canada.

12.You have been working with various industries: telecom, electric utilities, and pipelines: which was most challenging, to operate in such various fields, to enter the market itself, or to compete with the big players?

The biggest challenge in working with various industries is learning and tailoring solutions that meet their specific needs – the technology may be similar in a lot of respects, but the deliverables and key components of the value proposition is always different. Failing to do this effectively will ultimately lead to a commodity product or service, or worse yet, a failed business initiative. We have been fortunate to not compete directly with the big players and in fact, our main competitor has been the status quo of a manual approach.

 

 

 

 

To learn more about GeoDigital and the technology they are developing, visit them at http://www.geodigital.net/ 

To read similar stories or to post a comment, please visit us at http://www.precarn.ca/home/ 

To learn more about VIATeC go to http://www.viatec.ca/ 

 

This week Precarn is featuring XSENSOR Technology Corporation, a Calgary based company, which is an internationally-recognized leader in the field of pressure imaging. XSENSOR designs, manufactures, and sells advanced pressure-imaging systems with utility application in three distinct vertical markets: sleep, patient safety and automotive testing. ‘Patient Safety’is used by clinicians and rehab specialists to help manage and prevent pressure wounds. Dynamic interface pressure imaging systems provide objective measurements to assist in understanding patient positioning, support surfaces, and various adjustments that can impact a patient’s circulation, recovery, and well-being. ‘Sleep’is used by mattress retailers and manufacturers; XSENSOR’s full-body pressure imaging systems are valuable sales tools for demonstrating pressure relief and comfort to consumers. Mattress sales representatives use XSENSOR systems to enhance the overall purchasing experience by assisting consumers in comparing multiple mattresses and selecting the one that best fits their body type and sleeping preferences. ‘Automotive testing’is used for automotive seat testing and tire tread analysis. Product designers and test engineers use pressure imaging throughout the product design, testing and process control cycle to measure pressure-related issues to understand and improve product performance.  

XSENSOR was the lead participant in one of Precarn’s most successful Industrial T-Gap projects. The objective of the project was to extend the capability of XSENSOR’s leading pressure imaging technology into a long term monitoring application such as hospital bed surfaces.

This week, we had the great opportunity to speak with Mr. Bruce Malkinson, XSENSOR’s Chief Operations Officer. Mr. Malkinson has a Technical Diploma from SAIT, BASc in Engineering from University of Regina and an MBA from Queen’s University. He joined the company in 2006, bringing over 15 years of experience in engineering, manufacturing, and management from Nortel and Sanmina-SCI. His current responsibilities at XSENSOR include operations, engineering, and finance.  

1.What type of technology does XSENSOR develop?

Since 1995, when the company was established, we have been operating in three distinct vertical markets: sleep, patient safety and automotive testing. For each one of these product families we use different software packages and sensors with different resolutions and pressure ranges.We have been adjusting and improving the technology with the intention to meet our customers’ needs and expectations. Starting in 2007, we initiated the development of sensors with the ability to measure pressure over long durations. In collaboration with Precarn, the Ward of the 21^st Century and University of Calgary, we developed a system that can continuously monitor patients’ pressure distribution on a hospital bed. This is the latest of the many various applications we have identified so far for our pressure-mapping technology.  

2.What are the greatest benefits of this new invention?

The system will help improve patient safety and care by aiding care givers in the prevention of pressure ulcers in hospital patients. Pressure ulcers are a significant patient safety concern in hospitals around the world and prevalence studies in Canada have shown that they occur in as many as 25% of patients in acute care. Reducing pressure ulcers provides hospitals two key benefits: reduced hospital stays and lowers cost of care. With most hospitals running at or over capacity reduced hospital stay result in increased access to the facility for other patients. The cost to treat a single pressure ulcer can be in excess of $20,000.

3.Is the long-term monitoring system on the market?

The system has not been deployed yet. Currently we are conducting series of pilot trials in designated medical centers in Calgary. Our projection for early 2011 is that we will be starting the final, commercialization stage and hope to have the product widely available by 2013.  

4.What are the main steps one take to commercialize a product with such a unique health care application?

First, we have to demonstrate our technology at specifically targeted medical facilities. Then, we have to conduct commercial pilots. In our case, we would sell with discount 5 to 10 systems to a hospital or a clinic and then work in collaboration with them to test and prove that the device really works. Once this has been done, there it comes the implementation stage, when the hospital actually orders the product from us for half or all of its beds. This is pretty much a standard process. With a technology like ours, you cannot commercialize a product before first piloting it at the target facility.  

5.Is it hard to enter such a heavily regulated industry like healthcare?

Yes, it is definitely challenging. We have already received regulatory approval for our system here in Canada. In order to market it and sell it in the USA, we may need to apply separately for FDA approval.  This is accomplished by undergoing a “clinical pilot” where we would need to prove the product’s clinical efficacy and that it provides the anticipated outcomes.  

6.XSENSOR won for second time in 2009 the Alberta Export Award in the Advancing Technologies category. What does this mean for the company and to you?

We are honoured to be recognized for the second time as Alberta’s Export Company of the Year. It does mean a lot to us! We have invested heavily in diversifying our global product distribution, which was not easy especially in such tough economic times. Currently, we are exporting in over 40 countries around the world and we are always on the look out for new opportunities.  

7.How many people work at XSENSOR?

Currently, there are 30 employees working full time at XSENSOR Technology Corporation.

8.Is Canada the best place in the world to invent and to do business? Is there a room to improve? How?

Canada, with its infrastructure and great access to educated recourses, is definitely one of the best places in the world to invent and to do business. From a market perspective, though, we do not sell as much here in Canada, as we do elsewhere with the main reason being the country small population. Only around 5% of our sales take place here in Canada. In contrast, in the USA alone, there are approximately 10 times more people with wheel chairs than here. In terms of improvements, Canadian governments do need to provide more funding for research and innovation, which would help companies like us enter various other global markets. This will not only create more jobs for Canadians, but it will also boost Canadian economy, making it more innovative and competitive.  

9.What are the company’s near- and long-term goals?

Our near-term goal is to remain focussed and to stay on track with our commercialization plans. We have to complete as many pilot demonstrations as possible which will prove the technology is effective and then start marketing the systems by early 2011. Currently we have been able to conduct only one pilot at a time with the help of Alberta Health Services and the University of Calgary. We would like to be able to do multiple pilots at multiple locations, not only in Alberta, which is another near-future projection. Our long-term perspective is to start entering markets we are not in today. There is a great deal of potential in the technology we are developing as it has various applications, which will provide many business opportunities.  

10.What are the biggest challenges XSENSOR faces today?

Probably the biggest challenge we face today is getting access to multiple clinical facilities, where we can initiate commercial pilots. Each pilot needs to be designed, managed and at the end of it we need to analyse the results. Data needs to be statistically significant, demonstrating the expected outcomes. Pilots are hard and expensive to do and require a sufficient amount of qualified people and recourses involved.  

 

To see  a demonstration on how this technology works, click on the following link: http://www.xsensor.com/pressure-imaging/videos-demos     

To learn more about XSENSOR, visit them at http://www.xsensor.com/

If you want to share your thoughts and opinions with us, please e-mail me at Stancheva@precarn.ca

To read similar stories or to post a comment, visit us at www.precarn.ca 

 

 

                 

                    

 

This week, Precarn is featuring Calgary Scientific Inc.(CSI), a Canadian company, which develops a software web-enabling platform technology known as PureWeb™, a family of advanced diagnostic imaging software under the brand name ResolutionMD™, and computer-assisted diagnosis (CAD) technology designed to undertake tissue differentiation and virtual biopsy from digital medical images. This week we had the great honour to speak with Doctor Lino Ramirez, a Scientist at Calgary Scientific and Miss Jenn Poole, Marketing and Communications Manager at CSI.  

Lino Ramirez holds an MSc and a PhD both in Computer Engineering from the University of Alberta and has been doing image and data analysis for more that 15 years. His passion for data analysis encouraged him to join CSI to manage the Brain Cancer Initiative, started by Dr. Greg Cairncross, a neurooncologist at the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary and Dr. Ross Mitchell, a Professor at Radiology at University of Calgary and Founding Scientist of CSI, in 2004. Together, they managed to develop a sustainable collaboration between Calgary Scientific, Dr. Mitchell's lab, and Dr. Cairncross' group; continue the research to achieve clinically-significant genetic detection; expand the scope to other problems of interest to brain cancer researchers (in particular tumour pseudo-progression); and expand the community of interest in Calgary and outside Canada. The group today includes a Neuro-oncologist with interest in Clinical trials, a Neuro-radiologist, and a Radiologist Head of Diagnostic Imaging in Calgary. Outside Canada, it is collaborating with world-class researchers in Neuro-oncology, Neuro-radiology, and Image Analysis from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), and Physicians from the Hua Shan Hospital in Shanghai, China. Later, Dr. Ramirez became the leader of the team of the "Precarn - Alberta R&D Funding Program titled: Tumour Diagnosis Software.

Jenn Poole has been with Calgary Scientific for two years now, leading the Marketing and Communications team. She has a strong background in media and international relations, working for various technology companies in these roles. Miss Poole has an Applied Degree in Public Relations from Mount Royal College. 

1.What type of technology is CSI currently developing?

Calgary Scientific Inc. is Canada’s leader in Advanced Medical Visualization with an increasingly broad set of advanced capabilities and innovative technologies.Currently, CSI has three basic product lines: PureWeb, Resolution MD and Resolution MD Mobile. ResolutionMD seeks to save time and streamline workflow for medical professionals by providing an innovative combination of advanced imaging, reporting and results analysis through standard web technologies. Resolution MD Mobile extends these through tools adapted for various mobile devices such as iPhones and iPads. PureWeb is the technology platform which enables Calgary Scientific’s and third party vendors’ sensitive, data intensive applications to be centrally hosted and delivered securely and efficiently through standard web technologies, to users anywhere, on virtually any device.  

2.How did you come up with the idea for it?

In 1999, Dr. Cairncross, a Neuro-oncologist at the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary discovered that image characteristics he could see on Magnetic Resonance Images (MRIs) of patients with a particular type of brain tumour were correlated to the genetic profile of the tumour. In 2004, Dr. Cairncross approached Dr. Ross Mitchell, a Professor in Radiology at the University of Calgary and the Founding Scientist at Calgary Scientific, to see whether his team could find a quantitative way for analyzing MRIs that would relate the image findings to the genetic profile of the tumours. Dr. Mitchell and his team applied a series of image analysis techniques that they were developing to Dr. Cairncross’s patient studies and got some promising initial results in the quantitative analysis of MRIs. At that point in time the IP they developed was transferred to Calgary Scientific and we got started with the Advanced Medical Imaging Analysis for Tumour Diagnosis and Characterization’project for Precarn.  

3.What are these technologies’ greatest benefits for Canadians and for the Canadian economy?

One of the greatest benefits is that this technology could tremendously reduce the number of biopsies performed, which are complex procedures, hard on the patients, requiring huge amounts of time and qualified personnel and are very expensive too. Instead of doing them, physicians could apply advanced image analysis to compute parameters relating the images that are acquired as part of the normal management of brain cancer to the genetic make up of the tumour.  These techniques, however, require computationally intensive resources that are not normally available in hospitals.  Through the PureWeb technology that was developed to allow remote access to advanced applications, neurooncologists and their general practitioner colleagues can now access patients’ records, from any mobile device, at any time, which leaves them more time for decision making and data analysis. This combined solution also increases the opportunity for collaboration between physicians, which makes them more efficient and productive. Time is everything when it comes to tumour treatment, so CSI IS happy to be able to provide Canadians with the technology to make brain cancer treatment decisions the most efficient in the world. As for the Canadian economy, Canada will benefit from reduced costs of treating brain cancer, increased investment in the bio-imaging sector, as well as new employment opportunities for highly qualified personnel. These outcomes will also compliment Alberta’s drive to diversify its economy, and help establish Calgary, and Alberta, as a leading center for imaging technology.  

4.What have been the biggest challenges CSI has faced to date?

There are numerous challenges for start up companies, especially when you are first in an industry. One of the biggest challenges in front of us has been acceptance and approval from Health Canada and the US Food and Drug Administration. It is a long process, especially when trying to enter such a heavily regulated industry. It is all about the patients’ well being and safety; we understand that and that’s why we do our best to meet the governments’ requirements and expectations.  

5.What are the biggest challenges you face today?

Our number one challenge is the fact that our technology is very complex and we need to educate people concerning what we do and what the product is all about. Our initial major wins, while gratifying, have involved pieces of the technology such as PureWeb, but we are still looking for venues that would give us the opportunity to tell our complete story. Number two on our list is maintaining our focus on the various opportunities unfolding currently  and making the right decisions in terms of partnerships, customers, and R&D. The patients’ best interest is at the core of our organization; however, we also have to think about what’s best for our company too.  

6.What are the company’s near and long-term goals?

We strive to remain innovative, first in many fields of this newly developing industry; to add value to our technology; to continue constantly delivering excellence and innovation and to continue to build upon what we already represent throughout further research and development.  

7.In your opinion, is Canada the best place to do business and to invent new technologies? Is there room to improve? How?

Yes and Yes! We do believe that Canada is the best place to invent and to do business. Just consider: we have here the world’s best in class universities-The University of Calgary, for instance, is one of the best in the country; lots of talent, great support from governments and from organizations such as Precarn that creates collaborative opportunities between investors, technology developers, and academics, which help us move the Canadian economy forward. Many good things are happening here in Canada and in Alberta specifically, which help young businesses flourish.In regard to further improvements, we think that more funding is needed, particularly for organizations like Precarn that require in their collaborative model an end user that will test the technology. Canada needs customer driven technology, which focuses on the clients’ needs. In addition to that, more communication is needed as well. Inventors and small, start-up companies should be better informed and aware of the various government funding programs, organizations such as Precarn, and other opportunities that would help them move forward and grow.  

8.Which is harder – to invent a new and disruptive technology or to turn it into a product?  

We believe that most of the time, here in Canada, the cost of marketing is hugely underestimated. It is really, really expensive to commercialize a new product. In particular, the healthcare industry places an inordinate burden for regulatory clearance to go to market in the various developed geographies.  This is one more reason why organizations such as Precarn need to continue to exist, because they require not only action plan, but also an end-user. This is really helpful!

9.What is like to win such a prestigious award like the Wireless Life Science Association iAward (May 2010)?

We were very, very excited. It was a huge recognition for our work and efforts so far and we all hope that this is going to be the first of many awards for our organization.

10.You have been partnering with Siemens Healthcare in the process of developing a new solution that will increase collaboration among physicians as well as it will enable them to be more accurate, effective and efficient. How is this partnership going so far?

Siemens Medical Systems (SMS) is the largest provider of products and services in the radiology space that is our core business. It is been great to partner with them since the global reputation as a well established company lends great support and confidence to our other customers.  While winning the business with SMS was arduous the effect on other relationships and the substance gained has been well worth the effort. We are very proud to contribute to their product line and through the relationship our technology will affect the way the world’s doctors access images. Our experience in working with Siemens has been nothing but rewarding. It is been a great learning opportunity for us as well, as it is always the case when such a big company adopts a new technology from a smaller player such as CSI. They have constantly complimented us for our innovation and product excellence.  

11.Calgary Scientific Inc. has been profiled by CNN, Inside Business as an industry changing company. How would you comment on that?

The CNN coverage was a terrific opportunity for us to tell our story for the first time to a global business audience and to explain who we are and what we are doing. Since then we have had lots of media coverage, which is helpful when you are marketing a new product. We were particularly pleased that the CNN Inside Business coverage highlighted the excellent relationships that we have with the Calgary healthcare community including Foothills Medical Centre.  This collaborative product development story, supported in part by our Precarn grant, played very well to the global healthcare business market.

12.In one of the demos on your website, it was shown how a doctor can access a patent’s record via his iPhone and provide a real time diagnosis. Is there any chance there could be an error in the application? How do you counter such concerns?

We are always concerned about providing products that operate within the guidelines of the various regulatory bodies that influence and control medical devices. So far, primary research has shown that the decisions made by physicians using an iPhone are the same as those made using the normal radiology equipment. We expect this to also be true for the iPad, which will soon be equipped with this application.  

13.What does it mean that Calgary Scientific Inc is the only company developing a true zero-footprint solution?

This means that CSI is the only company to provide real time tumour diagnosis on various mobile devices without actually downloading the information from the hospitals’ server. In other words, once a physician stops using the application (patient’s records), his or her device is information-free. In this way, the patients’ privacy is best protected, since the information remains on the server of the clinic and not on the doctors’ mobile device. This Zero Footprint technology (delivered by PureWeb) is particularly important here in Canada where general practitioners are distributed across wide geographical distances.  In this case, Zero Footprint means that they can access central image enhanced reports and radiology archives without having to install or manage any software on their computers.  This vastly reduces the administrative overhead of providing our combination of advanced image analysis and remote access to radiology viewing tools to the majority of Canada’s doctors.

14.How does it all work?

http://calgaryscientific.com/videos/PureWeb.wmv

 

To learn more about CSI’s innovative technology, visit them at http://www.calgaryscientific.com/index.html 

 If you want to share your thoughts and opinions with us, please e-mail me at Stancheva@precarn.ca

To read similar stories, visit us at www.precarn.ca 

 

This is the second of a series of interviews that Precarn launched on June 30^th this year, through which we will be presenting prominent business entrepreneurs who have developed a technology with an outstanding impact on Canadian economic development and Canadian citizens’ well-being.  

This week, Precarn is featuring Dr. Babak Ameri, the founder and CEO of GEOSYS Technology Solutions Inc., one of Canada’s leaders in providing timely and reliable Geospatial Services and Solutions to geo-scientists, natural resource managers, and policy makers around the world. Mr. Ameri has a Master degree in Geomatics from the International Institute for Aerospace Survey and Earth Sciences (1993) and a PhD in Digital Photogrammetry and Computer Vision from the University of Stuttgart (2000). Dr. Ameri has extensive experience in the field, having worked the past 20 years for the National Cartographic Center of Iran (1990-1995), the Institute for Photogrammetry (IFP), at the University of Stuttgart in Germany (1995-2000), and Macdonald, Dettwiler Associates Ltd. in Richmond, Canada (2000-2005). He is also the recipient of the NSERC Post-Doc Industrial Research Fellowships (IRF) award (2000-2002) and the winner of the ISPRS Best Papers by Young Authors award (2000).  

  

1. How did you come up with the idea for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) borne Geo-Intelligent Collaborative Decision Support System for Real-Time Disaster and Emergency Management (GIDE)?

Disaster management remains a challenging task, despite modern technological improvements. The most commonly cited impediment thereto is the inability to provide the right people with the right information at the right time. Emergency management agencies and decision makers need information in real-time to inform optimal responses in the form of warnings, evacuations, rescue or damage control. The devastating Hurricane Katrina of August 2005 serves as a 21st century illustration of the problem. A recent report produced by the US Government Accountability Office [USGAO, 2006] cited the long delay in assessing the situation and lack of coordination as two of the five most serious impediments to the disaster response.

Currently, we use either satellite imagery or a piloted aircraft to capture pictures from the disaster areas. Unfortunately, in an emergency situation, it might happen that the satellite does not cover the impacted area. As of the aircraft, in some situations, it becomes dangerous for the pilots who navigate the aircraft through the disaster zone, in order to take good shots of the area that would enable eventually the disaster management agencies to take the most sophisticated and correct decisions on how to deal with the situation. Our solution manages to overcome these drawbacks and to provide up to date mapping and geo-intelligent, in real time as the situation develops and progresses.  

2. How exactly the UAV device works?

The GIDE system is divided into three major, independent components.  The first component is the image acquisition payload on board an UAS.  The payload captures imagery and camera position estimation, which is immediately downloaded to a ground station via radio modem communication.  The second component is a processing system on the ground.  The mobile, high-performance processing system performs on-the-fly, human intervention-free ortho-mosaic production. The generated ortho imagery is then delivered to the third component, a Web Map Service (WMS) server, which delivers data to a web-based application, the Web Collaborative Interface (WCI), expediting the distribution of information to responder agencies and enhancing their collaboration. This system will radically advance emergency response capabilities and help save human lives by providing information and intelligence to disaster managers in a safe, timely, and critical manner.

3. Do you have any previous experiences with GIDE solutions?

We have done research in the past on similar automated mapping systems. The Precarn project provided a great opportunity to leverage and draw upon our existing technology.  

4. Have you deployed the UAV solution yet?

No, we have not market our product yet. We are still at the commercialization stage and are currently looking for more funding in order to complete it successfully and to move on to the next phase – deployment.  

5. What are your short and long term goals?

We have already identified and started working with a few potential customers on pilot projects; these projects will help us to further test our technology and prove its benefits. We need all the support of the end users in order to be able to move the project forward. Long term – we are looking to identify other areas of interest and new applications and to expand the current technology to meet the ever changing demand of the industry.

6. What are the greatest challenges that you face daily?

On an operational level, one of the greatest challenges is the flight permission in order to operate in a civilian airspace. The lack of funding; to market and deploy this product is another challenge we face today.

7. Why commercialization is such a big problem here in Canada?

Commercialization is a big issue everywhere; when you have an innovative piece of technology, you need to have sufficient amount of funds to be able to market it successfully. Lack of funding, unfortunately, has always been a big issue. To commercialize a new technology you need infrastructure and dedicated technical and sales force. Usually, it takes between 1 to 3 years until a good technology or a solution becomes a well established product on the market.  

 

 

To learn more about GEOSIS, visit them at http://www.geosys.ca/ 

To post a comment or to share your story with us, visit us at http://www.precarn.ca/home/ 

 

 

Precarn is delighted to introduce its new “Technology and Innovation without Borders” interview series, through which it will be presenting one interview every week with a prominent business entrepreneur who has invented a technology with an outstanding impact on Canadian economic development and Canadian citizens’ well-being.  

This week’s interview features Dale Paus, the President and CEO of CriSys Limited, an Ontario based corporation, which since 1990 specializes in the provision of complete computer systems for emergency response agencies. Dale has more than 25 years of experience in the sector, beginning with the TRS-80-based system he had made for Vanier Ambulance in 1979, while still studying Engineering at Carleton University. Later, he became the leader of a team of developers that produced the first commercial microcomputer-based Computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system, which in 1982 was implemented in almost 30 fire departments across North America. CriSys Limited was born as a spin off out of a project Dale worked on while at Enghouse Corporation, where he developed a GIS-based CAD system.  

In 2007 Dale Paus led the Precarn’ Small Company project” Threat Assessment System”—a collaboration with Ryerson and York Universities in Toronto and 11 Ontario Fire Departments, represented by the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs. The project developed an expert system that dynamically assesses the threat posed by a structural fire under a specific set of circumstances and recommends to the dispatcher an appropriate response that drastically enhances the level of public safety.  

 

1. How exactly was the idea for the “Threat Assessment System” project born?

Back in 2005, the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs identified a problem within its current operations and it was looking for solutions to resolve it. The problem was that older chiefs were retiring and the new ones that were replacing them lacked the extensive and necessary experience to handle various, complicated situations. This was due to the fact in 1970s and 80s, fire departments were very successfull with fire prevention efforts; therefore, many of the new chiefs simply did not have the opportunity to deal with complex situations. Further, there was no system in place to accommodate information exchange between old and new personnel. So, in order to resolve this problem, the Association was looking for ways to capture the accumulated knowledge and to embed it into software that could be used in the future.

2. How does the system work?

Emergency response agencies - Police, Fire-Rescue Departments, Ambulance Services and Disaster Preparedness Offices - are all required to react to a report of an emergency situation by selecting an appropriate quantity of resources from what they currently have available, and dispatching them to the scene as quickly as possible. There are hundreds of factors to be considered, like size and type of the building, location, extent of the fire, occupancy load, time of the day, weather forecast, and existing fire equipment such as automatic sprinklers, to name just few. All of this information is available, but usually not in a form that is amenable to rapid decision support by humans. If the initial response is inadequate they then call for additional recourses, which are called “two”, “three”, and “four” and sometimes even “five” -alarm fires. Each of these alarms takes between 4 to 8 minutes to respond to, which means that units for a fifth alarm would typically be arriving as much as 30 minutes after the first units, which might cause additional injuries suffered, or considerable additional property damage incurred. What CriSys’ system does is perform analysis within seconds from the time the first call has been received and approximate with significant accuracy the exact amount of recourses to be sent to the scene of fire. Basically what the system represents is an artificial automated intellect, which uses a pool of data from the accumulated knowledge of fire captains and chiefs, whose knowledge and expertise have been carefully collected through interviews.  

3. What are the system’s greatest benefits for Canadians?

 The system’s biggest strength is that it takes into consideration the knowledge of many experienced captains as well as compiled records from previous situations and applies the information in real time within seconds from the initial emergency call.  This could lead to many lives saved; reduction in the amount of damages on the property; creation of a database for future use, since every case is entered in the system for future reference; as well as it will help officials create a better and more efficient disaster response system for Canadians’ safety.  

4. Is the system in use today?

The system has not been deployed yet. We just completed our research in February. However, the system has been tested through various projects such as the Precarn one, and has shown very positive results: it has been proved that the system helps 9-1-1 centres make better-informed decisions dramatically earlier in the emergency response process, thus enabling substantial reductions in the loss of lives and property in our communities. Currently, the solution is in use by four fire departments in Ontario, in addition to their existing practices.  

5. What are CriSys’s near future goals?

Our near future goals are first to finish testing the system and second deploy it in as many departments as we can. So far, the tests conducted have been very promising, showing that the solution is a much superior then the one used currently by fire departments.  

6. What are your long term goals?

Our long term perspective is to extend our state-of-the-art technology to other areas of operation like police, ambulance and disaster response units. We have already started working on the latter.

7. What has been or is the biggest challenge in front CriSys?

Challenge is a too strong word, but I would say that maybe the biggest difficulty in front of us has been acceptance. Fire departments want to see that the solution is working before adopting it and putting their trust in it. We need to convince them it works and it is 100% reliable. This is normal, since the market we are trying to enter is heavily regulated and it is under government’ jurisdiction. There are certain procedures that need to be followed and this takes time.  

8. Would you say that inventing a new, disruptive technology is easier than commercializing it?

Commercialization and marketing are especially challenging tasks for new and start-up companies today. It is extremely expensive to market a product, especially when trying to deploy it in international markets.  

9. Precarn is going to run series of articles on its blog about commercialization and Canada’s current level of productivity and competitiveness. What is your opinion on the matter?

In my opinion, Canada does lag in commercialization and productivity in comparison to other countries. The reason for this is that the Canadian government has managed to create this extremely wonderful environment to invent and to do research here in Canada. However, there is not enough funding to develop a product out of it. This is really sad, because there is a very good research standing out there, unused, simply because there is no funding to turn it into a product.  

 

 

To learn more about CriSys, visit them at http://www.crisys.com/ 

To post a comment or to share your thoughts with us, please visit us at http://www.precarn.ca 

What is the best investment for the future?

Where should the government of Canada invest tax-payers’ money? What is the best possible investment for the future? How should we bridge the gap between research, innovation, commercialization, and development? Where does Canada stand on an international level in respect to technology innovation and adaptation? Should we be worried about the future? Are we making the best investment decisions today, for a better and brighter tomorrow?

According to some, innovation in general can be understood in two possible ways: governments either invest in research conducted by universities and colleges, or they simply provide grants, contributions, or contracts to companies that develop, design and market new technologies. The first type of innovation is called “technology-push”, since it is the result of years of scientific research and experiments. The second type of innovation is mostly known as “market-driven”, since it is the consequence of an identified need in society for a technology that would eventually provide new products and services or speed up and improve current industrial processes and practices. Now the question is which type of innovation do we want for Canada today in order to be as productive and as competitive tomorrow like the USA, Germany, Korea, China, and India, for instance?  

In November 2002, Allan Rock, the Minister of Industry at the time, welcomed a Framework Agreement on federally funded research between the government of Canada and the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC). The agreement came as a result of the Federal government commitment during the 2002 speech from the Throne that it will continue to increase research funds through the granting councils, to pursue a permanent solution to indirect costs of research for universities, and on strategies for research commercialization. In Minister Rock’s own words, “Additional funding should bring advances in research and commercialization and must be matched by a commitment to advance knowledge transfer, commercialization, and innovation for the benefit of all Canadians."(Industry Canada)

Very similar goals were set in the 2010 Speech from the Throne, where the Federal government committed to launch a digital economy strategy “to drive the adoption of new technology across the country”, as well as to strengthen existing intellectual property and copyright laws, in order to “encourage new ideas and protect the rights of Canadians whose research, development and artistic creativity contribute to Canada’s prosperity” (March 3, 2010 Throne speech).  Furthermore, the government promised low taxes that would stimulate investment in new and promising ideas to be turned into products; to open broader Canada’s door to foreign investments; to continue pursuing free trade agreements and last but not least, to increase its support for “skills, apprenticeships and training for Canadian workers” (March 3, 2010 Throne speech). In order to do that, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government declared in its 2010 Budget that it will be:

-    providing $45 million over five years to establish a post-doctoral fellowship program to help attract the research leaders of tomorrow to Canada

-    increasing the combined annual budgets of Canada’s research granting councils by an additional $32 million per year, plus an additional $8 million per year to the Indirect Costs of Research Program

-    providing $135 million over two years to the National Research Council Canada’s regional innovation clusters program

-    launching a new Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Innovation Commercialization Program with $40 million over two years

These are just few of the government’s spending initiatives for the next couple of years in order to stimulate Canada’s research and innovation practices and to boost the Canadian economy. So far, we have witnessed the launch by Industry Minister Tony Clement of the Digital Economy Strategy, as well as his critical intervention into the Globalive case -- the company that after a challenging trial and dispute over its ownership with the Canadian Radio and Telecommunication Commission (CRTC), successfully launched Wind Mobile in 2009 here in Canada, a major breakthrough for Canada’s otherwise heavily monopolized telecom market.  

Obviously, Canada is moving slowly in the right direction towards innovation, development, productivity and prosperity. The major concern though is the fact that unfortunately the process is taking way too long and we will soon be lagging behind countries like China and India. Some like to emphasize the fact that there are less potential risks with university led research, since it is part of a long-term process of experimentation and development, and since it is conducted by students, which makes it a bit cheaper too. On the other side, conducting research for the sake of it does not benefit either Canadians or the Canadian economy. In that respect, companies that are required by agencies like Precarn to provide market analysis and business cases in their project proposals, have greater potential not only to develop technology that will be market ready (there is a first customer involved in the project), but eventually will be introduced to larger national and international markets. In that respect, shouldn’t then governments concentrate on funding  agencies like Precarn, whose model successfully incorporates both types of innovation mentioned above, by bringing together academic institutions and industry partners in their effort to invent, develop, design and market new technologies?

 

Stay tuned for more blog articles related to Canada’s economic development and prosperity, innovative Excellency and technology commercialization. Coming soon…

 

 

To read the 2010 Speech from the Throne, click on this link: http://www.speech.gc.ca/eng/media.asp?id=1388 

To learn more about the Canadian Government Digital Economy Strategy go to http://de-en.gc.ca/en/home/ 

To post a comment or share you thoughts, visit us at http://www.precarn.ca 

 

Precarn is delighted to acknowledge that Jamie King, co-founder and CEO of Verafin Inc. North America’s leading BSA/AML Compliance and Fraud Detection software provider and a past recipient of Precarn funding, was named one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40^TM this week, on June 8, 2010 during the Gala luncheon at the Canadian Broadcasting Centre in Toronto. Since 1995, Canada’s Top 40 Under 40^TM recognizes Canada’s best and brightest, for their outstanding achievements in shaping Canada’s future. “The program is designed to promote mentorship and professional development by introducing these leaders to the established business community and by promoting them as role models for young Canadians” http://www.canadastop40under40.com/ 

Jamie King is an electrical engineer with a Ph.D. in robotics and intelligent systems from the Memorial University of Newfoundland. While still in university, Mr. King worked at C-CORE, an internationally recognized research organization, which specializes in advanced pattern recognition and industrial intelligent systems and technologies. Jamie King’s first independent initiative, Intrignia Solutions Inc., was started in his early 20s, when he decided to take on the challenge of some of the problems faced by the underground mining sector at that time. Intrignia was successful in designing and integrating specialized software for intelligent systems that resolved the operational constrains that continuously challenged miners. Although the technology was a success, it met unforeseen obstacles on the implementation side and was put on hold. The business and technical experience gained at Intrignia helped Mr. King make the strategic leap in the post 9/11world from the mining to the banking sector in 2002, when the idea for Verafin had started to take shape.  

Today Verafin Inc. is a prosperous Canadian corporation that designs and develops leading-edge software solutions for the financial services sector. So far, the company has participated in three Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) research projects; in one pre-commercial development program with IRAP-TPC support; and in one of Precarn’s Small Company collaborative projects, employing Precarn’s successful model that brings together technology developers, academics and end-users. For its Precarn project, Verafin used advanced artificial intelligence technologies that enable financial institutions to monitor and analyze customers’ behaviour patterns accurately, effectively, and in a timely manner, which helps them to prevent fraud, money laundering and terrorist financing.  

“It’s a great honour to receive this award and be recognized among some of the most prominent business leaders in Canada,” said King. “This achievement is a tribute to the hard work from every member of the Verafin team. We are truly committed to providing financial institutions with the best technology to help catch money launderers and fraudsters.”  

 

 

To learn more about Verafin, visit http://www.verafin.com/ 

To read more about Canada’s Top 40 Under 40^TM, visit http://www.canadastop40under40.com/ 

To post a comment, visit us at http://www.precarn.ca/Blog/index.html  

 

 

This year will be the 25^th Annual CATA Innovation Awards which celebrate the best in Canadian advanced technology, with 13 awards presented. This year's theme is "The Future is Mobile!" and NIMTech, one of Precarn’s T-GAP companies, is one of two finalists for the Outstanding Product Achievement (Clean Tech) Award and one of four for the Emerging Technology Award.  

NIMTech specializes in creating intelligent systems for Non-invasive Measurement Technologies, which means that they have created systems that measure the quality and quantity of liquid/gas/solid in a particular substance. This may not seem very important but if the mix is just a little off it could be disastrous for the product being made, especially for pharmaceutical products. What makes their system so unique is that it can measure the components of a substance even if it is sealed in a container or flowing in a pipe and they do this by using Ultrasound Technology. These systems are very useful tools for quality control, and if used during the production process, have the potential to increase production quality greatly.  

The CATA awards will be presented on May 19, 2010 and we will update you on the results when they are made public. Good luck to NIMTech and all other participants.  

To read more about NIMTech's success story click here

You can also visit the CATA website or NIMTech website

I’m sure most of you have heard of the Mozart effect, which says that those who listen to music by this famous composer will become smarter. This, however, is not entirely the case. It is true that those who listen to a piece of his music and then take a test would score higher than someone who did not, but the effects seem to last no more than 15 minutes. Because of the effects temporary nature, scientists conclude that it is the simple fact that music calms people and lets them focus which allows them to gain improved results. MusIQkids has recently made a similar claim, saying that learning a musical instrument increases grey matter in the brain and increases your intelligence. This time it seems to be true.  

MusIQkids is a new company that has recently completed their second music-based game. You may be thinking, why do I have to buy a game if learning an instrument would have the same effect? To be honest it would probably be better for a child to learn to play an actual instrument then to play one of these games, but you also have to consider your child. Would they have the patience and time to practice an instrument every day and would they continue to learn the instrument? This is important to consider because the effects of learning an instrument don’t happen overnight. It takes time and practice to get results. So if you’re child doesn’t seem like the type to stick with it and work hard to learn an instrument, the games are a very good alternative.  

The two products that MusIQkids has developed are the Virtual Musical Instrument (VMI) and the SmarterKids Training (SKT). They worked to complete the SKT with the T-GAP support and have gained very promising results.  

To learn more about MusIQkids and their products, click here or go to the MusIQkids website

In November, 2009 MedRunner received a T-GAP funding from Precarn Incorporated for its innovative electronic prescription solution. This new technology:

·         offers an easy-to-access, user-friendly intelligent eHealth system that eliminates handwriting errors

·         improves pharmacy workflow by 80% and cost savings of 21,000 per pharmacy location

·         reduces prescription abuse and fraud

·         bridges legacy computer information systems

·         establishes a secure point-to-point portal for physicians and pharmacies

·         saves physicians an average of 22 minutes per day (2 hours per week)

·         eliminates preventable deaths due to adverse drug reactions

 

To learn more about MedRunner and its new and innovative technology, please click here

Precarn has released today a new round of T-GAP funding to support small and start-up companies to the tune of $4 Million.  The deadline for project proposals is May 17, 2010, and the key attributes of the call for proposals are:

> Open to companies with 2 to 50 employees
> Projects must have an intelligent systems focus
> T-GAP will provide 40% of the project cost to a maximum of $100,000 per project

For details click here.

Precarn is pleased to announce that one of our projects, PCI Geomatics of Lethbridge, AB, a world leading developer of geo-imaging software and  systems, has signed a million dollar contract with Beijing Space Eye Innovation Technology Co. Ltd. (BSEI) to supply an automated image processing system to the China Centre for Resources Satellite Data and Application.  The technology was developed with Precarn's support.

About the Iunctus Geomatics Precarn Project

The objective of this project was to produce a system to automatically generate satellite and aerial image mosaics for large-area mapping purposes with sufficient spatial and radiometric accuracy to facilitate information extraction and subsequent decision making by the end-user. The proposed system would incorporate new advances in remote sensing in the areas of: radiometric normalization and its automation, orthorectification, parallel computing for image processing, tailored human-machine interfaces for mosaic production, and intelligent data ingestion. Once completed, the system will allow maximum efficient use of the vast quantities of imagery that are currently collected by satellite image platforms and downloaded to the Iunctus Geomatics ground station, which will provide a ten-fold increase in productivity.

The deliverable was a software package for automatically processing satellite imagery and generating large-area image mosaic.

Satellite imagery is the only cost-effective way to frequently update land-use inventories over large areas. The proposed system will allow Iunctus and its partner organizations to increase the scale and efficiency of image production, pursue larger mapping projects, and create higher quality information products for end users in Industry and Government. Providing these timely, standardized information products to professional land mangers will lead to improved land use decisions across the country and better management for natural resources protection and long-term sustainability.

The project started in October 2007 and completed in October 2009.  The funding was provided in conjunction with Alberta Advanced Education Technology (AET).

Click these links to read more about PCI's contract with BSEI and PCI Geomatics.

Are you a post-secondary Canadian student entrepreneur?  Do you have a technology-based startup?  If you answered yes to these questions, take a look at the information below.  It just may be what you're looking for.  Deadline for the first bootcamp is February 14, 2010.

Waterloo launches new bootcamp for young entrepreneurs to build future economy

If you know of a student entrepreneur that would be interested in this, please don't hesitate to pass it on. 

We’d like to advise you of an exciting initiative that the Ontario Centres of Excellence’s Centre for Commercialization of Research is undertaking in collaboration with the University of Waterloo to launch a new type of collaborative training camp for young entrepreneurs.

The University of Waterloo recently issued a news release announcing the VeloCity Entrepreneur BootCamp (VEB) which will allow some of the most promising young entrepreneurs in Canada to learn how to help create the country's future economy.  The University of Waterloo is drawing on its widely acknowledged strengths in innovation to launch the boot camp along with some funding from Ontario Centres of Excellence’s Centre for Commercialization of Research.

Waterloo joined forces with the Ontario Centres of Excellence's (OCE) Centre for Commercialization of Research to set up VEB. Other key partners include the Accelerator Centre; Communitech, which will provide programming and access to their network of mentors; and the Impact Entrepreneurship Group, which will help promote VEB on campuses across the country.

The initiative, which runs from May to July, will be based in Waterloo's VeloCity, a trail-blazing hybrid student residence and high-tech incubator which in less than two years has spawned several strong start-up companies in mobile communications and digital media through its teamwork approach.

The VeloCity Entrepreneur BootCamp (VEB) will enable top student entrepreneurs to fast track the launch of their technology-based startups. Selected students will be mentored by some of Canada's most experienced and successful entrepreneurs. They will live rent-free at VeloCity and will work out of office space provided at no charge by the Accelerator Centre in Waterloo's research and technology park.

The students will each receive $3,000 (up to a maximum $9,000 for each team) and own 100 per cent of their intellectual property. As well, they will attend seminars and workshops on important business-related topics. It is the first nation-wide, residence-based program of its kind in North America.

At the end of the bootcamp, students will be ready to launch their products or services for the benefit of the Canadian economy. They will also be eligible for additional seed funding through OCE's Centre for Commercialization of Research's new entrepreneur program.

We are very pleased to be part of this pioneering initiative. In aiming this program specifically at students we are helping to create a culture of entrepreneurship among young people which is critical to the long-term development of innovation.

Student applicants have to email their proposals to velocity@uwaterloo.ca by Feb. 14. Besides a resume, students must submit an overview of their start-up outlining its novelty and marketability as well as a YouTube video promoting the idea. Velocity Entrepreneur Bootcamp is open to any post-secondary student in Canada.

Applications will be reviewed by an expert panel and decisions made and communicated by the week of Feb. 22.

For further details about VEB, go to www.velocity.uwaterloo.ca.

On Monday, November 2, 2009, Precarn Incorporated hosted a showcase and luncheon announcing the funding 14 new T-GAP projects.  Mike Lake, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Industry spoke and made the presentation of the winners.  The showcase exhibited T-GAP projects creating a “buzz” that set the stage for the luncheon. Click here to view the press release.

The photo below shows the winners that were present at the event.

 

Front row l-r: Jason Gillham, 2G Robotics, Waterloo, ON; David Hickle, Xtel International Ltd., Acheson, AB; Roanne Levitte, Perceive Solutions Inc., Montréal, QC; Simon Leblond, SCL Elements, Montréal, QC; Dr. S. Murthy, SIGPRO Wireless Inc., Ottawa, ON; Babak Sardary, Trusterra Technologies Inc., North Vancouver, BC.
Back row l-r:  Gary Gudbranson, VP, Operations, Precarn Incorporated; Jack Scott, Precarn Board of Directors Chair, Naikun Wind Energy Group, Vancouver, BC;Mike Lake, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Industry, Tony Clement, Edmonton, AB; Dr. Henri Rothschild, President & CEO, Precarn Incorporated, ISTP Canada and CIIRDF; Paul Vice, Dreamcube Technologies Inc., Toronto, ON.

About Precarn's Industrial T-GAP (Technology Gap Assistance Program)

Precarn's T-GAP program is targeted at helping startup companies working in intelligent systems  get their products to market faster.         

There  is a recognized chasm in the commercialization of technologies  especially in very small companies. It is the black hole on the  'research to reality' road where innovative and viable technologies  get lost. Because the development step often lies outside the domain  of traditional investment sources, many valuable technologies and  ideas are needlessly shelved. In an effort to address this situation,  Precarn allocates available funds to advance technologies that  show commercial promise. The Technology-Gap Assistance Program (T-GAP)  is the conduit through which the funds are awarded.          

Press coverage extended the buzz generated during the event.  The following media have covered the November 2nd event:

CBC Radio, Ottawa (November 2, 7:45 a.m. interviewed with Jack Scott and M. Rioux)

CFRA Radio (November 2, Business at Night show interview with Jack Scott)

CTV National Network (November 2, evening news)

Exchange Magazine (Nov. 3)

National Capital Scan (Nov. 3)  - Precarn spreads the wealth

New Brunswick Business Journal(November 3)

Ottawa Business Journal (November 3)

Ottawa Citizen(November 3)

Waterloo Record (November 2)

Research Money (November 9, 2009 - Volume 23, Number 17, Pg. 7 News Briefs)

Ottawa Business Journal (November 9, 2009)

Vancouver Sun (November 11)

NLP Website (November 11)

Over at Biomedical Photometrics, they are making possible some of the highest resolution images in the medical industry. They believe they have just created the largest pathology image ever at 61 Gigapixels.

In their words, here is what they say about what they do:

"Now you can scan a very wide area at very high resolution.At Biomedical Photometrics, we re ushering in a new era in confocal microscopy that enables panoramic fluorescence and brightfield imaging of tissues and cells for basic research and clinical drug development. By harnessing the imaging power of telecentric laser scan lenses in  place of conventional microscope objectives, our automated laser  scanning imaging systems provide an imaging area more than 100 times</strong> that of a standard microscope, with the same resolution. The result: Large-specimen, high-resolution imaging</strong>  that dramatically improves measurement of protein and gene expression  and rapidly delivers advanced information about the molecular biology  of diseased tissue."

Join us in congratulating Mark Matthews, President and CEO, and his company Remco Solid State Lighting Inc, in being selected as one of the 15 finalists for the "Clean 15" Cleantech Competition for 2009.

You reach Mark Matthews at  mark.matthews@rogers.com.

The offlicial Clean15 website is at www.clean15.com.

 

 

As a member of the steering committee of the CAIAC Precarn Intelligent Systems Challenge, I am inviting you and your company to consider submitting a challenge problem for this exciting new competition series.  I believe that your company could benefit much from being involved in this competition, and we believe that you are in an excellent position to propose a challenge problem. Please find attached a brief overview of the competition, which also describes what a challenge problem is. There are also sponsorship opportunities, which are outlined in the attached Call for Sponsorship.  

In order to be able to formally announce the competition at the 2009 Intelligent Systems Collaborative Conference at UBC Okanagan (25-27 May 2009) (http://aigicrv.ok.ubc.ca/), please express your interest as soon as possible, as we need to receive a preliminary proposal by April 24th.  In the meanwhile, we would be happy to answer any questions you may have and look forward to hearing from you.  

Summarizing Next Steps: 

1. Express your interest in submitting a challenge as soon as possible, via competition@precarn.ca or call Precarn at 613 727 9507.
2. You pose a challenge problem related to your organization or industry, by April 24.
3. The event committee will select a set of challenges.  
4. Nationwide competition to be launched on IS 2009, May 25-27
5. Students specializing in Intelligent Systems will tackle your challenge  
6. Winners will be announced at the IS conference in 2010
7. Your company will get opportunity to transfer IP and sponsor the event

 

With best regards,

Morten Irgens
On behalf of the Steering Committee of the CAIAC Precarn Intelligent Systems Challenge

I just completed my Masters in Computer Science at the University of British Columbia. I was fortunate to participate in robotics research at UBC as part of a Precarn-funded R&D project in the CARIS Laboratory. The CARIS lab is currently performing research on industrial robot manipulators in partnership with Braintech Inc., a local vision and robotics software company. As a computer science student in a mechanical engineering lab with a partner in industry, I had a rare opportunity to learn simultaneously from researchers from both sides of the academic/industrial divide. My research focused on planning paths for a camera-equipped robot manipulator so that it could maintain its view of a target in spite of obstacles in the workcell. The initial work was done in simulation, but it was the experiments done on a real robot arm that were instrumental to the final success. There was a certain satisfaction in watching the robot navigate around obstructions while keeping its eye on the proverbial ball. I'm very grateful not only for the opportunity to perform research, but also for the chance to test an application of that research. Working in a multidisciplinary project highlighted the challenges involved with bringing research to bear on real industrial applications. Overcoming those challenges provided me with experience I would otherwise not have been exposed to. It was enjoyable, hard, satisfying work, and was just what I was looking for.

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An afterword from the Webmaster: BTW Matt is in the job market...  I can't think of a better candidate!  That's him in the picture... Not only has he completed great research but has been part of an industrial project solving a real world problem.  A great catch for  employer who would like to hire a student who can hit the ground running.  If you are interested he can be contacted by email, and his research is showcased at his UBC website.

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[La version française suit en bas.]

The Canadian Artificial Intelligence Association (CAIAC) and Precarn Inc are inviting students at all levels (high school, college and university) to participate in the 2009 Intelligent Systems Challenge. Computer professionals in industry and academia are also invited to pass this message to interested students and to consider advising a student team. The challenge is a programming contest where students are asked to write a program to automatically detect rendezvous between ships at sea from infrequent, irregular and possibly unreliable data. This is an important problem for the protection of Canada’s sovereignty and the enforcement of maritime laws. To participate, please visit the challenge website: http://www.intelligent-systems-challenge.ca. Download the full problem description and start programming today! Registration is currently open (till Feb 15). Cash prizes will be awarded to the best solutions in each student category (high school/college, undergraduate and graduate levels). Winners will be announced at the 2009 Intelligent Systems Collaborative Conference in Kelowna BC on May 27th, 2009.This year’s challenge was proposed by Vancouver-based MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA), the company that developed Canadarm, Radarsat-2, and the satellite image processing systems used for Google Earth. The challenge is a joint initiative of the Canadian Artificial Intelligence Association (CAIAC) and Precarn Inc. The goal of this annual competition is to

• promote innovation in Canada;
• establish and strengthen contacts between academia and industry in Canada;
• increase the awareness of and interest in technologies and methods from the areas of artificial intelligence and intelligent systems for addressing the challenges faced by Canadian industry, organizations and society as a whole;
• contribute to the development of students’ aptitude and ability through solving challenging real world problems.

Pascal Poupart, University of Waterloo (on behalf of the 2009 IS Challenge Organizing Committee) and Holger H. Hoos, University of British Columbia (on behalf of the IS Challenge Steering Committee)

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L’Association pour l’Intelligence Artificielle au Canada (CAIAC) et Precarn Inc. invitent les étudiants de tout niveau (secondaire, collégial et universitaire) à participer au Défi des Systèmes Intelligents 2009. Les professionnels de l’informatique en industrie et en milieu académique sont aussi invités à faire parvenir ce message à des étudiants intéressés et à servir de conseiller auprès d’une équipe d’étudiants. Le défi est un concours de programmation où les étudiants sont appelés à programmer une solution pour détecter de manière automatique un rendez-vous entre deux navires en mer à partir de données clairsemées, irrégulières et possiblement incorrectes. Ce problème est particulièrement important pour la sécurité nationale et l’application des lois maritimes canadiennes. Pour participer, veuillez visiter le site web du défi : http://www.intelligent-systems-challenge.ca/home/index_fr.html. Téléchargez la description complète du problème et commencez dès maintenant à programmer! Les inscriptions sont possibles dès aujourd’hui (et jusqu’au 15 février). Des prix en argent seront décernés pour les meilleures solutions dans chaque catégorie d’étudiants (secondaire/collégial, universitaire 1er cycle et universitaire 2e/3e cycle). Les gagnants seront annoncés à la conférence collaborative sur les systèmes intelligents à Kelowna en Colombie-Britannique le 27 mai 2009.Le défi de cette année a été fourni par MacDonald, Dettwiler et Associés (MDA), la société de Vancouver qui a développé le bras canadien, Radarsat-2 et les systèmes de traitement d\'images satellites utilisés par Google pour cartographier la terre. Le défi est une initiative conjointe de l’Association pour l’Intelligence Artificielle au Canada (CAIAC) et Precarn Inc. Les objectifs de cette compétition annuelle sont de

• promouvoir l’innovation au Canada;
• promouvoir les contacts entre le milieu académique et l\'industrie au Canada;
• sensibiliser et augmenter l\'intérêt pour les technologies et les méthodes dans les domaines de l\'intelligence artificielle et des systèmes intelligents pour adresser les défis rencontrés par l\'industrie canadienne, les organisations et la société en général; et
• contribuer au développement des aptitudes et des habiletés des étudiants par la résolution de problèmes difficiles mais réels et stimulants.

Pascal Poupart, Université de Waterloo (au nom du comité d’organisation du Défi SI 2009) et Holger H. Hoos, Université de la Colombie-Britannique (au nom du comité de pilotage du Défi SI)

A Canadian technology success story, the HandyScan 3D, was a key technology used to help solve a crime during the first episode of CSI:  New York earlier this fall and again on the November 19th episode.  The HandyScan 3D is a product from Creaform Inc, a Québec City area firm.

The HandyScan product, or today a suite of products, began its life as a research project at Université Laval.  Intially nurtured by IRIS (Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Systems) T-Gap, Precarn followed this up with core funding under the Precarn Small Company Program.

From its begining as a research project back in 2005, the HandyScan product suite has worldwide sales.

This is one of the more visible successes of the Precarn collaborative R&D program which focuses on fostering research, development and commercialization of Canada's worldclass technology.

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We are interested in telling your success story.  Please comment below or eMail us your success story here.

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Tuesday this week I attended a 1-day course given Trevor Wilkins of Holis Associates, a course that every new entrepreneur or inspiring entrepreneur should attend! The name of the course was "Introduction to Advanced Business Communication" but it could have easily be called "An Introduction to Fearless Selling for Dummies, opps, I mean Techies..."

I was attending the course primarily to evaluate it as an addition to Precarn's business mentoring services, but managed to pickup a few tricks to add to my near 25 years of experience in marketing and sales - proving even an old dog can learn something new.

I was amazed at how well the course breaks down the critical elements of the sales process and provides a methodology that can be easily applied in all sorts of sales activities that the new entrepreneur can handle and apply immediately. Whether the sales activity involves customers, investors, partners or employees this course provides the tools for success, and quite frankly the confidence needed by technology-based leaders of start-ups.

By pure chance, I attended the course with two executives (read techies) from a company that Precarn is currently funding. I was amazed, but more importunately these executives were amazed, how the methodology worked so well - their takeaway from the course was a set of sales tools and confidence!

The ABC Sales course gives the student a  step by step process which they  learn, exercise and then customise to their own situation. They find  that they can now quickly and fearlessly elicit what the customer wants to take away from working with them, its true, not assumed, value, and the information needed to make that person an advocate of buying what is offered. This training is not just for  sales staff - the skills taken away can be employed by presales,  support, management, customer service or marketing staff alike to  improve the profitability and effectiveness of the operation.

My TakeAway from the day is that this tool just has to be a part of the Precarn Centre for Commercialization.  A second TakwAway is that if there is that much value in th eone-day introductory course the full versions must be dynamite!

For more information, contact Holis Associates at www.holis.ca or email Trevor Wilkins.

Precarn has partnered with MITACS Inc. to deliver, a graduate research internship program that connects the expertise in intelligent systems to Canadian industry.

The internship program, ACCELERATE Canada Canada’s Graduate Research Internship Program, provides an excellent opportunity to apply advanced tools, techniques and methodologies to important research issues and problems facing organizations. Through the program, new research issues are brought to the academic community, a new generation of highly-qualified researchers is trained and partners are able to leverage cutting-edge research to further their organization.

Graduate student interns spend 50% of their time on site with a partner, researching an issue of interest to all parties. The balance of the intern’s time is spent at their home university, further advancing the research under the guidance of a faculty supervisor. Funding for the $15,000 internship is shared equally between ACCELERATE Canada and the sponsoring company.

Applications are being accepted now. To apply go to AccelerateCanada.ca.

Download more information on the internships or email Sylvia Ralphs-Thibodeau at MITACS  or Rick Schwartzburg at Precarn.

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Let us know what you think of this new program!

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There is a growing perspective in Canada that we simply must get more of our world-recognized research and development out of the lab and in to the marketplace.

Hence, Precarn has just designed and released a new $2.5 Million R&D Program where there is an emphasis on R&D projects with a small "R" and larger "D" component that can demonstrate near-term commercialization potential. While a project must have a research problem to solve, it will not form the significant portion of the project. Projects that produce technologies that may be ready for commercialization at their conclusion are eligible for funding and are encouraged.

Furthermore, to  emphasize  this commercial perspective, Precarn is looking for projects that can be completed on or before December 31, 2009.

With a focus on the introduction and advancement of innovative made-in-Canada solutions, this initiative aims to fund commercially-viable projects that address the challenges of the Canadian environmental technology and manufacturing industries.

Proposals need to be submitted by October 3rd, 2008.  For more information, contact Derek Best and/or download the RFP.

 

 

There is a recognized chasm in the commercialization of technologies especially in very small companies. It is the black hole on the "research to reality" road where innovative and viable technologies get lost. Because the development step often lies outside the domain of traditional investment sources, many valuable technologies and ideas are needlessly shelved. In an effort to address this situation, Precarn has allocated $500,000 in funds to advance technologies that show commercial promise. The Technology-Gap Assistance Program (T-GAP) is the conduit through which the funds are awarded.

The new T-GAP fund is specifically targetted at small start-up companies, typically in the 2 to 10 person size.

Proposals can be submitted at anytime, and are evaluated against the program criteria as they come in, until the available funds are exhausted.

So get your proposal in ASAP!

Download the T-GAP proposal requirements >>here

For more information contact Rick Schwartzburg at (613) 727-9507 ext 231 or by eMail.

I (Rick) would welcome your comments about the program!

Precarn's mission is all about great R&D and commercialization of innovations of intelligent systems. This year Precarn recognized two students, a professor and a company for their contributions to these goals.

Precarn is celebrating its 20 years of success by recognizing excellence in research and successful commercialization of robotic and intelligent systems. The two winners of the 20th Anniversary Awards and our student awards are examples of this excellence, and a critical demonstration of the power of the Precarn collaborative R&D and commercialization model.

The Precarn 20th Anniversary Research Excellence Award winner is Dr. Septimiu (Tim) Salcudean, a professor at the University of British Columbia, which recognizes his work in the field of haptics.  >>more

The Precarn 20th Anniversary Commercialization Success Award winner is Point Grey Research for the Triclops stereo vision system. >>more

The 2008 Gordon M. MacNabb Scholarship was awarded to Mr. Ambrose Chan, a PhD student at the University of British Columbia. Mr. Chan is currently participating in the Precarn-supported "Bin-picking" project that is led by Braintech of Vancouver.  >>more

The Best Student Poster at the IS 2008 Conference in Windsor (May 28-30) was awarded to Frédérick Jean as student at laval University. The title of his poster was "View Normalizations of Body part Trajectories". >>abstract

 Your perspective is valuable!
What innovations, research or commercial success of a Canadian intelligent systems technology has impressed you?

by...
Paul Johnston
President & CEO, Precarn Incorporated