2014-15 OCE Project List - Ontario Centres of Excellence

Transcription

Ontario Centres of Excellence
2014-15 OCE Project List
Industry-Academic Collaboration,
Commercialization & Entrepreneurship
July 10, 2015
Industry-Academic Collaboration
Section 1
Program
Partners
Academic Institution
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
Additional Funds Leveraged
Total Project Commitment
City
Alberta‐Ontario Innovation Program (AOIP)
Nova Chemicals Corporation—Calgary University of Western AB;Nova Chemicals Ontario
Corporation—Sarnia ON.;Alberta Innovates Technology Futures
Advanced Materials Development for Safer Energy Pipelines
Advanced manufacturing
Compromise of a material’s structural integrity caused by corrosion is a common problem in industrial based applications that require metals to be exposed to chemical environments. Depending on the metal’s industrial in‐service use, different forms of corrosion exist and, depending on the exposure environment, some may be more deleterious than others; for example, corrosion localized within an occluded region (i.e., under gaskets and seals) compared to uniform corrosion on an entirely exposed alloy surface (passive corrosion). Because of its insidious nature, localized corrosion may be difficult to identify and corrosion rate assessments are usually estimated since the properties (i.e., corroded area and local electrochemistry) of the actively corroding region cannot accurately be measured. Impacting material performance within the oil and gas industry is the localized corrosion form—Stress‐Corrosion Cracking (SCC), which is encountered in pipelines that are subjected to an applied and/or residual stress while exposed to a corrosive chemical environment. SCC’s impact on pipeline degradation will be investigated by replicating experimentally the combination of mechanical stress and chemical environments anticipated on in‐service oil and gas pipelines. Experimental resources from Nova Chemicals (Calgary AB and Sarnia ON) and Western University (London ON) will be utilized to complete the proposed scope of work. For example, the machining of experimental samples out of previously in‐service pipelines (sourced from Sarnia and Calgary) will be performed by Nova Chemicals. Researchers at Western University will then characterize the steel’s chemical and geometric microstructure using advanced surface analytical techniques located at Surface Science Western and in the Department of Earth Sciences. Nova Chemicals (Calgary AB) will then apply a stress/load using a commercial mechanical testing system while simultaneously monitoring the electrochemical conditions (the corrosion potential), on the pre‐analyzed surface, in simulated groundwater. After chemical/mechanical exposure, researchers at Western will re‐examine the pre‐analyzed corroded surface to determine which microstructural properties (i.e., grain/grain boundary geometries and/or elemental compositions) are most susceptible to initiation and growth of stress‐induced cracks. Quantification of SCC degradation rates for different commercial steel microstructures are essential for future steel alloy designs and material selection. 7/23/2014
David Shoesmith
$50,000
$324,074
$374,074
London
Shell Canada (Ontario);AITF;NSERC;Shell Canada (Alberta)
Simulation‐assisted Design and Optimization of Multiphase Unit Operations for Shell Canada Bitumen Processing
Bitumen produced from Canadian oil sand resources contains significant amounts of asphaltenes and heteroatoms. This refractory material must be first upgraded to Advanced manufacturing
synthetic crude in order to be processed in conventional refineries. One approach to bitumen upgrading involves "hydrocracking" of bitumen residues through simultaneous catalytic hydrogenation and cracking in an ebullated‐bed reactor. This unit operation involves complex coupled multiphase (gas, liquid, solid) hydrodynamics, chemical kine cs, and transport phenomena making it difficult to design and op mize using tradi onal experimental analysis.
7/23/2014
Nasser Abukhdeir
$100,000
$503,864
$603,864
Waterloo
7/23/2014
Martin Guay
$50,000
$398,000
$448,000
Kingston
Digital media and information & communication technologies
10/20/2014
Chris Tyler
$19,956
$45,600
$65,556
Toronto
10/20/2014
Arunita Jaekel
$20,000
$46,200
$66,200
Windsor
2/20/2015
Charles Chamberlain
$20,899
$20,889
$41,788
Almonte
University of Waterloo
Simulation‐based engineering of a hydrocracking unit under realistic operating conditions is a safe and cost‐effective approach to supplement direct experimentation. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations enable resolution of the internal dynamics of the reactor and, ultimately, enable simulation‐based design and optimization. This research project aims better understand the internal dynamics of an ebullated‐bed hydrocracker using a high‐quality open‐source CFD software library. The results from this research project will be directly implemented and evaluated in an industrial‐scale hydrocracker.
ONTARIO ‐ Mitsubishi Electric Canada;ONTARIO ‐ Praxair;ONTARIO‐
Johnson Control;ALBERTA‐Suncor Energy;AITF;ALBERTA ‐ Praxair
Queen's University
Real‐time optimization for performance and efficiency in manufacturing systems
Connected Vehicle, Brakers Early Warning System Inc.
Autonomous Vehicle (CVAV)
Seneca College of Applied Early Warning System for Emergency Vehicles
Arts and Technology
Connected Vehicle, Arada Systems
University of Windsor
Fast, secure V2V communication for safety‐critical applications
Connected Vehicle, DLS
Not Applicable
Driver Assistance Panel Project
Increased demands imposed by global market pressures have had a dramatic impact on the management and operation of manufacturing systems. The increasing frequency of market fluctuations and energy cost has changed the way manufacturing sites are managed and operated. There is a significant thrust in Canadian companies to integrate science and technology into strategies for producing services and products for a dynamic world market. These changes in operating culture have led to an emphasis on the design of flexible manufacturing strategies. The objective of the proposed research is to develop innovative process control and optimization techniques that provide maximum profitability in safe, environmentally‐friendly and flexible manufacturing environments. Real‐Time Optimization (RTO) is a process automation technology whose objective is to predict the economically optimal process operating policy in the near term (i.e., usually within the next few hours). The strategic importance of RTO has been widely recognized by industry. RTO is an extremely valuable tool that can assist manufacturers to identify optimal operating conditions. The ability to operate at conditions that minimize energy costs or maximize production rates is vital for economic viability and the sustainability of industrial and manufacturing processes. Although, it is possible to assess guidelines for optimal production using off‐line calculations, this step is often very costly and complex, especially if one needs to consider uncertainties and dynamics. RTO offers the flexibility to take full advantage of process measurements to optimize operating conditions in real‐time. This provides manufacturers with the ability to, not only, operate processes in an optimal fashion, but also, to modify operating objectives. Additionally, its benefits can be clearly determined in terms of economic, safety or production objectives. Despite significant advances in the design and integration of RTO, existing RTO technology is limited in scope. It is primarily used for steady‐state optimization and the performance effects of time‐varying costs are not well‐understood. As most RTO applications are model‐based, they are also highly sensitive to process uncertainties. Existing RTO technologies are also primarily focussed on a centralized approach to plant‐wide optimization. Plant‐wide models are usually very complex and not easily solved in real‐time with available optimization technology. As a result, simplifications are required to handle the full complexity of the plant. The key objective of development large‐scale robust time‐
varying RTO systems is of primary importance in the design of flexible manufacturing systems. It proposes key technologies that can address challenges associated with the integration of process control technologies. The techniques, proposed in this research for the design of RTO systems, exploit the use of process data to real‐
time optimization problems in situations where reliable optimization models are either not available or not amenable for real‐time computation. The proposed techniques will also address large‐scale optimization problems. Specific algorithms will be proposed that can aid in the design of decentralized and distributed real‐
time optimization problems as an alternative platform for network based computations in complex systems. They will provide novel computing platforms for real‐
time computation using a data‐driven distributed approach.
Belleville, Ontario based Brakers Early Warning Systems Inc. is launching development of a novel, smart system capable of sending customized, warning messages from emergency vehicles directly to cars. Such a system will provide motorists with information about emergency vehicles operating along their path and will give them clear instructions of how they should react. By one press of a button an emergency responder can initiate one of several, pre‐recorded messages to a precisely targeted, geographic area. That message will then be received by motorists in the area and will be played through either vehicle sound system and/or smartphone speakers. Such a complex task will be achieved by innova ve integra on of several underlying technologies: Bluetooth, RFID, GPS and Smartphone Apps.
The company believes that by giving motorists early information of an approaching emergency vehicle and specific instructions of what to do it will achieve two important objec ves: decrease of the probability of serious accidents and reduc on of emergency door‐to‐door response mes.
This project will design and implement specialized software to facilitate the use of vehicle‐to‐vehicle (V2V) and vehicle‐to‐infrastructure (V2I) communication technologies to improve safety and to minimize economic losses due to lost productivity resulting from traffic congestion. The transportation and related industries are working on creating innovative products and systems that can meet the goals of an intelligent transportation system (ITS), with reliable vehicular communication capabilities. It is imperative that such products and services be extensively tested and validated, before they can be deployed in real environments. Availability of suitable framework and algorithms that facilitate development of reliable applications is a serious obstacle for the industry. Due to the time‐sensitive nature of the data and relatively high probability of packet loss, it is critical to develop algorithms that are efficient, secure and can operate even with some incomplete/incorrect inputs. This project will develop software modules that can capture and analyze data generated by the electronic control units (ECU) inside vehicles. This data will then be processed, aggregated and potentially combined with data from surrounding vehicles to build applications that will improve passenger safety and minimize traffic delays. Furthermore, this project will also develop a simulation platform that can help test and validate safety applications to ensure they meet the required performance standards. Bio‐economy and clean Deep Logic Solutions specializes in GIS related transportation solutions that include a focus on logistic supply chain solutions for both the truck and rail industries. Deep Logic Solutions has been in business for five years with their technological solutions in development for several years prior to that. The ‘Driver Assistance Panel technologies
Project’ will assess the feasibility of adjusting truck driver behavior to use their particular combination of vehicle, engine and transmission in the most efficient way. This solu on u lizes exis ng technologies together in a new way and deployed in North America for the first me.
The Driver Assistance Panel Project requires a North American assessment of economies gained by adjusting driver behaviour in two environments ‐ short haul around the city and long haul inter‐city. The major project activities will include establishing a baseline for different drivers in both environments and then training them in the proper use of the Driver Assistance Panel in order to measure potential efficiency savings. This will involve the installation of two sets of hardware in several different trucks in order to measure system effectiveness.
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 1
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
Connected Vehicle, Remotronic Corp.
Carleton University
3D Vehicle Birdview Systems
Remotronic is an Ottawa‐based high‐tech company. The main product of Remotronic is an innovative 2D vehicle birdview system, which provides an integrated video solution that merges four (4) videos from the cameras on a vehicle into one (1) birdview video, thus greatly enhances the driver's situation awareness. Currently, several customers (e.g., Holder Tractors Inc, a large German‐based tractor manufacturer) have been using Remotronic’s product.
Despite the success of Remotronic’s current 2D product, some customers request more advanced features. Specifically, some customers prefer a system with 3D vehicle birbview, which can be seen from a mobile device. For large sized vehicles (e.g., large truck, school bus, combat vehicle, and snow removal truck), the blinding zones usually cannot be covered by traditional measurements, such as mirrors and singe rear view camera. Remotronic’s system can efficiently solve this problem. this project, we intend to use recent advances in information and communication technologies to design 3D vehicle birdview systems. This project will give Remotronic a valuable edge over its global compe tors.
9/15/2014
Richard Yu
Connected Vehicle, APMA
Not Applicable
APMA ‐ Connected Car
Digital media and The automotive technology development process through to product is iterative, with providers of new technologies and products demonstrating early versions of information & their products to automobile manufacturers to gain feedback for changes to the product itself as well as how the product integrates into vehicles on its own or in combination with complementary products. Several APMA members have each developed individual technologies and products as relate to Connected Vehicles, some communication to initial implementation, others as constantly evolving software systems. This Project is focused on bringing together all of these onto a single vehicle platform, technologies
improving and accelerating for all participants interaction with automobile manufacturers around the world. A key aspect of this Phase will be APMA Connect, software residing in the vehicle, in the cloud, and in smart phones to demonstrate leading edge possibilities for connecting people with their cars and with equipment and systems in their car via their smart phones.
This project is a follow on to the APMA Connected Vehicle Project Phase 1, which has already won recognition from automobile manufacturers and others in the industry for the intensity of the integra on of a dozen products into a single vehicle, for its impact on audiences of all types.
The APMA will lead and manage this project to achieve results to integrate enhancements to products included in Phase 1 and to install and integrate new technologies from all participants. An additional significant step for this Project will be the development and inclusion of an on line presence for the vehicle illustrating how drivers, vehicle owners and automobile manufacturers will benefit from the persistent on line connection of the vehicle and the enhanced capabilities of the integrated products.
12/18/2014
Robert Burrows
Connected Vehicle, DM&T Services Ltd.
York University
DM&T ‐ York CVAV License Plate Redaction Project
The Ministry of Transportation Ontario (MTO) contracts out the monitoring and ploughing of roads across Ontario, to companies such as Miller and Carillion. DM&T Digital media and serves as a sub‐contractor, providing technology for data logging and GPS localiza on for the majority of these contracts.
information & communication The present technology does not support all ministry and sub‐contractor needs. In particular, in addition to GPS localization it is desirable to collect and log imagery of technologies
road conditions encountered by service vehicles. To this end, DM&T will deploy a mobile mounted GOPRO camera that is operated by a Wi‐Fi app installed on a smartphone. The Smartphone app is operated, in turn by exis ng data logger unit through either a Bluetooth or hardwired connec on.
The value of this imagery derives in part from the potential to share it with contractors, the ministry and ultimately the general public to provide more complete road condition information across the province. Since the service vehicle will at times be in proximity to other vehicles, the imagery may contain license plate information from other vehicles, and thus sharing these data could be in viola on of privacy laws. Redacting these license plate data by hand would be costly and labour‐intensive. In this project, an efficient automatic computer vision algorithm will be developed and integrated with DM&T’s server software to automatically localize and redact (e.g., by blurring) legible license plates in the dash cam imagery, thus allowing the imagery to be distributed without compromising the rights to privacy of Ontarians.
11/17/2014
Viewnyx
Connected Vehicle, Autonomous Vehicle (CVAV)
Not Applicable
Lookout Driving Safety System LTX
Viewnyx Corp is an Ottawa based Canadian Corporation founded in 2003. Viewnyx develops and markets the “Lookout Driving Safety System”, a video‐based collision Digital media and warning technology for the transportation industry. Lookout is being deployed by fleets operating heavy vehicles in Canada and internationally, and is successfully information & helping fleets significantly lower their vehicle accident costs. communication technologies
The Lookout technology uses advanced proprietary software to analyse data in real‐time from in‐cab digital cameras, motion sensors and vehicle data streams to monitor the vehicle situational‐context. The instantaneous risk condition is assessed and real‐time alerts are provided to drivers to mitigate impending dangerous situa ons such as unintended lane departures, over speed condi ons, etc. OCE Commitment
City
$19,999
$20,000
$39,999
Ottawa
$250,000
$310,800
$560,800
Oakville
James Elder
$20,000
$20,010
$40,010
Toronto
2/20/2015
Ed Cremer
$50,000
$100,600
$150,600
Kanata
2/20/2015
Sherry Shannon‐
Vanstone
$50,000
$82,080
$132,080
Waterloo
Video and parametric data of driving behaviours is continuously captured and stored to enable follow‐on analysis by fleet safety personnel via a powerful suite of online analysis tools. The ability to monitor overall driver behaviour and review specific incidents enables pre‐emptive intervention as necessary to improve driver performance and the level of driving safety. This data provides enormous safety and financial value to fleet managers and the public as the number and severity of road incidents are reduced. The second generation Lookout LT/LTX incorporates new detection sensor technologies in order to significantly broaden the range of protection capabilities. Additionally, these capabilties can now be extended to a vastly broader range of vehicle types. This project will install Lookout LT/LTX equipment into commercial vehicles involved in scheduled transportation of goods for the purpose of testing, validating and tuning the expanded risk detection and reporting functionality. The aim is provide increased protec on for drivers, increased value to fleet operators and increased safety to all users of the roadway infrastructure.
Connected Vehicle, TrustPoint Innovation Technologies Autonomous Vehicle Ltd.
(CVAV)
7/10/2015
Not Applicable
mSecure V2X‐OBE SDK
TrustPoint Innovation Technologies (TrustPoint) has been serving the connected vehicle market by helping to design a vehicle to vehicle secure communications Advanced manufacturing
system that can reduce vehicle collisions by up to 80% and provide other efficiency and environmental benefits. This intelligent transportation system project was founded by Ford and GM, and now includes Mercedes‐Benz, Honda, Nissan, Toyota, Hyundai‐Kia, and Volkswagen. These companies have been working on an ambitious project to communicate vehicle to vehicle (V2V) “safety messages” that will allow them to predict collisions, warn the driver and potentially take automatic collision avoidance actions. After more than a decade of study and a successful pilot test involving 3000 cars in Michigan, the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) has begun a formal rule‐making process that will make the system mandatory for all US vehicles starting in 2020. It’s expected that compatible Canadian and Mexican systems will also be deployed. The USDOT project includes vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) applications that will improve traffic flow, efficiency, reduce emissions, and provide other services. V2V and V2I services are jointly called V2X.
There is currently no commercially available security engine capable of meeting the requirements for the V2X Secure Credential Management System (SCMS) protocol. Due to the unique requirements for performance, privacy, security and efficiency as well as the management requirements for anonymous revocation, the V2X protocol has numerous unique features. TrustPoint is uniquely suited to developing a solution as 1) we have been involved with the Crash Avoidance Metrics Partnership (CAMP) to help design the security protocols for the Secure Credential Management System (SCMS) and 2) V2X SCMS is based on the Elliptic Curve Cryptosystem (ECC), a public key cryptosystem that TrustPoint’s founder, Dr. Scott Vanstone, pioneered and commercialized successfully at Certicom. TrustPoint’s management and development staff have significant experience in research, development, marke ng and sales of ECC solu ons. This project is to develop a software product that performs all the core cryptographic processes that are required to support the V2X safety application for use in the on‐board equipment (OBE), packaged and productized so that it can be licensed by auto OEMs, parts suppliers, consumer equipment OEMs, and independent so ware vendors.
Section 1 ‐ 2
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Connected Vehicle, Stinson Equipment;Transnomis;Flybits Not Applicable
Autonomous Vehicle Inc
(CVAV)
Flybits ‐ CVAV
Traffic today is a major challenge within cities and on provincial highways, reducing productivity, adding pollution, and creating safety hazards. In our futures, the Digital media and promise of Connected Vehicles will greatly reduce the safety concerns, and the improved flow through our Cities will reduce pollution and recover productivity and information & mobility. In the meantime, before all vehicles are so equipped from point of manufacture and owned predominantly, a midway technology exists within the hands of communication technologies
virtually every citizen to bring many of those same benefits to us now and through the years of this gap. The smartphone, appropriately enabled for voice and vibration alerting, can leverage Distracted Driver strategies and bring many of these benefits into our lives now. Further, while many cities in Ontario have traffic apps from private sources, there are no standards across cities or municipalities that would allow you to use one application and gain Traveller information as you move from city to city, from municipality to municipality. While this sounds somewhat obvious, a smartphone needs an app to accomplish this, and though commercial drivers might be enticed to so equip their devices, many would not and certainly average citizens are reluctant to populate their smartphone devices with dozens of City or Region 'white label' Apps on speculation or occasion of being in that city or region. Further, there is no common Traveller Information infrastructure in place that would be necessary to allow one such application to leverage these devices in the way that they could be. Indeed, beyond the on‐the‐spot roadside signs, most cities have no common ability to equip travellers with essential knowledge to gain these benefits. Flybits, along with partners Transnomis and Stinson Equipment, propose to deliver a platform that sources and aggregates 511 (Traffic) Data, and other relevant sources, for collection to a centralized Traffic Operations Centre console (Transnomis Mirasan), and in doing so, enable any developer to tap into a common single source of 511 and related data in order to build an Ontario‐wide Traveller Information System (OTIS) for delivery of relevant information to cross‐province travellers’ smartphones. Flybits anticipates an immediate interest from commercial drivers, bringing cost savings benefits to them. Flybits proposes to take its innovative, award‐winning Ottawa NAV smartphone App and utilize the platform work done by Flybits, Transnomis and Stinson Equipment, to develop a province‐wide Traveller Information System smartphone App. This single App will derive context‐aware information from a common source specification and deliver relevant data to the traveller moving from city to city, from municipality to municipality.
Connected Vehicle, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada University of Waterloo
Autonomous Vehicle Inc.;Toyota Technical Centre
(CVAV)
Eco‐Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control for Low‐
Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada (TMMC) and other Ontario automobile manufacturers are under increasing pressure to produce cleaner and more fuel‐efficient Bio‐economy and clean emission Fuel‐optimal Plug‐in Hybrid Electric Vehicles vehicles that also demonstrate improved drivability, comfort and safety performance. Meeting emerging government standards will require significant technological technologies
advances that take advantage of vehicle‐to‐vehicle (V2V) and vehicle‐to‐infrastructure (V2I) communications. The proposed project targets development of novel Eco‐
Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (Eco‐CACC) systems that will enhance fuel efficiency and emission performance of hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) and plug‐in HEV (PHEV) models manufactured in Ontario. Low inter‐vehicle distance and string stability of vehicle platoons are crucial to optimizing both road capacity and traffic efficiency. Platoons of vehicles supported only by Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) technologies become unstable as the inter‐vehicle distance decreases. CACC technologies have overcome this difficulty through the use of V2V communications. Eco‐CACC will address the added challenge of meeting eco‐driving objectives, including the vehicle fuel consumption and emissions reduction. Apart from V2V communications, the Eco‐CACC system will take advantage of a broader range of information about road grade, roadway geometry, and upcoming driving conditions available from V2I, global positioning systems (GPS), geographic information systems (GIS) and intelligent transportation system (ITS) technologies to drive the vehicle at the most environmentally efficient trajectory, while maintaining safe inter‐
vehicle distances within platoons.
Date
Applicant Name
2/20/2015
Murray Marven
12/18/2014
Nasser Lashgarian Azad
2/20/2015
In Ontario alone, drunk driving kills over 200 people and costs taxpayers over $500 million each year. Sober Steering’s alcohol interlock is a sensor system that detects Digital media and driver intoxication through the interaction between the skin on a driver’s hands and sensors on the steering wheel. Sober Steering’s first prototype – for commercial information & fleets – immobilizes a vehicle if alcohol is detected in a driver’s system above a pre‐set limit. The system is unobtrusive to sober drivers and passengers, but prevents communication impaired driving. Sober Steering’s first product, targe ng school buses, became commercially available in late November 2014. technologies
In conjunction with OCE funding, Sober Steering is now developing a wearable alcohol sensor system that communicates with a vehicle to prevent drunk driving. Sober Steering will integrate its proprietary biosensors and software into a FitBit style wearable device.The wearable alcohol sensor will communicate wirelessly with a Sober Steering module located behind the dash of the vehicle to provide interlock functionality and instant alerts. The system will be monitored and controlled by dispatch (in the case of commercial vehicles) or parents (in the case of young drivers) via a smartphone app.
2/20/2015
OCE Commitment
City
$50,000
$191,650
$241,650
Toronto
$250,000
$784,000
$1,034,000
Waterloo
Ilan Sandler
$49,630
$55,630
$105,260
Toronto
Catherine Carroll
$50,000
$65,000
$115,000
Waterloo
While recent advances in CACC have almost exclusively focused on internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, Eco‐ACC will be designed using a PHEV (specifically the plug‐in Prius) baseline vehicle platform, with a much more complex propulsion system, and will be broadly applicable to any PHEV or HEV model (such as the Toyota Lexus RX hybrid built in Cambridge, Ontario). To the best of our knowledge, the proposed project will pursue development of the first Eco‐CACC system for hybrid electric and plug‐in hybrid electric vehicles. As the primary focus will be on implementation within connected and autonomous vehicles, this project falls squarely within the “Connected and Autonomous in‐Vehicle Technologies” topic of the CVAV program. Furthermore, the CVAV program also calls for “projects that show a strong potential for commercialization”. This project builds upon a long‐standing collaborative partnership between the University of Waterloo (uWaterloo) team and Toyota, and directly extends work on intelligent control systems design for HEVs, PHEVs and full electric vehicles (EVs). The research results can be employed to develop an Eco‐CACC system for any PHEV or HEV – as the leading P/HEV manufacturer in the world, with major production activity in Ontario (Woodstock and Cambridge), Toyota is in the best position to deploy the Eco‐CACC technology to benefit of the province. Connected Vehicle, Metavera Solutions Inc.
Not Applicable
FleetSharing Software Solution
Metavera Solutions Inc. has produced a proto type of an end to end FleetSharing solution that can integrate with a range of in‐vehicle technologies. In order to refine the FleetSharing product to make it market ready we are looking to pilot it with an existing fleet and current users. We are using the OCE funds to contribute to the costs of the Implementation, Integration, and analysis of a new feature called the Fleet Dashboard which will help fleet managers more efficiently deliver their service while having more realtime data to monitor their fleet. The creation of the Fleet Dashboard and its implementation with our Fleet Communicator application will allow us to refine the product in a live test case scenario with a fleet of vehicles and users. We currently own and manage our infrastructure that is remotely housed by a third party data centre. Metavera is working with an existing client in the UK called Co‐Wheels Car Club C.I.C that uses our Software Application to provide a fleet service to organizations to be shared among their employees to conduct business. Our FleetSharing Software is of value to organizations because it provides an easy‐to‐use automated interface for employees to access vehicles; with the addition of the Fleet Dashboard the fleet manager will now have detailed real time and archived data to improve the management of their fleet. In order to make a strong case for FleetSharing’s cost saving advantages we will produce product utilization research from the pilot. This will require analysis of data that our software generates, through its usage, to make the business case for the benefits of adopting the software and the Fleet Dashboard within specific markets. Business Analysis, Market Research and Data Analysis will be used to identify potential markets and to qualify the value in our product to poten al customers.
Metavera predicts that the service will be of interest to private and public sector companies with fleets, as well as leasing companies who wish to offer FleetSharing to groups wanting to lease fleets of vehicles. Metavera's FleetSharing software solution can be bundled with other services for Fleets. Additional markets also include Rental Car companies wishing to extend their cars to have the dual use of long‐term rentals and short‐term shares. Connected Vehicle, Sober Steering;QNX Software Systems Not Applicable
Autonomous Vehicle (BlackBerry)
(CVAV)
7/10/2015
Development of a Wearable Alcohol Sensor to Prevent Drunk Driving
Section 1 ‐ 3
Program
Partners
Connected Vehicle, BlackBerry Limited
University of Western Ontario
Project Title
Autonomous Highway Traffic Management and Control System
Project Summary
Every year, hundreds of thousands of people are killed in car accidents. For example, over 1.2 million people were killed in road traffic accidents around the world in 2003, another 50 million were left injured. Most of the victims are young adults between the ages of 15 and 44. Generally speaking, the major road accident causes are different from one country to another. However, a common major reason for car accidents is the driving while disregarding weather, road, and traffic conditions. This behavior is denoted as speeding. A speeding driver might be driving below the posted speed limits however his/her speed could be much higher than what it should be. In fact 50% of fatal accidents occur at impact speeds less than 55 km/hour. Consequently, speed limits should be set and enforced according to weather, traffic, and road condi ons.
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
2/20/2015
Abdallah Shami
$20,000
$21,300
$41,300
London
This project aims at developing an autonomous agile traffic control system. The proposed system will utilize cutting edge wireless networking technologies to replace the current fixed speed limits posted on the roadside with variable speed limits that change based on the road, weather and traffic conditions. The speed limits will be communicated via a special receiver that will be mounted inside the vehicle. The in‐vehicle receiver will also have the capability to communicate information about the driver compliance with the variable speed limits via 4G/5G networks.
The proposed project aims at integrating mobile and wireless communications technologies in the highway and roads infrastructure. Therefore, it is among the topics of highest consideration as listed by the OCE (Communication Systems).
Connected Vehicle, Fortran Traffic Systems Limited
McMaster University
Adaptive Signal Control System Using Connected Vehicle Data
Digital media and Conventional signal control systems use pre‐determined signal timing schedules which often contribute to traffic congestion and delay. Adaptive signal control technologies adjust the traffic lights to accommodate traffic flow patterns, enable the use of maximum capacity of infrastructure and reduce costs for both motorists information & communication and operating agencies. Adaptive signal control technologies can use real time Vehicle‐to‐Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle‐to‐Infrastructure (V2I) data to determine the technologies
traffic volume and adjust the traffic light timing. This project aims at developing an adaptive signal control system using connected vehicle data. A primary concern regarding the deployment of such system that uses connected vehicle technology data is the degree of market penetration required for effectiveness. The design of an adaptive signal control algorithm needs to include innovative techniques to perform effectively despite the lack of data when lower number of vehicles is equipped with the connected vehicle technology. In this project, McMaster University’s Transportation researchers will assist the Fortran’s Engineering Department in the design, simula on and evalua on of an adap ve signal control system for the next genera on of its traffic management system using connected vehicle data. 2/20/2015
Saiedeh Razavi
$19,996
$45,000
$64,996
Hamilton
Connected Vehicle, Vocalage Inc.;iNAGO
Not Applicable
iNAGO ‐ Vocalage
iNAGO is a leading provider of human‐computer interaction solutions that utilize voice technology. iNAGO is developing a safety aware voice assistant for connected Digital media and vehicles that builds on its voice assistant platform. iNAGO’s goal is to become the dominant supplier of in‐vehicle personal assistants using safety, and high quality information & user experience, as key competitive advantages. The safe driver notification system to be developed in this research will be an essential step towards achieving this communication goal. The safe driver notification system will be implemented as a rule based reasoning module that will be added to the iNAGO driver notification and voice technologies
interaction system. Using the reasoning module, risk can be reduced by identifying those hazards that are predictable and then scheduling notifications based on both their priority (which order to present them in) and on the hazard level of the driving task at various times. iNAGO will be partnering with Vocalage Inc., a University of Toronto spin‐off company, to develop the reasoning module. Scheduling notifications will require rule‐based scheduling and prioritization, and the development of a knowledge base of rules based on sound human factors principles and conversion of cognitive distraction findings into executable rules. Vocalage will provide the knowledge engineering and human factors expertise required in this project and iNAGO will develop the notification task model that will generate the connected vehicle notifications what the safety module will reason about. Using the safety module, iNAGO will prototype a new safety aware version of its voice assistant for connected vehicles and will carry out usability engineering to ensure that high standards of user experience are maintained. 2/20/2015
Ron Di Carlantonio
$49,870
$72,410
$122,280
Toronto
Voucher for Innovation and Productivity
St. Michael's Hospital
Development and commercialisation of a zebrafish model of Parkinson's disease
Despite the worldwide investment of billions of dollars into Parkinson’s disease (PD) research and drug development there are currently no drugs that can slow or Advanced health reverse disease progression. In order to improve PD research and development we propose to develop zebrafish models of PD for high‐throughput screening (HTS) technologies
and, through our industrial partner, offer them to the PD research community. Zebrafish models of human disease are unique in that they combine the biological complexity of in vivo models with the ability for HTS and rapid assessment of potential toxicity. This combination makes it the ideal model for screening large numbers of poten al PD therapeu cs.
4/22/2014
Xiao‐Yan Wen
$20,000
$20,000
$40,000
Toronto
Atuka Inc.
The research plan is to develop a toxin‐induced model of Parkinson’s disease in zebrafish, characterise the model in terms of dopaminergic cell loss and validate it using compounds that are known to be neuroprotective in other animal models of Parkinson’s disease. This will then be offered, through our industrial partner, to clients who are undertaking PD research and development. In total there are 4 stages to the project:
1. Basic model characterisation: The outcome here is to measure the variability in the number of dopaminergic neurons between individuals and from generation to generation to understand the baseline characteristics of dopaminergic neurons in zebrafish. Assessing the number of dopaminergic neurons will be the primary endpoint in the PD models and so understanding the variability under control condi ons is necessary to correctly power future experiments.
2. Parkinson’s disease model development. The outcome here is to assess a range of dopaminergic neurotoxins at a range of concentrations to see if a toxin‐induced loss of dopaminergic neurons can be achieved. The toxin that produces the most consistent lesion will be used in future experiments.
3. Parkinson’s model characterisation. The outcome here is quantify the toxin‐induced dopaminergic cell loss between individuals and from generation to generation and to assess compounds known to provide neuroprotection in other lesion‐assays. Together, these three steps will generate and validate a zebrafish model of PD that will be used in stage 4.
4. Commercialisation of the model. The speciality of Atuka Inc. (the industry partner) is in providing mammalian models of PD. It is the world‐leader in providing these types of model and already has an extensive list of clients to whom the model will be offered to on a commercial basis. The project will enhance the offering of Atuka by increasing the number of PD models that it provides.
The final, overall outcome will be a validated zebrafish model of PD that will be offered to PD research and development teams on a commercial basis via Atuka, our industrial partner. Ultimately, Atuka hope to generate turnover, and income to Ontario, up to $250,000/annum from the zebrafish model that is developed.
MIS Automotive
Software‐based Car Perimeter Monitoring
MIS Automotive is developing a suite of advanced, next generation automotive safety sensors. These sensors have capabilities well beyond the current state of the art. For this project, MIS is collaborating with the University of Waterloo to leverage their depth and capabilities for complex system integration for advanced automotive electronics. The project involves the development of the car perimeter monitoring sensor and camera systems and the software that drives these systems in a Connected Vehicle environment. Upon development of this system, it will be integrated into Connected Vehicle Demonstrator at University of Waterloo. As part of this project, we will also examine the issues involved in ad‐hoc integration of sensors and systems into an existing validated system in terms of its effects on safety, reliability, schedulability etc. We will also investigate the design methodology of the systems that need to be integrated dynamically in an ad‐hoc manner into a larger system, in this case, the Connected Vehicle Demonstrator and we will try to derive design principles for such a design. Apart from this, the industry partner, MIS will have a fully integrated demonstrable technology platform in the form of Connected Vehicle Demonstrator, with which they can showcase and demonstrate their advanced technology much more effec vely. Digital media and information & communication technologies
8/14/2014
Sebastian Fischmeister
$20,000
$20,000
$40,000
Waterloo
Tyco Electronics Canada ULC
Controlled Ambient Lighting in Driving Cockpits
TE Canada has developed LIN based RGB ambient active lighting technology. As part of this project the ambient lighting technology will be integrated into a Connected Digital media and Vehicle Demonstrator to leverage the capabilities and connected technologies of the Connected Vehicle to enhance the vehicle itself with ambient active lighting. The information & University of Waterloo will execute the integration activity. As part of this project, we will also examine the issues involved in ad‐hoc integration of lighting actuators communication and systems into an existing validated system in terms of its effects on safety, reliability, schedulability etc. We will also investigate the design methodology of the technologies
systems that need to be integrated dynamically in an ad‐hoc manner into a larger system, in this case, the Connected Vehicle Demonstrator and we will try to derive design principles for such a design. Besides this, the industry partner, TE will have a fully integrated demonstrable technology platform in the form of a Connected Vehicle Demonstrator, with which they can showcase and demonstrate their advanced technology much more effectively. The Connected Vehicle Demonstrator will be showcased in various auto shows and events as well as will be demonstrated to various automotive companies. This will enable the industry partner TE Canada to demonstrate their technology in an integrated form in a fully functional vehicle which significantly enhances the effectiveness and aid in their commercialization efforts of this technology to automotive OEMs. 6/13/2014
Steven Waslander
$20,000
$20,000
$40,000
Waterloo
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 4
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
Leggett & Platt Canada Co
Investigating Charger Systems into Vehicular Entertainment Systems
Leggett and Platt has its automotive group located in Windsor, Ontario. This group is responsible for wireless charging technology for handheld mobile devices. Wireless charging is a relatively new technology and definitely new to automotive. This technology is expected to grow in significant numbers by 2016. L&P tracks OEM cell phone deployment, technology utilized and number of product with complete integration. As part of this project, Leggett and Platt will work collaboratively with University of Waterloo and develop a wireless charging system that can be integrated into the Connected Vehicle Demonstrator. University of Waterloo will integrate the system into the Connected Vehicle Demonstrator and also examine the research problems of how to utilize the connectivity for such charging systems as well as how to ensure safety of overall system with the integration of such systems into a connected vehicle.
4/22/2014
Rodolfo Pellizzoni
$20,000
$20,000
$40,000
Waterloo
Intelligent Mechatronic Systems Inc.
Integrated Messaging Systems for Automotive Systems
Intelligent Mechatronic Systems, Inc. (IMS) is focused on making transportation safer, smarter, and greener with innovative traveler‐centric connected vehicle solutions. IMS is strategically positioned across the connected vehicle ecosystem to help deliver world‐leading services on a common platform to meet relevant market needs including usage based insurance, fleet services, infotainment, and road usage charging, in addition to emerging needs for converged services spanning mul ple tradi onal ver cal markets.
4/22/2014
Manoj Sachdev
$20,000
$20,000
$40,000
Waterloo
4/22/2014
Elliott Currie
$20,000
$70,000
$90,000
Guelph
In collaborating with the Automotive Parts and Manufacturing Association (APMA) , the University of Waterloo, and key partners in the automotive industry, IMS is working to seamlessly integrate its next‐generation traveler‐centric connected vehicle platform into an interactive demonstration vehicle. The integration enables key services that make travel in this production vehicle safer, smarter, and greener. Examples include intuitive multimodal traveler interaction and context‐relevant coaching to improve driving behaviour.
This project is important to Ontario and Canada, resulting in opportunities for growth of our local economy through new job creation, new highly qualified personnel, improvements to our environment through transportation efficiency improvements, and societal benefits through a reduced healthcare burden with fewer vehicular crashes.
Mori Nurseries
University of Guelph
Development of an online tool to market and sell hazelnut root stock to agronomists entering the hazel nut industry
Bio‐economy and clean Mori Nurseries, the largest supplier of fruit trees to the Ontario orchard market, needs to develop tools that will assist potential hazelnut tree growers in their decision to enter the sector. This is a complicated decision, as it does require growers to invest up front for longer term returns. Mori Nurseries wants to help technologies
growers make this decision by providing credible assistance on using their own information, circumstance and resources, along with anticipated revenues so that growers can accurately as possible determine their potential return on equity. The objectives of this project are to develop a credible model for Mori Nurseries. Mori Nurseries expects that this tool will assist with the increase in sales of locally produced hazelnut trees, and position Mori's as a preferred supplier of trees to the Ontario industry. This decision making tool will also be made available to members of the new Ontario Hazelnut industry (OHA) and to further market development in this sector.
Mori Nurseries is associated with the OHA with membership on its Board of Directors. This will be very beneficial to the industry, as growers and nurseries will be able to cooperate with real costing and revenue information to make strong business decisions based upon real world data, experience and knowledge. The hazelnut development in the province of Ontario represents up to an $80M opportunity, with up to 3000 full time jobs at maturity. Ontario is positioned well to take advantage of a fully developed domestic "pull" market for hazelnuts due to the preferable climate for hazelnut produc on and close proximity to the premier user of the nut, Ferrero in Bran ord and the eastern seaboard of North America.
H2O Innovation
Bio‐economy and clean Development of Low‐energy Bio‐Wheel Technology Municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants commonly employ aerobic biological processes to degrade organic contaminants, nutrients and other for Wastewater Treatment and Reuse
contaminants in order to mitigate water pollution and/or reuse wastewater. These processes require energy‐intensive aeration, which alone accounts for up to 60% technologies
of total energy consumption. As the energy cost is soaring and the demand for sustainability development is growing, many wastewater treatment plants are facing the challenges to reduce the energy consumption while meeting the more strict effluent discharge limits. In response to these challenges and realizing huge market opportunities, H2O Innovation, Inc. has recently developed Bio‐Wheel technology as an energy‐efficient alternative for small‐ to medium‐scale wastewater treatment facilities. Limited applications showed that this new technology could reduce the energy consumption by ~30% as compared to the fine bubble aeration commonly being used in practice. Other potential benefits include small foot print, easy operation and better effluent quality. Nevertheless, the Bio‐Wheel technology is still in early stage of development. Further research is needed to compare its reliable performance side‐by‐side with conventional processes, to understand fundamental mechanisms occurring in the systems, and provide the recommendations for further improvement in Bio‐Wheel design and operation optimization. This project will be directed to quantify the oxygen mass transfer rates into water, examine the effects of key factors on process performance for representative Bio‐Wheel configurations, and assess the relationship of dynamic microbial behaviours with operating conditions. 8/18/2014
Hongde Zhou
$20,000
$55,000
$75,000
Guelph
Mori Essex Nurseries Inc.
Bio‐economy and clean In vitro production technology for apple root stocks Apples are one of the most important fruit crops in Ontario with nearly 16 000 acres in production and an annual value of over $87 000 000 as of 2011. While the cv G202
apple tree is a long lived perennial fruit crop, trees are often replaced to maintain production levels and introduce new cultivars to match market demands. There is technologies
an estimated demand of nearly half a millions trees per year based on government recommended high density orchard systems that maximize productivity and profitability. Generally, apples are propagated through conventional methods such as grafting, however, specific root stocks are required to maintain the dwarf phenotype that enables high density production systems. The rootstock must be asexually propagated in order to maintain the desired characteristics. Ontario growers currently obtain their rootstock from American, European, and some Canadian producers. The heavy dependence on foreign sources introduces the potential for the introduction/spread of insects and disease and could be interrupted at any given time. The development of a domestic supply of rootstock would reduce the chance of new pest/disease introductions, would ensure a continuous supply of rootstock, and would facilitate the further development and availability of rootstock that are adapted to our specific micro‐climates and needs.
7/18/2014
Praveen Saxena
$20,000
$20,000
$40,000
Guelph
4/22/2014
Ramani Ramakrishnan
$14,210
$45,000
$59,210
Toronto
Recently, Geneva 202 has been released and displays superior characteristics for our climate and recommended production methods. This root stock is currently sold in North America but availability is limited, especially for southern Ontario regions due to the current method of propagation. In vitro technologies such as micropropagation can be used to multiply plants from an existing population in large numbers in order to distribute plants with greater expediency. Micropropagation allows plants to be multiplied exponentially in a short time period and since they are grown in aseptic culture conditions, plants are healthy and disease‐free. However, these techniques are species and genotype specific and there are no existing protocols for Geneva 202. These techniques need to be systematically optimized in order to apply them to this accession and make it more widely available. Standardized micropropagation protocols for apple root stock production will provide Ontario with a domes c source of cer fied disease free rootstock and could help develop an export market within Canada and interna onally. The current project is mainly comprised of two phases to provide highly efficient in vitro techniques for apple root stock production and hardening of in vitro raised plantlets in greenhouse conditions. Together, this project will establish a system for large‐scale production at commercial levels. The technology developed will enable the industry to become a leader in supplying uniform, pest and disease free plant materials for a specific cultivars in large quantity. This technology would reduce our reliance on international producers, ensuring a continuous supply and fulfill the increasing demand for root stock suitable for our region. Voucher for Innovation and Productivity
ROXUL Inc.
Ryerson University
Acoustical Performance of Porous Media
Porous materials are conventionally used to provide passive acoustic absorption in duct systems, wall assemblies and to reduce noise levels in more complex systems Advanced manufacturing
such as corner vanes of a wind tunnel. The acoustic properties of porous materials such as rock‐wool, fibreglass and foam are usually measured under controlled laboratory conditions. However under in situ situations, the materials get compressed under flow pressure. The acoustic properties of porous materials under compression are not well understood. The main aim of the current research is the evaluate the acoustic properties from experimental investigation under various rates of compression. Further, the acous c proper es will also be measured for different material proper es of the porous absorbers.
The experimental results will aid Roxul Inc. to fine tune their designs so that the product behaviour will automatically include to the effect of compression forces. The improved design will make the Ontario manufacturing industry, the leader in porous material technology.
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 5
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Honeywell Aerospace
University of Toronto
Aerospace Power Controller Chassis Redesign
Honeywell designs and manufactures a high power electronic Power and Thermal Management Controller (PTMC) for a technologically advanced aircraft and is working to support its customers cost reduction goals in advance of a 2016/17 production ramp‐up. In support of this, Honeywell is considering re‐engineering the controller’s chassis. This chassis is quite complex as it contains integral fluid passages in its walls for cooling internal electronics. The objective of this project is to redesign the chassis in order to reduce chassis cost by employing less expensive manufacturing processes, raw materials and end unit assembly labour hours while still satisfying all of the customer’s end unit requirements. Given that weight is critical in aerospace applications, the redesigned chassis must be the same weight or lighter than the current chassis.
Invotek Electronics Inc, dba MIS Automotive
Demonstration of a Compact 77 GHz Beam Forming MIS Automotive is developing a suite of advanced, next generation automotive safety sensors. These sensors have capabilities well beyond the current state of the Network for Automotive Radar Applications
art.
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
4/22/2014
Kamran Behdinan
$20,000
$37,778
$57,778
Toronto
7/21/2014
Raafat Mansour
$20,000
$45,000
$65,000
Waterloo
For this project, MIS is collaborating with the University of Waterloo to leverage their depth and capabilities radar beam forming. Areas of interest include development and miniaturiza on of the lens and antenna structures, and execu on of the switching network.
C‐COM
Carleton University
Investigation of low cost solutions for auto‐tuning Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) Ka‐Band antenna systems
VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) is a miniature earth station produced by C‐Com Sat which can provide two way communications via satellites and it is one of the Digital media and intelligent systems for Satellite communication applications. The most important aspect In VSAT systems is the pointing/positioning of the antenna. In this project, we information & want to propose a solution to mitigate the high cost of manual pointing and manually tuning of the VSAT Ka‐band antenna system by providing a less costly yet easy to communication operate auto‐pointing, auto‐tuning antenna system in a quick user friendly customizable design that will lead to an efficient configuration and turnkey installations. technologies
The successful outcome of this project may lead to an explosion in VSAT market demand and tremendous benefits for C‐Com revenue.
4/22/2014
Marc St‐Hilaire
$20,000
$25,400
$45,400
Ottawa
Scytl Canada Inc
Nipissing University
E‐Democracy Scoping Study
Nipissing University is interested in leveraging new online public participation tools and eDemocracy solutions for the purposes of improving engagement with its current student population and alumni. Leveraging the successes of some Universities in Europe, Nipissing has an opportunity to take a leading position in Canada with similar toolsets for direct democracy and student engagement. Digital media and information & communication technologies
9/10/2014
Harley d'Entremont
$19,466
$29,850
$49,316
North Bay
Regenerative medicine involving the transplantation of cell‐based implants holds great promise for improving the clinical efficacy of conventional treatments. This is Advanced health possible because the implantation of repair‐specific cells (such as stem cells) have the ability to restore tissue to normal function. The current procedures to create technologies
cell‐based products are all manual in nature and hence do not enable high reproducibility and cost‐effectiveness. Automated production could potentially be achieved through the robotic duplication of manual actions; however, the general industry challenge is that existing robotic systems for basic cell culture are highly complex, require significant space for operation, and require a high capital equipment investment. Octane Biotech’s challenge is to develop an innovative, cost‐effective and automated bioreactor‐based system to meet the clinical produc on challenges.
The company’s unique Automated Cell & Tissue Engineering System will integrate state‐of‐the‐art bioreactors, biosensors and bioprocessing to enable routine produc on of cell‐based products.
4/24/2014
Laura Lemieux
$20,000
$143,290
$163,290
Kingston
9/10/2014
Costas Sarris
$20,000
$72,743
$92,743
Toronto
In order to facilitate direct democracy among the student population, a mechanism to authenticate students is necessary. A regular blog or web forum is not secure enough and could lead to users or groups to "game" a system for their own benefit. Instead, the shortest route to authenticating users would be to interface with the current student registra on system. The benefits of this approach are severalfold:
‐ The students would have immediate access to the eDemocracy portal as a value‐add to their University experience
‐ The system would provide a measure of improved authen ca on since the pla orm would be ed into specific student profiles
‐ The system used by Nipissing is also the same system used by all Ontario Universities ‐ meaning once the work is done at one school, it can be resold to many without added development effort: the project becomes scalable
‐ As more institutions participate, the value of the information gathered will also begin to become more meaningful to more external stakeholders: Federal, Provincial and Municipal Governments will have a window to engage student popula ons en masse and in a democra c manner
‐ The data collected by the project will present opportuni es for considerable analysis on subjects that have yet to be explicitly defined
This project is the first step towards interfacing with the Student Information system that is used in Ontario. Success will lead to the development of new capabilities for Scytl, and facilitate improved and unique access to the Ontario education market. Citizen Engagement is one platform, but it is also expected that the exercise will open up opportunities in serving the student elections market as well. Interfacing with the Nipissing Student Information System is the first step to building a functioning student portal that also facilitates democratic engagement among Nipissing University students and faculty. Just as most governments have voter lists, so too will the Student Information System be used to validate access and authenticate individuals to the public participation portal that will be used for democratic empowerment among post‐secondary student popula ons throughout Ontario.
Octane Biotech Inc.
St. Lawrence College of Applied Arts and Technology
Cell Production Augmentation Techniques
Tactual Labs Canada
Sensor modeling & design for high‐speed touch input Tactual Labs Canada Inc. is an innovator in multi‐touch sensing technology. Tactual’s veteran team is leading development of the world’s fastest, most responsive device
touch and stylus user interfaces. Its next generation touch sensors and architecture will create a zero‐latency, real‐time user experience for touchscreens, trackpads, and crea ve applica ons including gaming, virtual‐reality and digital inking. Tactual Labs is commi ed to elimina ng all perceivable touch and stylus input lag from both the hardware and software of interactive systems. By achieving over an order‐of‐magnitude improvement in input event sample‐rate and latency, Tactual’s technology will endow on‐screen digital content with the immediate and precise "direct manipulation" feeling users get when interacting with physical objects in the real world
Our research es mates three components account for the total delay and discrepancies between a touch and its on‐screen response:
‐ Raw input sensing (13‐17 milliseconds latency, 75‐100 samples‐per‐second)
‐ OS/applica on so ware (25‐100 milliseconds latency)
‐ Device display (17 milliseconds for today’s 60 Hz refresh‐rate displays)
Tactual is developing a capacitive touch sensor called Fast Multi‐Touch (FMT) and an Android multi‐core middleware/accelerator touch architecture solution called the 7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 6
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
p g
p
(
)
Tactile Processing Unit (TPU). These solutions can work independently of each other to dramatically improve input performance, but they were also crafted as a system to capitalize upon each other’s unique advantages.
This OCE proposal is focused on FMT which addresses the first component of round‐trip touch latency attributable to raw input sensing and filtering. Tactual’s FMT capacitive touch‐controller enables a projected‐capacitive sensor pattern to operate with at least an order‐of‐magnitude improvement in terms of input latency and sample‐rate. Specifically, our current trackpad prototypes exhibited at the Game Developers Conference 2014 operate at a 4,000 events‐per‐second (4kHz) sample‐
rate and just 40‐microseconds of input latency‐‐over 300 times faster and more precise than today’s 60‐100hz capacitive solutions which have 13‐17 milliseconds of input latency (including lag from filtering tasks might place this sensor‐related latency at 23‐30 milliseconds).
What this means on a practical level is the ability to capture the subtleties of human movement in computing. Today, finger and stylus gestures are poorly captured; digital objects visibly lag behind the finger; digital ink strokes lag behind the stylus tip. More immediacy and accuracy can significantly enhance the user experience and empower developers with new forms of touch input predic on/filtering techniques and UI controls/mechanics.
A critical factor in productizing FMT for touchscreens is the design of a transparent sensor pattern that minimizes electromagnetic interference and maximizes FMT’s sensor signal receptivity‐‐while preserving the picture‐quality of a controlled device’s underlying display. This pattern of transparent antennas sits above a mobile device’s information display and beneath a glass or plastic cover‐substrate like Corning Inc.’s Gorilla Glass. It is often crafted using today’s industry‐standard transparent conductor Indium Tin Oxide (ITO). This transparent ITO sensor pattern must be tailored to each capacitive sensor’s unique operating characteristics and requirements.
Utilizing the proposed OCE grant, Tactual Labs will work with Professor Costas D. Sarris to develop an optimal sensor pattern with which to commercialize FMT transparent touchscreens.
Based on 2013A annual unit sales of the most input‐performance‐demanding smart devices, FMT’s core touchscreen and trackpad market opportunity is USD$1.7 billion in annual revenue across 509 million target devices spanning performance‐hungry premium smartphones, premium tablets, convertible/ultrabook PCs, digital whiteboards, game controllers, graphics/PoS stylus tablets and VR controllers.
By 2015F when Tactual’s first FMT solutions enter the commercial market, industry‐consensus forecasts point to a performance‐hungry touch/stylus interface market with USD$2.3 billion in annual revenue based on 820MM in unit sales.
AES Life Sciences
Development of Protocols to Optimize the Analysis of Biological Fluids by Capillary Electrophoresis
Although the prevalence and broad impact of mental illness has attracted substantial research attention, our knowledge of how and why they develop is still quite Advanced health limited. One major obstacle to the improved understanding and treatment of mental illness concerns the highly variable and subjective clinical guidelines used to technologies
identify and track these diseases. As a result, the development of technologies to permit the specific, sensitive, and quantitative identification of biomarkers for mental illnesses would be of considerable benefit. We propose to develop a novel screening tool for a variety of bodily fluids (blood, saliva, and urine) relevant to the detection and quantification of mental illness biomarkers using capillary electrophoresis with whole‐column imaging detection (CE‐WCID) in partnership with a local instrument manufacturer, Advanced Electrophoresis Solu ons (AES).
Advanced Electrophoresis Solutions provides unique approaches for protein characterisation‐related research based on whole‐column imaging detection capillary electrophoresis. Electrophoresis is a procedure that separates proteins from each other, and is a common technology used in applications spanning fields from agriculture to pharmaceutical development. The capillary electrophoresis platform developed by AES is based on whole column imaging detection (WCID) technology, a novel method that monitors the entire capillary during electrophoresis. CE‐WCID offers a promising yet unrecognized platform for continuous monitoring of fast kinetic processes in free solution, and, consequently, offers various research capabilities that cannot be achieved with any other technology. By creating and optimising protocols that will allow the sensitive, cutting edge technology, made available by AES to identify mental illness relevant biomarkers isolated from bodily fluids, we are confident that we can build the foundation required for the development of new tools to diagnose mental health illness using biomarkers.Overall, our work will showcase the unique merits of CE‐WCID for high‐quality screening of mental illness biomarkers in body fluids that is urgently needed for improved mental illness diagnostics based on biomarkers. This project will also provide AES an innovative application to expand commercial interests in marketing their technology that is of major significance to developing novel diagnos c tools and the global bio‐pharmaceu cal industry.
5/20/2014
John Mielke
$20,000
$45,000
$65,000
Waterloo
COFOVO Energy Inc.
University of Ottawa
Design and prototyping of low‐cost Fresnel‐Köhler based optical components for concentrator photovoltaic systems
COFOVO Energy is an Ottawa‐based start‐up company developing innovative low‐cost solar photovoltaic systems that utilize optics arrays to concentrate a large area Bio‐economy and clean of sunlight onto small very‐high‐efficiency photoconverters. Conventional silicon fixed flat panels acheive approximately 15% efficiency today; COFOVO concentrator technologies
photovoltaic module prototypes today already achieve 31% efficiency, with substantial upside potential. This project will partner Professor Henry Schriemer of the Centre for Research in Photonics at the University of Ottawa with COFOVO Energy in a collaboration exploring the design space of concentrator optics for low‐cost concentrator photovoltaic modules. The project objectives will be to first establish generalized design capability in a numerical computer model, then to verify existing device performance against the model, and finally to extend the model to new optical materials and structures in search of maximum performance, reliability and cost. In the industry race to grid parity, this project will place COFOVO in a leadership position in 5 years, compared to other CPV competitors and compared to other photovoltaic technologies such as silicon‐based flat panels. This new capability will strengthen the COFOVO technology value proposition, not just in module performance today but also in future‐proofing against supply chain evolution tomorrow.
12/10/2014
Henry Schriemer
$20,000
$32,030
$52,030
Ottawa
Diros Technology Inc
Optimization of RF Ablation Probes
Chronic back pain is a major medical, social and economic burden for society. When conservative therapy for back pain fails, the most commonly performed Advanced health procedure is radiofrequency (RF) ablation. Widespread acceptance of this procedure has created a rapidly expanding market for RF generators and accessories, technologies
principally RF ablation probes. Current RF ablation probes and techniques have had real, but limited success, producing significant pain relief in about 2/3 of patients which lasts for 6 to 12 months. We believe the problem is attributable to RF probe design that results in incomplete ablations, allowing tissue recovery over a period of time. This proposal will develop innovative RF probes that will safely deliver more effective ablations, resulting in more permanent pain relief. The availability of the new RF probes will provide a compe ve advantage to Diros Technology and result in appreciably higher sales into an already established market place. 4/22/2014
Costas Sarris
$20,000
$33,000
$53,000
Toronto
Diros Technology has over 30 years’ experience in R&D of innovative RF medical products, and has the personnel, specialized tools, and resources to develop prototypes and eventually manufacture the probe designs to be used in the study; in fact a number of prototypes are now under development and will be available in about two months for animal tissue experimentation. Permission to sell in a country requires regulatory approval, for example the FDA in the United States. The shortest path in the U.S. is the 510(k) approval process which requires proof of substantial equivalence to an existing, approved product. The existing product need not have improved func onality, but should be used in the same field with similar technology (RF abla on), for the same purpose, and at the same level of safety. We estimate it will take about 6 months to bring the product to market at a cost of about $150,000 which is within the capability of the company. The first users will perform randomized studies comparing the efficacy and safety of the new RF probe designs with conventional ones. The studies will not be placebo‐controlled due to understandable pa ent demand to be offered at least some degree of pain relief. Diros Technology Inc. is a medical device company located in its company owned facility in Markham Ontario. A significant portion of Diros' sales are from RF cannulae and probes. All manufacturing of these products is carried out at Diros' premises which would allow the company to scale up production to meet increased sales demand because of the expected compe ve edge as Diros transfers to market the innova ve RF probe designs of this project.
Diros Technology is ISO 9001 and ISO 13485 certified, and manufactures its RF generators in compliance with Risk Category III electrical safety standards, the highest standard possible. All devices are designed, manufactured, and tracked in accordance with the Risk Management System requirements of ISO 14971 and IEC 60601 3rd edition. All devices are certified by Health Canada, FDA, and CE marking. As a manufacturer of single use, sterilized, disposable RF cannulae and probes, Diros has multiple certifications and approvals in the fields of autoclave and ethylene oxide sterilization, material biocompatibility, product aging studies, and packaging development.
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 7
Program
Partners
Toolrite Engineering
Lambton College of Applied Arts and Technology
Project Title
Innovative Accelerated Corrosion Technique for Industrial Protective Coatings Based on Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy
Project Summary
Sector
It is quite common for high performance structural components and industrial equipment to experience some form of corrosion irrespective of what type of material Advanced manufacturing
is used. Accordingly, corrosion resistance is a cri cal property requirement for materials used in many sectors of the economy including: petrochemical, automo ve, clean energy, oil and gas, and medicine (e.g., biomedical implants).
OCE Commitment
Date
Applicant Name
City
5/20/2014
Mehdi Sheikhzadeh
$20,000
$70,000
$90,000
Sarnia
4/22/2014
ying (Jenny) zou
$20,000
$24,123
$44,123
Kingston
Due to the exponential use of metals in may applications and environments, a wide range of corrosion resistant coatings have been developed and marketed to match the performance requirements of specific applications. Such coatings when scientifically selected and properly applied, protect the metal and enhance the performance against degrada on due to oxida on, salt spray, exposure to an aggressive environment, and industrial chemical.
A corrosion test is often performed to determine the optimal corrosion resistant coatings in terms of type and applied thickness for a particular application. However, the majority of the current state‐of‐the‐art corrosion test methods are labour‐intensive, time consuming and expensive. The need for reliable, cost‐effective, quan ta ve ‘accelerated’ test techniques for the purpose of product selec on and quan fica on is apparent.
Toolrite Engineering, a Sarnia‐based company, has been providing enhanced protective coating services to local, regional and international companies, including those in the petrochemical industry, for several decades. They are currently using a number of different corrosion‐resistant coatings to protect a large number of industrial equipment exposed to different aggressive chemicals and environments. These equipment include: pumps, valves, pipes, heat exchangers, turbines and gas compressors. Toolrite Engineering is not performing any corrosion test on their protective coating materials; data supplied by the coating manufacturers are instead used as a guide. However, such data are generally generic in nature and do nor represent the ‘true’ behaviour of such coatings in ‘real’ environments, where they will be installed and operated. As a result, the lack of a simple, fast, reliable, and economical corrosion test to routinely and effectively evaluate the suitability of such protective coatings for specific components and environments has led to application of these coatings with little consideration being given to their type, amount and thickness. In many cases, this has led either to premature failure of the component due to lack of adequate protective coating or to application of a more expensive coa ng material (or a thicker protec ve barrier), resul ng in higher material and opera ng costs.
Lambton College research team in close partnership with Toolrite Engineering are planning to develop an innovative, cost‐effective, reliable, ‘accelerated’ test method for selection and quantification of a large number of industrial protective coatings currently used by the company. The ability to test, rank and quantify such protective coatings in a timely manner and with high certainty will help Toolrite Engineering to be more responsive to the needs of their existing customers and attract new clients. Whereas conventional corrosion test strategies would take months or even years to complete, the proposed technique would only require a fraction of the time required by existing, common techniques—usually 5%‐10% of the total time required by conventional techniques—and at a fraction of the cost. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) will be employed to examine and rank the protective ability of all suitable coating materials. In addition, the ‘accelerated’ test method will also be used to screen and test newly developed protec ve coa ngs.
The primary challenge is the design, fabrication and operation of a ‘universal’ test station and protocol that can be used to perform accelerated corrosion tests on a wide array of materials; i.e., metals and alloys, an their protec ve coa ngs.
Toolrite Engineering is offering a wide range of materials and coatings aimed at different markets and often exposed to different environments. Their client base is as varied as the type of materials and protecting coatings they offer; consequently, their testing requirements are very demanding and markedly different from one another. The challenge is to design a ‘universal’ corrosion cell that could accommodate a wide range of materials and, more importantly, electrolytes that are used to simulate the real‐world environments, where industrial components are installed and operated. A series of corrosion cells will be designed, tested and modified, in close collaboration with the technical team from Toolrite Engineering, to ensure an optimal design is achieved. Different metals and alloys with various protective coa ngs will be tested in a number of different electrolytes to ensure universality and reproducibility of this innova ve technique.
The primary benefits of the proposed innovative technique are lower cost, faster turnaround, and better service. It is anticipated that a conservative 30% reduction in coating thickness as well as the replacement of some of the more expensive coatings with the cheaper ones, but with similar protective properties, would lower not only the cost of raw materials; i.e., protective coatings, but also the operating cost since the need for several coating applications is eliminated. Due to the streamlining of the coating process and lowering of the number of the coating layers required for adequate corrosion protection in harsh environments, the time required to apply a protective layer is markedly reduced; this is estimated to be around 25% less than the current practices. In addition, Toolrite Engineering will be in a strong position to expand its current customer base and attract new ones by offering faster, more cost‐effective, and better corrosion‐related products and services.
IBM Canada
Queen's University
A Lightweight Service Composition Technique for Mobile Users
Service‐Oriented Architecture (SOA) uses loosely coupled web services as basic constructs to compose larger systems. On‐line banking, e‐commerce, social Digital media and communication and healthcare infrastructure exemplify the wide adoption of web services. With the prevalent use of mobile applications, mobile devices are information & frequently used to perform reoccurring on‐line activities by accessing web services. According to Gartner, by 2017, mobile applications will be downloaded more than communication technologies
268 billion mes, genera ng revenue of more than $77 billion and making applica ons one of the most popular compu ng tools for users across the globe.
Accessing web services from mobile devices suffer from a few limitations, such as low processing power, small screens, tiny keyboards and limited network bandwidth. It becomes particularly difficult for a mobile user to perform an on‐line task when the user has to enter the links to different websites using tiny keyboards and touch screens. However, current service composition programming models and tools are mainly designed to assist SOA developers to solve business problems using high performance servers and computers. Little attention has been paid to allowing end users to compose services using mobile devices to fulfill their reoccurring events, due to a few challenges, such as the need for expert knowledge to compose services, lack of support for dynamic service composition and physical constraints on the use of mobile devices for performing web tasks.
IBM is one of the major contributors in SOA product development and research. Dr. Zou’s research group will work closely with IBM CAS research to provide solutions to address the aforementioned challenges. As a result, the project will provide intelligent techniques to support mobile users without sufficient SOA knowledge to integrate web services in their daily on‐line experience. Such composed service can be reused for reoccurring events and further customized for different contexts and user preferences. The outcome of this project will be a product prototype which enables IBM CAS Research to demonstrate to their customers, promote the innovative idea behind the prototype and show the benefit of using the prototype. Once the customers’ response to the prototype is strong, IBM Canada can be confident about the growth of their customer base and devote more resources to product development. Moreover, such products for mobile users can help the company expand their customer base globally to the increasingly mobile users.
This 6 months project is a collabora on between OCE and IBM Canada.
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 8
Program
Partners
SensorSuite
Ryerson University
Project Title
Design and Implementation of a Load Moderation Center (LMC) for Building Automation Application
Project Summary
SensorSuite Company has created a cloud‐based building assistant that brings high‐end Building Automation System (BAS) to small and medium‐sized property owners by collecting, processing and delivering real‐time sensory information. Buildings are overheated or over‐cooled due to the lack of monitoring and control. Without thinking about the cost of utilities, residents turn up the heat or A/C while keeping the windows open, letting the money fly out of the windows. Meanwhile, building owners have no knowledge of power consumption in their buildings. By allowing real‐time monitoring and control of buildings from anywhere in the world with mobile or web apps, SensorSuite T3 sensor provides a solu on to the aforemen oned problems.
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
4/22/2014
Kaamran Raahemifar
$19,958
$35,160
$55,118
Toronto
7/21/2014
Suresh Neethirajan
$20,000
$45,000
$65,000
Guelph
Advanced health technologies
4/22/2014
Glenn McRae
$20,000
$20,000
$40,000
Ottawa
4/22/2014
Greg Robertson
$20,000
$20,000
$40,000
Kitchener
8/14/2014
Christopher Murray
$20,000
$20,000
$40,000
Orillia
4/24/2014
Rafik Goubran
$20,000
$100,000
$120,000
Ottawa
Currently, the SensorSuite system is only capable of collecting the information. The purpose of this project is to create a decision making, action oriented component to be added to the SensorSuite system. The component ‐ Load Moderation Center (LMC) ‐ uses the collected sensory data by SensorSuite’s BAS, analyzes them, makes operational decisions, issues commands and applies them. LMC will have all the required hardware for housing software and interfaces necessary to carry out the commands issued by its controller. The controlling scheme will be designed to act as brain for LMC. Such control mechanism allows SensorSuite’s network to accomplish its goal of real‐ me decision making and decision implementa on based on sensory informa on obtained from buildings.
Incorporation of this technology by SensorSuite will increase the company’s competency in BAS market and will provide the users with a comprehensive energy management solution at an affordable price.
SunWash Technologies
Characterization and Assessment of Antimicrobial Efficacy of SunWash Photocatalytic Polymers
The Food and Beverage industry, in particular, struggles to maintain a sanitary environment in all stages of food preparation. Biofilms can be found in natural and artificial systems in a very wide diversity of circumstances. Biofouling on food processing, food packaging, and food contact surfaces is a major concern for food industries. Pathogenic microorganisms can attach to and grow on food surfaces, equipment, and processing environments to form biofilms. Most real‐world microbiological problems are rooted in biofilms. Within the food processing industry, the greatest concern is that biofilms may contribute to the production of contaminated products that threaten public health and economic spoilage. It is estimated that annually 79 million people in North America become ill from contaminated food, cos ng the US about $3.13 billion. Some cases are serious, and lead to hospitaliza on and death.
SunWash Technologies Inc. aims to be a world leader in photocatalytic self‐cleaning polymers. SunWash photocatalytic polymers can produce free hydroxyl radicals and super oxide ions by receiving energy from light irradiation. These radicals are very strong oxidants which cause oxidation of organic materials, deterioration of cellular membranes, inhibi on of microorganisms and lastly, the preven on of the biofilm growth.
With this project we are requesting funding to scientifically characterize and examine the efficacy of SunWash coatings at preventing the formation of biofilms.
Best Medical Canada
Carleton University
Visual and Wireless Electronic Irradiation Indicator Tag
Blood irradiation is the only known measure that can prevent transfusion associated graft‐vs.‐host disease (TA‐GvHD) ,which is fatal in greater than 90% of cases. Technicians and nurses in hospitals, clinics, and blood banks around the world depend on radiation indicator tags to ensure blood to be used in patient transfusions has received the necessary absorbed radiation dose. There are currently two blood bag radiation indicator tags on the market. The two products are: (1) the RadSure® line of blood irradiation indicator tags manufactured by International Specialty Products (ISP) and (2) The RadTag® line of blood irradiation indicator tags manufactured by RadTag Technologies. Both these products have poor precision of radiation dose and therefore can only be used as safety measures to show dose was received, but not as quality assurance products. Similarly, both products provide only a visual indication of absorbed dose received within a specified range and cannot provide a quan ta ve value of absorbed dose.
The proposed product that would result from this VIP application will have greater precision and it will be able to be used for both safety and quality assurance purposes (i.e., a true dosimeter). The proposed tag reacts with the ionizing radiation to provide a visual indication of whether the blood has received an absorbed radiation dose within the specified range between 15 Gy and 50 Gy, but, in addition, the proposed product will also provide a quantitative electronic read‐out of dose, which will result in greater specificity and allow the irradiation dose to be automatically recorded and tracked in institutional records. Greater accuracy and the specificity and convenience of electronic readout are substantial benefits for health care users of blood bag radiation indicator tags to enhance patient safety. The novel tags will be designed to cost less than current tags, which should position them favourably to capture a commanding share of the $11M current annual market whose growth is 8%/yr.
Zpirit Foods
Polymer Specialties International Ltd. Lakehead University
The Development of Agricultural Mulch Films for the This project is devoted to the development of a new format of agricultural mulch film. Building on the success of a previous OCE collaborative project, research teams Bio‐economy and clean technologies
Mitigation / Reduction of Pesticides, Fumigants and at Polymer Specialties International Ltd. and Lakehead University will develop a family of polymeric mulch films that will, when placed upon soil before planting, Herbicides usage
greatly reduce the requirement for water, pesticides and fumigants in growing a wide variety of grain and vegetable crops. These mulch films not only reduce the cost of farming, they increase the fraction of arable land available to farmers, lengthen the growing season that is practically available and increase the resilience of new plants to abrupt changes in environmental conditions. This combination of reduced need for inputs and dramatically increased output will enable an unmet market demand to be satisfied, decrease the risk of environmental pollution and increase productivity in Ontario and abroad.
Zamani Wireless Solutions Inc.
AUTONOMOUS FALL DETECTION SYSTEM
7/10/2015
Conestoga College Institute of Technology
Carleton University
Automated fresh fruit dispensing and bottle filling station
Zpirit Foods Inc. is a Toronto, Ontario, based beverage manufacturer who produces fruit infused beverages targeted at a health‐conscious consumer market. The beverages contain no artificial preservatives, sweeteners, or flavouring. Zpirit Foods requires the design and build of a prototype system to automatically dispense pieces of fresh fruit into glass bottles. Zpirit Foods will work with Conestoga students and faculty within a curriculum‐based project to design and build the prototype system. The prototype system will then be evaluated by Zpirit Foods for production‐ready requirements. The final production‐ready design will allow the company to improve production rates, reduce waste, improve safety, and expand product offerings.
This proposal outlines an innovative approach to non‐intrusive personal‐monitoring (autonomous fall detection) system. The proposed project and objectives are: Zamani Wireless Solution Inc. (ZWS) plans to develop disruptive fall detection technology leveraging academic advanced research in the area of change detection, artificial intelligence, machine learning, clustering, and semi‐supervised learning to improve fall detection accuracy with very low false alarm‐rate (less than one per day) . This technology, once developed and validated, can be commercialized and integrated into the non‐intrusive fall detection product that offers seniors a substantially improved user experience (no body worn devices required) leading to a better quality of life by providing a certainty of rapid help and support in the event of an injury causing fall allowing seniors to remain independent for longer.
Section 1 ‐ 9
Program
Partners
MARZ Livz Inc.
Project Title
Sheridan College Institute MARZ Video Portal
of Technology and Advanced Learning
Project Summary
Sector
Digital media and Project Descrip on: This project is a collabora on between Sheridan College and its Screen Industries Research and Training Centre, and industry partner MARZ Livz Inc., that is designed to create a unique integrated on‐line Film Development Kit (FDK), initially aimed at the significant international audience for genre films featuring information & communication Monsters, Aliens, Robots and Zombies. The MARZ web portal is being developed as an on‐line aggregation site for both viewers and producers of content in these genre areas. The current project will involve Sheridan collaboration on web programming and graphic redesign of the overall web portal, but will primarily focus on technologies
the interaction of computer programmers, visual effects specialists and media post‐production technologists on development of the Film Development Kit. Given Sheridan/SIRT's international reputation in both advanced content production curriculum and research in the areas of computer animation and modelling, visual effects and interac ve real‐ me virtual produc on, Sheridan is an ideal partner for MARZ on this project.
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
4/24/2014
John Helliker
$20,000
$107,750
$127,750
Oakville
5/15/2014
Safieddin Safavi‐
Naeini
$20,000
$20,300
$40,300
Waterloo
4/22/2014
Rong Liu
$20,000
$20,000
$40,000
Ottawa
Market need: This project aims to fill a market need for a one‐stop‐shop – where none exists – for creating high‐quality content, acquiring digital assets, assembling these assets into user content, then uploading for distribution to a genre specific site with built‐in fan base. (Genre area: Audio‐visual content focused on Monsters, Aliens, Robots, and Zombies – MARZ.)
How the project will resolve this need: This project focuses on the Film Development Kit (FDK) required to add digital assets into raw video footage, editing a final video along with various post‐produc on requirements.
Company track record and capacity to commercialize the results of the project: Lon Molnar, CEO of world‐renowned VFX Studio Intelligent Creatures, has experience as a founder in developing a visual effects studio that has attracted industry leading film studios and award winning filmmakers. His studio is responsible for creating libraries of digital assets, and he has the rela onships with vendors in the industry to acquire larger libraries for commercializa on purposes.
How the company will take the results of the project and commercialize them and how will this benefit the company’s growth in revenues and employment: This project will be a key element in the development of the MARZ web portal as an internationally‐recognized online distribution platform aimed at a genre specific audience. This platform is about community, a community of film fans and filmmakers that are eagerly motivated to contribute on every level to support the genre. Once we establish this fan base, the FDK allows users to become active members motivated by participating in the monetization themselves with their contributions of digital assets and original content. We will be able to leverage their social activity to build an audience for themselves, by re‐directing their efforts to our platform. Through collaboration with Sheridan College on this project, the industry partner's portal will rise above on‐line sites that simply aggregate uploaded videos for viewing by a particular audience, creating an on‐line marketplace for assets such as music, computer models and visual effects elements that can be utilized within the online Film Development Kit.
MMSENSE Technologies Inc.
Investigation and Implementation of Low Side Lobe The main objective of this project is to investigate, design, and prototype a front end module with antenna array for a new generation of millimeter wave radar Level Millimeter‐wave Beamforming Radar Front‐end sensors for automotive safety, industrial, intelligent transportation and autonomous vehicle applications. Detection of objects in short and long range with high Module with Antenna Array for Automotive Radar range/ angle resolution, wide field of view, and pedestrian are the main requirements of next generation automotive radar sensor. To be able to meet such a Sensor and industrial Applications
demanding requirements and features while keeping the size of the sensor very compact , next generation of automotive radar should be developed at millimeter wave range where antenna size becomes very small and realization of multi‐antenna systems become possible. 76‐81 GHz(77/79GHz) is becoming a global band for the next generation of automotive radar sensors however the challenge is to develop a sufficiently low production cost technology for mass market. The goal of this project is to investigate and address the challenges in integration and packaging of antenna array and millimeter‐wave transceiver components for radar sensors at 76‐81GHz band and study the integration techniques that can keep the antenna array sidelobe level l very low (SLL<‐20dB) as a key requirement of automotive radar sensor modules.
Kennametal Stellite Inc.
Carleton University
Investigation of Corrosion Resistance of Stellite Alloys in Amine Environments
At thermal power stations, boiler feedwater is water used to supply a boiler to generate steam or hot water. It often contains impurities, which impair boiler operation and efficiency, because they can cause deposits and other related problems inside the boiler. Common impurities in water include alkalinity, silica, iron, dissolved oxygen and calcium and magnesium (hardness). Scale is one of the most common deposit related problems; it acts as an insulator that reduces heat transfer, causing a decrease in boiler efficiency and excessive fuel consumption. Oxygen attack is one of the most common causes of corrosion inside the boiler. Dissolved oxygen in feedwater can become very aggressive when heated and reacts with the boiler material to form corrosive components on the boiler inner surface. Oxygen attack can also cause damage to boiler headers and condensate piping. Acid attack is another one of the most common causes of corrosion inside the boiler. Acid attack happens when the pH value of feedwater drops below 8.5, which is caused by CO2 dissolving in water to form carbonic acid. Acid attack may also impact condensate return piping.
Chemical additives can be used to solve the problems caused by these impurities. To improve feedwater quality and steam purity, these chemicals can be injected directly into the feedwater and steam. Neutralizing amines are high pH chemicals that neutralize the carbonic acid formed in the water. The three most commonly used neutralizing amines are morpholine, diethyleminoethanal (DEAE) and cyclohexylamine. Filming amines are various chemicals that form a protective layer on the condensate piping to protect it from both oxygen and acid attack. The two most common filming amines are octadecylamine (ODA) and ethoxylated soya amine (ESA). Combining neutralizing and filming amine is a successful alterna ve to protect against both acid and oxygen a ack.
Stellite alloys are a family of cobalt‐based superalloys designed for use in various industrial environments involving high temperature, severe corrosion, wear and oxidation. Owing to the unique combination of good high temperature properties, excellent wear and corrosion/oxidation resistance, these alloys are commonly applied to power generation plants. Historically, boiler feedwater is considered to be noncorrosive application of Stellite alloys, for example, Stellite 6 had long been a mainstay material for hardfacing of valve trim. However, in the past decade, more and more failures of Stellite 6 have occurred in feedwater control valve in not only electric‐utility power plants but also cogeneration plants. Like most corrosion‐resistant alloys containing chromium as an alloying element, Stellite 6 obtains its corrosion resistance from the formation of a stable chromium‐containing oxide passive layer. The oxide layer protects the underlying material from further reaction with the corrosive environment. In the presence of certain chemicals, however, a passive layer can weaken and fail to protect the material adequately from corrosion. Loss of corrosion resistance in Stellite 6 comes to notice most often in boiler‐feedwater service where the water treatment includes hydrazine or other amine derivatives. Although possible mechanisms for the loss of corrosion resistance of Stellite 6 in amine corrosion environments have been reported in previous research, the performance of this alloy in such a service condition has not been well understood. For example, it has been theorized (but not proven) that the presence of the amine compounds somehow prevents the reformation of the oxide passive layer on Stellite 6 after it has been removed by high‐velocity flow impingement. What is not understood is why this only occurs in cobalt alloys and not in other materials (such as austenitic stainless steels) that also rely on an oxide passive layer for corrosion protection. This unsolved problem has become urgent and restricted significantly the application of Stellite alloys for boiler feedwater service in power plants as well as in refineries where amine compounds are used to absorb unwanted dissolved gas — primarily hydrogen sulfide from liquid hydrocarbons, and in gas treatment plants where amine compounds are used to absorb hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide. The industry partner, Kennametal Stellite Inc., produces various superalloys, including Stellite alloys, for the applications involving severe environments such as high stress, high temperature, wear, erosion and corrosion. Stellite 6 is one of the most popular products of Kennametal Stellite Inc., which possesses combined properties of high‑temperature wear and corrosion resistance. It has been extensively used in power generation industry. However, the reports from the customers in recent years have made the market of this alloy go down seriously, with the main problem in amine corrosion. To devise a solution challenging this problem, the proposed research is aimed to investigate the reaction mechanisms of Stellite alloys such as Stellite 6, Stellite 728 and Stellite 706 in amine media; stainless steel 410 and 17‑4PH will also be studied for comparison, which well matches the strategic need of Kennametal Stellite Inc. Electrochemical tests, including cyclic and potentiaostatic polarization, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) will be performed on these materials in morpholine, DEAE, cyclohexylamine, ODA and ESA amine environments, with emphasis on the formation and repair behavior of the oxide layer on these materials’ surfaces in the corrosive media. The plasma transferred arc (PTA) hardfacing specimens of these materials may also be investigated due to their application in controlling valves. The outcomes of this research will provide the industry with direct lab data, which can help improve the exis ng alloys or design new alloys for this specific applica on. 7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 10
Program
Partners
NexFlow Air Products
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Sheridan College Institute Commercial Vortex Tube Development Based on CFD Vortex Tube technology for spot cooling has applications across many industries, with its most common application at the moment being cooling of control panels in Advanced manufacturing
of Technology and Design Analysis
very dirty environments. The vortex tube (VT) design has not changed for over 30 years, ever since both the original designer in the U.S.A., and his contemporary in Advanced Learning
Russia, passed away. The product has never been theoretically modeled despite major computational developments in recent years and preventing further improvements in efficiency of its design. Industry partner for this project, Nex Flow, has grown significantly since 2003, growing from a Canadian‐based company to encompass worldwide sales in over 40 countries. Their current VT technology is based on marginal improvements over competitors. Nex Flow estimates that they are now in third place in the market worldwide. Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
5/15/2014
Darren Lawless
$20,000
$20,004
$40,004
Oakville
5/15/2014
Hugo de Lasa
$20,000
$20,100
$40,100
London
Through this proposed research project, design parameters influencing performance and efficiency of the vortex tube (VT) will be investigated with the goal to develop a usable engineering (computational CFD) model that is able to improve the existing designs; but more urgently to introduce new sizes and versions of vortex tubes badly needed in the marketplace. We hope that Nex Flow will compete in the projects for large size custom designed vortex tubes. Current models produce 15 to 40 SCFM of combina on of cold and hot air outputs. The new large model being inquired by the specific clients has been for a 3500 SCFM type. Nex Flow has not yet globally promoted the ability to design and manufacture large size vortex tubes but is planning to do so after success of the research, the repeat sales and proven success of a second vortex tube being designed. Nex Flow will globally promote the improved vortex tubes, and any new developments in their industrial usage, thereby increasing vortex tubes sales by 80 to 100% and adding at least 5% to total revenue. Being a Blue Ocean market strategy with no measurable competitor at this point; the design process of new vortex tubes, although proving lucrative, has proven time consuming so an additional design engineer is all but assured in Nex Flow Ontario office, once further projects are obtained. This is a near certainty, once promotions begins based on the anticipated success of the Nex Flow and Sheridan College collaboration. More advanced vortex tubes have been traditionally manufactured in Canada for niche markets, leading to potential increase of suppliers’ revenue and hopefully skilled manpower requirements at the related Canadian manufacturing facili es.
KMW
CO2 Biomass Gasification
In Canada, the energy sector requires efficient, economical and environmentally sound processes for the conversion of renewable resources. Combustion processes Bio‐economy and clean such the ones commercialized by the KMW Energy Company with headquarters in London, Ontario, rely on producing energy from biomass with low NOx emissions. technologies
These processes are beneficial given their net CO2 zero emissions. KMW Energy Company would like, however, to be engaged in modifying and significantly improving biomass gasification processes, making them more economically competitive and environmentally friendly. To achieve this, the present study led by Prof. de Lasa at the University of Western Ontario considers key steps for a new "Integrated CO2 Gasification+Chemical Combustion Looping" (CO2G‐CLC) process. This CO2G‐CLC project helping to move this technology from the conceptual to the development phase involves both KMW and the technology end‐users.
Agricultural communities in Canada are the prime target for the extensive application of the new CO2G‐CLC technology. The CO2G‐CLC process can provide these communities with green energy, biochar as a soil supplement and CO2 for greenhouses. Thus, the integrated CO2G+CLC process can considerably support agricultural communities by providing them with a unique chance to convert agricultural waste into valuable products, hence, developing financially sound operations. Furthermore, the scale‐up and commercialization of the CO2G+CLC process can create worthwhile opportunities and R&D jobs for Canadians. As a result, and once this project is completed, the CO2G‐CLC process will provide both the engineering and the strong business case for biomass (agricultural waste, wood waste) conversion into clean energy and valuable biochar and rich CO2 products. Voucher for Innovation and Productivity
Space Database Inc.
Seneca College of Applied Space Database UX
Arts and Technology
Toronto, Ontario based Space Database Inc. is launching development of a novel marketing tool that will greatly enhance the way the commercial real estate space is marketed and sold. This tool will use evolving web browser standards (HTML5 and WebGL) to render office buildings and individual rental units in three dimensions (3D). It will provide a more in‐depth and interactive experience for prospective tenants, allowing them to more clearly see a building and available space as if they were actually there. Many prospective tenants want to experience the space without the necessity of traveling to the building. This development will allow them to screen out unsuitable buildings and space more efficiently. In addition, sales personnel have an attractive marketing tool which gives them a differentiating factor to showcase the building. In a very competitive real estate market, leasing agents are looking for an edge to place their listings foremost in prospective tenants’ eyes. The dynamic aspect of interactive, database‐driven 3D models is a significant improvement over the current offerings, such as static 2D floor plans and "stacking plans" that have limited interactive capability.
4/24/2014
Peter Callaghan
$19,917
$45,521
$65,438
Toronto
E‐Twenty Development Inc.
Ultra‐low power indoor positioning Bluetooth beacon Toronto based E‐Twenty Development (www.etwenty.co) has implemented an indoor positioning system that uses a combination of smartphone inertial sensors and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons. The state‐of‐the‐art system is able to track and localize users in large complex facilities such as airports, malls, museums, and hospitals. Their flagship product SmartIndoor (www.smartindoor.com) allows users to navigate and find points of interest and broadcast or receive location specific information using the smartphone app. E‐Twenty would like to create a customized BLE beacon for the localization process that has improved battery life while still allowing communication to everyday smartphones. This would be a considerable improvement over the current beacons that last no more than six months and require frequent maintenance to deliver reliable localization users indoors. Dr. Liscidini and his team have considerable expertise designing RF communications systems. His research focus currently involves low power BLE architectures. This expertise will be used to develop a customized BLE beacon that will be able to last over three years without change of battery. This will allow E‐Twenty to deploy the beacon to more locations providing greater resolution and accuracy to users and facilities, thereby opening the doors to new markets such as security and asset tracking.
6/20/2014
Antonio Liscidini
$20,000
$45,000
$65,000
Toronto
London Hydro Inc.
Big Data Analytics for Energy Conservation in the Green Button Initiative
4/22/2014
Miriam Capretz
$20,000
$22,600
$42,600
London
The goal of this project is to predict future energy consump on as well as the associated costs by considering past energy consump on and contextual informa on.
At present, smart meters collect energy consumption data on a hourly basis for homeowners and at five‐minute intervals for commercial customers. London Hydro uses this collected data (Green Button data) to support Time‐of‐Use electricity billing. Despite the efforts on standardization of the smart meter data, the interest of third‐party service providers to develop energy management applications has been low and customer engagement inadequate. London Hydro is open to collecting data more frequently if this would improve the quality or accuracy of the software. As the collection interval decreases and the number of customers increases, the quantity of data increases. These Big Data pose major challenges for data processing and storage, while at the same time they have the potential to add business value.
London Hydro recognizes the potential to use smart meter data to analyze energy usage and savings, customize heating and cooling activities for savings and comfort, measure energy efficiency investments, provide energy cost es mates for real estate buyers, and educate about responsible energy usage and preserva on.
Thus this project aims to develop a software application to support London Hydro's large commercial customers to manage their energy consumption and related costs through the use of the Green Button data. Consequently, this will reveal opportunities for energy saving as well as better management of their electricity bills. Moreover, the software application will compare predicted consumption values with actual values and thus learn from past performance. The goal is that the more the software is used, its prediction component will improve knowledge and accuracy of prediction.
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 11
Program
Partners
AppSeed
Humber College
Project Title
Project Summary
User Experience Analysis and Android Development AppSeed is capitalizing on the growing demand for innovation needed for Android app developers. To meet this growing demand, AppSeed’s application takes hand‐
of Innovative Application
drawn sketches and turns them into interactive prototypes on mobile devices. This technique allows app creators to test their ideas faster directly on the device, speeding the creative process and enabling a better understanding of what the final app will feel like. AppSeed accomplishes this through an innovative use of computer vision. Computer vision allows for app designers to draw in a physical sketchbook and transfer this into the digital realm to manipulate it. AppSeed recently raised $45,000 through a Kickstarter campaign to produce the application for Apple devices. The current iteration presented is to produce the proposed application for the Android device; currently the most requested feature on AppSeed’s social media feed and kickstarter campaign page. Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
4/22/2014
Laura Keating
$18,375
$27,839
$46,214
Toronto
You can see a video demonstrating AppSeed on their Kickstarter Page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/appseed/appseed‐turn‐sketches‐into‐functioning‐
prototypes
To meet demand for the application, AppSeed has partnered with Humber College Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning. AppSeed will collaborate with Humber faculty George Paravantes, students from Humber’s Web Design and Interactive Media and Information Technology Solutions programs to 1) design and create the application for Android devices, 2) ensure the user interface is engaging and user friendly and 3) to collect and analyse user metrics to develop further in‐
app products for users to generate revenue. The final product will help app developers test their idea and finalize their applications so they can get to market easier, faster, cheaper and have greater control over collabora ve ac vi es.
Liricco Technologies
Liricco Valta Android Application Development
Digital media and Lambton College and Liricco Technologies Ltd. have partnered to develop an Android‐based solution to control the Valta line of energy management products. This information & green‐energy technology is already available with an iOS‐based smartphone control system, and Liricco reached out to Colleges Ontario Network for Industry communication Innovation (CONII) to contact highly qualified personnel to assist with building an Android version of their control systems to interface seamlessly with their home‐
grown v‐Hub management suite. By developing the Android solution, Liricco will be able to reach an additional 50% of the smartphone market and enable a move into technologies
European markets which are dominated by Android‐based smartphones.
5/20/2014
Mehdi Sheikhzadeh
$20,000
$55,000
$75,000
Sarnia
Precision Titanium Components Inc. (PTi);Materials Joining Innovation Centre at Northern College
Northern College of Applied Arts and Technology
Precision Thin Titanium Sheet Laser Weld Process Innovation
The business activity of Precision Titanium Components (Precision Titanium) is the development and manufacturing of specialized components and alloys of titanium Advanced manufacturing
and other reactive metals, finding new applications for these metals in order to achieve improvement and increased efficiencies in the commercial environment. Precision Titanium o en works with subcontract manufacturers to produce their products for market.
The proposed innovation (i.e. a production‐ready laser‐welding process using a proprietary fixture designed by Precision Titanium) creates a viable method for using laser technology to weld thin‐gauge reactive metals, replacing other joining methods (such as GTAW welding and riveting), as the primary advanced manufacturing method. The issues resolved by the new titanium‐in‐sheet fabrication method evaluated through a design of experiment include improved and certified weld parameter selections for application with an innovative weld production fixture, leading to tighter welding fabrication tolerances for use in advanced manufacturing, By using laser technology, significant new applications for Titanium alloys will be made commercially viable, as final quality will be significantly increased while costs and production time will be drastically decreased. This innovation in welding joining technology will step change the application of titanium sheet fabrication in the aerospace, chemical, structural, ballistic and marine industries, creating new jobs in Ontario, across Canada and throughout the world.
8/18/2014
George Hughes
$20,000
$55,377
$75,377
Timmons
German Energy Alternatives Inc.
Wind Load Mitigation of Solar Panel Arrays
Wind exerts different types of loads on the solar panel array mounted on roofs (Sliding, upli and overturning forces) where these effects are the maximum. Bio‐economy and clean Determining the magnitude of these loads depends on the climate, geometric (or aerodynamic) parameters of the solar panel system (slope, spacing, height, size, etc. technologies
of the solar array), the geometry of the building and the roof on which they will be installed, and the surrounding terrain conditions. Despite these facts, the wind load can also be controlled/reduced through aerodynamic mitigation. This is due to their dependence on geometric parameters that can be controlled by the designer, such as changing the corner details or adding perforations on the solar panel system. This creates unique opportunities to reduce or control the wind loads. However, aerodynamic mitigation potentials for solar panels are not systematically explored. In fact, solar panels have the worst aerodynamic shape characterized by sharp corners initiating flow separations that produces large drag or uplift. In practice, the wind load on these rooftop structures is considered to be one of the design controlling parameters. 7/21/2014
Girma Bitsuamlak
$20,000
$81,500
$101,500
London
6/13/2014
Vibha Tyagi
$19,924
$21,420
$41,344
Oshawa
8/14/2014
David Ting
$20,000
$20,000
$40,000
Windsor
German Energy Alternatives Inc., based in London, Ontario is interested in determining methods and cost‐effective designs to mitigate the wind loads on roof‐
mounted solar panels in order to reduce the amount of ballast weight required to hold them in place, without significantly altering thermal/flow conditions which would decrease the efficiency. This will open the market to alternative energy retrofits of existing low rise commercial buildings that are not designed to accommodate the current high ballast load, as well as reduce the cost of installation on new constructions.
IFTech
Durham College
Gaming Suit
Essex Energy
Effective Turbulence Cooling of PV Panels via Subtle Solar photovoltaic (PV) is a proven renewable energy technology which is expanding in Ontario. One outstanding challenge is the reduction in the solar radiation‐
Bio‐economy and clean Groove Design
electricity conversion efficiency with increasing solar cell temperature. Between solar noon to around 3 pm the solar radiation (and the environmental temperature) is technologies
typically at its maximum; due to the associated rising cell temperature (in mono and polycrystalline solar PV technology), the conversion efficiency can be significantly lower than the rated value for a given panel. Consequently, a large portion of the available solar energy is not captured and converted to electricity. Our previous OCE TPS study has verified that enhancing the wind turbulence over the PV panel can appreciably reduce the cell temperature. The current VIP project aims to leapfrog the turbulence convection via a uniquely devised groove. In practice, the groove is the spacing between consecutive panels. The key is in maximizing the promotion of next‐to‐the‐surface flow turbulence without slowing down the flow near the surface. For a large project such as the $3.6 million dollar Tecumseh Arena 500 kW rooftop system, just by cooling the panels a few degrees can result in a couple of hundred dollars in savings every day (based on $0.635/kWh). 7/10/2015
IFTech is the Next Frontier for the entertainment industry. With the focus on Immersive Wearable Technologies, IFTech brings in the fourth dimension in the gaming world by providing ARAIG (As Real As It Gets), a wearable suit that totally immerses users into the reality of their virtual world. ARAIG is multi‐ platform, stimulates the senses, works with all other peripherals and major platforms, it allows total mobility for the user, and has the potential to work with other major entertainment media sources. The several market applications of ARAIG include industries like the entertainment industry (video games and movies), training and simulation (police, firefighting, military, etc.), medical (rehabilitation), and augmented awareness. IFTech will initially concentrate on the video gaming consumer market and the military training simulation market. In this proposal we are proposing to work with Durham College on a project to design and build the controller of the suit. The controller is the nervous system of the gaming suit and will form the core of the entire product. Through the development of the Nervous System components IFTech will have the specifications for the electrical sensory devices, the communication and activation module to control those sensory devices (called the Control Centre) and the battery requirements and draw of the system for the commercial model. This will not only provide IFTech with the electrical commercial specifications but also the costs of such components to manufacture the commercial product. This will allow IFTech to begin preorders and based on this the estimated sales within the first month will be $56K and by the end of the first year to be over $2 Million should this project meet the needs of at least one of our two military solution providers. Additionally, by the end of year 5 we predict to reach $50 Million in sales. Based on these sales we expect to hire 25 employees within the first year and sustain 50 other jobs, and by the end of the 5th year we expect to have created 300 jobs and sustained 600 other jobs. Furthermore, the process of this project will allow IFTech to provide its consumers progress updates, which will enhance IFTech’s current viral marketing campaign and in turn should provide an increase in revenue initially through pre‐orders and then after product launch.
Section 1 ‐ 12
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
iGEN Technologies Inc.
Evaluation and testing of expanders for ORC micro‐
CHP systems
iGEN Technologies (iGEN) is in the process of developing a combined heat and power (CHP) generation system that will reduce operating costs, overall environmental Bio‐economy and clean impact and central energy dependency for North American home and cottage owners. This system comprises of a vapour expansion cycle (VEC) integrated with a technologies
residen al style air handler.
With rising electricity rates, disruptions to the electric grid and the shut‐down of coal‐fired or nuclear power plants the need for distributed power generation has never been greater. Recent market attempts by manufacturers of alternate CHP systems suffer from high cost, high maintenance or impractical operation. By building on proven HVAC industry technology, the iGEN system has the potential to achieve a breakthrough of these limitations. However, two technical challenges remain before the iGEN system can become a commercialized reality.
The first challenge was solved through a prior Ontario Centers of Excellence funded research project between iGEN and the University of Toronto. That challenge related to the development of a direct‐fired evaporator in the VEC system. A simple and cost effective evaporator design was needed to limit the maximum temperature in which the working fluid was exposed to prevent degrada on. That project resulted in a successful design and test of a direct fired evaporator.
The second challenge faced is the development of a reliable and cost effective expander with an integrated generator. Compressors with integrated motors are the most promising platform from which the expander should be based. However, further testing is required to prove that the expander is compatible with the working fluid, quan fy the opera ng efficiency and ensure that the generator will not overheat.
Once these challenges are resolved, the iGEN system can be commercialized at a competitive price within the marketplace while operating in an efficient and durable manner over its life time.
Valency
Development of new methods for planning execution Valency Inc. provides project readiness tools to reduce risk for organizations managing a large portfolio of capital projects. Managing partners, Sandra Macgillivray Digital media and strategies for capital projects
and Dawn Fiander‐McCann have developed a cloud‐based decision support tool which benchmarks front end planning scores using a por olio management approach. information & communication Large capital projects in Canada, such as oil sands and pipeline projects entail significant risk with respect to cost and schedule development. Acquiring an in‐depth technologies
understanding of such risks during the FEP phase is challenging. A proven leading risk indicator is the PDRI (Project Definition Rating Index). PDRI provides the industry framework for project stakeholders to contribute important content and to understand the cross‐functional impact of identified risks.The correlation between the PDRI and risk factors related to project performance is based on published analyses of data from many hundreds of projects. The opportunity now exists to mine the constituent elements of the index based on those historical project data sets to develop methods for planning proactive strategies in capital projects execu on to support the nascent organiza ons as they form for each new capital project. Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
7/18/2014
James Wallace
$20,000
$38,985
$58,985
Toronto
8/14/2014
Carl Haas
$19,980
$40,040
$60,020
Waterloo
10/1/2014
Stuart Berger
$19,733
$20,311
$40,044
Toronto
The main objective of this proposal is the development of a new statistical analysis method for examining FEP data to streamline and monitor project resources throughout the project lifecycle. Based on the findings, we will create a standard to support new strategic planning methods for large capital projects. A new data set and structure for interpreting and using the enormous amount of associated project data and information would also be developed during this research. The proposed method would thus provide an interface for the cloud‐based delivery of FEP risk data, using drill down reports on a secure cloud application. The new method would be more broadly applicable for use with further discoveries such as operational excellence management‐where health and safety risk reporting is a constant challenge for capital projects and Owners‐as additional data becomes available. Voucher for Innovation and Productivity
AvidBiologics, Inc.
University of Health Network
Enhancing monoclonal antibody expression with ABC50
Algaeneers Inc.
Catalytic Processing of Shale and Bio Gases to Higher Catalytic reaction of methane and carbon dioxide is one of the most promising routes to upgrade the methane contained in natural gas or from biogas into synthesis Bio‐economy and clean Value Products
gas (syngas), the primary chemical building block for the production of commodity chemicals and value added products. Existing catalysts for this chemical process technologies
suffer from limitations such as coke deposition, sulfur poisoning, and instability to operate in the feasible time scale required for industrial processes. Algaeneers has acquired a novel heterogeneous catalyst where proof‐of‐concept data demonstrate its ability to overcome the above limitations. However, research is required to modify the catalyst such that it can be used under a wide range of industrial conditions, including methanation (the reverse reforming reaction) in order to upgrade the biogas. The proposed research is expected to discover novel modification approaches to prepare the catalysts, explore new catalyst formulations, as well as evaluate long term operating data to support its use under commercially feasible conditions and scales for shale gas utilization and biogas upgrading and production.
8/18/2014
Ya‐Huei (Cathy) Chin
$20,000
$45,441
$65,441
Toronto
BAH Enterprises Inc.
Development and Evaluation of a New Corner Stack Connections between steel members can allow or prevent relative rotations. The current industry practice is to allow relative rotations in corner joints of exhaust Advanced manufacturing
stacks/ ducting systems. A new connection detail is being developed in this research to prevent the relative rotation, and, thus lead to a more economical design. Connection
Experimental tests will be conducted to further develop the new detail such that it results in adequate joint rigidity and moment capacity. Results from the tests will be used to validate an analytical model. A parametric study will then be conducted to establish the data needed for engineers to start implementing this connection in future projects. Preventing the relative rotation will significantly reduce the member sizes by fully utilizing the used material. This solution will not only allow BAH Industries Inc. to grow but will also minimize the environmental impact associated with the construction of exhaust stacks. The project will allow examining other poten al areas of improvement and innova on in exhaust stacks, which can lead to future collabora ve research.
7/3/2014
Maged Youssef
$20,000
$53,560
$73,560
London
CrozierBaird
Smart Water‐Energy Optimization Model
9/10/2014
Rupp Carriveau
$20,000
$20,010
$40,010
Windsor
7/10/2015
AvidBiologics, Inc. has identified a monoclonal antibody that, when formulated as an antibody‐drug conjugate, demonstrates remarkable anti‐cancer activity in pre‐
Pharmaceutical research clinical models. As with all antibody‐based drugs, the ability to produce sufficient amounts of antibody for pre‐clinical, clinical and production use is a key and manufacturing
requirement. Avid has worked closely with the NRC Biotechnology Institute in Montreal to create a cell line that produces their antibody. However, it is critical to maximize antibody production so that sufficient levels can be produced. Dr. Stuart Berger, a Senior Scientist at the University Health Network, has developed a novel technology that boosts protein production in mammalian cells. This technology targets the earliest step of protein production which may be rate‐limiting in cells that are producing very large amounts of protein. Preliminary evidence indicates that protein production can be enhanced in a variety of cell lines and at all levels of expression. In this project, Dr. Berger’s technology will be used to boost Avid’s antibody expression. At the end of the project, Avid will receive the fully characterized cells which can then be used to further support Avid’s clinical development.
CrozierBaird Engineering and the Applicant seek to develop a paradigm shifting planning and operations model for water utilities based on smart metering, behavior Bio‐economy and clean analytics, environmental forecasting, and emerging energy management principals. The model will be designed to optimize the current utility network architectures technologies
and will be forward‐compatible with proposed micro water‐energy grids to be examined in concurrent studies. The immediate region serviced by CrozierBaird is home to a diverse mix of residential, industrial, and commercial clients that include the highest concentration of greenhouses in North America. Utility clients of CrozierBaird (including the first utility host) have committed an interest in a model with sub‐hourly, daily, and weekly demand forecasting capabilities. Such an application will enable the integration of energy management strategies that include monitoring, targeting, and load shifting. It will also allow utilities to examine more strategic distribution architectures and rate structures. Finally, the model will be critical to facility master plans that attempt to forecast major infrastructure requirements. The overarching objectives of the project will be to provide improved service to rate‐payers, and increased revenue to utilities. This will be achieved by first assembling the data map for the model. Influence variables will include, customer type, usage behavior, economic, and meteorological conditions. Next, it will be determined how to develop the most representative characterization of the demand base with a finite number of sampling sites. Then, specialized high frequency smart meters will be deployed to select sampling locations. Data from these strategically varied archetypal sites will complement additional feeds from existing in‐
field meters and billing databases. Concurrently, appropriate climactic indicators and other driving factors will be selected for correlation with the demand data. The model will seek the most efficient scheme for water supply subject to the two fundamental constraints of safe, uninterruptible supply and cost minimization. This model will enable CrozierBaird to assist their utility and municipal clients in reducing daily operating costs and mitigating capital expenditures through better‐informed master plans.
Section 1 ‐ 13
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
Geosource Energy Inc
Coaxial Heat Exchanger – A Promising Geothermal Technology
Geothermal is an environmentally friendly renewable energy technology which is particularly suited for heating and cooling of buildings. Energy savings of 40 to 60% Bio‐economy and clean can be easily achieved when switching from conventional fuel/electric based heating and cooling. The pay back associated with additional cost of geothermal systems technologies
can range from fifteen down to one year. The installation cost is largely dependent on the type of ground heat exchanger that is installed. Vertical systems maybe more expensive but their footprints are minimal. In this category, coaxial geothermal loops have emerged as a promise over the conventional U loops, portraying possible significant heat transfer enhancement along with reduced pressure losses. Our preliminary studies have confirmed this promising speculation. In other words, this VIP (Voucher for Innovation and Productivity) project will specifically tackle the emerging promise of the coaxial ground heat exchanger which was revealed at the completion of OCE‐TPS‐11735, which main focus was on conventional U‐Loop performance. The goal of this VIP project is to improve our understanding of the underlying physics involved. Based on the improved understanding, a range of practical workable configurations and/or conditions will be deduced so that Geosource Energy Inc can start the implementation of these superior heat exchangers for geothermal heating and cooling. This new technology is expected to significantly lower the cost of geothermal systems by drastically improving the heat transfer efficacy and reduce head losses, the combination which can seriously decrease the required length of the heat pipe. The savings associated with reduced depth of drilling is exponential. Noting that presently geothermal systems are only used in approximately 1% of households and a lower percentage in multi‐unit residential, office, and industrial buildings in Ontario, the potential market growth is enormous. As ground heat exchangers are situated close to buildings that use them, the work is necessarily done locally, creating local jobs, local expertise, and local economy.
8/14/2014
David Ting
$20,000
$34,200
$54,200
Windsor
SPP Canada Aircraft Inc. (SPPCA)
Aircraft landing gear development
In this research project, we focus on developing a standardized approach for simulation of the dynamic behavior of aircraft landing gear during the landing and ground Advanced manufacturing
maneuvering events. These results will be correlated to structural loads experienced by the landing gear and used to develop a Health Monitoring and Usage System. The simulation tool developed to implement this approach of dynamic modeling will be used at SPPCA as the primary prediction software for used in performance analysis of Landing Gear.
11/17/2014
Kamran Behdinan
$20,000
$66,000
$86,000
Toronto
Sunwash Technologies
Biofilm Challenge Testing of SunWash Self‐Cleaning Coatings
The Food and Beverage industry, in particular, struggles to maintain a sanitary environment in all stages of food preparation. Biofilms can be found in natural and artificial systems in a very wide diversity of circumstances. Biofouling on food processing, food packaging, and food contact surfaces is a major concern for food industries. Pathogenic microorganisms can attach to and grow on food surfaces, equipment, and processing environments to form biofilms. Most real‐world microbiological problems are rooted in biofilms. Within the food processing industry, the greatest concern is that biofilms may contribute to the production of contaminated products that threaten public health and economic spoilage. It is estimated that 4 million cases of foodborne illness occurs each year within Canada contribu ng to hospitaliza ons and death, in addi on to nega vely affec ng the domes c and interna onal food markets.
SunWash Technologies Inc. aims to be a world leader in photocatalytic self‐cleaning polymers. SunWash photocatalytic polymers can produce free hydroxyl radicals and super oxide ions by receiving energy from light irradiation. These radicals are very strong oxidants which cause oxidation of organic materials, deterioration of cellular membranes, inac vate microbes and prevent biofilm forma on.
11/17/2014
Keith Warriner
$20,000
$65,000
$85,000
Guelph
With this project we are requesting funding to scientifically examine the efficacy of SunWash coatings at preventing the formation of biofilms and the stability when subject to repeated sanitation cycles.
Logikor, Inc.
Wilfrid Laurier University
Digital media and Optimizing transportation capacity utilization in the The goal of this study is to provide insights to enable optimum utilization of freight transportation capacity in the long‐haul trucking sector. Optimal capacity utilization is of importance because it contributed to lower costs for (a) clients whose freight must be transported on trucks, (b) end‐consumers of the merchandise, information & logistics industry
and (c) the public in the form of lower vehicle excess emissions and other related environmental consequences. This proposed study will accomplish its stated goal by communication identifying and analyzing initiatives to increase capacity utilization.
technologies
8/14/2014
Michael Haughton
$20,000
$25,000
$45,000
Waterloo
CB Shield Inc,
CB Shield Proof‐of‐Concept to improve sediment retention within catch basins
Most urban runoff enters a municipal sewer system through a catchbasin. Inside a catchbasin the area below sewer pipe is called a sump. The sump is intended to Bio‐economy and clean provide space where debris and sediment can accumulate preventing it from entering and blocking sewer pipes. However, sumps are not very effective water quality technologies
control mechanisms and small debris and sediment is often re‐mobilized and washed downstream. The CB Shield is a low‐cost, effective insert that increases the sediment retention within the catchbasin sump. CB Shield Inc. and the University of Toronto have collaborated to demonstrate and field test CB Shield prototypes. The objective of this work is to improve and refine the prototype design to maximize performance effectiveness, ease‐of‐operation and minimum cost. Outcomes of this research will include Ontario‐based performance evaluation and new operational protocols for CB Shield Inc. 9/10/2014
Jennifer Drake
$20,000
$20,000
$40,000
Toronto
Armour Therapeutics Inc.
Canadian Blood Services
Understanding the Effects of Combination Therapy with AT‐001 and Anti‐Androgen Anti‐Hormonals in Prostate Cancer
Pharmaceutical research Armour Therapeutics Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company leading the development of first‐in‐class anti‐hormone therapeutics for the treatment of reproductive‐
tissue‐based cancers, such as prostate and breast cancers. Armour’s lead compound for prostate cancer, AT‐001, was developed after the scientific discoveries made and manufacturing
at the University Health Network and Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto. AT‐001 is a non‐androgen, anti‐hormone therapy in development for patients with hormone‐
refractory prostate cancer (HRPC), and impairs tumor growth by multiple mechanisms simultaneously. Relaxin receptor antagonists, such as AT‐001, offer the potential for patients to continue hormone therapy well beyond the point where prostate/breast cancers become insensitive to traditional anti‐androgen or anti‐
estrogen therapeutic strategies, impairing tumor growth and prolonging survival. The collaborative project with a leading scientist at the Canadian Blood Services will advance Armour’s understanding of how well AT‐001 will perform in treating androgen‐sensitive prostate cancer compared to or combined with other approved, standard‐of‐care an ‐hormonal therapies.
10/20/2014
Donald Branch
$20,000
$44,350
$64,350
Ottawa
Voucher E‐Business (VEB)
Not applicable
Canadore College
2014‐15 Canadore OCE VEB Program
Voucher for E‐Business (VEB) connects eligible main‐street companies with contacts at Ontario colleges who can help them take advantage of online tools for driving Digital media and market expansion.
information & communication Geared to "main street" companies, this project engages faculty, technologists and students from Canadore College's Graphic Design program, to provide a real‐life technologies
learning opportunity for client‐based work and enrich program courses. The client, an Ontario‐based SME, will work with students who are supervised, supported, and guided by College professors and technologists. Participating clients must be willing to cooperate in providing project outcomes and success measures. Student teams act as consultants to the company, and are responsible for solving the challenges with input and guidance from college faculty and their industry partners. E‐business solu ons may include, but are not limited to, website development, online sales process, digital and social media and customer rela onship management.
7/22/2014
Deidre Bannerman
$20,000
$23,424
$43,424
North Bay
Ionada Incorporated
Ryerson University
Analytical Study of SO2 absorption in the membrane This project concerns the performance of membranes for the separation of acidic gases including SO2 from marine exhaust. The analyze will be conducted on a Bio‐economy and clean fiber tubes module
recently developed novel scrubber technology by the industrial partner, Ionada, which aiming at sulfur oxides from marine engine exhaust gases by selective technologies
absorption of sulfur oxides into ionic liquids. The separation of these gases will dramatically improve the commercial viability of exhaust treatment technologies such as gas scrubbing, gas filtering, and ionic liquid absorption technology. The key advantage of membranes is the low operation energy ‐ especially when compared to other gas separation technologies such as liquefaction, and solvent based separation technologies.
7/18/2014
Ziad Saghir
$20,000
$20,000
$40,000
Toronto
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 14
Program
Partners
ZEC Wind Power
Carleton University
Project Title
Experimental and Numerical Analyses of a Counter‐
Rotating Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine
Project Summary
Sector
According to the Global Wind Energy Council, the installed wind power global capacity increased approximately tenfold in the past decade to 282 GW (end of 2012). Bio‐economy and clean Despite the growth rate, wind power provides approximately less than 2% of the total energy consumption in the world nowadays. The installation of wind farms will technologies
continue to grow in Europe, Asia, and North America, as long as aligned with government policies. A modern wind farm will normally have more than a hundred turbines, each one with a capacity of few MWs of power generation. For isolated communities in Canada, small scale wind power generation systems (up to 75 kW) represent an alterna ve to replace diesel generators.
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
9/10/2014
Edgar Matida
$20,000
$29,000
$49,000
Ottawa
11/5/2014
Lora Ramunno
$20,000
$20,054
$40,054
Ottawa
8/18/2014
Mehdi Sheikhzadeh
$20,000
$58,361
$78,361
Sarnia
9/10/2014
Vibha Tyagi
$19,962
$28,176
$48,138
Oshawa
9/10/2014
Kari Kramp
$19,590
$41,148
$60,738
Belleville
ZEC Wind Power (Ottawa, ON) created a new compact counter‐rotating horizontal axis wind turbine with a capacity of 75 KW. ZEC Wind Power is interested in pursuing R&D to optimize certain parameters of this new turbine. Using the wind tunnel and water channel facilities available at Carleton University, small‐scale counter‐rotating turbines will be built and tested for power performance. These data will be compared against the full scale testings, which are planned to be conducted in 2015. In addition to the experimental analysis, numerical performance simulations of the small and full scale units will be performed using a combination of boundary element as well as vortex filament methods. Aiming at commercialization and a long term collaboration, the information gathered for this project will be used to refine current and future wind turbine related technologies by the company.
ZEC Wind Power is presently the recipient of the Market Readiness II funding during which is completed the design and construction of its full scale in‐shop protoype and is now moving to the next phase, Market Readiness III, during which it will install the first full scale field unit in Ontario. Voucher for Innovation and Productivity
Optiwave Systems Inc.
Modelling Stimulated Brillouin Scattering in Optical Fibres
Optiwave Systems Incorporated is a Canadian company focused on simulation and design tools for the photonics industry. Their top selling products are aimed at the Digital media and optical fibre communication industry, and include the simulation of entire optical fibre systems. While their simulation tool is very comprehensive, they have received information & repeated requests from customers that they include the physical process of stimulated Brillouin scattering into their optical fibre simulation tools. Stimulated Brillouin communication scattering results from the interaction between light and sound waves travelling along the fibre. For an intense enough light signal, this interaction can cause a large technologies
por on of the signal to be lost ‐ in fact it is converted to a backward propaga ng light wave ‐ and thus can be very deliterious for op cal communica on systems.
Current stimulated Brillouin scattering models can be overly simplified and are not universally applicable. Optiwave and Professor Lora Ramunno are currently working together to develop a robust stimulated Brillouin scattering model. This current proposal will allow Ramunno's group to incorporate this model into Optiwave's product line for new and existing customers' advanced research and development needs.
CARBER
Development of Intrinsically Safe Remote Monitoring CARBER is one of the leading companies in servicing tools for the petro‐chemical and many other industries where piping is one of the main production plant feature. Advanced manufacturing
the CARBER Isolation Tool
CARBER Isolation is the only tool in providing a 100% confirmed and monitored Isolation and provides the safest means of performing hot work on contaminated piping. CARBER company was incorporated in 1994 and operated out of Sarnia, Ontario, Canada for many years until outgrew the facilities. All of the testing and manufacturing is done in Wallaceburg, Ontario, Canada. CARBER Wallaceburg technicians provide services to the area refineries and chemical plants, including Toronto and Montreal. The head office is now in Texas, USA and controls all of the CARBER division’s worldwide. The company as a whole has revenue of approximately 55 million dollars a year and growing. CARBER and Lambton College, School of Technology, Energy, and Apprenticeship, Sarnia, Ontario are working together for developing of a wireless web based monitoring & supervisory system in piping services. The use of the developed system will result in a safer place for worker performing hot work on contaminated piping, less damage to isolation tools and faster service to minimize down time for customer requiring new welds or isolation lines for hot work. The design and testing of the wireless monitoring & supervisory units will open the door for Canadian process instrumentation suppliers and maintenance companies working in the petro‐chemical and refineries to compete na onally and globally using current technologies of communica on and industrial control tools..
The proposed project with Lambton College, Sarnia, Ontario is to develop remote monitoring and supervisory control added feature to the existing CARBER isolation tools. The new addition will provide a safer atmosphere for servicing technicians and allow for more space for other workers to complete their maintenance opera on resul ng in reducing down me for piping work.
CARBER believe this project would be instrumental in raising the company revenue streams by at least 3 to 5% immediately and possibly as high as 10% over five years and create 4 to 6 new employment opportunity for each maintenance work.
IFTech Inventing Future Technology Inc.
Durham College
IFTech‐ Gaming Suit‐ Wireless
BlueOcean NutraSciences
Loyalist College of Applied Algae Oil Extraction and Method Development ‐ Arts and Technology
Phase 1
IFTech has developed a gaming suit ARAIG (As Real As It Gets) which interacts with the user to increase their immersion based on the situation and/or interactions occurring within a range of media environments. The media environment, activities and interaction taking place in the virtual world, will translate into tangible sensory stimulations. This will affect the user’s interaction with this environment. The user becomes more aware of the virtual world through his or her heightened sensitivity. This is the Fourth Dimension of game play. ARAIG’s consumer markets consist of the Entertainment Industry (video games and movies), serious games and simulations (military, police, firefighter, etc.), medical (rehabilitation, monitoring, etc.) and augmented awareness (eg hazardous environments, etc.). ARAIG’s initial target markets are the video games and serious games and simulations industries. In the present proposal the Company in collaboration with Durham College will will develop wireless communications protocol for ARAIG. The purpose of this project is to develop the needed Communication Protocol between the Control Centre and the Decoder. Through the completion of this milestone we will have a universal wireless communication protocol that will allow ARAIG to be used for any application in any market that ARAIG’s sensory technology can provide a solution for. Digital media and information & communication technologies
BlueOcean NutraSciences is a Canadian company who operates out of Belleville and Toronto, Ontario. BlueOcean is developing specialty oils for the rapidly growing Bio‐economy and clean health and wellness, and animal feed markets. BlueOcean's production platforms utilize under‐valued waste streams, such as directing CO2 gas for production of technologies
selected strains of omega‐3 rich microalgae, and shrimp waste for astaxanthin and phospholipid omega‐3 oil. It is known that omega‐3 EPA and DHA supports overall good health, from brain development in infants, to the maintenance of cardiovascular health in adults and seniors. DHA plays a structural role in cell membranes, aiding in normal growth and development, while EPA plays a physiological role, acting as building blocks for cells in your vital organs. BlueOcean’s omega‐3 algae oil benefits the whole body by providing both EPA and DHA that your body can absorb and use easily. Currenlty, one of the largest omega‐3 sources is Antarctic krill, which is harvested by a giant vacuum suction on large trawlers. There is push back by consumers due to perceived sustainability issues and the possible adverse effects on Antarctic Ocean life including whales that feed exclusively on krill. Krill based omega‐3 oil suppliers argue that their percentage of catch is so small that it is sustainable, however, the market is already applying pressure to stop or reduce the amount of krill that can be harvested. The focus of this project is the extraction component of the production platform for AlgaOmega. The main factor associated with the extraction challenge is that the majority of industry oil extraction is conducted using large scale solvent extraction. This remains an accepted method however, consumer demand for higher quality products, more rigorous quality control, and environmentally acceptable practices has provided and impetus for the investigation of alternative extraction methods. This proposed project (phase 1) will concentrate on the determination of the most efficient oil extraction methodology using accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) and supercri cal fluid extrac on (SFE) technologies.
Upon successful completion of this extraction and method determination project (phase 1), BlueOcean will be able to have evidence to support extraction conditions and analytical methods for scale up. Furthermore, upon completion of phase 1, the proposed next step to commercialization (phase 2) can proceed which aims to validate the technology with a 6000 gallon PBR scale up. BlueOcean plans to build their production facility in Quinte West, Ontario in 2015/2016 with expected annual revenue of $7M and crea on of up to 50 skilled jobs.
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 15
Program
Partners
A&L Biologicals
Project Title
Meta‐transcriptome of high‐yield corn endophytic microbiome
Project Summary
Sector
A&L Biologicals has a mandate to develop and implement agricultural tests that growers can use for the production and maintenance of healthy soil, and the Bio‐economy and clean associated high crop yields. A&L Biologicals identified a farmer, Dean Glenny, who has established an extraordinarily productive ecosystem through non‐traditional technologies
farming methods that produces an average of twice that of adjacent farms. Molecular fingerprinting was used to demonstrate that bacterial species (the microbiome) associated with the soil and internal to the corn plant (endopy c), are different between the high and normal producing fields.
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
7/21/2014
Gregory Gloor
$19,926
$85,622
$105,548
London
The work in this proposal will determine the functional differences between high and normal yield sites by examining the endophytic corn sap microbiome; the microbiome that A&L Biologicals has identified to have the greatest difference between sites. Dr. Gloor has developed approaches that use high throughput sequencing to characterize the molecular functions of entire bacterial communities and their effect on the host. He will apply those methods and identify functional differences between the high and low yield sites in both the microbial community and the corn plant. The results of the functional analysis will be done jointly by scientists from both A&L Biologicals and Dr. Gloor's research unit. The resulting analysis of both the growth‐
promoting pathways in corn and in the microbiome, will identify key bioindicators of organisms and functions associated with high production agro‐ecosystems for future field tes ng.
The analysis will will provide detailed information as to which organism should be selected for development of biofertilizer formulations, what functions are required for corn growth in a high yield site, and demonstrate that existing, and developing molecular methods used by A&L Biologicals can provide accurate data for use as a service tool to iden fy healthy soils/plant ssue.
Peytec, Inc.
Ryerson University
Innovative RFID based Real‐time Inventory Location Peytec’s RFID based proactive real‐time location tracking solution has a wide range of applications in the agriculture, manufacturing and retail industries. This pilot Digital media and Tracking ‐ Manufacturing Pilot
project will allow Peytec to work with a world‐leading manufacturer to design and implement Peytec integrated solution into an automotive manufacturing setting ‐ information & allowing Peytec to test and validate their solution in this sector platform. As a leading global manufacturer in the auto industry, one in seven Canadians is either communication directly or indirectly employed in the automotive industry. With such a large impact on Canada’s economy, the success and profitability of manufacturing companies is technologies
integral to Canada. This implementation project seeks to show proof of concept for Peytec, Inc.'s solution with a large‐scale manufacturing facility. 12/15/2014
Kaamran Raahemifar
$20,000
$104,000
$124,000
Toronto
Sansys
Smart Capital Project and Facility Management Software
7/21/2014
Miriam Capretz
$20,000
$47,600
$67,600
London
Rumidifier Home Comforts Inc.
Niagara College of Applied Non‐electric Baseboard Humidifier Solution
Arts and Technology
10/20/2014
Marc Nantel
$19,688
$64,875
$84,563
Niagara‐on‐the‐
Lake
10/20/2014
Marc Nantel
$19,083
$52,907
$71,990
Lake
Sansys provides consulting, training and custom Web‐based applications to effectively manage capital projects and operation of facility infrastructure projects. The two main Sansys products are: MyProjects software for capital project management and the Facility Infrastructure Equipment Management (FIEM) system for facility management. The ever increasing competition, tighter project timelines and shear project sizes demand a better project management approach and Sansys aims to meet this demand by providing sophis cated and innova ve so ware solu ons.
Sansys’ vision is to provide smart capital project and facility management system in which smart devices interconnected over networks will operate interactively to achieve better, more efficient and cost effective management of capital project and operation of facilities. This project is a step towards this vision; specifically, the project aims to integrate various existing capital project and facility management software components by enabling information exchange among them. Moreover, a new architecture to be developed will facilitate integra on of Sansys products with external, non‐Sansys systems which vary greatly among Sansys clients.
Sansys believes that every project is unique and has its own requirements; thus, Sansys will continue its dedication to providing customized solutions to meet the specific needs of each project and client. The integration solution to be provided by this project will offer means for efficiently customizing software solutions.
Rumidifier Home Comforts Inc. (Rumidifier) approached Niagara Research, the research and innovation department at Niagara College, to collaborate on an Advanced Advanced manufacturing
Manufacturing research project. The scope of the project is to create and test a prototype product using a concept developed by Rumidifier of an electric‐free baseboard humidifier. Rumidifier has established a successful business based on the development, production, and distribution of a non‐electric floor vent humidifiers and identified through market research a gap in the marketplace for a baseboard humidifier. While its current product is designed for floor vents, the new product concept works by utilizing the heat given off by baseboard heaters. In operations since 2011 as a Canadian controlled private corporation, Rumidifier sells its products through online and in‐store channels such as: Home Depot, Home Hardware, Shop.ca, and Amazon.com. This research project presents several areas of expertise Niagara Research could assist with including: engineering design, product development, product testing, technology development, and problem‐solving. Through these activities, a team of research students and faculty leads will work together with the project partner, Jeri Rodrigs of Rumidifier Home Comforts Inc., to advance the technology in this field. Together, the team will utilize Niagara Research's leading edge equipment and compu ng power including the Fortus 400M 3D Prototyping Machine and 3D CAD so ware, among others. While the current Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of the idea or concept is at TRL‐1, with the assistance of Niagara Research it can be brought to TRL‐4. TRL‐4 represents a prototype model which has been tested in a simulated environment. Once the prototype is ready and testing is completed, our industry partner will advance to the next stages of TRL and commercialize the product for online and in‐store sales.
1000 Islands Lawn & Landscape
Niagara College of Applied Refaced Surface Cleaner Prototype
Arts and Technology
1,000 Islands Lawn and Landscaping (1,000 Islands) approached Niagara Research, the research and innovation department at Niagara College, to collaborate on an Advanced Manufacturing project. The scope of the project is to create and test a functional prototype using a concept developed by Harrison Olajos, the founder of the company, to improve the efficiency of outdoor surface cleaning and restora on. Advanced manufacturing
The Brockville Ontario based company, in operations for over three years, founded a subsidiary business (Refaced) specifically focused on cleaning and restoring outdoor surfaces such as interlocking brick, natural stone, and concrete. Over time, aging outdoor surfaces face problems such as brick shifting, statin buildup, cracking, and vegetation growth. The prototype concept takes the traditional method of cleaning, primarily using a high pressure washer, and semi‐automates it with a piece of machinery that reduces the overall water consump on, recycles grey‐water, and increases the rate at which restora on and cleaning jobs are completed.
This research project presents several areas of expertise Niagara Research could assist with including: engineering design, product development, product testing, technology development, and problem‐solving. Through these activities, a team of research students and faculty leads will work together with the project partner, Harrison Olajos, to advance the technology in this field. Together, the team will utilize Niagara Research's leading edge equipment and computing power including the Fortus 400M 3D Prototyping Machine and 3D CAD so ware, among others.
While the current Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of the idea or concept is at TRL‐1, with the assistance of Niagara Research it can be brought to TRL‐4. TRL‐4 represents a prototype model which has been tested in a simulated environment. Once the prototype is ready and testing is completed, our industry partner will advance to the next stages of TRL and commercialize the product for online and in‐store sales.
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 16
Program
Partners
Golden Rose Enterprises
Project Title
Niagara College of Applied Oscillating Window Brush Cleaner
Arts and Technology
Project Summary
Golden Rose Enterprises (Golden) approached Niagara Research, the research and innovation department at Niagara College, to collaborate on an Advanced Manufacturing project. The scope of the project is to create and test a functional prototype developed by Kyle Rose, the founder of the company, to improve the efficiency and effec veness of window cleaning with a technologically advanced window brush cleaner.
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
10/15/2014
Marc Nantel
$19,443
$35,185
$54,628
Lake
12/15/2014
Ibrahim Deiab
$20,000
$53,800
$73,800
Guelph
The St. Catharines, Ontario based company, in operations for over two years, offers solar panel, window, eaves, and building siding cleaning services. Throughout its operations Golden identified major challenges in the industry that could but haven’t yet been addressed – specifically the work safety and efficiency of the service. Supported by medical journal articles cited in the proposal, the motion of cleaning windows exposes operators to physical stressors due to repetitive and forceful actions which commonly leads to musculoskeletal disorder. As a result, Golden designed a concept which advances window cleaning brushes to include pneumatically driven oscilla ng bristles, among other changes, to reduce the amount of effort and me required to clean windows.
This research project presents several areas of expertise Niagara Research could assist with including: engineering design, product development, product testing, technology development, and problem‐solving. Through these activities, a team of research students and faculty leads will work together with the project partner, Kyle Rose, to advance the technology in this field. Together, the team will utilize Niagara Research's leading edge equipment and computing power including the Fortus 400M 3D Prototyping Machine and 3D CAD so ware, among others.
While the current Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of the idea or concept is at TRL‐1, with the assistance of Niagara Research it can be brought to TRL‐4. TRL‐4 represents a prototype model which has been tested in a simulated environment. Once the prototype is ready and testing is completed, our industry partner will advance to the next stages of TRL and commercialize the product for online and in‐store sales.
Linamar
SimentIT Inc.
Digital media and Seneca College of Applied Creation and development of specialized and generic This project endeavors to advance innovation in the field of augmented reality by creating more effective linkages between interactive content and the marketing game mechanics for novel Augmented Reality initiatives they serve. In order to accelerate mass adoption, we seek to align ourselves with established brands and distribution channels and use augmented reality as information & Arts and Technology
collectable trading card games
a way to extend the experience with physical packaging. Our ability to immerse users in a superb digital experience will demonstrate the entertainment, economic communication and social value of AR in packaging. This collaboration between Seneca College and SimentIT Inc. will strengthen Ontario's image as an innovation hub, build on technologies
Seneca College's international reputation for innovative, high tech gaming and animation, provide economic benefits to SimentIT Inc. and Ontario and provide an excellent learning and employment opportunity for the students. 10/15/2014
James Watzke
$19,895
$20,026
$39,921
Markham
Woodstock Hydro Services Inc.
Ryerson University
3DSolar: Web‐based 3D Environment for Modeling Urban Solar Engery Potential
3DSolar is an innovative web‐based 3D environment for modeling and precisely estimating solar energy potential on urban rooftops. Using 3DSolar, users can explore Bio‐economy and clean 3D model of their rooftops, play and place the selected solar panels, and get instant estimation of the output of electricity generation, with other simulation results technologies
such as environment footprints (CO2 savings, equivalent tree saved, etc.). 3DSolar will introduce the first 3D solar modeling, analysis and simulation solution that runs in web browsers without installation of any software components and that provides a user‐friendly interface to assist the design and decision‐making of rooftop solar by solar installation contractors and the public, as well as grid planning by utility companies. Closely working with the Woodstock Hydro primarily for enhancing its public outreach capacity and electricity planning, 3DSolar is expected to be a new tool that benefits Canadian energy companies, municipalities and the public.
11/17/2014
Songnian Li
$19,996
$25,043
$45,039
Toronto
Polar Sapphire
Queen's University
Sintering of Ultra High Purity Alumina Powders
The objective of this proposal is to examine the possibility of sintering high purity alumina (Al2O3) powder. The supporting company, Polar Sapphire is a start‐up Advanced manufacturing
company in business of manufacturing high purity alumina powders (99.999%) for use as raw material for the growth of transparent single crystal sapphire to be used as displays in various electronic devices and LEDs. Currently, the company uses several powder synthesis routes to manufacture high purity alumina powders.The end product of these processing techniques is the partly agglomerated alumina powder. In order to become a commercially viable product, the powder has to be sintered to densities of over 90% of its theoretical density. Although sintering of submicron size alumina to high densities using dopants such as MgO, TiO2 or SiO2 is a standard process in industry, sintering of high purity alumina to high densities without dopants represents a significant challenge.
12/15/2014
Vladimir Krstic
$20,000
$50,018
$70,018
Kingston
Rodger Industries Inc.
Optimization of pressure drop for flow of viscous liquids through filters (strainers)
This proposal is focused on the development of a predictive database (correlations through experiments and numerical simulations) for optimization of the pressure Advanced manufacturing
drop across a strainer for various viscous liquids commonly used in food and pharmaceutical industries. The project aims to formulate the optimum pressure drop and flow rate that can be achieved from a selected strainer for industrial shear‐thinning non‐Newtonian fluids. The project will involve concurrent experiments and numerical simulations and will be carried out in collaboration with Rodger Industries Inc. Rodger Industries Inc. is Canada’s premier manufacturer of filters/strainers used in sanitary processing of dairy, food and pharmaceutical industries. The completion of the project will assist Rodger Industries Inc. to expand the range of applica ons for their products and hence their customer base.
2/11/2015
Ram Balachandar
$20,000
$28,347
$48,347
Windsor
BrainFx
Validation of BrainFx 360 Research Pilot Program
10/1/2014
Jeff Holmes
$20,000
$31,368
$51,368
London
Alcohol Countermeasure Systems Corp. (ACS)
Advanced Alcohol Fuel Cell Sensors with Nano‐
Engineered Electrodes
9/18/2014
Zhongwei Chen
$10,760
$10,758
$21,518
Waterloo
7/10/2015
Optimization of Cutting Parameters and Conditions to Enhance Tool Life
With rising energy costs, global competition pressures and increased customer demand for cheaper, more efficient products, the manufacturing sector needs to Bio‐economy and clean dramatically improve machining efficiency. This will not only lead to increases in the competitiveness and profitability of the manufacturing facility but will result in a technologies
"greener" work environment due to the reduction of waste, more efficient use of energy and resources, and decreased CO2 emissions. An improved understanding of machining conditions involved in processes like metal cutting and their overall impact on both the machined surface and tool life allow for the identification and development of areas for productivity improvement. The goal of this project is to address the existing environmental and economic constraints, associated with Linamar's machining process by optimizing the process variables during metal cutting to utilize smaller amounts of a cheaper and more environmentally friendly coolant. This will result in the the production of decreased levels of less environmentally unfriendly industrial waste and will save Linamar money in both purchasing and disposal costs of coolant. The BrainFx Research Pilot Program project is led by Dr. Jeff Holmes at Western University. The project brings advanced analytics to the data collected by 23 clinical Advanced health sites across Canada on greater than 1000 participants. The project expands upon the pilot study led by Dr. Lauren Sergio at York University to demonstrate validation technologies
of the BrainFx 360 assessment tool for people with brain disorders through normative data, further psychometrics, and gold standard comparisons.
Drinking and driving continues to be one of Ontario’s most significant road safety issues. During the past decade, more than 2,000 lives have been lost and more than Advanced health 50,000 people have sustained injuries in collisions involving a drunk driver. Increasing alcohol consumption coupled with the rise in the number of road accidents technologies
caused by drunk drivers has boosted the demand for breath testing devices. Breathalyzers are the instruments used for estimating blood alcohol content concentration (BrAC) levels from human breath. These devices are also gaining importance owing to a rise in demand for effective detection of BrAC levels at work places. The global breathalyzer market was valued at USD $402.1 million in 2012 and is estimated to reach a market worth USD $4.5 billion in 2019 at a compound annual growth rate of 41.3% from 2013 to 2019 [9]. Clearly market growth comes in large part from the development of a new market for breathalyzers as healthcare diagnos c tools, along with the demand for commercially viable and compe ve alterna ve technologies.
Fuel cell based breathalyzers or alcohol fuel cell sensors (AFCSs) respond differently to human breath samples than other types of alcohol sensor systems typically used in portable breathalyzers. The unique AFCS response is attributed to differences in fuel cell construction, which makes it a promising candidate as compared to other types of alcohol detectors such as semiconductors and spectrophotometers. The heart of AFCSs is a membrane electrode assembly (MEA), which consists of a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) and catalyst layers (CLs). In order to acquire more efficient and cost‐effective AFCSs with higher longevity, technical barriers must be overcome, including high cost, insufficient performance, and durability challenges.
This project provides significant technological advancements to the current state of AFCS component materials. With an industrial partnership with Alcohol Countermeasure Systems Corp. (ACS), these material components can be modified based on Dr. Zhongwei Chen’s patented nano‐engineered catalyst technologies and management systems and can then be taken from the nanotechnology engineering design and development stage to application and commercialization in large scale AFCS system modules. The positive impact to the technological capabilities and marketability of products produced by University of Waterloo and ACS will be immense. Moreover, the economic, environmental and social benefits of successful AFCSs render the results of this project very attractive to Ontario breathalyzer industry, residents and government agencies.
Section 1 ‐ 17
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
Detour Gold Inc.
Biomonitoring & Restoration of Biodiversity
The goal of this research is to develop products and services for biomonitoring and rehabilitation of mine sites, which enable sustainable development and Bio‐economy and clean conservation of biodiversity in Ontario. This includes the development of appropriate habitat conditions for key wildlife species such as woodland caribou, and technologies
identifies the ecological requirements for the establishment and propagation of the most abundant terrestrial lichen species, native boreal plants and soil biota in Ontario’s boreal forest. This collaborative R&D program with Detour Gold Corporation will utilize expertise at the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario and involve training of HQP who will be conducting applied research on‐site at the Detour Gold mine. This research will establish biodiversity biomonitoring research plots within an adaptive management framework focused on restoration of boreal plant and lichen communities including those species of particular interest to local 1st Nations communities. The specific objectives of the proposed research are to 1) Develop a DNA barcoding protocol for baseline biomonitoring to assess plant and lichen communities on mine sites, 2) Establish methods for restoration of native flora to support erosion control using native plants/lichens, through soil treatment experiments, 3) Determine the soil treatment and conditions that best support the establishment of the native flora including those traditional species (e.g., blueberries and sweet grass) important to local First Nations through meetings and research on traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), and 4) Develop restoration protocols for the establishment of terrestrial lichens on mine sites that may eventually support woodland caribou habitat.
3/4/2015
Steven Newmaster
$150,000
$375,000
$525,000
Guelph
Digital Specialty Chemicals Limited
Novel Main Group and Transition Metal Precursors for Atomic Layer and Chemical Vapor Deposition
As the conventional silica‐based dielectric material cannot satisfy the requirement of modern microelectronics,several transition metal oxides with superior properties Advanced manufacturing
have been identified as the next generation dielectric materials for microelectronics. One aspect of this research proposal is concerned with the development of new precursors and processes for deposition of thin films of transition metal oxides used in microelectronics and semiconductor fabrication. The second aspect of this research is aimed to develop new (Group 13/15 and hybrid) molecular precursors and processes for the production of semiconductors that can be used in optoelectronics.
9/18/2014
Datong Song
$150,000
$551,308
$701,308
Toronto
MORGAN SOLAR INC.
Advanced Characterization of Innovative Concentrating Optics for Economical Photovoltaics
Concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) solar electric power technology, under development by MORGAN SOLAR INC. (Toronto, Ontario), has the potential to achieve twice Bio‐economy and clean the efficiency of the conventional fixed flat panel (FFP) technologies being installed today, and to provide more stable daily power generation load curves friendly to technologies
electricity grid managers. CPV technology is more complex than FFP, drawing on advanced optical and compound semiconductor photovoltaics devices which have a stronger spectral dependence than conventional silicon or cadmium telluride. Optimal performance follows if the spectral response of CPV systems is well‐matched to the spectral content of sunlight throughout the lifetime of a CPV field installation. The uOttawa SUNLAB group will provide sophisticated existing capability and innovative new techniques in spectral analysis and modeling of optics, photovoltaics and longitudinal atmospheric conditions, to thoroughly characterize the Morgan Solar technology in two regions, in order to identify technology design improvement opportunities and establish the basis for accurate bankable lifetime financial models.
9/18/2014
Henry Schriemer
$70,000
$76,500
$146,500
Ottawa
Tactual Labs Canada;NSERC
OS enhancement for zero‐latency UI response
Users have an expectation of responsiveness when they make input to a computer. The slower the device responds, the greater the impact on the user’s performance, and the greater their frustration. Until recently, the developers of interactive computing software, such as applications and operating systems, have worked under an assumption that ever‐increasing processor speeds and decreasing costs will enable fast, responsive computers capable of running increasingly complex code. This is based largely on Moore’s Law, a prediction made in 1965 by the co‐founder of Intel that the number of transistors on a chip will continuously double every two years.
11/13/2014
Daniel Wigdor
$150,000
$462,154
$612,154
Toronto
Digital media and information & GDLS‐C is a part of the Combat Systems business group of General Dynamics Corporation. The company is a world leader in the engineering, manufacturing and communication sustainment of Light Armoured Vehicles. From its location in London Ontario, the company provides engineering research, development, and technological innovation technologies
keeping GDLS‐C at the forefront of worldwide armoured force moderniza on programs.
11/13/2014
Dan Douglas
$58,556
$105,479
$164,035
London
11/17/2014
$20,000
$50,260
$70,260
Toronto
9/18/2014
Rashid Rashidzadeh
$100,000
$220,880
$320,880
Toronto
While this has proved largely to be true, in 2011, a tipping point was reached: for the first time, worldwide sales of smartphones and tablets outpaced more powerful desktop and laptop computers. This new focus on mobile devices has caused two important changes for the developers of interactive computers. First, because these devices conserve power for the sake of mobility, their processing capabilities are set back several generations of Moore’s doubling. Second, because these devices are used for media consumption, they are designed to maximize screen size, which has forced the adoption of input made directly to the screen (commonly called “multi‐
touch”, first developed at the University of Toronto). Multi‐touch input compounds slow responsiveness, because users are able to see a physical separation between an object being manipulated and their finger. Our preliminary work has found that the current high levels of latency reduce user performance by over 25%.
This project produces so ware architectures which eliminate the need for faster processors, and which guarantee real‐ me response to all user input.
General Dynamics Land Systems ‐ Canada
Fanshawe College of Applied Arts and Technology
GDLS‐C Training Architecture
General Dynamics Land Systems – Canada (GDLS‐C) has teamed up with Fanshawe to develop cross‐program architecture for training delivery methodology. In support of its products, GDLS‐C trainers go beyond the classroom and technical manuals to prepare soldiers and marines from around the world to properly maintain their vehicles. Not only do GDLS‐C mechanics diagnose and accurately make repairs in and out of the combat zone, they help provide New Equipment Training (NET) and technical support to get units ready for deployment.
With support from the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) the GDLS‐C/Fanshawe team will be developing the architecture for a best‐in‐class training system, incorpora ng an op mized combina on of instructor led, prac cal, synthe c immersive simulator, and computer‐based training.
In the first phase of the project the team will conduct a benchmarking study and produce a technical white paper with a recommendation of the direction of the simulator, including the identification of industry sources which could supply components for the proposed training program. The proposal will lead to the second phase of GDLS‐C's training architechture project and will begin to develop the training system using Phase 1 recommenda ons. Voucher for Innovation and Productivity
DCL International Inc.
Effects of Impurities on the Catalytic Abatement of Methane from Natural Gas Engine Exhaust
Methane emission from natural gas engine exhaust is not being regulated currently but is expected to be regulated within the next few years. In order to meet the increasingly stringent environmental regulations, advanced catalytic technology is required for the abatement of un‐combusted methane. This topic is widely recognized as a long standing challenge towards cleaner air and lower greenhouse gas emissions. Addressing the challenge has become an increasingly urgent issue, because of the increase in using natural gas as an alternative fuel source in both stationary and mobile power generation systems. DCL International Inc., a Canadian based exhaust emission control company with a headquarter and research centre in Concord, Ontario, is partnering with University of Toronto to develop advanced catalytic technology for methane abatement, specifically focusing on developing new sulfur resistant catalysts for treating low temperature natural gas engine exhausts. The project will adapt combined kinetic and catalyst characterization strategies to explore new catalyst formulations, their performance, and catalyst regeneration methods. The findings from this project would lead to next generation catalyst materials with higher sulfur tolerances and catalyst regeneration strategies. This work will also provide essential catalyst performance data for developing next generation methane abatement technology and position DCL Interna onal Inc. to develop a market‐ready product for commercializa on.
Landau Gage Inc.
Contactless test and measurement system for transmission parts
Automakers are increasing their demand for transmission parts and will continue to do so as vehicle sales rise. Additionally the standards for consistency and accuracy Advanced manufacturing
are essential. The manufacturing process of these parts is extremely complex and maintaining the dimensional integrity for all parts is critical. Therefore, high speed inspection has been a necessity for today's market. Coordinate Measuring Machines (CMM) are commonly used to measure geometrical characteristics of transmission parts. It takes on average 15 minutes to measure a typical transmission part using a conventional touch trigger probe CMM machine. In this project a contactless laser based CMM machine will be developed to reduce the measurement time to less 2 minutes without compromising the degree of details due to the time constraint.
7/10/2015
Bio‐economy and clean technologies
Section 1 ‐ 18
Program
Partners
Ecologix Heating Technologies Inc.
Ryerson University
Project Title
Design optimization and performance characterization of an air source heat pump system coupled with building integrated photovoltaic‐
thermal (BIPV/T) collectors
Project Summary
Sector
Buildings consume a significant amount of primary energy and a major source of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. Several proven technologies available for Bio‐economy and clean building heating/cooling differ in terms of energy saving potential, GHG emissions mitigation and dependency on fossil fuels. The successful acceptance of any new technologies
technological development depends on its efficiency, cost‐effectiveness, reliability, and competitiveness with other technologies. Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHP) are considered a promising technology which can enable buildings to eliminate or minimize the use of natural gas, oil, and electricity. However, the ASHP systems has achieved a limited acceptance in Canada due to their reduced heating performance in winter season. The ASHP systems heating capacity and the coefficient of performance (COP) decrease considerably as the source (air) temperature drops below zero degree centigrade. On the other hand, solar thermal collector provides an emissions free source of heat, but cannot provide all the hea ng needs of buildings, especially during cold season.
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
2/25/2015
Alan Fung
$20,000
$50,000
$70,000
Toronto
9/18/2014
Pierre Sullivan
$82,000
$217,325
$299,325
Toronto
11/17/2014
Medhat Shehata
$20,000
$30,920
$50,920
Toronto
12/10/2014
Dmitriy Soldatov
$19,998
$19,992
$39,990
Guelph
Digital media and Northline Canada Ltd is designing, selling and servicing traffic and vehicle detection products across Canada for over a quarter of a century. Their clients predominantly include the roads and highway departments of Cities, Towns, Municipalities, Regional Governments and Ministries across Canada and the United information & States. Their equipment is essential for gathering road and highway statistics used for planning and maintenance. In the current project they are collaborating with communication Durham College to develop a Asset and Inventory Management System (AIMS) which will help their clients to manage the complete lifecycle of their assets, track their technologies
location to ensure assets are not missing or stolen, eliminate high incidence of human error, and ensure upgrades and system deployments run effectively. Asset tracking through AIMS will lead to reduction in labour costs, increased revenues, improved efficiencies and increased visibility of the assets.
10/1/2014
Vibha Tyagi
$19,962
$22,136
$42,098
Oshawa
Lower extremity powered exoskeletons are intelligent assistive devices that enable people with spinal cord injuries to walk and interact with their chosen Advanced health environment in an upright position. These devices are self‐supporting walking frames with powered actuators at the hips, knees, and/or ankles that are controlled in technologies
realtime to create motion and resist limb collapse. A partnership between The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) / University of Ottawa and Bionik Laboratories Inc. will develop and test the new ARKE exoskeleton, a novel Canadian exoskeleton from Bionik Laboratories that should provide a cost effective and highly functional device for people with spinal cord injuries or lower extremity weakness. This exploratory study will evaluate ARKE use within a physical rehabilitation environment to improve physical capacity for people with spinal cord injury (SCI) and then use this informa on to refine ARKE so that it is ready for everyday use.
11/13/2014
Edward Lemaire
$145,585
$360,811
$506,396
Ottawa
The intent of this project is to overcome the performance limitations of both ASHP and solar thermal technology by combining the two heating concepts in an integrated system, which can allow the complete or par al subs tu on of conven onal hea ng technologies based on natural gas, oil or electricity.
The new innovative design will allow residential and commercial buildings to operate as energy generating systems and provide the opportunity for a transformation from fossil fuel based technologies to net zero energy buildings. The project will lead to a better understanding of the technical potential and benefits of the combined system based on the Building Integrated Photovoltaic‐Thermal Collectors (BIPV/T), ASHP, and Thermal Energy Storage (TES). The project is a significant research in natural science, engineering, and in the growth of net zero energy building concepts. The expected outcomes of this research will contribute in the development of optimized design of combined system with better control strategies. It will also provide credible information to the building industry, policy maker, and the system integrators. In addition, this research will increase the existing university expertise on the combined technology for future research and training, and will prepare a team of highly skilled personnel on the subject.
Coraltec
Improved droplet counter capable of field use
Sprays and nozzles are used in a wide range of industries with a variety of applications. The applications include coating, cooling, cleaning, painting and fueling. In all Advanced manufacturing
these applications, the spray characteristics impacts the industrial process. The characteristics include the spray droplet size, velocity and mass distribution. Arguably, the spray droplet size is most important as it determines the amount of liquid sprayed as a result improper spray can cause significant damage to the process. Oversizing can produce valuable waste. It can increase the consump on of water and electricity and decrease the quality of the finished product.
Currently there are different methods for spray size measurement. The most common methods of non‐intrusive measurement of droplet size are: (1) Optical Particle Counter (imaging) (2) laser diffraction analyzer, and (3) Laser or Phase Doppler Velocimetry. Image processing lacks accuracy; however, it can be used to characterize a variety of liquid sprays and is relatively simple and low cost. Laser based systems, on the other hand, provide a large amount of accurate data in a short time, however, they are very complicated, and their installation and application is very time consuming. Their use requires a lab environment and equipment and tests cannot be performed on site. They are also very expensive devices, therefore, they are mainly used for research purposes and hardly used in the industry as a tool to characterize spray size. The usual protocol is to send the nozzle to a research facility where the required equipment is available for tes ng.
Currently, there are no method of measuring droplet sizes in a simple, inexpensive and rapid fashion. Industrial operators mainly rely on visual tests and do not change a nozzle until it’s visually defective. But it is well‐documented that a nozzle is defective long before it is visually detectable. A solution which addresses this will benefit many industries as well as academia and research centers which do not have access to high‐end testing equipment and facilities. The main object of the project is to improve a spray droplet sizer based on a new and patented concept. The device will be portable, easy to use, accurate, fast and affordable for on‐site and online spray tests. The current project aims to study the measured signal and characterize its behavior to quan fy droplet size and velocity based.
Lafarge Canada
Ryerson University
Testing the Durability of Pervious Concrete Under Canadian Winter
GreenMantra Technologies
Investigation into the effect different industrial wax Dr. Dmitriy Soldatov from the University of Guelph, and GreenMantra Technologies are proposing a collaborative project related to the industrial manufacturing and Advanced manufacturing
manufacturing technologies have on the molecular testing of synthetic and petroleum based waxes. The goals of the project would be to investigate the effect different manufacturing technologies have on the waxes composition of products.
structural composi on. Bio‐economy and clean Pervious concrete is a type of concrete characterized by high void content that allows the drainage of rain to re‐charge the ground water reservoir. It is used as pavements in parking lots or low traffic areas, as well as sidewalks. It has been successfully used as an effective storm water management tool. The use of pervious technologies
concrete offers many benefits including: (i) provide continuous flow and filtration of water, (ii) reduce the heat island effect defined as the increase in temperature in urban areas compared to nearby rural areas, and (iii) optimize land use through replacing large‐area retention ponds. Similar to all other cement‐based products, wintertime conditions must be considered in the design process. While the effect of different deicing salts or liquids on normal concrete has been studied to some extent, there is a need to investigate the effects of deicers on pervious concrete and determine the types of deicer that can be applied to it with minimum deleterious effects. Indeed, the increased need to use pervious concrete and the evolving development of deicing agents raise the need to evaluate the effects of such agents on pervious concrete.
The objective of this research is to assess the effects of various types of deicing agents on the durability of pervious concrete when exposed to wintertime conditions (Freezing and thawing cycles). As deicing agents are available in several forms ranging from liquid to various grain products of different chemical compositions, the study will focus on evaluating the effects of common types of deicing agents. The research work will initially aim at collecting and analyzing data followed by optimizing a test method to enable evaluating different deicers in a small scale laboratory program. Ultimately, the findings of this research will lead to perform a larger scale field trial. By the end of this study, both theoretical basis for further research as well as practical recommendations on the treatment of pervious concrete in winter me condi ons will to be established.
There are currently several major technologies, and their many variations, to manufacture wax products. These technologies include polymerization, catalytic or thermal depolymerisation, GreenMantra’s proprietary technology, and refinement. In addition to thermoanalytical and spectroscopic methods, X‐ray diffraction analysis, a technique typically not used in the analysis of waxes, we believe will provide understanding of the mechanism of GreenMantra’s catalyst, as well as deeper understanding of other technologies.
North Line Canada Ltd.
Durham College
Bionik Laboratories
Ottawa Hospital Research Powered Exoskeleton for People with Spinal Cord Institute
Injury
7/10/2015
AIMS Durham_new form
Section 1 ‐ 19
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
Stackpole International
McMaster University
An intelligent design of lean high‐strength ferrous powder metallurgy alloys
Stackpole International is a leading manufacturer of oil pumps and powder metal components, and includes 6 manufacturing facilities and technical centres throughout North America. Headquartered in Ancaster, Ontario, Stackpole International’s Powder Metal Division (Mississauga, ON) is looking to work with McMaster University researchers to investigate a new manufacturing technique that will allow for the manufacturing of complex shaped steel parts. Challenges presented in this project include predic ng the hardenability of mul component powder metallurgy steel, subject to gas quenching.
Through investigative research and mathematical modeling, McMaster University will work with Stackpole’s Powder Metal Division to design and develop inexpensive hardenable powder metal ferrous alloys not requiring helium for high pressure gas quenching.
The benefits of this project include, but are not limited to, providing Stackpole with the alloy design predictive capability to facilitate competitiveness in today’s automotive manufacturing sector; as well as the knowledge to translate this to applications in thermal processes at other operating divisions.
3/30/2015
Dmitri Malakhov
Christie Digital Systems Canada Inc.
Queen's University
Red‐Emitting Ceramic Phosphor for Laser Phosphor Projection
This VIP2 program is centered on the development and application of a new high power illumination system with a key industry partner in Ontario. The new Advanced manufacturing
illumination system leverages an emerging technology that employs economical high efficiency blue laser diode light combined with a new highly robust phosphor material capable of withstanding high laser power. The client company, a leader in its field, continues to invest in new technology especially in illumination which is a key component of its product. By inves ng R&D funds in this project the company will be able to offer the most up to date product in its compe ve market space.
The new laser diode phosphor illumination system is an emerging technology in the clients market however there is a significant competitive advantage that can be gained with the development of a new class of more reddish‐emitting ceramic phosphor material that has key market applications demanding the highest in color quality. In initial discussion the client has chosen the Materials Engineering department at Queens University due to their lengthy history in working with high performance ceramic materials that are very similar to the optical phosphors emerging today. Currently, the industry partner company, uses Ce‐doped yttria‐alumina garnets (Ce:Y3Al5O12) phosphor that consists of ~50% green, 20% yellow and only 30% red color emission. Due to a deficiency in red color, an additional series of filters must be used in order to produce properly balanced white illumination. Although filters improve the balance of color, their presence in the system increases power consumption and lowers the illumination brightness by as much as 40%. The objective in this program is the design, development and prototype fabrication of ceramic materials capable of emi ng high efficiency red color that can be used for a new genera on of illumina on systems.
11/13/2014
OCE Commitment
City
$100,000
$100,000
$200,000
Hamilton
Vladimir Krstic
$79,782
$340,292
$420,074
Kingston
11/13/2014
James Cotton
$61,500
$64,000
$125,500
Hamilton
12/10/2014
Bryan Karney
$20,000
$33,200
$53,200
Toronto
12/10/2014
Richard Wildes
$19,950
$20,075
$40,025
North York
The key prerequisite for satisfactory development of the new reddish phosphor is to leverage existing knowledge at Queens with the newly emerging knowledge on ceramic phosphors. In addition to demanding mechanical properties such as thermal conductivity, the material must have the correct optical density and high purity. Thus, the emphasis in this program will be placed on finding fabrication methods that are capable of giving high purity, high density (>99% of its theoretical density), partially transparent red‐emitting phosphor based on doped silicon nitride (SiAlON) and other ceramics. The Materials Engineering department at Queens under Pr. Vladimir Krstic possesses key equipment found nowhere else in Canada, of note this equipment includes very high pressure and high temperature sintering equipment that is required for fabrica on the strongest ceramic materials.
This project will advance the development of a novel technology for the harvesting and recirculation of exhaust gas energy ‐‐ the Pizza Oven Waste Energy Recovery (POWER) system. Created for natural gas pizza ovens in the short term, this modular device will be easily deployable in the future to a wide range of commercial furnaces or ovens operating on natural gas. This transformative system will capture lost energy and redeploy it as electricity. Benefits include the significant conservation of natural gas by recycling waste energy a reduction in emissions that harm our environment, and lower operating costs achieved through natural gas and electrical consumption savings and energy resiliency in the event of a power outage. This project brings together an iconic Canadian Fast‐Food Giant Pizza Pizza, advanced technology partners, and world‐class university researchers to provide a truly "made‐in‐Canada" innovation that will deliver environmental and cost benefits to restaurants worldwide.
Pizza Pizza;Thermal Electronics Corporation
McMaster University
A Novel Exhaust Gas Energy Harvesting and Recirculation System ‐ TEG POWER
Deep Logic Solutions
Spatially Enabled RiskOutlook for Infrastructure Risk As the global climate changes, extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and more severe. This increasing frequency and severity challenges many of the Digital media and Decision Support
established codes of practice used for planning and design of the built environment. This means that much of the existing infrastructure, particularly in cities, is not information & adequate for the changing risk, and the activities and services that depend upon it will have a decreasing expectation of surviving an extreme event. In some cases, communication such as Hurricane Katrina’s effect upon New Orleans in 2005, the impact on essential services destabilized the City’s ability to recover from the event. Understanding technologies
how to prevent that destabilizing effect upon urban centres is increasingly important, particularly when set against the Federation of Canadian Municipality’s (FCM) estimated $123Bn deficit in infrastructure to meet today’s economic requirements. With 17% of national GDP coming from the GTA, the minor shock caused by flooding in 2013 and 2014 illustrates that this is an immediate issue for Canada, and Ontario in particular. As a society we need to understand how to stimulate the development of infrastructure resilience to future extreme weather events Through the support of OCE, Deep Logic Solutions (DLS) can tackle, through research and collabora on to build the technology to help address this problem.
RiskLogik (risklogik.com) is an effective and affordable risk and resilience solution that maps the risks, the connections and the consequences in any risk ecosystem. Using directed path graphs, RiskLogik searches out the pathways of exposure to risk and discovers the real risk drivers that, if addressed, create resilience for an enterprise or community.
The new capability for addressing infrastructure uncertainty and risk, delivered in new software functionality, will enable more effective decision making in both planning before events, and emergency management after events, to build the resilience of complex critical infrastructure systems. The integration will formally unify two pieces of functionality in one software package. Those technologies include (1) RiskLogik’s core dependency modeling and risk evaluation functionality (already developed); and (2) integration of GIS/mapping functionality illustrating infrastructure, extent of an emergency event, and consequence of an event at the necessary level of granularity to enable emergency managers and political leadership to make informed decisions (under development). The outcome of the work proposed in this applica on is the design and specifica on of this func onality.
Return on Innova on
Plan on creating 6 jobs in year 1, 6 in year 2, and 8 in year 3 for a total of 20.
7/10/2015
Viewgle Inc.
York University
Action Detection for Video Surveillance
Viewgle Inc. is collaborating with Prof. Richard Wildes lab at York University to carry out is in the general area of computer vision, the attempt to endow machines Digital media and with a sense of sight. From a theoretical point of view this is an important endeavor as it bears on fundamental issues in complex information processing, and may information & yield results that bear on our understanding of visual information processing in natural systems (e.g., humans), as well. From a practical point of view, machines that communication can see have the potential to interact with humans in a much more natural and useful fashion than is currently the case. The particular research addressed in the technologies
current project attacks an outstanding problem in video analytics and surveillance. In particular, the research is aimed at automated detection of humans in surveillance video as they engage in a variety of actions. Actions of interest will be defined as those that could be used to alert security personnel of the need for intervention, e.g., fights, slips and falls, running and walking in the wrong direction in a restricted area. A key limitation of extant technology for video analysis of human actions is its inability to encompass the wide range of variability that is present in real‐world surveillance scenarios. This challenge will be attacked by leveraging recent work in our lab in modeling and recognizing dynamic video patterns that previously have proven useful for a variety of tasks, including dynamic scene recognition, target tracking and human motion analysis. Indeed, the key to the success of our research in these related problem domains is the ability of our approach to model complicated real‐world dynamics captured in video in a concise and accurate fashion. This research contributes to Canada in three important ways. First, it paves the way for wider applications of video analytics and surveillance as more real‐world scenarios can be encompassed. This advance will be key to furthering the success of Canadian industry in the rapidly growing areas of video analytics and surveillance. Second, it more generally advances the discipline of computer vision as we further expose basic properties of image information and develop corresponding algorithms for incorporation into vision machines; this advance allows Canada to compete successfully in a critical area of science and technology. Third, it provides students with hands on experience and skills in vital areas of investigation, computer vision and, more generally, computer science. Students go on to make careers in science, technology, teaching and elsewhere, taking with them the enrichment of having been involved in research.
Section 1 ‐ 20
Program
Partners
Screaming Power
Ryerson University
Project Title
Cloud‐based Infrastructure for Big Data Retrieval, Analysis, and Delivery of Energy Information
Project Summary
Screaming Power is pleased to announce its partnership with Ryerson to develop a secure and private cloud infrastructure to manage the capture, storage, analysis and distribution of Utility information to Screaming Power’s mobile applications. This new R&D project will build upon a mobile app solution already developed and being piloted at this time in order to allow utilities to securely communicate with their customers and efficiently distribute energy information. The integrated cloud infrastructure combined with the mobility solution will allow customers to securely access their utility data in a simple way, which to date has not been available. In addi on, tools will be created to extract and manage this data from the u lity. Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
2/25/2015
Soosan Beheshti
$20,000
$35,000
$55,000
Toronto
11/17/2014
Ana Luisa Trejos
$20,000
$75,080
$95,080
London
1/8/2015
Chris Herdman
$150,000
$545,000
$695,000
Ottawa
The goal of this new research and development project, called 'Cloud‐based Infrastructure for Big Data Retrieval, Analysis, and Delivery of Energy Information', is to securely manage large amounts of information (‘big data’) to allow residential, commercial and industrial users, utilities, and Government to more easily review and improve their electric, natural gas and water usage using the principles of “Privacy by Design”. The cloud solution will simplify the management of data so proper review of business, benchmarking and conservation efforts can be managed, evaluated and achieved. This solution is an extension of previous work already completed and is beneficial to the utilities and their customers, as well as the Government. Through this partnership, Screaming Power will be engaging the academic resources from Ryerson University (utilizing both the Talent Edge and OCE VIP I programs). The development of a complete enterprise mobile platform for energy management provides unique training and applied research opportunities for the faculty and students in advancing state‐of‐the‐art 'smart grid' and ‘big data’ management prac ces.
The project will entail research, design, development and programming of a cloud solution that is capable of managing multiple mobile and Enterprise applications on one cloud platform. This solution will allow many parties with multiple interests to easily review their information (i.e., manage user / data interaction with utility informa on, and / or perform 'big data' analysis).
Objec ves of the OCE project:
Create a Cloud infrastructure that is architected to securely allow both private access to user‐specific data and public access to sanitized 'big data' (de‐personalized data).
Distribute this data securely and efficiently to cross‐pla orm mobile applica ons for individual, u lity, Government and enterprise use.
Be an extensible, scalable Cloud infrastructure that can accept all types of data (e.g., real‐time, historical, outage, trading, conservation data, etc.) beyond the initial mobile applica on to allow for quick integra on to other Enterprise Mobile applica ons that we (or other third party developers) will develop in the future.
Intronix Technologies Corporation
Development of a wireless hardware interface for electromyography signals
Intronix Technologies Corporation designs and produces progressive portable medical devices for neuromuscular diagnostics and treatment delivery. Its innovations in Advanced health technologies
injection guidance provide technology that drives clinical solutions to deliver confidence, improve workflow efficiency, and provide a better patient experience. Intronix has extensive experience within the neuromuscular diagnostic and treatment delivery market. Intronix quality system is registered to both ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 13485:2003 (CMDCAS), and is fully USFDA compliant. Intronix lead product, Myoguide Injection Guidance Device, is a revenue‐generating product sold and distributed in international markets by our growing distribution network. Myoguide has a Canadian Medical device license, a TüV certificate, and has received a CE Mark and FDA 510(k). Intronix is ready and has been working on developing a new product that will continue to serve our existing target market within the neuromuscular diagnostics and treatment delivery sector. This project will provide the technical expertise and support needed to complete, and shorten the time to market, of our new product. This new product will help generate significant new revenues and add 2–3 Ontario jobs at Intronix within 2–3 years following the completion of this project (up to 5 full‐time employees + management + outside contractors). This product will access a $1.5 billion market, served by over 500,000 clinicians, delivering treatment to over 80 million patients, who will benefit from neuromuscular diagnos cs and treatment delivery. Our 5‐year revenue projec ons will grow the company from under $1M to approach $12M in sales.
The proposed new product presents a low cost approach to the EMG/EEG market. The goal is to produce a multi‐function handheld device that can be used for routine electromyography (EMG), nerve conduction studies (NCS), neuromuscular stimulation, routine electroencephalography (EEG), sleep studies, and our Myoguide injection guidance for therapeutic Botulinum Toxin injections. While there will be several standalone functions, wireless communication will engage outboard computing devices such as a tablet or laptop to add processing power for several complex operations, documentation and electronic medical records. We will con nue to develop our exis ng so ware pla orm to accommodate the technology developed by this project. This new portable device will replace the existing cart based system, provide needed portability, and create an opportunity for neuromuscular diagnostics and treatment delivery outside of typical clinical and hospital based locations. Disruptive pricing will contribute to lower costs for new equipment; portability will improve availability of diagnos c and treatment delivery; and ba ery opera on will create possibili es outside of the power grid.
This proposal is focused on development of technical innovations that will arise out of collaboration between the Canadian medical device manufacturer, Intronix Technologies Corporation, and Dr. Ana Luisa Trejos’ research team at the University of Western Ontario. This partnership will develop input specifications and ultimately create a wireless, battery operated device capable of serving as a biofeedback controller for a rehabilitation device under development within Dr. Trejos’ laboratory, as well as serving as a hardware pla orm for a mul func onal neuromuscular diagnos c and treatment delivery device being developed at Intronix. The aim of this work is to complete the first steps towards the development of a wireless device able to transmit muscle activity signals to an outboard computer for processing. The research will include development of subject techniques needed to acquire biometric data from healthy subjects. The goal is to eventually apply this technology to pa ents undergoing rehabilita on.
This project is divided into two phases that will result in a preliminary hardwired system developed in collaboration with both academic and commercial teams, to verify methods of data collection, data transfer; and computer based analysis. Algorithms will be developed to process muscle signals to extract salient features for comparative purposes. The second phase will include development of a wireless hardware system based upon the first phase. Data collection, wireless data transfer, and computer‐based analysis will validate against the first‐phase system. Video signal synchroniza on techniques will also be developed.
Discovery Air Defence Services, Inc. (DADS)
Carleton University
Next Generation Virtual Cockpit Technologies
The cost of hardware and software associated with display technology for modern simulation‐based aircraft training systems is expensive and is a key cost driver to the development and maintenance of these training systems. Large display domes can cost millions of dollars and require the alignment and blending of numerous synchronized projection channels, each necessitating software licensing and computing hardware. Despite these high costs, even the most of state‐of‐the‐art display systems suffer from physical limitations in the field‐of‐view that can be achieved and in the quality of the visual image that can be displayed (e.g., practical limitations on resolu on, brightness and contrast ra o).
Recent innovations in immersive helmet‐mounted display technologies, and complementary technologies for motion tracking and haptic feedback, have demonstrated the potential for achieving a level of immersive fidelity that can meet the perceptual needs of the human required to create a convincing immersive experience. These technologies are available (or will soon be available) on a commercial basis and at low‐cost.
The purpose of this project is to leverage these innovative technologies to develop a solution for our industry partner that will have the potential to significantly lower their costs in providing training to their customers, while potentially enabling them to provide a higher throughput in training.
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 21
Program
Partners
Crosslink Technologies Inc.
Project Title
Filled epoxy composites for transformer insulation prepared using a novel filler dispersion method
Project Summary
Filled epoxy resins are extensively used over other polymers and filled composites in many industries since they offer higher mechanical and thermal properties, greater dielectric strength, water resistance, reliability, and heat resistance. However, irrespective of filler type, as the filler size decreases to the micro and nano regime, the viscosity of epoxy composites increases as a result of particle agglomeration due to their high surface energy. In addition, as the filler loading level increases greater than a critical level, particles agglomerate as flocs and create three‐dimensional networks, which markedly increase the composite viscosity. The higher mixture viscosity creates a processing barrier which ultimately limits the maximum filler loading level, and particularly, restricting the property enhancement that fillers can impart into epoxy composites.
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
11/12/2014
Shesha Jayaram
$20,000
$20,120
$40,120
Waterloo
Conventional mixing devices such as high shear mixers, kneaders, and extrusion compounders primarily exploit shear flow deformation, which is generally understood to be a less efficient dispersion mechanism. Extensional flow deformation, on the other hand, imparts energy into the composite by stretching the material, which is known to be a more effective dispersion mechanism, but not well exploited in conventional mixing technologies. It is proposed in the current research project to develop new epoxy composites with improved electrical breakdown strength in a two‐part strategy by: (1) enhancing filler dispersion and (2) increasing the absolute filler loading level using a novel UW mixing technology. Particularly, the aim is to increase the percentage of fillers which improve electrical breakdown strength without jeopardizing other mechanical or thermal properties. The UW expertise in composite formulations and mixing technology will be utilized to prepare epoxy composites with lower viscosity, improved processability, and enhanced properties that strengthen Crosslink's market penetration of composite insulators. Thus, the new composites prepared using the proposed filler dispersion and loading technique will give our industrial partner a competitive advantage over other manufacturers in the market sector of epoxy composites. Voucher for Innovation and Productivity
Siltech
York University
Repellent Coatings
Siltech is a specialties manufacturer of chemical compounds with applications in various sectors (e.g. inks and coatings, oil and gas, personal care, agriculture, mould Advanced manufacturing
release, etc.). Recently a number of clients have approached Siltech about high‐tech repellent coatings known as superhydrophobic (SH) coatings, or its building block chemicals for formulating SH coatings. In response to this market place demand Siltech is very interested in identifying the the potential of the current chemical compounds for application as building blocks for formulating SH coatings. It is also interested in developing an in‐house knowledge about fundamentals and development of novel SH formula ons.
To develop SH coatings a suitable surface texture is needed. The texture should either be inherently made of a low surface energy (LSE) material, or it should be covered by a LSE material. Given the goal of this project, and nature of the company, a producer of specialty LSE molecules, we propose to use LSE to cover a textured surface. Here we propose to use metal oxide nanoparticles to provide the desired surface texture when coating is applied. Two approaches of in‐situ and ex‐situ will be adopted for covering particles with LSE. In the in‐situ preparation particles first will be deposited on a substrate, and then functionalization by LSE molecules. In the ex‐situ approach particles are functionalized first with LSE molecules, and then deposited onto a substrate via a suitable polymer matrix. In both approaches issues of selection of proper LSE (from Siltech’s product line), solvents for all ingredients, uniform dispersion of nanoparticles, proper proportions of particle concentration and LSE molecules, as well as application of SH coating onto substrate, need special attention. The above strategy is especially suited to address the needs of Siltech, described above to identifying the molecules in their current product line that can be used for SH coating industry. Coatings prepared will be studied for their SH properties by conducting contact angle measurements; we will also use surface characterizations such as SEM and EDAX to understand the surface composition of various prepara ons/formula ons.
The project can result in expanded markets for the current products from Siltech and can guide the company in development of purpose‐made new compounds for repellant coatings, as well as development of novel superhydrophobic coating formulation. In terms of job creation and security, success of this project can firstly help with further assuring continuity of two technical staff positions; and secondly, depending on the size of the market that can be captured in the next three years may lead to opening a new technical position. The revenue generated, depending on market penetration to sectors such as textile, aerospace, automotive, or food processing and packaging, is projected to be between $200,000 and $500,000.
10/20/2014
Alidad Amirfazli
$19,987
$45,123
$65,110
Toronto
PPG Chemfil Canada
Development of chiotsan‐based filters for the removal of phosphate from agricultural wastewater
The release of phosphate, a nutrient, from municipal and agricultural wastewater is an environmental concern as it leads to the uncontrolled growth of algae in lakes Bio‐economy and clean and waterways ul mately threatening aqua c life by the crea on of dead‐zones devoid of oxygen.
technologies
PPG Chemfil is very interested in developing a phosphate filtration unit which will be centred around a phosphate biofilter recently developed in Dr. Mutus' laboratory at the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at the University of Windsor. The phosphate removing biofilters are made from chitosan a water insoluble biopolymer obtained from shellfish. Chitosan is plentiful, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly. The phosphate biofilters are made from chitosan‐copper composite and have a high capacity for phosphate. In addi on, the biofilter‐bound phosphate can be recovered and the biofilters regenerated for reuse.
The objectives of the proposed project are: 1‐Design and build filtration units capable of treating ~3,000L of wastewater per day; 2‐ Determine the in‐the‐field phosphate ‐binding capacity under changing environmental conditions; 3‐Optimize the in‐the‐field regeneration of the filters with a variety of regeneration solutions; 4‐ Determine the in‐the‐field lifetime of the filters; 5‐ Determine the chemical composition of the spent filters with a view of utilizing them as a composting material; 6‐
Explore the commercializa on of the filtra on units.
9/15/2014
Bulent Mutus
$19,880
$25,000
$44,880
Windsor
Toronto Hydro Electric
Ryerson University
Design and biomechanical evaluation of an ergonomic chamber lid remover for Hydro workers
The removal of chamber lids to access underground chambers has been previously identified as a contributing factor to severe back injuries in both the telecommunications (ITSC, 2001) and electrical utility sector (Chang et al., 2003; Stone et al., 2006). Specifically at Toronto Hydro Electric Services (THES), an epidemiological survey of workers has indicated that the task of removing chamber lids results in MSD injuries to both the shoulder and back (Abdoli‐E et al. 2014). Therefore, the removal of chamber lids prior to engaging in underground work can be targeted as a potential option for intervention to reduce the prevalence of MSDs in this popula on. Advanced health technologies
11/26/2014
Mohammad Abdoli‐
Eramaki
$20,000
$23,370
$43,370
Toronto
11/12/2014
Chang‐qing Xu
$20,000
$70,000
$90,000
Hamilton
Initial examination of the use of the pickaxe (a tool that is being used at Toronto Hydro specifically to remove the lids for more than 100 years) with a force meter has shown a requirement off 132‐ 320lbs of lifting force when using the pickaxe. This far exceeds the recommended National Institute of Occupational Health’s limit for two hand lifting of 51lbs (NIOSH, 2007). In addition, when lifting with the pickaxe, workers have a tendency to bend at the hips and use the back extensor muscles to provide the force. This produces a large shear force in the low back, which can lead to disc degeneration and herniation. The newly designed tool uses a fulcrum which is expected to vastly reduce the required force to crack and to remove the lid, and also places the worker in a more ergonomically favourable posture where they are encouraged to use their body weight and arms to generate the required force, rather than the lower back. This novel design uses a unique mechanical advantage that allows the user to not only crack the lid (first phase), but also to remove it (second phase) far from the chamber hole. In comparison to the pickaxe, this novel tool requires about 4 times less pushing down force that is created by the body weight. The body weight is not only used to crack the lid, but also to remove the lid out of the chamber extremely easier than the methods used by pickaxe. The overall compression force on the shoulders, back, and the legs is estimated 50 times less with this novel design. The weight of the tool is almost half of a pickaxe and they are almost the same size. Apparently the new tool is fancier than the pickaxe!
Forsee Instruments Ltd.
McMaster University
Prototype development of an in‐line instrument for Water quality is extremely important to public health. Currently, the standard method to determine the microbiological water quality of drinking water or source bacterial detection in water
water is to collect water samples from many locations in cities and water sources and then perform tests in some central biological laboratories, which usually take several days and require professional workers. This method is very time consuming and rarely prevents the outbreak of water‐borne diseases due to water contamina on of pathogenic micro‐organisms.
In the proposed project, working with McMaster University, Forsee Instruments will develop a hardware prototype that will monitor bacterial concentration in water, providing real‐time results.
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 22
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Sweet and Sticky Inc.
Brock University
Development of a stilbene‐enriched icewine grape skin extract
Trius Winery
Brock University
Investigation into Pinot noir press fractions and their Trius at Hillebrand (www.triuswines.com) has for more than thirty years crafting fine VQA wines from premium grapes grown in the four sub‐appellations of the suitability for sparkling base wines
Niagara Peninsula. A wholly‐owned company of Andrew Peller Ltd, Trius at Hillebrand winery is part of an award‐winning premium and ultra‐premium suite of brands including Peller Estates, Trius at Hillebrand, Thirty Bench, Sandhill, Copper Moon, Calona Vineyards Artist Series VQA wines and Red Rooster. The majority of Andrew Peller products, including Trius,are sold predominantly in Canada. Brock University's Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI) has been approached to assist Trius Winery in developing new production processes to improve the quality of their sparklingwines and to develop new product lines from the u liza on of waste grape juice.
Leading this project will be experts in industry at Trius Winery, working in partnership with CCOVI at Brock University to develop new solutions for this product development and improvement project.
Verold
Seneca College of Applied A data visualization layer for big data on the web
Arts and Technology
BTNX Inc.
Alcohol Countermeasure Systems
7/10/2015
Bio‐economy and clean Wine grapes are a natural source of resveratrol and a variety of related molecules with health benefits. One of the main groups of such molecules is called technologies
‘stilbenes’. These beneficial molecules are produced primarily in grape skins. Over the course of the fall season there is an accumulation of stilbenes in grapes. In addition, researchers have shown that grapes can be stimulated post‐harvest to produce even more of these molecules by exposing the grapes to UV light. Grape skins are a waste product in ice wine production. Not only is there no value currently associated with the grape skins, but it is also expensive to expose of them. Given that the skins are probably the best natural source of stilbenes, we propose to extract value from the grape skin waste product by extracting the stilbenes from them. Starting with fall harvest ice wine grapes, we will use a protocol of repeated UV stimulation to enhance production of stilbenes. We will then separate skins from the grape pulp. Grape pulp can be used in wine production. Here we will focus on developing a method to maximally extract stilbenes from the skins. We will then verify the biological activities of the extracted stilbenes. We expect this work to lead to a new product (or line of products) from ice wine grapes, such that the wine‐producing grape pulp is not adversely affected (indeed, it will also be stilbene‐enhanced) and significant value is captured from the skins, which are currently a waste product. This will in turn lead to new jobs in processing, packaging and selling our new stilbene‐rich products from ice wine grapes.
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
12/15/2014
Jeff Stuart
$16,004
$79,319
$95,323
St. Catharines
12/24/2014
Debra Inglis
$20,000
$20,759
$40,759
St. Catharines
1/19/2015
James Watzke
$20,000
$45,129
$65,129
Markham
York University
A Label‐Free Thermoelectric Reader for Quantitative The research and development that will be carried out in this project is to resolve an important problem with automated, quantitative and label‐free interpretation of Advanced health Interpretation of Results from Single‐ and Multi‐Test results from Lateral Flow Assay (LFA) devices such as the home‐used pregnancy test strips. LFA devices have gained great popularity for their effective applications in technologies
Lateral Flow Assay Devices
medical diagnosis, food and beverage manufacturing and water monitoring to name a few. These devices are used to detect the presence of specific analytes such as hormones, toxic chemicals or pathogenic microorganisms in many different fluidic specimens. Their working principle is very simple, target analytes get attached to colored nanoparticles via specific capturing reagents coated on the nanoparticles, and the nanoparticles become immobilized along detection line bands on the device as the specimen flows through it. Continuous accumulation of analyte‐nanoparticle complexes along the line bands leads to the generation of visible lines and qualitative interpretation of results (i.e. yes or no). But, visual interpretation is inaccurate, subjective and most importantly non‐quantitative (required for analyte concentra on measurement).
Automated optical readers that take images from the test strip and use image processing algorithms to detect the lines have been used to analyze the results of LFA devices quantitatively. However, these devices are not very sensitive (i.e. ~%90) as they rely on the optical information derived from reflection of light from the device surface, while a large portion of nanoparticles get captured inside the bulk of the strip and become invisible even to scanners or cameras. Their other limitation is their dependency on the use of the colored dyes or fluorescent molecules that are prone to gradual deteriora on under exposure to light.
To enhance the existing techniques, we propose to take advantage of the inherent thermal properties of the nanoparticles and to adopt controlled heat stimulation and temperature sensing to detect the lines on LFA devices in an automatic manner. This technique is accurate and sensitive because the surface temperature will be a direct function of the accumulation of nanoparticles in the bulk of the membrane that could be correlatively quantified. It is also label‐free as it relies on the thermal properties of nanoparticles themselves and does not require the colored reagents or fluorescent tags. By employing these principles, we, in collaboration with the company BTNX Inc., will conduct fundamental feasibility studies and develop a reader prototype that will be tested on commercially‐available single‐ and multi‐test LFA devices. The reader is anticipated to significantly improve the detection sensitivities (%100), limits (ng/mL) and dynamic ranges, hence generating more reliable results for the test users and enabling them to detect analytes easier and earlier in the process and in a non‐invasive manner. Our proposed technique also aims to resolve a critical problem in the existing Point of Care Diagnostics market and offers a new dimension to the LFA devices in terms of their applicability to more sensitive assays, hence enabling BTNX to access new bio‐detection markets. Full commercialization of the technology with the help and dedication of the company is expected to happen in the next 2‐3 years with 1‐year and 5‐year anticipated revenues of $100K and $500K, respectively, as well as generation of up to 15 new jobs in Ontario.
10/20/2014
Pouya Rezai
$19,288
$58,420
$77,708
Toronto
Development of a Photothermal Non‐invasive In‐
vehicle Alcohol Detection Biosensor
$142,858
$314,284
$457,142
Toronto
Seneca College is partnering with Toronto, Ontario based Verold Inc. to develop a scalable solution for bringing real‐time data feeds into interactive web applications. The project, an extension of Verold’s content publishing platform, aims to build the infrastructure allowing users to create dynamic 3D data visualizations without the need to write any code. Web and Media developers will be able to choose from various data sources and 3D templates to generate the visualization to suit their needs.
The development and application of a mid‐infrared (MIR) two‐wavelength laser‐based biosensor (named Wavelength‐Modulated Differential Photothermal Advanced manufacturing
Radiometry, WM‐DPTR) is proposed as a fast, noninvasive all optical blood alcohol diagnostic monitor for use in the fight against drunk driving in Canada and potentially world‐wide, in collaboration with our industrial partner, Alcohol Countermeasure Systems, ACS, Etobicoke, ON. Our previous research using simple water‐
glucose solutions to serum‐glucose mixtures, as well as a more complicated skin‐glucose phantom diffused into skin has demonstrated that WM‐DPTR has the highest sensitivity to glucose amongst noninvasive techniques to‐date. Preliminary testing of WM‐DPTR with the same skin‐ethanol phantom configurations showed that similar performance should be expected in the case of ethanol. Project goal is to develop a laboratory prototype of an in‐vehicle WM‐DPTR alcohol interlock system. Additional goals of the research are A) to perform detailed studies of the sensitivity and specificity of the technology to the presence of ethyl alcohol in water and blood serum solutions, as well as with ethanol diffused in human skin samples simulating interstitial fluid detection, in the range of human blood alcohol concentra on (0 – 200 mg/dl); B) to simplify sensor design by replacing two lasers with one; and C) to test the biosensor on human volunteers.
An ACS typical interlock system includes a handheld device (typical dimension 6”x2”x2”), wired or wireless, connected with an electrical control unit (ECU, typical dimension 6”x6”x2”). The ECU is hardwired with the car control unit, and is usually placed under the dashboard. The power to the ECU is supplied by the 12 or 24‐V car battery. At present, based on the size of the main components of the system, bench top 2‐laser and power supply system 7”x4.9”x5” and bench top mid‐IR detector 3.4”x2”x1.6”, the expected volume of the new portable pre‐prototype system is ~ 10.6”x4.9”x5”. In the next generation design, all the bench top components will be replaced by integrated OEM components, compact one‐laser source and power supply 1.9”x1.2”x0.4” and detector 0.6”x0.6”x0.7”. We estimate that the future expected system volume will be ~ 6.5”x3”x4”, so it will be compatible with other ACS sensors and the electrical and control units for a future WM‐DPTR product may fit under the dashboard and borrow the power supply from car battery. Laser head and the detector and optics may be integrated as a handheld device fixed around the driver’s seat, with a fingerprint‐size optical aperture/lens where the driver can place an index or thumb. The vehicle driver’s fingertip will be scanned by the laser module through a hollow MIR‐reflecting optical fiber. Returning hollow concentric fibers will send the IR photon emission signal from the finger to the detection and analysis unit of the package and, after calibration conversion, the blood stream ethyl alcohol concentration will be displayed with an LED. The price of the initial ignition interlock device (IID) unit is very high due to current expensive QCLs, but substantial cost decreases have been discussed with the laser manufacturer upon commercialization, in the US $7K range at quantities up to 500. ACS is also collaborating with the University of Waterloo for the development of inexpensive (~$500) and compact mid‐IR lasers for suppor ng the commercializa on of WM‐DPTR technology.
The industrial partner, Alcohol Countermeasure Systems (International) Inc., commonly known as ACS, is an international group of companies with one common purpose: to promote road safety through industry‐leading breath alcohol testing technology. A concise history of the company is available elsewhere in the Proposal (see “Alcohol Countermeasure Systems” in a achments folder).
1/8/2015
Andreas Mandelis
Section 1 ‐ 23
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
Monteco Inc.
Ultrasonic based device for oil depth measurement in oil‐water separators
The project aims at developing a new device for detecting oil‐water interfaces and height of oil layer in challenging environments of vessels and containers used for oil‐ Bio‐economy and clean technologies
water separation. One such application of current interest is in installations where oily wastewater is intercepted to remove oil and grease before discharge of wastewaters into sewer system. Oil content in discharge waters is limited to meet environmental regulations and avoid associated penalties. The performance of the mockup device was demonstrated to the satisfaction of industry partner in tests closely simulating the real world environment. The focus now is on the development of working prototype for field testing. The new device takes advantage of recent developments in ultrasonic hardware and electronics miniaturization to develop a compact and low cost product for the targeted market. It will incorporate wireless transmission and remote display unit for easy access. The existing North American market size for interface level monitors is estimated at $32M/yr with a potential to go up to $69M/yr. It is expected that a superior product with proper marketing strategy can capture up to 20% of the market share over next 10 years. This will lead to creation of several new jobs in Ontario and Canada will benefit from increased tax revenue in the long term.
10/15/2014
Anand Prakash
$19,860
$19,980
$39,840
London
Enceladus Medical Inc. (Enceladus Imaging Inc.)
Visual identification of weld defects using a high dynamic range welding camera
Visually monitoring weld processes is currently the most commonly used method of ensuring high quality welds. As the welding industry adopts more automated processes, a remote visual inspection system is needed. Monitoring of automated welding processes is difficult due to environmental conditions and the extreme variations in brightness between weld arc and its surroundings. Enceladus Imaging Inc. developed camera technology that is able to monitor the weld process in real time with unprecedented fidelity. The camera has the ability to clearly resolve the welding arc shape, the weld pool, and the surroundings. This proposed project will validate the capabilities and limitations of the system for industrial use by evaluating a number of production scenarios and weld processes. The research team will, in particular, determine the ability of the system to allow identification of the most common weld defects (porosity and dross) in‐progress, and validate the benefit of high‐fidelity visual feedback to producing high quality welds more consistently on a variety of materials, joint types, and surface qualities.
11/17/2014
George Hughes
$20,000
$62,080
$82,080
Timmons
Hitachi High‐Technologies Canada, Inc. University of Toronto
Automated Probing of Nanoelectronic Structures Inside Scanning Electron Microscope
As semiconductor devices continue to miniaturize, the industry and research sectors demand precision in nanomanipulation system for probing nanometer‐sized Advanced manufacturing
features on the integrated circuitry (IC). Nanoelectronics probing for quality control, fault analysis, and process monitoring alone has an addressable market of multi‐
billion dollars.
In nano probing nanoelectronic structures, the task requires gently landing multiple nano probes precisely on top of nanometer‐sized contacts on an IC chip. Nano probing is presently conducted by highly trained personnel via joysticks to carefully control positions of nanomanipulators while observing SEM screen, a process that is time consuming, highly skill dependent, and has poor repeatability. Thus, nano probing entails repeated trial‐and‐error efforts. As target structures to probe on nanoelectronics chips become smaller than 20 nm and the number of target to probe becomes significantly higher, the semiconductor industry demands both new nanomanipula on instrument and automa on techniques.
This OCE project will be a collaborative effort between the applicant’s nano‐instrumentation team at UofT and Hitachi High‐Technologies Canada Inc. to design and construct a new nanomanipulation system prototype for nano probing of nanoelectronic structures. The system will be used for fault identification/analysis and manufacturing quality assessment of IC chips in the semiconductor industry. This new nano probing system and automated probing techniques are anticipated to enable, for the first time, automated probing of nanoelectronic structures. 3/4/2015
$150,000
$200,740
$350,740
Toronto
G4 Apps Inc.
Queen's University
Autonomous Context‐aware Inventory Management Everyday millions of pallets traverse a complex network of producers, transporters, distributors and vendors. At every stage, different rules govern availability, Digital media and (ACIM)
production rates and distribution routes, re‐stocking decisions and an avalanche of logistics. There are significant barriers in the largely manual process to tracking and information & handling pallets at every junction in their trip from producer to destination. In our Autonomous Context‐aware Inventory Management (ACIM) project we will devise communication an autonomous inventory management system that will introduce real‐time tracking of pallets as well as accurate localization of entered spaces to dictate handling technologies
rules and access rights. ACIM will be autonomous in nature to allow for scalable expansion and expedited handling of large volumes of pallets without human intervention in the decision process. In collaboration with G4 Apps Inc Queens University TRL will work to establish dynamic discovery of handling rules based on the location of each pallet, assigning profiles for locations that dictate pallet‐level logistics. We will leverage Queens University's existing Sprouts Sensing platform (http://www.sensornodes.com/) to enable real‐time tracking and communication. ACIM, with its racking, localization, communication and interface components, is a multi‐faceted solution. We expect significant traction in adoption by merchants and distributors. presenting Ontario as a leaders autonomous Inventory management solu ons. 12/15/2014
Hossam Hassanein
$19,419
$95,000
$114,419
Kingston
3D Sentry Corporation Inc.
Algonquin College of Applied Arts and Technology
Development of 2nd‐Generation Outdoor Perimeter 3D Sentry Corporation has been founded by Dr. Keith Harman and David Baird, two successful entrepreneurs and security industry veterans, to develop the next Security Sensor
generation of advanced outdoor perimeter security sensors. Such sensors are used to detect human intruders as they attempt to enter or pass through the outdoor perimeter of a restricted area, and are used extensively to protect the outdoor perimeters of Critical Infrastructure (CI) facilities of all kinds, such as prisons, military bases, power sta ons, petrochemical plants, VIP residences etc.
10/15/2014
theodore mirtchev
$19,996
$20,010
$40,006
Nepean
1/19/2015
Laurie Siviter
$20,000
$212,655
$232,655
North Bay
Yu Sun
Dr. Harman has been a leading innovator in this field for his entire working career. He developed the first successful Leaky Cable perimeter sensor 40 years ago, co‐
founded Senstar Corporation, has developed many successful security sensors of different types, and is widely regarded as one of the foremost experts in this field. David Baird has been active in many aspects of the high‐technology industry in Canada and the US for over 35 years, as a graduate‐level systems engineer and successful security industry entrepreneur, businessman and technology investor.
3D Sentry has recently completed a successful 4‐month project with Algonquin College’s Applied Research Institute (ARI) to advance the development of a “Leaky Cable” (LC) sensor, (also known as a “Ported Coaxial Cable”), which is a covert terrain‐following cable‐guided radar. The work was carried out at Algonquin and at the company’s purpose‐built Development site at Almonte.
Air Rider Hovercraft International Inc. Canadore College
Hovercraft Redesign
With the support of the Ontario Centres of Excellence and from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Air Rider Hovercraft International Inc. is proposing to partner with Canadore College of Applied Arts and Technology to construct a lighter, stronger and longer service life hovercraft frame. The current standard frame is constructed of wood, and as such, is heavy and prone to weathering. Utilizing the Innovation Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Production (ICAMP) at Canadore College, the aim is to execute a practical and production review of frame design options and to work with Canadore College’s welding students to construct an improved prototype frame.
The team at Canadore College and ICAMP will create a 3D model of current frame to conduct testing including finite element analysis along with determining the locations and magnitudes of forces acting on the original frame. Using test results, a complete 3D model of a new frame that is lighter in weight, comparable in strength and potentially lower in cost to produce will be constructed by Canadore College’s welding students as a prototype. A functional hovercraft ready for testing and for demonstra ons will complete this phase.
In addition to constructing a superior frame, a thorough market research analysis will be conducted to identify new commercial market applications. In this phase, Canadore College’s business students will assist in conducting various research initiatives, collecting information and interpreting data. From this effort, a full market research report will be assembled that will direct the marke ng and promo onal ac vi es for Air Rider Hovercra Interna onal Inc.
With a strategic market research report complete and an improved frame ready for manufacturing, Air Rider Hovercraft International Inc. is optimistic that they will ultimately launch a new model of hovercraft that will result in increased revenue and production for their business and will elevate Air Rider to be considered an industry leader in their field. Air Rider Hovercraft aims to display the new frame and model of hovercraft at OCE‐Discovery 2015 as example of the potential of OCE, NSERC and industry partner innova on.
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 24
Program
Partners
Project Title
TeTechS
Advanced nanostructures for next generation Terahertz vision systems
Herdman Technologies Ltd.
Energy Saving Industrial Gear Lubricants
Project Summary
Sector
Prof. Zbig Wasilewski is internationally renowned for his contributions to the field of Molecular Beam Epitaxy, quantum‐dot and quantum‐well photonic devices such Advanced manufacturing
as terahertz Quantum Cascade Lasers. Prof. Wasilewski is the director of the MBE laboratory at the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN). The UW MBE laboratory is a unique facility for growing state‐of‐the‐art semiconductor materials for optoelectronics, photonics, and quantum electronics applications. In this project, novel semiconductor material system will be developed for the next generation of TeTechS' terahertz sensor technology. The new groundbreaking semiconductor material system will enable TeTechS to develop cost effec ve vision sensor solu ons for its current and future customers. TeTechS Inc. is a leading innovator of advanced terahertz vision sensor technology solutions for industrial and scientific applications. TeTechS draws on the distinctive characteristics of leading‐edge terahertz technology to develop unique vision sensor solutions that use terahertz waves to find previously undetectable objects and defects in advanced manufacturing processes. The terahertz vision sensors can see through opaque barriers to make objects and defects behind those barriers visible, and can identify materials by resolving their unique spectral signatures. The customers' problems can be solved in ways that cannot be address by other technologies such as visible, infrared, and x‐ray vision sensors.
This project is intended to create energy saving gear oils in order to save energy by increasing the performance of conventional fluids currently used in industrial machinery. Energy savings in gear lubricants can contribute to the reduc on of electricity costs, thus increasing the compe veness of Ontarios industry.
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
2/25/2015
Zbigniew Wasilewski
$20,000
$35,000
$55,000
Waterloo
11/17/2014
Mehdi Sheikhzadeh
$20,000
$50,000
$70,000
Sarnia
12/24/2014
Brady Peters
$19,819
$19,976
$39,795
Toronto
12/24/2014
Massimo Marcone
$19,963
$28,215
$48,178
Guelph
2/25/2015
Marilyn Lightstone
$20,000
$45,000
$65,000
Hamilton
The company benefit will be that Ontarios manufacturing, sales, distribution and commercial successes will increase hence, Herdman will grow in revenue, capital and employment. Energy saving gear lubricant is expected to create about 200 direct jobs.
Blackwell Bowick Partnership Ltd.
Grid Shaping Design Tools
Katan Kitchens
Development of a response curve for Quinoa
GeoSource Energy Inc.
McMaster University
Mathematical Modelling of Ground Source Heat Exchangers
The "Grid Shaping Design Tools" project aims to develop a digital design tool for the form‐finding of architectural gridshell structures. This design tool, developed jointly by the University of Toronto and Blackwell Bowick Engineers, addresses shortcomings in current design workflows. A shell structure uses a minimal amount of material and is highly structural efficient making them a highly sustainable building typology. Shell structures gain their strength and stiffness through double‐
curvature and in‐plane shear properties. Whereas a shell structure has a continuous surface, a gridshell has large openings in a manner that allows the remaining strips or grids to behave structurally as a shell. Blackwell Bowick Engineering has five upcoming projects for grid shell structures; however, a comprehensive set of tools or workflows to design these structures is not available. While the company has developed a limited capability to design these structures within sophisticated structural analysis software, it is time consuming and cumbersome to use – each option takes about 12 hours, has a limited model size capacity – a maximum of 33,000 nodes and 100,000 elements can be defined, and does not have objective based design capabilities. Other widely available rapid form‐finding tools exist, but they lack the ability to allow uni‐axial rotation between connected members, a feature critical for a sprung grid shell structure. This project aims to develop a digital form‐finding tool for gridshell structures that connects con nuous beam elements across a node with uni‐axial rota on between connected members.
This digital design tool will be implemented as a plug‐in within an existing Computer Aided Design (CAD) software thus taking advantage of the geometry and programming libraries available while allowing for the simple creation of CAD geometry to test architectural concepts as well as an easy translation from CAD geometry to structural analysis software. This project will create new knowledge in the development of performance‐driven architectural forms and develop new algorithms and software that will allow for the engineering design of complex gridshell structures. Integrating both architecture and engineering concerns, the gridshell form‐finding tool will allow the structural designers at Blackwell to respond to more varied directions in architectural intent, to move beyond simple dome shapes, and give the capability to design more options in a more cost‐efficient manner. Not only will the benefits of this design tool apply to future gridshell project, but the project will develop architectural, engineering, and digital tool development expertise in the offices of Blackwell Engineering and at the University of Toronto allowing both ins tu ons to operate at a world‐class level.
Quinoa is the most complete plant protein source (higher than soybeans) and has a higher nutritional and antioxidant profile versus traditional grains. Quinoa retail Advanced health technologies
sales in Ontario exceeded $32 M in 2012; growing at 84% annually due to its gluten‐free and high nutritional profile as a cereal grain. The vast majority of quinoa in Canada is imported from Bolivia and Peru. Results from preliminary trials indicated that a viable production of quinoa is achievable in Ontario. Other projects aimed to assess plant density and impact on seed yield. The specific challenge is to obtain a consistent commercial crop yield on Ontario soils. Determining the soil chemistry and target inputs for Ontario grown quinoa is an essential factor to maximizing quinoa yield as a commercial crop. The goal of this research is to assess the impact of varying concentrations of potassium on the seed yield of Ontario grown quinoa in a greenhouse setting. Results from this project will the impact soil input strategies for obtaining a commercial crop yield on Ontario soils.
GeoSource Energy Incorporated is a design‐build company focused on sustainable/renewable energy sourced through geothermal. Since their establishment in 2004, Bio‐economy and clean they have distinguished themselves through their dedication to innovation and quality through their continual investment in state of the art technology and research. technologies
Indeed, the CEO and owner of GeoSource Energy, Dr. Stanley Reitsma, holds a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering with expertise in fluid mechanics and heat transfer. Geothermal energy systems harness the power of the earth for heating and cooling of both residential and commercial buildings. The thermal energy is accessed through ground source heat exchangers: pipes which are placed vertically into the earth to depths that range between approximately 60 to 200 m. Energy costs are typically 25% to 50% lower than with traditional heating and cooling systems. There are over 30,000 geothermal energy installations in Canada. The associated reduc on in greenhouse gas emissions is equivalent to conver ng 50,000 cars to zero‐emission vehicles.
The initial installation cost of a geothermal system is typically much higher than a conventional system because of the cost of drilling and installing the heat exchangers which represents about 65% of the total system cost. Opportunity exists to reduce the depth of the boreholes by exploring alternate heat exchanger geometries. Preliminary experimental results show a doubling of heat exchanger efficiency with the use of a coaxial heat exchanger rather than the more traditional U‐tube. Yet, the underlying physics of this is not well understood. The proposed research would use computational modelling to provide a clear physical explanation for the difference in their performance and to determine the associated reduction in drilling depth. This depth reduction would reduce the cost of system installation. Expertise in heat transfer, geothermal modelling and heat pump operation is required for the mathematical modelling and analysis of this problem. The project will employ a post‐doctoral fellow to work at McMaster University under the supervision of Drs. Lightstone and Reitsma.
Mackinnon Brothers Brewing Co.
St. Lawrence College of Applied Arts and Technology
Steam Control and Valve Automation
1/19/2015
Cam McEachern
$20,000
$71,040
$91,040
Kingston
Lumentra Inc.
Development of prototype composite heat sinks for LED solid‐state lighting fixtures combine long lifetime, attractiveness, and energy efficiencies, but require cooling by an external heat sink since they do not lose heat Advanced manufacturing
thermal management of LED solid state lighting by infrared radiation as conventional incandescent bulbs do. Without proper cooling LED fixtures can exceed operating temperatures of 100°C, which causes fixtures
catastrophic damage to the light fixture and can ignite fires in areas surrounding an overheated lamp. Lumentra, a fully Canadian‐owned technology company, is collaborating with the Centre for Advanced Coating Technologies (CACT) at the University of Toronto to develop novel low‐cost, high‐performance cooling systems for use in LED lighting fixtures. We are developing heat pipes, devices that are widely used for cooling electronic systems, using the evaporation of a volatile liquid inside a sealed enclosure to carry heat away from a high temperature region. A preliminary project funded by OCE has shown that it is possible to develop low‐cost, light‐
weight, composite heat pipe by spraying a thin metal skin on a porous polyethylene substrate. We use the thermal spraying, a relatively low‐cost coating method that is widely used in industry, to deposit thin metal films. We propose to build a prototype composite heat pipe and optimize it for use with LED lights.
1/8/2015
Sanjeev Chandra
$100,000
$126,420
$226,420
Toronto
7/10/2015
Through a strategic research partnership, St. Lawrence College in Kingston, Ontario and the MacKinnon Brothers Brewing Company of Bath, Ontario will tackle a challenge faced by all startup breweries, ensuring product consistency and quality. The proposed solution is the development of a Programmable Logistic Controller (PLC) system that can monitor, manage and control several essential valves and sensors that will be programmed to mimic the intuition and skill currently employed by brew master Dan MacKinnon. The resulting system will not only improve the consistency and quality of the beer being brewed at the MacKinnon’s bi‐centennial farm / brewing house but also simplify the brewing process enabling the MacKinnon Brothers Brewing Company to become more efficient and effective with their resources.
Section 1 ‐ 25
Program
Partners
Hudson Boat Works
Project Title
Hudson Boat Works ‐ Bend and Tortion Test Stand
Project Summary
Sector
At the conclusion of previous work performed within an NSERC ARD Level 1 grant with Hudson Boat Works as a capstone project within the School of Applied Science Advanced manufacturing
and Technology that engaged students within Manufacturing and Electromechanical programs, a design for a torsional boat test stand, including a set of drawings and bill of materials was created.
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
1/8/2015
Dan Douglas
$95,562
$110,397
$205,959
London
12/15/2014
Daniele DeFranceschi
$20,000
$123,520
$143,520
Windsor
11/13/2014
Sreekanta Das
$85,999
$101,240
$187,239
Windsor
The intent of this project is to build upon the previous works to construct, commission, integrate with Hudson Boatwork's data capture systems, and evaluate the Test Stand in product/process capability studies at Hudson Boat Works. This Test Stand will enable Hudson Boat Works to provide product information that will be used in their process, and with their clients to enable them to maintain their position as a world leader in the manufacture of Olympic competition class rowing racing shells. There are mul ple areas of uncertainty with this project that requires the exper se of Fanshawe College to resolve. They have been a world leader in the development of racing shell technology since 1981. They have provided boats to many international rowing teams and their boats have won 73 medals at the Olympic and World Rowing Championships since 1984. Using proprietary technology they have been able to create a new generation of hulls that are 400% more impact resistant and 50% more stable than their previous genera on of boats.
1126171
St. Clair College of Applied Pressure Sensing Mattress
Arts and Technology
MEDA Limited ‐ Engineering and Technical Services
In collaboration with St.Clair College, Riley's is currently innovating a new type of mattress that will revolutionize the mattress industry. This mattress has many futures including adjustment to how every individual sleeps.
Rehabilitation of corroding steel bridge girders using The challenge is to study, test, and research the development of a less expensive, easy, and quick method for municipalities to rehabilitate corroding steel girder basalt fibre composite materials
bridges. Successful laboratory testing on these steel girders recovered from a closed bridge will lead to in‐situ testing of the actual bridge repair technique to be developed and validated based on the laboratory results. With the majority of Ontario’s infrastructure built more than 60 years ago, many of these structures are reaching or already past their intended (design) lifespan. Bridges must be closed or vehicle loads are limited when deficiencies due to corrosion are found. Many municipalities do not have the required funds to replace or rehabilitate these structures and hence, they are sometimes even closed down indefinitely affecting the surrounding communi es.
MEDA Limited and the University of Windsor plan to undertake this research and complete these tests using a new composite fibre material for rehabilitation on these damaged steel girder bridges and compare it with current methods of rehabilitation. The current rehabilitation method used by various municipalities is to remove or grind the corroded part of the girder and replace with a new steel piece. This rehabilitation method causes disruption in the traffic flow and keeps the corrosion problem alive. The new fibre material which will be used in this study is 100% recyclable and has proven successful in applications to concrete structures and MEDA and University of Windsor research group, led by Dr. Das, believe that the product can be used in alternate forms to repair steel structures resulting in an easy and cost‐effective repair method. Voucher for Innovation and Productivity
AEM Power Systems Inc.
Supersonic fluidic oscillator development for High Frequency Gas Oscillating Flow System
The super plastic forming (SPF) process involves using high pressure compressed air to form a heated metallic sheet over the forming surface of a die. Forming times Advanced manufacturing
are necessarily long to allow residual stresses to be relaxed and avoid cracking and tearing of the metal. One technique which potentially allows the forming process to be accomplished in a much shorter time is to impose pressure fluctuations onto the mean forming pressure curve and thus allow partial stress relief during each fluctuation cycle. In principal, a supersonic fluidic oscillator (SFO) is capable of producing such oscillations and has the advantage of requiring no moving parts. These devices are extremely reliable in the harsh temperature environment found in the metal forming process. Unfortunately the design of these devices is not straightforward and numerical simulations of the complex time‐dependent supersonic flow field within the device must be employed to predict the performance. Computational solutions for a particular fluidic oscillator geometry operating over a range of fluid mechanic conditions have recently been conducted by our research group. The numerical techniques however, require a number of assumptions to be made which have yet to be validated. The objective of the proposed study is to conduct detailed experiments on these devices in order to evaluate these numerical techniques in predicting the device frequency as well as output flow and pressure fluctuations. A good agreement between the numerical and experimental results would give confidence to the results predicted at temperature and pressure conditions encountered in the actual superplastic forming process using this method. Having a reliable numerical design tool will help the industrial partner (AEM Power Systems Inc.) become a world class competitor in SPF process development.
12/24/2014
Gary Rankin
$20,000
$20,000
$40,000
Windsor
County Cider Company
Loyalist College of Applied Generating Process Efficiency Through Mechanical Arts and Technology
Design and Automation
The County Cider Company, located in Prince Edward County is a local producer of Cider beverages. Their farm location is home to 35 acres of grapes, apples and cash Advanced manufacturing
crops, including apples typically only found in Normandy and England which is a great contributor to the high quality product from County Cider Company that is typically only found in the British cider industry. Traditionally, the global cider industry has been mostly controlled by well‐established international producers such as Strongbow and Somersby, as well as North American producers such as Molson and Labatt Keith’s. However, Ontario is well positioned for a competitive advantage in this industry due to the loca on for apple produc on.
12/15/2014
Carly Kelly
$19,941
$62,805
$82,746
Belleville
Safieddin Safavi‐
Naeini
$83,200
$102,600
$185,800
Waterloo
Since the County Cider Company began, they have been growing at a staggering rate and are proving to be a competitor to big name cider production companies. The company is continually showing a 10‐20% increase in sales each year, however demand for the product is exceeding the company’s ability to package and distribute to meet the customer and distributor requirements. The company is experiencing a high level of variability due to the manual methods used for conveying and measuring raw materials in addition to their production line not operating in an efficient manner. To remain competitive in the market, County Cider Company needs to produce more products without increasing costs, staff or product price and this project will help to solve these challenges.
The focus of the project is to increase the companies process efficiencies in order to remain competitive with the other producers. This project will be embedded into the Manufacturing Engineering Technician program at Loyalist College, where students will be given the opportunity to work alongside a local industry partner on a "real world" challenge. The project will include three phases which will include introducing innovative technologies and process improvements while eliminating manual components.The first phase of the project will provide County Cider Company with a process map depicting the product sequences and isolating areas of waste and allow for streamlining of work processes. The second phase of this project will address a dangerous task that is a major component of their process, where the empty cider bottles are currently being hand placed onto the production line conveyor by a single employee. Not only is this dangerous, but the fully manual process only allows 30 bottles to be placed per minute. Through mechanical design the students will be challenged with the digital creation of an entire bottle loading machine that will eliminate the manual process entirely. The third phase of the project will be the automation of material flow. Currently the procedure used to convey raw and processed material is highly manual and subject to variability. The lack of an automated system is preventing the company from becoming as efficient and productive as possible. The objective of automating the material movement will be to allow for the company to repeatedly and easily convey raw, semi‐finished, and finished product around the produc on facility via touch screen human machine interface. County Cider Company will see immediate impact from this project after implementation through an increase in profitability, by not only being able to meet all existing order, but being able to expand their customer base and increase orders. This project will provide the company a foundation of electro mechanical utilization for increasing profit and reducing nonconformance, which they will in turn be able to implement over time throughout their facility. This will be a large step in the continuous improvement efforts at County Cider Company and will provide them with a much more efficient production capability, and as a result, allow them to grow and pursue larger and more contracts, proving to stay compe ve in the cider produc on industry.
7/10/2015
Bombardier Aerospace
Enabling technologies for confromal millimeter‐wave Internet speed available today for flying aircraft is limited (maximum of 3 Mbps at Ku‐Band) compared to more than 10 Mbps available to customers anywhere in the electronic beam‐scanning system for broadband developed world. Bombardier Aerospace (BA) wants to provide its customers flying in its business aircraft, internet speeds comparable to 10 Mbps or more.Higher aircraft to satellite communication
internet speed requires Ka‐Band antenna that uses higher frequency.However commercially available Ka‐Band antenna is more suited for larger commercial aircraft as the antenna is bulky. If installed on the fuselage of smaller business aircraft, this antenna will necessarily create drag and this drag increases further at higher speeds. Therefore commercially available Ka‐Band antenna is not a solution for Bombardier Business Aircraft and research is required to overcome the technical challenges associated with developing a Ka‐band antenna that is sized specifically for this aircraft product line.
1/8/2015
Section 1 ‐ 26
Program
Partners
BOCO Technology
Project Title
Project Summary
Development and Characterization of Polymer Chitin Bacteria poses serious health risks as a direct menace to human life due to deadly infections, adding billions to health care related costs. Everyday objects such as Composites for Bioapplications
cellphones, keyboards, door knobs and money are simply few among many that are multiple factors subjected to bacterial growth. While there are products such silver nanoparticles that possesses innate antimicrobial resistance, however, not only it is extremely expensive and difficult to implement, it also possesses serious health risks due to its nano‐scale inorganic nature. Imparting common items with antimicrobial resistance cheaply and effectively is a serious question that remains unanswered today.
Sector
Date
12/15/2014
Applicant Name
Hani Naguib
OCE Commitment
City
$20,000
$25,000
$45,000
Toronto
As the world leader in the commercial development of chitin nanowhisker (nanomaterial derived from crustacean shells that is innately anti‐microbial among many other unique properties) BOCO Technology Inc. is proud to partner material scientist Professor Hani Naguib of the University of Toronto, supported by Ontario Center of Excellence. The goal of this research project is to develop a material that possesses innate microbial resistance, derived from an indefinitely renewable source that can be harnessed cost effectively and poses absolutely zero health risks; this unique material property can be transferred to many polymer based objects or applied as coa ng to a number of surfaces.
The research team at BOCO and U of T will invistagate the viability of incoporating chitin nanowhiskers into polymer based anti‐microbial coatings or anti‐microbial nanocomposite material. Together, we intend to systematically study the microbial resistance of chitin nanowhiskers, develop methods and technique to impart or transfer such properties to polymeric coating and polymer nanocomposites. We believe valuable knowledge gained through this research partnership will be absolutely critical to a germ free future.
Lafarge Canada Inc.
Queen's University
Low carbon fuel development and implementations: The global cement industry is a very significant source of greenhouse gases, most notably carbon dioxide and nitrous oxides. Lafarge Canada is pursuing the Cement Bio‐economy and clean efficiency and co‐benefits
2020 initiative whereby up to 20% of the fossil fuel it currently uses will be replaced by low carbon fuels that include construction and demolition waste, discarded technologies
asphalt shingles, railway ties and other biomass materials. This project addresses two important, research intensive aspects of this transition process: innovative ways of moisture reduction in the low carbon fuel supply using available waste heat sources at the plant and reductions in nitrous oxide generation via combustion modifica ons to the main kiln burner, as part of its adapta on for co‐firing of conven onal, fossil fuel along with the low carbon fuels.
1/8/2015
Darko Matovic
$150,000
$150,600
$300,600
Kingston
11/17/2014
Jeffrey Atkinson
$19,992
$111,000
$130,992
St. Catharines
1/9/2015
Reza Kianoush
$20,000
$25,000
$45,000
Toronto
11/26/2014
Miriam Capretz
$20,000
$20,280
$40,280
London
This two year research and development project is complementary to the current implementation of the co‐firing process at Lafarge Bath plant, with the aim of maximizing energy efficiency of the low carbon fuels used, and reducing nitrous oxide emissions by modifying the flame pattern at the kiln burner. The timing of this project is excellent as the full‐scale biomass processing and delivery system at the Bath plant has just been commissioned: full scale tests will be made possible for several alternative approaches to drying, and the results of these tests, under various atmospheric and seasonal conditions, will be directly applicable to the overall co‐
firing scenario. This unique full‐scale opportunity is particularly important in these tests, since they don't scale well ‐ the results from small scale laboratory tests do not lead to accurate predictions of the full scale behaviour and are therefore of limited value to the industry. On the other hand, now is the rare opportunity for designing and testing a flexible prototype system that will enable real‐world tests of competing moisture reduction strategies that will give much needed answers to numerous research and prac cal ques ons.
With this project, close and ongoing collaboration between researchers at Queen's University and the Lafarge Bath plant will be elevated to a new level. The results of this project will be applicable to other Lafarge plants in Canada and abroad.
Exact Delivery Inc
Brock University
Develop a new family of biocompatible 18F Positron Exact Delivery Inc and Brock University are partnering to develop a new family of biocompatible Positron Emission Tomography (PET) agents that can target sites of Advanced health EmissionTomography (PET) agents
cancer for imaging and diagnosis. Positron Emission Tomography (PET scans) use radioactive drugs to search the body for cancer, helping doctors better track the technologies
course of treatment. The expanding use of PET scans for diagnosis is being driven by the development of new radio‐pharmaceuticals. Exact Delivery Inc. is a lipid technology company with a new concept for a family of biocompa ble radioac ve fluorine (F‐18) tagged PET agents that can be adapted to target a variety of tumors.
One of the key elements of this partnership is to be able to address the technical issues of optimized and expedient production of F‐18 since it has a short half‐life of 109 minutes. The structures of the proposed agents lend themselves to being incorporated into a lipid‐based delivery system for more precise diagnosis control.
BAH Enterprises Inc.
Ryerson University
Strength and ductility of reinforced concrete tall cylindrical structures
Structures such as pedestals in elevated water tanks, bridge towers, radio and TV masts, chimneys and other similar structures are classified as free standing towers. Bio‐economy and clean Most of these structures are considered as essential structures. They require to be designed for higher margin of safety as compared to ordinary building structures. technologies
The safe design of such structures are vital from the standpoint of both strength as well as serviceability. Lack of redundancy, in some situations large gravity load (comparing to conventional structures), and inappropriate design and detailing, are among the reasons for the poor performance of some of these structures in the past and in particular under seismic loading. Unlike most other structures which may have uniform dead and live load during their life time, free standing towers could have dramatically different gravity loads at different times. For example, the gravity load changes in pedestal in elevated tanks due to cycles of filling and emptying the tank during the off‐peak and high‐peak hours. Also, the load on a bridge pier changes due to change in traffic load at different times of the day. This change in the gravity load level may add some complication to the seismic design of these structures Furthermore, in structures with inverse pendulum configuration, deflection at the top level due to the seismic loads will be considerably more critical than other buildings. The main objective of the current study is to investigate the response of free standing towers under seismic loading. In the study, particular attention will be made to the shear and flexural strength of the shaft structure with emphasis on ductility in elevated water tanks or other structures having similar height to diameter ratio with similar level of gravity load.
London Hydro Inc.
Energy Consumption Data Analytics for Real Estate
At present, smart meters collect energy consumption data in one hour intervals for homeowners and five minute intervals for commercial customers. London Hydro Digital media and has made steps to roll out the Green Button Standard, which allows consumers to securely download their energy usage information and provide it to third parties. Its information & goal is to make consumer data more accessible to third parties with consumers being able to control how their information is released. This presents an opportunity communication for further analysis into consumer energy use pa erns and possible pa ern recogni on applica ons to forecas ng energy demand.
technologies
This project aims to take advantage of the Green Button data to provide benefits for the real estate industry. It is common for real estate buyers to inquire about the attributes of a home in order to determine if the property meets their needs before making an offer to purchase. These attributes influence the listing price of the home, and ultimately the final sale price. One factor that is currently undervalued when determining the listing price of a home is its overall energy usage, which influences ongoing costs associated with home ownership.
This project will provide an assessment on a home’s energy use by using hourly energy consumption data provided by the Green Button initiative. This will allow real estate buyers to have a be er insight in property efficiency as well as to compare energy efficiency of different proper es.
Realtor.ca is currently a well respected method for listing consumer real estate properties for purchase; but, at this time, there is no information provided on a home’s energy use patterns. By providing consumers with information on a home’s energy usage through a realtor, additional incentive will be provided for consumers to use Realtor.ca during the home buying process.
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 27
Program
Partners
Maplesoft Inc.;Toyota Motor University of Waterloo
Engineering and Manufacturing North America
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Dynamic Modelling and Parameter Identification for The applicant and his research group have developed a new approach to model contact between bodies over distributed surfaces, such as an automotive tire in Advanced manufacturing
Automotive Tires
contact with the road. This approach results in a contact force that is a function of the volume of interpenetration, which is a more accurate representation than the distance of interpenetration used by most current models. Furthermore, this volumetric contact model naturally includes the rolling resistance and overturning moments acting on an automotive tire, both of which affect handling and fuel consumption. The volumetric approach is elegant, physics‐based, and very well‐suited to a symbolic math representation; furthermore, it has been successfully applied to the rolling motion of a human foot on the ground, with forces and moments validated by experimental measurements. Date
Applicant Name
1/8/2015
John McPhee
1/9/2015
OCE Commitment
City
$149,994
$1,239,622
$1,389,616
Waterloo
Todd Hoare
$19,993
$23,980
$43,973
Hamilton
3/30/2015
Olivier Trescases
$50,000
$50,000
$100,000
Toronto
12/10/2014
Lian Zhao
$20,000
$20,200
$40,200
Toronto
Time‐resolved imaging of photoacoustic tomography One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime and one in 35 die of it today. Early detection of fast growing cancer reduces mortality. Several Advanced health imaging modalities are used to screen for and to diagnose breast cancer, but none has the concurrent spatial and temporal resolutions required to visualize tumor technologies
morphology and blood flow dynamics with a sensitivity that can compete with photoacoustic computed tomography (PACT). This technique is based on detection of thermo‐elastic stress waves generated by the absorption of pulsed laser radiation. It has been used to successfully resolve sub‐millimeter lesions at depths of a few cen meters.
PACT has been languishing in research labs for decades constrained by the pressure sensing ultrasound detection methods. The piezoelectric or optical stress transducers require placement in acoustic contact with the tissue surface. The surface area of transducers determines its sensitivity and also limits its detection bandwidth and resolu on.
This project will use an innovative optical system to replace the pressure transducers. Optical metrology techniques will be used to capture the entire spatial and temporal profiles of photoacous c wavefronts enabling accurate reconstruc on of the diagnos c images of hidden lesions/absorbers.
This project starts a new collaboration between the McMaster Biophotonics Research Lab and Lumasonix Inc. The McMaster team specializes in high temporal resolution imaging and optical diagnosis techniques. Lumasonix was founded by Naveed Nazir ([email protected]) to commercialize the photoacoustic imaging technology. 1/19/2015
Qiyin Fang
$20,000
$65,000
$85,000
Hamilton
In this project, we will develop volumetric models for tire/road interactions, which can be used to improve and optimize the design of vehicle subsystems and automotive controllers that increase safety and reduce fuel consumption. The project will also involve experimental validation of the model, an importance study of model parameters, and analy cal determina on of the values of model parameters from experimental data.
The performance of the new models will be validated by comparison to tire models in the commercial software package MSC.Adams, as well as published experimental results. Based on our past experience with vehicle dynamics, these new math‐based models are expected to simulate 1‐2 orders of magnitude faster than numerical models (MSC.Adams), while represen ng the system with sufficient fidelity to support vehicle and controller design.
Ecosynthetix Corporation
McMaster University
Bio‐Synthetic Hybrid Microgel Particles
EcoSynthetix is a Canadian company that specializes in transforming renewable resources into high‐performance biomaterials to replace existing petroleum‐based Bio‐economy and clean products. The goal of this OCE‐VIP proposal is to develop new bio‐synthetic nanoparticles that can find potential use as agricultural additives (i.e. controlled pesticide technologies
release), drug delivery materials for human use, and the formation of water‐swellable coatings for sensing or display applications, all of which would be new markets for EcoSynthe x.
Earlier collaboration with McMaster University has delivered a general fabrication method for these bio‐synthetic nanoparticles using a “green” polymerization strategy in water, an important milestone. Based on this result, we now aim to explore the range of different bio‐synthetic nanoparticles that we can make using the developed fabrication method and how we can apply these materials in various markets. Specifically, we will focus on optimizing the polymerization process to ensure maximum yield and minimize waste, optimizing the properties of the nanoparticles, and designing bio‐synthetic nanoparticles that are completely biodegradable and will not cause a burden on the environment. It is our expectation that these new bio‐synthetic nanoparticles have the potential to provide significant environmental, health, and economic benefits to Ontario.
Solantro Semiconductor Corp
High‐Density, High‐Efficiency Modular GaN Inverter Inverters are used to convert direct current from devices like solar panels and batteries, to alternating current, used in homes and businesses. Among the barriers to Bio‐economy and clean Platform for Renewable Energy Applications
broader deployment of solar energy, is the current size and portability of inverters. Google Inc. has placed significant investment in solar energy, and to increase technologies
uptake and deployment of solar energy, has partnered with the IEEE Power Electronics Society to support technology development which will address the aforementioned barrier. To that end, Google launched the 'Little Box Challenge' wherein academia and private sector partners are invited to develop an innovative technology solution, which will lead to commercialization of an inverter that is at least 10x smaller than current state‐of‐the‐art inverters, while achieving a power conversion efficiency of 95%.
Solantro has a keen interest in addressing the barriers to broader deployment of distributed solar energy systems, particularly in high need/growth markets like China, India, Africa and South America, for both consumer and commercial applications. University of Toronto in partnership with Solantro Semicoductor Corp brings a strong history of successful collaboration in technology development, including grants from OCE (TPS/C2C) and an NSERC CRD submission. Both parties have derrived significant benefit from previous collabrations, which have enabled Solantro to accelerate technology development with patent filings and market entry, and the University to provide opportuni es for students to acquire experience in real world technical challenges.
In this project, Prof. Olivier Trescases of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering will lead the technical team to design a modular high‐efficiency inverter prototype based on Gallium Nitride power transistors and Solantro's new control chips. Prof. Trescases has published over 50 papers in IEEE conferences and journals in the area of power electronics. Prof. Trescases’ lab is fully equipped with state‐of‐the‐art programmable power supplies, electronic loads (up to 10 kW) and high accuracy measurement equipment to carry out this challenging project. Prof. Trescases’ group is collaborating closely with Solantro Semiconductor, an innovative start‐up company from Ottawa, who will supply innovative control chip to facilitate high‐frequency soft‐switching and reduced parts‐count in the prototype. Ray Orr, CTO of Solantro will act as the primary interface to UofT. Ray, who co‐founded Potentia Semiconductor (acquired by Power Integrations in 2008), has over 20 years of experience in power management. The project will lead to economic benefits in the form of job creation in Ontario at Solantro and its local customers, as well societal benefits in the form of increased adop on of renewable energy. Voucher for Innovation and Productivity
Heaven Fresh
Ryerson University
Smart air purifiers for home automation
The negative impacts of outdoor air pollutants (in particular, emissions from car and factories) on our health and well‐being are commonly reported. However, the air inside our homes and the workplaces is in fact more harmful. The Environmental Protection Agency has declared that “indoor air” is the top environmental health problem. United States Environmental Protection Agency also reported that on average, people spend about 90 percent of their time indoors, where the concentrations of some pollutants are 2 to 5 times higher than typical outdoor concentrations. The investigation on the indoor environment quality and its rela onship with human wellness has recently a racted significant a en on from both academia and industry. Our industry partner, Heaven Fresh Canada Inc., is in the business of designing, distributing and marketing wellness consumer products such as air purifiers, humidifiers, dehumidifiers, and kitchen appliances. In this project, we will design and implement advanced digital technologies into one of the production lines (air purifiers HF380) of the industry partner. HF380 was designed over ten years ago; therefore there is plenty of room for improvements. In this project, we will design WiFi functions for remote monitoring and controlling as a basic step towards smart home systems, and we will adapt touch screen technology to give the product a more user‐friendly interface. The research results will overall benefit all Canadians, by promoting and providing affordable and healthier indoor air conditions in Canada. Graduate students and research associates involved will gain real‐world experience for their career development.
7/10/2015
Lumasonix Inc
McMaster University
Section 1 ‐ 28
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
The Globe and Mail Inc.
Ontario College of Art & Design University
Data and Visual Analytics for Decision Making in Next In an era of big data and changing patterns in user consumption of media, the Globe and Mail can better understand its users, build its subscriber base, maintain its Digital media and Generation Media Properties
online readers and deepen its revenue streams through the effective use of data analytics, design engineering and visualization. It can provide new data‐savvy tools information & communication for its in‐house analysts and editors. An integrated recommender engine and related visualization displays will be developed to suggest relevant content based on technologies
unique user profiles and drive engagement with subscribers. At the same time this information will need to be provided in such a way to the editorial team so they can develop relevant navigation strategies on their multi‐platform websites including Globe’s content and advertising in real‐time. Through OCE VIP funding the Globe and Mail will effec vely address the challenges of media outlets in the digital era. Voucher for Innovation and Productivity
R&B Cormier Inc.
Queen's University
Singspiel
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
3/4/2015
Sara Diamond
$100,000
$295,500
$395,500
Toronto
Bio‐economy and clean Semi‐automated Tools for Outlining Forest Resources Accurate information on forest biomass resource and their change is important for many government and industry sectors such as forest management, oil/gas, bioenergy, municipal land management, etc. High resolution ortho‐rectification airborne images are commonly used to measure, report and verify (MRV) biomass, technologies
and Biomass from High Resolution Digital Images
natural resources and other strategic land assets. Currently the most common practice of obtaining fine‐scale forest biomass resource is through manual interpolation of large scale ortho‐rectified imagery (aerial photos or remotely sensed imagery) and proprietary biometric analysis with very limited automatic processing. The more recent object‐based image analysis (OBIA) has gained a wider recognition for their potential for accurately extracting real‐world features from high resolution images. However, the OBIA based algorithms are complex and resources intensive (processing power, memory and storage) which is partially due to much larger information contents available in very high resolution data. In this project we propose to investigate the development of semi‐automated tools for quickly extracting and detecting targeted forest inventory using OBIA method and automatically conduct biometric analysis from very high resolution remote sensing (RS) imagery. These tools will be based on a knowledge base and automatically assigning the appropriate biomass and energy‐related parameters for proprietary biometrics of different forest features.
3/30/2015
DongMei Chen
$70,000
$103,800
$173,800
Kingston
Singspiel ‐ UWaterloo ‐ VIP
2/25/2015
Derek Rayside
$19,964
$20,960
$40,924
Waterloo
The knee is the largest joint in the human body. Osteoarthritis of the knee is one of the most common joint disorder that affects 5‐6% of the population. Unloader Advanced health knee braces are prescribed for patients with osteoarthritis in one compartment of the knee. The unloader knee braces apply valgus moment to the knee joint so that technologies
the knee compartment with osteoarthritis is unloaded. However, the current braces that are available do not have the capability to adjust the unloading. Rather, the patient would have same amount of unloading all the time, whether required or not. This will result in unnecessary discomfort and nerve compression on the backside of the knee due to cross straps of the brace. Deep creek precision manufacturing is a company that makes different types of knee joint hinges that are used in knee braces. A new knee joint hinge design has been developed in collaboration with University of Waterloo. In the new design, the unloading is adjustable and there are no straps, resulting in minimal discomfort to the patient. The aim of this project is to test the current design on a patient with osteoarthritis and refine the design based on their feedback so that the product could be commercialized. The new knee joint developed will help the company to expand its market for knee joints. This will bring economic benefits to Canada through exports. The research will help improve the quality of life for aging population of Canada by reducing the discomfort of wearing braces.
1/9/2015
Naveen Chandrashekar
$20,000
$25,000
$45,000
Waterloo
GTG Engineering Canada Inc. (GTG), based out of Niagara Falls, Ontario, is the exclusive distributor of LLFA® products, a stable, chemically inert and opaque rubber material used to repair, seal and insulate all manners of industrial components. In operation since 2001, the company has experienced heightened demand for its products, specifically ‘Smooth' and 'Smooth Thin’, products typically used in medium‐to‐high voltage applications, such as covering connectors, terminal lugs and exposed wires, and in water leak repair and connection seals for plumbing. While the main component for these products is sourced in large quantities from its supplier, Smooth & Smooth Thin are manufactured on a small scale with a homemade machine at GTG. It works by converting large volumes of LLFA into spools of thin strips of putty that are easily used by end‐consumers. The manufacturing process is slow and inefficient, requires constant supervision, and at times produces an inconsistent product. 3/13/2015
Marc Nantel
$19,832
$34,834
$54,666
Lake
Singspiel Inc. is an education technology company based out of MaRS Discovery District in Toronto. It is like a virtual music teacher that provides you realtime feedback on how you play. Singspiel is the music learning equivalent for what Duolingo is for language learning. Using our product, Students can self‐sufficiently develop their performance, aural and theory skills in music.
Singspiel proprietary solution offers a unique comprehensive package for an individual who wants to learn music. Users can assess their practice sessions and at each step along the way, Singspiel measures their errors and analyze the performance data. It can aggregate that data, learn from the pattern it sees and offer appropriate lessons plans. Using Singspiel you can: 1. purchase your favourite song (sheet music) 2. play through it using your own real instrument 3. our algorithms listen to your performance in real me by u lizing the built in microphone 4. Singspiel provides feedback based on your prac ce and guide you to the right exercises. 5. Through the gamified experiences, you will have real‐time score follower on the sheet music, get real‐time error detection, rhythm feedback, and automatic page turner.
Add Tech Tags
Singspiel is VC backed company that has received more than $300,000 in investment funding from private sources. Singspiel's flagship product was launched in May 2014 and is currently being used by global educational institutions (e.g. El Sistema) ‐ http://www.sistema‐
toronto.ca/uploads/Media_Release_Sistema_Toronto_May_12_Singspiel.pdf.
Deep Creek Precision Manufacturing
New Adjustable Osteoarthritis Knee Brace
GTG Canada
Niagara College of Applied LLFA Smooth Dispenser Prototype
Arts and Technology
This research project presents several areas of expertise with which the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Centre (AMIC) at Niagara College could assist, including: engineering design and redesign, process analysis and improvement, product development, product testing, technology development, and problem solving. Through these activities, a research student and faculty lead will work closely together with the project partner, Mark Hawkins, to advance the technology in this field. Together, the team will u lize AMIC’s capabili es and track‐record of success with product design using 3D CAD so ware and process improvement, amongst others.
While the current Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of the idea or concept is at TRL‐1, with the assistance of AMIC it can be brought to TRL‐4. TRL‐4, in this case, represents validating the design of a prototype or proof‐of‐concept. The project will also look at improving GTG’s current machine to increase its efficiency until the new prototype is developed and installed. With the help of Niagara College, GTG can grow its revenue by $1.25M and create up to three (3) new jobs over the next five (5) years. 7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 29
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Orix Geoscience
Collège Boréal
The collection and analysis of geological data through Orix Geoscience Inc. and Collège Boréal have partnered to conduct the collection and analysis of archival geological data through a new software program for cloud‐ Digital media and one software program for cloud‐based storage
based storage. Typically, mining exploration companies have archival data that contains insight into their exploration activities on printed copies that are stored in one information & remote location. When employees within the company seek the data, they must travel or pay shipping fees which are equally costly in terms of travel expenses and communication technologies
time‐consumption. Orix Geoscience is a for‐profit geological exploration company that provides a range of services, including the cataloguing of hard copies of geological data into an excel spreedsheet format. This service to mining companies is valuable yet there is a need to provide relevant and concise interprétations from the cataloguing system. Through the present submission, researchers at Collège Boréal will help the geologists at Orix Geoscience develop a cloud‐based catalogue program that will become the company's flagship service for larger exploration and mining companies. Specifically, researchers at the college will create a classification system and develop a relevant software program that yields readily‐available geological, geophysical, mineral, and geotechnical data in an electronic format that could be stored on an accessible network from anywhere in the world. Orix Geoscience will be responsible for commercializing and maintaining the new software program as part of a complementary option to existing services or as an independent service.
Dellcom Aerospace
McMaster University
Development and Implementation of Advanced Machining Technologies for Aerospace Component Manufacturing
Aerospace manufacturing in Ontario continues to provide high quality, high paying jobs and a source of high value added business where the ability to efficiently produce complex, quality parts from exotic materials is crucial. Dellcom Aerospace (www.Dellcom.ca) is a manufacturer of aerospace components located in Markham, ON and has over 60 years of Aerospace manufacturing experience. Dellcom manufactures aerospace components for domestic and international customers, including Bombardier. Dellcom has partnered with the McMaster Manufacturing Research Institute (MMRI) at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario to collaboratively develop and implement new and innovative advanced manufacturing technologies to support Dellcom in growth, obtaining new business, and ultimately bring new jobs to Ontario.
Breq Labs Inc.
Humber College
Industrial design of the next generation gaming glove: Cestus
Transnomis Solutions Inc
Ryerson University
Development of mobile device‐based surrogate systems for connected and autonomous vehicle technologies
As connected and autonomous vehicle technologies continue to emerge, there is an increasing need to evaluate their welfare effects on operations. However, studies performed using only computer simulations in a lab rely on assumptions about travel behaviour and effects from the environment. “In situ” tests conducted on the field using the actual technologies can be both expensive and unsafe for the public. We propose a hybrid solution: development of a suite of mobile device apps that mimic the computing and communications technologies behind the connected and autonomous vehicles, so that they can be deployed inexpensively and safely to collect data for performance measurement. These “surrogate systems” will be of great interest to public agencies, vehicle manufacturers, and freight and transit operators, particularly in urban settings where in situ tests are most costly/unsafe to deploy.
Compliance Case Corporation
McMaster University
Self Destructing Contact Lens Case for Improved Compliance
Sigma Bio‐instruments Inc
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
1/19/2015
Randy Battochio
$19,884
$48,780
$68,664
Sudbury
3/19/2015
Stephen Veldhuis
$20,000
$73,404
$93,404
Hamilton
BreqLabs Inc. has developed Cestus, an innovative wearable sensor glove, or ‘exoglove,’ that can track hand movement and finger orientation in 3D with high Digital media and precision for the purpose of computer interaction and gesture control. The sensor glove allows a user’s hand movement to be converted into computer actions. The information & sensor glove will make 3D gaming more intuitive, providing a more immersive gaming experience. Currently, BreqLabs has a functional prototype, but to move their communication product to market, the company requires a final product design that is appealing to their target market, allows for manufacture in large volumes, and addresses a set technologies
of unique design challenges.
In order to find a solution to this design challenge, BreqLabs has partnered with Humber College Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning. With the expertise of faculty members Odin Cappello and Glenn Moffatt and a team of students from Humber’s Industrial Design program, BreqLabs will design, test, and validate a manufacture‐ready exoglove that offers aesthetic appeal and comfort while housing BreqLabs hand tracking technology. This collaborative project will not only provide meaningful experiential learning for students, but will also supply BreqLabs with the fully functional, market‐ready prototype needed to manufacture, market, and generate further investment in the Cestus.
1/26/2015
Amanda Brown
$18,767
$22,983
$41,750
Toronto
1/19/2015
Joseph Chow
$20,000
$45,000
$65,000
Toronto
Several studies have demonstrated that the majority of contact lens wearers are not compliant with the instructions associated with both lens and case care. Several Advanced health of these non‐compliant behaviours are associated with a significant increase in case contamination, which has the potential to lead to a variety of different and often technologies
devastating lens complications. In particular, “topping up” rather than disposing of the solution on a daily basis and failing to dispose of the lens case after a specified period of time are problematic. Based on the concept of a two chamber, self destructing lens case, developed by the Compliance Case Corporation, the Sheardown lab has created a novel mechanism of controlling lens case failure through the release of wetting agents from a plug. Release rates have been shown to be controllable and dependent on relevant factors such as removal of the cleaning solution from the case on a daily basis to further encourage appropriate use of solution. The focus of the current study will be optimization of the plug including incorporation into the lens case, optimization of size and degradation parameters while incorporated into the case and characteriza on of the biological response to the released components in order to further this new contact lens case.
2/11/2015
Heather Sheardown
$20,000
$20,000
$40,000
Hamilton
Advanced health System Development for Automated Counting of Red The KB test is a blood test performed on approximately 15‐20% of pregnant women to measure the number of fetal red blood cells entering from a fetus into a Blood Cells
mother’s bloodstream (i.e., fetal‐maternal hemorrhage).Fetal‐maternal hemorrhage can result from Rhesus hemolytic (Rh) diseases or loss of integrity of the normal technologies
physiological barrier between the fetal and maternal circulation. The state‐of‐the‐art practice in hospitals for KB test relies on manual counting by certified technologists. A lab technologist prepares a blood smear from the mother’s blood. Sample preparation with an acid results in a KB slide where fetal red blood cells appear dark red and maternal cells appear light pinkish. The lab technologist, looking through the eyepieces of a microscope, manually counts the fetal and maternal red blood cells (RBCs). To have reliable results a minimum of 2,000 cells are counted and the percentage of fetal to maternal cells is calculated. Manual counting of 2,000 cells takes ~15‐20 minutes.
1/19/2015
Yu Sun
$20,000
$20,000
$40,000
Toronto
2/25/2015
John Lam
$16,200
$16,550
$32,750
Toronto
Human errors are always a clinical concern because of the nature of the manually performed task. This project aims to develop a low‐cost instrument prototype for automated fetal and maternal RBC count in clinical KB test. The system prototype will include custom‐developed hardware for positioning and imaging KB slides. The system will process the captured RBC images to count and distinguish fetal and maternal RBCs. The system will position KB slides to count a high number of cells (60,000 cells vs. 2,000 cells) and will enhance the accuracy of traditional KB tests. We will also prove that the low‐cost instrument will offer significant savings in time and efforts (8 minute automated operation vs. 20 minutes manual counting). Within this project, we will evaluate the performance of the system prototype and compare KB test results with those from certified hospital technologists and benchmark results from flow cytometry. The technology has the potential to standardize how RBCs are counted in clinical KB test.
Cistel Technology
York University
Multi‐input power converters for hybrid renewable energy systems
The energy consumption of the Information Technology (IT) data centers; servers and energy storage systems have been increasing rapidly for the past decade in Canada. As of 2013, the industrial and IT sectors account for 38%of the nation's energy use and 34% in related greenhouse gas emissions. In order to reduce global warming and conserve depleting sources of fossil fuel, hybrid wind‐solar energy systems can be an attractive alternative energy source to supply clean, reliable, and sustainable energy for powering the IT data centers and servers. Due to the volatile nature of solar irradiation and the wind, power electronics plays a critical role in providing efficient power conversion and maximizing the energy extraction from these renewable resources. Ontario IT leading company, Cistel Technology, is currently looking for an innovative, reliable, clean and highly efficient power solution for IT data centers. However, the current power electronic interface employed in the hybrid renewable energy systems faces the challenges of using high component count power converters and using electronic component with poor reliability, such as the use of the unreliable electroly c capacitors that have very short life‐ me. Digital media and information & communication technologies
This research project is to develop new; reliable and cost‐effective multi‐input power converter topologies that do not require any electrolytic capacitors in the power electronics interface for hybrid wind‐solar energy systems. Successful development of this novel technology will help Cistel Technology to establish Ontario as a world leader in design and manufacture of highly reliable and efficient multi‐input electrolytic capacitor‐less power converters that are applicable to hybrid renewable energy systems. Furthermore, the Canadian market will benefit from development of a superior product for consumers, while state‐of‐the‐art technology resulted from this project will lead to the creation of start‐up company that will result in the creation of jobs in research and development, sales and marketing, distribution, and manufacturing.
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 30
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
Class 1 Inc
Hospital Air Emissions Capture and Recovery‐Stage 3 The inhaled anesthetic gases used in hospitals are currently collected by the ventilation system and emitted to the atmosphere. These gases are relatively strong Advanced manufacturing
greenhouse gases and are ozone depleting, like the CFC refrigerants, and therefore there is a desire to prevent their emission. In addition, since they are relatively expensive there is a potential to capture and reprocess them for reuse. Class 1 Inc has developed a centralized ventilation system that can capture the major anesthetic gases using an adsorbent material. In collaboration with researchers at the University of Waterloo, it is desired to further develop the technology to permit a cost and energy‐effective method to recover the gases in a liquid form that can be reprocessed. In this project, installation of additional equipment on a test system that is at a local hospital will be performed and the system run for a period to assess its performance. Lab tests will be used as required to verify the quality of the recovered product, as well as to troubleshoot any identified operating concerns. At the end of the project, a prototype system will have been fully developed and tested on‐site at a hospital, and the performance and purity of recovered anesthetics will be characterized. This will allow Class 1 Inc to proceed with manufacture of the first commercialized version of the technology for sale later in 2015.
3/19/2015
William Anderson
Sabic Innovative Plastics
Development of a Transparent/Conductive Coating for Plastics Manufactured in Cobourg
In this project we will develop a coating process that can be carried out at SABIC‐IP Cobourg, Ontario. The process will be used to apply a transparent and conductive Advanced manufacturing
coating to plastic sheets that are manufactures at the Cobourg site. This will render the sheets useful for electronics applications including solar panels, displays, touch screens, lighting, and others. Currently these technologies use ITO glass as a substrate. This technology has challenges with mechanical robustness, cost and scalability. SABIC believes that novel coatings on its engineered plastics could address the issues with ITO glass. This proposal tackles the challenges of adhesion of conductive transparent coatings on engineered plastics. Successful implementation of this process will allow this manufacturer to sell plastic sheets to these markets, for which it does not currently have products for. Long term success will generate revenue for Ontario and create new jobs at the Cobourg site.
3/4/2015
Dwight Seferos
RigMaster Power International Ltd.
Ryerson University
Plasma Trigger for Intake Air on Internal Combustion Our industry partner, RigMaster Power International Ltd., is one of the leading producers of anti‐idling solutions for the transportation market to reduce emissions Advanced manufacturing
Engines
from the off‐road trucks and protect the environment. The company strives to find solutions for emission reduction for on‐road trucks. The proposed research aims to inves gate the approaches to reduce greenhouse gas emission by improving fuel combus on speed, to make the combus on process more complete and efficient.
2/25/2015
Lian Zhao
OCE Commitment
City
$19,994
$54,521
$74,515
Waterloo
$150,000
$150,000
$300,000
Toronto
$20,000
$34,700
$54,700
Toronto
$142,856
$143,428
$286,284
Toronto
The proposed research aims to improve fuel efficiency by increasing ozone density inside the combustion chamber for more completed combustion to convert more mechanical energy and to generate less emission. In particular, for current practice, inside the combustion chamber, the fuel is burned within a limited time frame and afterwards the engine moves to the next cycle. In this case, the combustion is not carried out completely. Our target is to complete the combustion operation as quickly as possible by increasing the re‐ac vity of the combus on catalyst. We have conducted R&D activities to reduce emission for about two years targeting automobile application, and have designed a proof‐of‐the‐concept initial prototype using ozone approach for gasoline engines. In the following, two Vehicle Emissions Inspection Reports, which are cropped from the original reports, are shown in Fig. 1 and Fig.2 respectively, before the after the installation of our initial prototype in a 1995 Nissan four cylinders car. Significant reduction of the emissions (HC and CO) after installation of the prototype can be observed from the reports. The reduction ranges from 22% to 56% for gasoline engines, and can save fuel approximately by 10%. We aim to further develop the technology and apply the advanced design for diesel engines. Besides further development of the ozone approach, we plan to conduct inves ga on using plasma to trigger ozone to catalyze the combus on opera on for diesel engines.
Vive Crop Protection Inc.
Improved nanoparticle production through the study In this project, we will examine steps in the polymer nanoparticle production process used by industrial partner Vive Crop Protection. The nanoparticle creation of UV cross‐linking and its by‐products
process involves an ultraviolet (UV) irradiation step that may result in incomplete conversion of the starting polymer into nanoparticles. The UV degradation process that occurs along with this conversion may affect the purity of the resulting polymer nanoparticles. In addition, it is currently not fully understood how this process differs when new types of nanoparticles are being produced by this method. The U of T research team will use our expertise in nanochemistry to improve the conversion rate and thereby reduce the by‐products produced and save energy by improving process efficacy.
We also propose to examine the reaction mechanisms of the converting novel polymers into nanoparticles, as developed by an NSERC CRD project, to enable their production by Vive. The combination of the NSERC CRD and this project implementing their synthesis in the existing process, will enable Vive to more quickly and efficiently access new markets and expand their product line to include nanoparticles targeted at specific crop protection chemicals.
3/4/2015
Cynthia Goh
Focal Healthcare Inc
McMaster University
Development of Fixturing and Locating Device for MRI/TRUS System
3/5/2015
Stephen Veldhuis
$20,000
$75,200
$95,200
Hamilton
3/19/2015
Hans‐Peter Loock
$20,000
$54,039
$74,039
Kingston
3/4/2015
David Lie
$105,713
$221,380
$327,093
Toronto
Focal Healthcare Inc. is a Toronto‐based developer and manufacturer of medical devices, with a vision to shape the next generation of prostate cancer management through technical innovation. Our first products, the Fusion Bx(TM) and Fusion Tx(TM) systems, will greatly improve the way that prostate cancer is detected, monitored and treated.
In North America, 1 in 7 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime. While incidence rates continue to rise, the existing standard of care is inadequate, and has remained largely unchanged for 25 years. Currently, prostate cancer is diagnosed through random “blind” biopsies. However, this method does a poor job discerning the location and extent of the disease. This often leads to detection/over‐treatment of indolent and insignificant cancers, and misdiagnosis/under‐
treatment of aggressive and significant cancers. Moreover, as urologists are unsure of disease extent, they generally treat the prostate as a whole, either surgically removing or irradiating the entire organ. These crude methods are not only often ineffective, but also adversely affect the lives of the patients. Focal Healthcare Inc. is well posi oned to change that.
Focal Healthcare Inc.’s device combines the benefits of MRI and ultrasound in a process known as Magnetic Resonance Imaging/Trans‐Rectal Ultrasound (MRI/TRUS) Fusion. This technology allows specific prostate regions of interest identified through MR to be accurately targeted during biopsy (Fusion Bx) and therapy (Fusion Tx) procedures. This will improve diagnostic accuracy, enhance therapeutic decision making, and improve clinical outcomes for prostate cancer patients. Through this partnership with the McMaster Manufacturing Research Institute, we will develop our MRI/TRUS Fusion technology into the new gold standard tool for prostate cancer care management.
OZ Optics
Queen's University
Ultrasensitive Fiber Strain Sensor
OZ Optics together with Queen’s researchers will design and build a prototype sensor system with unprecedented sensitivity. The instrument is suited for strain and vibration measurements in artificial and natural structures, i.e. it is equally suited for monitoring the structural health of planes, bridges, buildings, and roads as it is for e.g. seismic monitoring. The sensor head consists of an optical cavity incorporated into standard telecom fiber which is interrogated by a newly developed active optical feedback circuit. In previous work the sensor was shown to perform with a sensitivity that was limited only by the thermodynamic phase fluctuations of the fiber material (Science, 330, 6007 (2010) 1081) and was found to be far superior, with regards to dynamic range and sensitivity, to any previously developed strain sensor. In the current joint development the emphasis lies on an inexpensive, ruggedized adaptation of the same concept. In addition we will develop a start‐up protocol that permits unattended boot‐up of the system. This is essential for future commercial development of the system, but has never been attempted. Upon completion of the project we will have built a sensor system that permits strain and frequency measurements at nanostrain levels within a frequency range from DC to >200 kHz. The instrument fills a gap in the fiber‐op c sensing por olio offered by OZ Op cs.
TELUS Corp
Defending Against Advanced Malware Insertion Attacks Using Binary Provenance
This project will explore solutions to the problem of "Binary Provenance", which will allow organizations to determine if a piece of software can be tied to a particular Digital media and information & set of source code. Many large enterprises have special agreements that enable them to get access to significant amount of, if not all of the source code for the software that they license from their software vendors. Binary Provenance will thus allow these organizations to check if a piece of software has been tampered with, communication technologies
and thus detect malicious software being inserted into their critical systems regardless of how cybersecurity attackers try to disguise their malware. Even in the instance when the source code they received is incomplete, Binary Provenance will enable to determine which software or sections of software do match the known source code, enabling the enterprise to focus its energies and investigation on the unaccounted for sections of software.
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 31
Program
Partners
Germiphene
Project Title
Development of disinfection technologies in dental applications
Project Summary
Sector
Advanced health The pharmaceutical sector requires strict screening of its products before releasing for public use. These regular screening ensure that the product is free from technologies
harmful microorganism at each stage of production and final the product should maintain its designated medicinal properties. The screening of a product against harmful microorganisms is usually performed by conventional methods which take from days to several weeks to provide results. These conventional methods are tedious and time consuming because they are based on culturing and manual counting of microorganisms. For example, screening of a medical disinfectant requires checking of antimicrobial efficacy of products for at least bacteria, viruses and fungi, which typically requires a month of testing time. Holding of final products for such a long me increases cost of the product and chances of contamina on during storage.
To resolve the problems of higher cost and long duration of product testing, researchers have been using molecular‐ and biochemical‐based methods for screening of microorganisms. In these techniques antibodies are used for identification of microorganisms. These methods have significantly reduces the test time but still require a lot of manual opera ons. The health and safety of the person who is doing these opera ons is also a concern if tes ng is for infec ous microorganism.
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
3/30/2015
Lars Rehmann
$150,000
$153,852
$303,852
London
To overcome the concerns of manual operation and to further reduce the operational cost and duration of these tests, we will develop new methodologies by the combination of biochemical methods and high through put screening technology (HTS). HTS technology is based on the use of automatic technology that measures several biological parameters of a microorganism in short period of time. This project will mainly focused on the development of protocols using HTS technology for testing of specific microorganism as per requirement of the industrial partner. These protocols will be based on the detection of specific gene sequence and/or quantification of metabolic activity present in the microorganisms. Along with that the efforts will be made to standardize these protocols as per conventional methods described by Health Canada.
Autodesk Canada Co
Real virtuality: making the virtual, physical (v3)
In many virtual reality systems, the visual presentation of imagery is enhanced with haptic presentation. Previous techniques for physical display of virtual scenes by means of handheld objects are highly effective but limited by the need to have the user hold a physical probe with which they must poke at the physical scene. More recent research efforts have sought to enable hands‐free haptic feedback by the use of air pressure, acoustic techniques, or electrical signal. These, however, provide ‘weak’ feedback – what might be equated to a ‘low volume’ in the physical space.
Holographic displays hold the promise of mixing reality with virtuality, bringing the ability to visit any world we can imagine closer to us. In many ways, if we see a virtual object in front of us we think it exists until we reach out to touch it and feeling nothing but air. As a result, customers seeking to build 3D objects are left with a need to ‘print’ their objects repeatedly during the design process, slowing progress, and crea ng significant waste.
Instead, we seek to enable customers not only to see virtual objects in 3D space, but to feel them as well. To this end, a robotic arm, inside a virtual “fish tank”, can serve as a physical proxy for the virtual objects. The robotic arm is able to pick up different surfaces and spatially align them with virtual objects inside the fish tank’s interactive volume. We demonstrate the possibilities of this approach by physically rendering surface characteristics such as object position, orientation, texture, temperature, and shape. We go beyond surface characteristics and further demonstrate how physical controls, whole object interaction, such as pushing or grabbing the real surfaces, are easily achievable with this approach. Autodesk, Inc., is a leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software. Customers across the manufacturing, architecture, building, construction, and media and entertainment industries—including the last 19 Academy Award winners for Best Visual Effects—use Autodesk software to design, visualize, and simulate their ideas before they're ever built or created. From blockbuster visual effects and buildings that create their own energy to electric cars and the ba eries that power them, the work of our 3D so ware customers is everywhere you look.
Through our apps for iPhone, iPad, iPod, and Android, we're also making design technology accessible to professional designers as well as amateur designers, homeowners, students, and casual creators. Whether it's a kid looking to build a new contraption, a seasoned pro sketching out a great new idea, or someone who just wants to amp up their creative output, we're taking technology originally built for movie studios, automakers, and architectural firms, and making it available to anyone who wants to create and share their ideas with the world.
Since its introduction of AutoCAD software in 1982, Autodesk continues to develop the broadest portfolio of state‐of‐the‐art 3D software for global markets.
3/30/2015
Daniel Wigdor
$150,000
$354,000
$504,000
Toronto
Not applicable
E‐Business for Small & Medium‐Sized Enterprises (SMEs)
Digital media and Fanshawe College again requests 20 VEB vouchers to support up to 20 SMEs in our region through the proposed E‐Business for Small & Medium‐Sized Enterprises information & (EBSME) program. The College will build upon its success in the first round of VEB and will bring together the same multidisciplinary teams to assess, research and devise solution for our clients. Participating areas include the Lawrence Kinlin School of Business (LKSB), the School of Contemporary Media (SCM), Fanshawe's Oxford communication technologies
County Campus (OXC) and the Centre for Research and Innovation (CRI), the College's research office. In addition, we also may draw upon experts from other academic areas, such as the School of Information Technology, as needed. Services to be offered to SMEs include (but are not limited to): website development and e‐
commerce capability (technical and content); technical problem solving; digital and social media strategies/action plans; strategic marketing assistance; search engine optimization* and search engine marketing**; piloting, testing and validating innovations/enhancements where appropriate; provision of training and tools so companies can maintain the solu ons; recommenda ons for future e‐business marke ng ini a ves, content and technical improvements.
7/22/2014
Leslie McIntosh
$50,000
$50,000
$100,000
London
Not applicable
E‐Business Tools Development for Sarnia‐Lambton Companies ‐ Phase 2
7/22/2014
Mehdi Sheikhzadeh
$20,000
$0
$20,000
Sarnia
In the emerging global economy E‐Business has become a necessity in business strategy and development. In today’s world it is not just large corporations that need Digital media and information & to incorporate E‐Business practices. It is essential that all businesses in all industries, especially SME’s, use E‐Business tools to remain competitive. When SME’s communication implement E‐Business prac ces they address issues such as limited me and resources enabling the ability to focus energies on “running of the business.”
technologies
In the Sarnia‐Lambton region, there is a growing need for the adoption of E‐Business technology applications by companies as an integral part of their efforts to increase competitiveness in the domestic and world marketplace. Sarnia‐Lambton is a border community and cross border shopping is a significant problem, which inherently affects the local economy. It is important for businesses to create a strong presence through E‐Business to promote products and services available. Many local businesses do not have the exper se or awareness of what E‐Business model and structure would be most effec ve in helping them achieve their goals.
Lambton College recently completed 5 projects through VEB. Three of the businesses did not have developed websites and the other two existing websites were not functional. Even given a short timeline all 5 projects were successfully completed and the participating companies expressed how pleased they were with the results. Through this process it was discovered that there is a huge potential to assist the growth of local businesses while providing students from the IT and business programs experien al learning opportuni es within and outside the classroom.
Lambton College’s success with previous VEB projects and our expertise and capacity in IT and business related program’s which provide students with the necessary skills and knowledge to deploy E‐Business solutions for companies makes us a good candidate for an increased amount of vouchers. As carried out in the previous Voucher process Lambton College will enlist local and regional economic development organizations such as Sarnia Lambton Economic Partnership (SLEP), Sarnia Lambton Industrial Alliance (SLIA), Sarnia Lambton Business Development Corporation (SLBDC), and the Sarnia Lambton Chamber of Commerce (SLCC) to identify companies (specifically SME’s) in need of E‐Business tools. We have already received interest from 7 companies to participate in this project that have been referred from the above listed partners.
The E‐Business tools that will be created by students with faculty’s exper se will be executed to achieve the following goals
Increase market share and visibility of a company
Reduce marke ng and business opera on costs
Help a company enter new markets
Adjust to the new rules of business
Provide opportunity for student and faculty to work on versa le real business projects
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 32
Program
Partners
Project Title
Not applicable
Georgian College of Applied Arts and Technology
Georgian College E‐business
Not applicable
George Brown College of E‐business solutions for main‐street companies
Applied Arts and Technology
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
Georgian College is pleased to participate in this Voucher for E‐Business program for a second year. This program is operated through Georgian College’s Centre for Applied Research and Innovation which will be the point of contact, connecting eligible main‐street companies with the appropriate resources within the college. We believe this program is a great opportunity to expand upon the current compliment of resources we offer to support businesses in the seven communities in which our campuses reside. This program also provides an opportunity to our students with another experiential learning experience to apply the skills and knowledge they have acquired to real word situa ons. Digital media and information & communication technologies
7/22/2014
Mira Ray
$25,000
$35,000
$60,000
Barrie
George Brown College has identified a strong demand for support on projects related to online marketing capacity development and implementation of e‐commerce solutions through working with our SME partners. Many existing GBC partners are nearing the product launch stage of development, and require this support in order to transition into operational, sales models. While these partners have knowledge specific to their products/services and related technologies, many lack the marketing and web design/development expertise to properly create a successful web presence and e‐commerce system. The same is true of new GBC SME partners who o en contact the college to access student exper se in web technology, online marke ng and design‐development.
7/22/2014
Scott Carruthers
$45,000
$45,000
$90,000
Toronto
The Small Business Digital Media Resource Program seeks to enhance "Main Street" business's capacity to transition into the online world. This year's initiative falls on Digital media and the heels of Cambrian College's first successful Voucher for E‐Business venture. Last year's program funded 12 SME website design and development projects. The information & results of these interactions were outstanding. With renewed enthusiasm, the College's web design program seeks to once again provide meaningful web solutions to communication local SMEs.These gifted students will be helping SMEs while earning course credit as the projects will run in association with existing college courses. College faculty technologies
and students will first engage with companies to identify their e‐business challenges. Student teams then act as consultants to the company, and are responsible for solving the challenge with input and guidance from college faculty and their industry partners. E‐business solutions may include, but are not limited to, website development, on‐line sales process, digital and social media and customer relationship management.
7/22/2014
Emile Malvaso
$15,000
$15,000
$30,000
Sudbury
The Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE)’s Voucher for E‐Business (VEB) program engages eligible Ontario companies to partner with college faculty and students to work together on solu ons for e‐business challenges.
7/22/2014
Marc Nantel
$40,000
$40,000
$80,000
Lake
Through the Ontario Centres of Excellence Voucher for E‐Business Program (OCE‐VEB) George Brown College will meet this need by collaborating with 15 local companies to support them in the implementation of their e‐business strategies to drive their growth. Local SME partners will be sourced from our extensive network of research partners and through ongoing outreach events for industry. Our e‐business program will involve faculty and students from business and design schools and draw on partners from our Food Innovation Research Studio, Green Building Centre and Health and Health Promotion partners.
Not applicable
Cambrian College of Applied Arts and Technology
Small Business Digital Media Resource Program
Not applicable
Niagara College of Applied OCE VEB 2014‐2015
Arts and Technology
Niagara College, through Niagara Research, plans to participate in the VEB initiative by partnering with twenty Ontario‐based small‐ to medium‐sized businesses. Niagara Research’s Digital Media and IT team, including students from Niagara College’s New Media Web Design program, will work with each industry partner to develop solutions for e‐business challenges. Niagara Research looks forward to the opportunity of enhancing the on‐line presence of local businesses through OCE’s VEB program.
Not applicable
VEB‐2014
Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning will utilize the Voucher e‐Business (VEB) program to work with 14 local companies to develop e‐
Business solutions for mobile to desktop applications. These projects will allow our students (more than 20 students) to gain invaluable experience in developing invaluable business tools that will improve local companies’ bottom‐line. Conestoga will ensure that each business participant adheres to the OCE requirement to provide a 1:1 match contribu on towards the project in the form of cash and/or in‐kind.
7/22/2014
Jennifer Fletcher
$20,000
$20,000
$40,000
Kitchener
Not applicable
Confederation College
Confederation E‐Business
Confederation College will engage local and regional businesses in the production of E‐Business strategies that outline a successful pathway to entering the digital economy. Through collaboration between the Interactive Media Development, Computer Programmer, and Geomatics programs at Confederation College, new curriculum will be developed to provide in‐class time to generate the required business cases. E‐Business vendors will be engaged to support the growth of a knowledge based economy in Northern Ontario for our students and graduates of the related programs.
7/22/2014
Colin Kelly
$20,000
$75,000
$95,000
Thunder Bay
Le Petit Panier;Houle's Appliance Services;Mortgage Hero
Collège Boréal
Electronic and cultural enhancements for small businesses: A collaboration with Collège Boréal
Digital media and According to one report from the McKinley Global Institute, 2 billion people are connected through the internet with almost $8 trillion exchanging hands through e‐
information & business (Manyika & Roxburgh, 2011). For small and medium sized businesses, it is imperative that they position themselves so that they may participate in these exchanges. Positioning themselves means that they have an internet website that includes the features that will facilitate their exchanges with clients. For example, communication technologies
their websites must be responsive to the operating device, contain a company profile, have an online store available, provide a PayPal account, have links to social media networks, and include bilingual content for Canadians among other features. Through the Ontario Centre of Excellence's Voucher for e‐Business program, small and medium sized companies in the city of Greater Sudbury will have access to one financial ressource that will augment their online presence. OCE will enable students at Collège Boréal to consult with three local businesses, determine their website needs, and address these needs with hopes of positioning small and medium sized companies to seize every e‐business opportunity. Seizing opportunities will lead to new customers and an increase in revenues from sales, which translates into new jobs within the company as they meet the increased online demands. For the college, the potential exists for information technology students to be hired as part of the business' information technology team. For instance, after the 2013‐2014 Voucher for e‐Business had been completed, one SME hired an IT student from the college to manage the business' online presence.
7/22/2014
Randy Battochio
$7,500
$15,000
$22,500
Sudbury
Not applicable
Developing e‐Business Solutions to Enhance Main Street Businesses
Algonquin College has a well‐established applied research program that pairs students and faculty with industrial and business clients to help them develop their ideas Digital media and and solve their problems. Based on our successful experience on the previous 2013‐2014 VEB program working with 18 Ontario SME's, this year Algonquin proposes information & communication to engage 20 companies and assist them with developing the e‐business tools to enhance their success in the marketplace. The majority of the students will be from Algonquin College's programs in media and design, business, and computer studies with participation from other programs such as health, community technologies
studies, public safety and hospitality where appropriate. They will work on various VEB projects such as web site creation, social media adoption, customer relations management, process enhancement and digital media development.
7/22/2014
John Omura
$50,000
$50,000
$100,000
Nepean
Voucher Industry Association (VIA) ‐ Aerospace
Bombardier Aerospace;Christie Digital Ryerson University
Modular Reconfigurable Aircraft Cabin Interiors
The worldwide aircraft industry is increasingly investing in cabin interiors research to develop new technologies to optimize passenger experience, so the Canadian Advanced manufacturing
aircraft industry must catch up. Due to the multiple customer requirements in both business and commercial aircraft, it is increasingly mandatory that aircraft interiors be available in flexible configurations. Integrators are seeking to modularize interiors, but this only serves to provide a partial solution. Aircraft manufacturers, such as Bombardier, are seeking to evaluate and commercialize new technologies that can help to provide increased customization, flexible manipulation, and comfort to passengers in business and commercial aircraft cabins. The objective of this research is to develop a design/analysis method and a prototype for aircraft cabin reconfiguration based on passenger comfort including seating, lighting, airflow and noise. This research program is a proposed collaboration between Ryerson, Queens, and UTIAS for a period of 2 years, consisting of three research pillars: design, analysis, and implementation. The design pillar is to come up with a design method to maximize passenger comfort. The analysis pillar is to provide a simulation tool to assess passenger comfort factors to guide cabin interior reconfiguration. The implementation pillar is to create a prototype for reconfiguration implementation to achieve passenger comfort enhancement. A number of key technologies including variable interior structure (VIS) and adaptive panel (VP), layout and topology optimization, lighting techniques, climate control, will be developed and demonstrated. A number of graduate students across Ryerson, Queen's and UTIAS will be trained to become new engineers and a large number of undergraduates will be trained through industrial internship to become new workforce in this field. Industrial interaction and collaboration through this project will help to create a niche for aircraft interior design and manufacturing business in Canada. This project will be one of the focal points for the Downsview Aerospace Hub currently under development.
5/13/2014
Fengfeng Xi
$100,000
$410,000
$510,000
Toronto
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 33
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
Honeywell Aerospace Canada
Ryerson University
Advanced Thermal Management Technologies for the Next Generation Aerospace Power
The project is expected to address the increasing power demand in new and future aircrafts. Power converters play an important role in aerospace electric power Advanced manufacturing
systems, including engine starter, air compressor, and flight control. With the increasing demand for more electric aircrafts, the current designs of power converters are
facing severe challenges in trying to maintain their small size while improving efficiency. In a more electric aircraft, the electric drive based systems have the advantages of control flexibility and reliability, but often have larger size/weight and lower efficiency when compared to their hydraulic/pneumatic counterparts. The current project aims at three different aspects of power converter designs for aircrafts, including innovative power converter topology, magnetic designs of passive components, advanced thermal management systems and the optimization of power converters and thermal systems. The project will optimize the power converter system level designs to improve the efficiency, power density, and thermal performances. The project will directly contribute to greener, more efficient, and safer aircraft.
6/10/2014
David Xu
$80,001
$320,000
$400,001
Toronto
Celestica Inc.
Environmentally Compliant Alloys for Aerospace Electronics
Human beings are not the only entities that age. All materials age by the atomic movement of atoms and molecules that make up their microstructure, or by chemical Advanced manufacturing
reac on with the surrounding environment. Over me, these ny movements and reac ons end up changing the material structure, o en weakening the
materials. The aging of the solder alloy materials used to hold electronic components together in engineered devices is of major concern, particularly since the environmentally legislated solders that must be used do not age well ‐ they weaken over me and can cause failures more quickly than the lead (Pb)‐based materials
industry has incorporated into historical risk models and system redundancies.
11/19/2014
Doug Perovic
$50,000
$171,428
$221,428
Toronto
New environmentally compliant solder formulations have been developed which are cost effective and mechanically robust in the short term. In order to use these materials to assemble high reliability long life products, where the cost of failure is high and the risk of failure are catastrophic, such as for airplane control systems, the long term properties must be understood. This proposal realizes the creation of the scientific knowledge on the material properties of the industrially‐relevant Sn‐
Cu‐Bi (tin copper bismuth) solder alloys and how and why they change with age. We will then bring this knowledge to aerospace electronics product companies, so that they can manufacture higher reliability products using the optimum materials when they need to complete the transition to lead‐free electronics in the near future.
Voucher Industry Harmonic Medical, Inc.
Association (VIA) – Image Guided Therapy
Sunnybrook Research Institute
Focused Ultrasound System
Harmonic Medical is developing the next generation of focused ultrasound technology for treatment of uterine fibroids, bone metastases and other solid tumours. The R&D Challenge funding will allow Harmonic Medical to collaborate with Sunnybrook Research Institute to extend their technology for use within an MRI system. This will allow their technology to be validated against the current gold standard, and will open the door for more rapid adoption.
3/13/2015
Kullervo Hynynen
$100,000
$1,200,000
$1,300,000
Toronto
Voucher Industry Calavera Surgical Design Corp.
Custom Craniofacial Implant System
Calavera Surgical Design was founded in 2009 by Sunnybrook physicians and scientists to develop and improve upon custom patient‐specific craniofacial implant Advanced health solutions for plastic surgery. Calavera has licensed, from Sunnybrook, a mesh‐bending press/mould system (SurgiPress) that uses patient‐specific forming moulds that technologies
can be used directly in the operating suites by surgeons to create adaptable implants right at the time of surgery. Calavera provides moulds based on each patient’s CT scans, which are sent to the reques ng surgeon, just‐in me for surgery.
Calavera continues its partnership with Sunnybrook HSC and Sunnybrook Research Institute, and is currently refining its products and their respective operational workflows to maximize implant accuracy, minimize labour costs, and ensure patient benefit. With the FedDev/ICIGT‐OCE project, we are advancing and evaluating comprehensive end‐to‐end cycle for the product from initial receiving patient’s CT scan to delivering the SurgiPress to the surgeon’s hands. Key success factors include: 1) Reducing design time and improving workflow through software automation 2) delivering the product to Early Adopter Sites and acting on feedback from their opera ng suites, and 3) inves ga ng the development of higher‐strength meshes to be used in future versions of the product. Funding of this proposal would facilitate three key research developments from SRI which enhance the applicability of Calavera’s products: 1. Design automation by image restoration to visualize and segment thin bone structures that are lost in blurry CT scans, and by predictive software to fix bilateral defects that cross the midline of the skull and face by matching the injured skull to a virtual library of skull variants. 2. Usability assessment in early adopter sites in which the performance of SurgiPress will be assessed by an expert surgical team to obtain user feedback and refine its usage in the surgical workflow. 3. Development of high‐strength implantable meshes that can be used with Calavera’s products. Successful launch of the SurgiPress with these improvements at the early adopter sites will demonstrate the direct use of patient CT images in surgical planning and treatment, and have an important role in improving patient outcomes and quality of life in plas c surgery.
3/13/2015
Oleh Antonyshyn
$100,000
$298,600
$398,600
Toronto
FUS Instruments Inc.
Voucher Industry Association (VIA) – Image Guided Therapy
Non‐Invasive Preclinical Focused Ultrasound Stereotaxy
FUS Instruments Inc. has developed a bench‐top, stereotaxic‐guided focused‐ultrasound (FUS) system for preclinical research that can be used to disrupt the blood‐
Advanced health brain barrier (BBB), enabling targeted non‐invasive drug delivery to the rodent brain. The BBB prevents the majority of drugs from entering the brain and is a major technologies
impediment in the development of therapeutics to treat disorders of the central nervous system, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and gliomas. FUS‐mediated preclinical BBB disruption can aid researchers in three major ways: 1) during drug discovery, it enables scientists to test novel therapeutics prior to undergoing the restructuring required to make them BBB‐permeable; 2) it enables research into novel targeted treatment approaches using compounds that are unable to cross the BBB; 3) it enables non‐invasive, targeted delivery of agents (such as an bodies, stem cells, and viral vectors) for basic science research.
The current prototype for the bench‐top system relies on standard stereotaxy for targeting specific brain regions. This requires locating landmarks on the skull surface to register the rodent brain to a standard brain atlas. This means that the current system is not completely incisionless. The objective of the OCE‐supported project will be to develop an automatic scanning system that can determine the location of the stereotaxic landmarks completely non‐invasively. The addition of an automatic scanning module will make the company’s bench‐top focused ultrasound system a completely non‐invasive alterna ve to stereotaxic surgery.
The project, to be completed in collabora on with the Focused Ultrasound Laboratory at Sunnybrook, will comprise four major stages:
3/13/2015
Kullervo Hynynen
$100,000
$130,000
$230,000
Toronto
Preliminary Data Collec on: a poten al imaging probe will be selected and used to collect image data from at least 10 sample skulls
Algorithm Development: analyze collected image data and develop a method for loca ng skull landmarks
Hardware Implementa on: source and integrate scanning probe into FUS Instruments’ bench‐top system
Valida on: test system in a range of experiments, evalua ng targe ng accuracy of FUS exposures
Op miza on: refine automa c registra on algorithm to improve speed, robustness, and accuracy
At the completion of the OCE project, the company will benefit from having a completely non‐invasive drug delivery product that demonstrates a clear benefit over traditional stereotaxy and expects increased sales. The use of an automatic registration technique eliminates user error, common in the landmark registration process, making scanning technology alone immensely valuable to developers of standard stereotaxic equipment. We expect the company to double in size over the duration of the project and grow to 50 individuals following successful marke ng of the new product, 2‐3 years a er project.
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 34
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
Voucher Industry Colibri Technologies Inc
4D Intracardiac Echo Ultrasound Imaging and Anatomical Reconstruction
Colibri Technologies, an early stage medical device company located in Toronto, is developing an exciting new technology in the field of intra‐cardiac Advanced health echocardiography (ICE) imaging catheters. Colibri is working in collaboration with Sunnybrook Research Institute (SRI). The project will be led by Dr. Brian Courtney technologies
who is both the CEO and co‐founder of Colibri, as well as a scientist at SRI and a cardiologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Colibri will soon be releasing its first product, the Foresight 3D ICE catheter and system, which has the unique ability of looking forward and imaging in 3D in the cardiovascular anatomy from the tip of the catheter. Colibri plans to add to this existing catheter by incorporating position and orientation sensing technology into the catheter. By tracking the catheter’s position and what direction it is facing, multiple ultrasound images can be combined together to reconstruct a more complete and accurate 3D picture of the heart and cardiovascular anatomy. When this technology is combined with an electrocardiogram system that senses the electrical rhythm of the heart, the reconstructed 3D picture can be shown over the cardiac cycle, making 4D volumetric images (3D + me).
This technology in development is highly desired by physicians working in the field of cardiology and electrophysiology. By being able to see the anatomy during procedures in four dimensions, they will be better able to treat their patients. It will provide important context to help physicians document procedures and more easily communicate outcomes to the patients and other physicians. Furthermore, it will greatly ease the delivery of therapies (such as ablation lesions) within the imaging field of view. Procedures will become easier to complete for the physicians, meaning faster procedure times. It may also make them more effective too, leading to be er healthcare outcomes for the pa ents.
This technology will enable these benefits by providing an expanded effective field of view of the imaging system, providing accurate tracking to allow physicians to review not only the images acquired from a single position over a brief period in time, but also how they were acquired at different points during the procedure. The images collected from different positions can also be merged together to provide a more complete and integrated map of the anatomy relevant to a given procedure. Overall this would help with the identification of anatomic landmarks that might not be easily discernible within a single field of view, but would be easily identified within a composite (s tched together) field of view. The clinically important technology developed in this project will also have economic relevance. It will help Colibri’s Foresight 3D ICE catheter and system stand out from competing devices by offering a unique product with improved functionality. This will help ensure Colibri’s success as a medical device company, strengthening itself and the image‐guided therapy sector in Ontario as a whole. Most importantly, it is hoped that Colibri’s commercial success will attract others to work in, invest into, and otherwise support this important sector in Ontario.
3/13/2015
Brian Courtney
$100,000
$155,000
$255,000
Toronto
Voucher Industry Innovere Medical Inc.
MR‐Safe Wireless Headset Communication System
Innovere Medical Inc. (IMI) is a recent start‐up company by two University of Toronto PhD graduates. IMI has created a wireless headset communication system that Advanced health enables its users to talk with each other anywhere inside and outside of an MRI suite during the noisy operation of the scanner. This revolutionary technology enables technologies
teamwork in the MRI suite, promising to drive the adop on of state‐of‐the‐art MRI‐guided interven onal procedures.
In collaboration with Sunnybrook Research Institute (SRI) in the FedDev project, IMI has developed a minimum‐viable product and sold two systems to early adopters. The goal of this OCE project is to extend the FedDev milestones, using expertise at SRI, to help IMI solve complex engineering problems relevant for obtaining safety and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) certification in North America and Europe. In addition, using prototyping and manufacturing utilities at SRI, this project will help IMI iterate their product to achieve final safety and EMC certifications. This will massively accelerate the IMI product’s path to market.
3/13/2015
Graham Wright
$100,000
$236,233
$336,233
Toronto
Biomass Processing Technology for Production of Green Power and Value‐Added Products
Growing environmental concerns, energy demand, and global competition has become a major driver for the business industries towards developing technologies that meet the needs of enterprise while protecting and sustaining natural resources. Although utilization of biomass is considered one of the most promising alterna ves for produc on of green power and new products, it s ll faces major challenges when compe ng with conven onal energy and product synthesis routes.
3/10/2014
Hassan Gomaa
$20,000
$25,000
$45,000
London
3/17/2014
Elizabeth Webb
$20,000
$113,180
$133,180
London
3/10/2014
Kelly Lockwood
$19,900
$29,600
$49,500
St. Catharines
Hassco Industries Inc.
Hassco Industries Inc. has been collaborating with Western University (WU) for developing sustainable technologies for profitable utilization of agri‐forest bi‐products with particular focus on materials such as switch grass and rice straw. Both have the potential of producing silica for use in high quality concrete admixture as well as sufficient energy to operate the process with co‐generation of electrical power for sale to the grid. Although preliminary investigations indicated the viability of a process based on controlled feed combustion, several issues in the feed handling and control are currently hindering its further development. The main objective of this research proposal is to investigate options to mitigate such problems, and to optimize design and operating parameters to enable achievement of full process automation, while maximizing the overall energy generation and production of value added products. The long term objectives of this research is to extend the use of the technology to include processing other biomass and waste materials, and to allow for its integra on with exis ng combined cycle and co‐genera on systems.
Stillwater Canada Inc.
Stable isotope vectoring toward PGE‐Cu mineralization in the Coldwell igneous complex, Marathon, Ontario
Mineral exploration is a pillar of Ontario’s economy with annual mineral production topping $5.5 billion a year, creating >90,000 jobs, $1.8 billion in exports, more Advanced manufacturing
than $300 million in government revenue and a better standard of living for all Canadians. Canada is a world leader in these fields and has a proud tradition of global mineral explora on.
The platinum group elements (PGE), including platinum and palladium, are metals that are both rare and valuable. Their most important use is as catalysts, particularly in automobile catalytic converters and in petroleum refining, but are also used in the electronics and glass industries. Demand for palladium is intensifying worldwide as a result of 1) price‐driven substitution of palladium for platinum in gasoline and diesel catalytic converter applications, 2) expanding automotive production and 3) ever more stringent governmental emission regula ons. These primary demand drivers are bu ressed by compelling palladium fundamentals.
Canada has only one primary producer of PGE and the ultimate objective is to help Stillwater Canada Inc. explore for and develop PGE‐Cu deposits in the Coldwell igneous complex, near Marathon, Ontario. These deposits formed approximately 1 billion years ago.
Industry Challenge:
Current exploration techniques involve expensive diamond drilling programs costing millions of dollars to piece together geological units and structures hidden in the earth. However, mineralized zones containing PGE are not only defined by rock type and structure, but also depend on perfect conditions of temperature and water interactions which may be common among multiple rock types. Understanding how the ore mineralization formed and its relationship to the host gabbroic rocks are of great importance from a mineral explora on standpoint. Our goal with this project is to develop more efficient and effective exploration strategies for Stillwater Canada, both around the known deposits and in new areas. We will achieve this by studying chemical variations in the rocks and minerals within and around known mineralization using state‐of‐the‐art analytical techniques that allow us to assess the history of the magmas and fluids that formed the deposits. This new type of exploration, which will develop new exploration tools, will cost a fraction of the price of the traditional strategies and is expected to identify on a map the higher potential areas. The potential benefit to Canada is the discovery of new PGE‐Cu deposits and the a endant economic benefits for northern Ontario.
7/10/2015
RZR Skate Blades
Brock University
Applied Sport (On Ice) Performance Characterization The contribution of sport equipment to an athlete’s playing performance and to the safety of the athlete while performing is critical in today’s sport industry. and Testing
Although true at all levels of play, particularly at the non‐recreational levels, equipment is a key element and becomes the target of criticism if an athlete is not performing well or receives an injury.
One of the largest market challenges is the on‐going cost of sport, sport equipment and maintenance of sport equipment. It is often assumed that higher costs are associated with a superior product; however validation of the product’s superior features and metrics associated with the impact of product on performance and safety is lacking.
RZR’s mission is to provide the most advanced performance skate blades available on the market, using the latest technology in materials and custom precision manufacturing processes. Competitive companies do exist, RZR and Brock University are partnering to carry out validation of material properties that translate to a performance metric do not.
Section 1 ‐ 35
Program
Partners
Seradex Web Services Inc.
Project Title
Sheridan College Institute 3D Previsualization and Configuration Tool
Project Summary
Sector
Seradex chose Sheridan College to help build a “3D Previsualization and Configuration Tool”. Sheridan is a global leader in 3D multi‐media development with expertise Digital media and in photo realis c 3D modeling and anima on, interac ve video technology, and HTML5/WEB GL/X3D.
information & communication Partnering with Sheridan will allow Seradex to deliver on their greatest challenge and requirement for clients, specifically, the company’s ability to capture and deliver technologies
each client’s visualiza on requirements successfully.
Implementing Seradex's “Configuration Tool” will provide enormous benefits to the manufacturing industry by allowing them to manufacture and assemble on‐
demand in half the me with immediate cost benefits and savings to customer markets.
An cipated Impacts:
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
3/17/2014
John Helliker
$20,000
$110,750
$130,750
Oakville
2/24/2014
Karen Rudie
$20,000
$41,930
$61,930
Kingston
Inventory: reduc on/elimina on of inventory in distribu on chain; reducing 25% of surplus stock valued at over $100K.
Planning: reduc on of planning complexity, adapta on costs (of planning decisions), design risk and development costs valued at $100K (product flops).
Capacity utilization and stability: stabilization of processes, reduction of capacity required in made‐to‐stock systems in order to adapt to short‐term changes in trends equivalent to $250K.
Sales: avoidance of lost sales due to out‐of‐stock items (14% or $35K); prevention of discounts at the end of a season (20% or $250K); opportunities for better channel management (25% or $200K); reduc on of error costs (11% or $100K).
Qubit Systems Inc. is expanding its range of products for monitoring fitness, activity levels and functional health parameters. Central to this goal is the development of Advanced health technologies
a flexible, reliable and easy‐to‐use body‐worn system with the capacity to measure cardiopulmonary fitness (CPX) and physiological parameters (heart rate, blood oxygenation, and body temperature), and which can be used to monitor activities of daily living, or to chart progress during exercise or athletic training. In this project, we will integrate CPX and physiological sensors into a wearable sensor suite. Sensor data will be captured by a body‐worn microcomputer, and transmitted wirelessly to an interface, such as a smart‐phone, and subsequently to an on‐line database. The data will be analyzed to provide personalized fitness scores and trend analysis. Consumers will be able to access their data and data analysis directly. It is foreseen that this system will be developed by Qubit into a commercial product within 8‐12 months after the completion of the collaborative research. Such a product will help support healthy, active lifestyles, which is important for reducing levels of obesity, at all ages, and sustaining good health as we age.
Qubit Systems, Inc.
Queen's University
Mobile Fitness Monitoring
Magna Powertrain
Design and Manufacturing Optimization of Harmonic The automotive manufacturing industry in Ontario is facing increased competition from various manufacturers around the globe, both from a labor and quality Advanced manufacturing
Balancer
standpoint. The industry is struggling against the wide availability of low‐cost labor in developing economies and the increasing parity in quality of production through the globalization of information and technology. The existing manufacturing and product development expertise developed by Ontario automotive manufacturers must be leveraged to increase the development of innovative products and manufacturing processes that cannot be matched elsewhere. A case in point of such an innovation is the harmonic balancer used to reduce automotive engine vibrations and provide the end‐user with a comfortable ride and a longer product lifetime. A major manufacturer of harmonic balancers, Magna Powertrain, is seeking to collaborate with the University of Toronto, in developing new materials, design and manufacturing process of the harmonic balancer. The project will involve testing of harmonic balancer materials in various extreme operating environments and the findings will be used to optimize the design and manufacturing of existing harmonic balancers resulting in a better performing product that provides the end‐user with a more comfortable ride and longer product life. Through the combination of the academic expertise in rubber and elastomer technology available at the University of Toronto and the automotive expertise at Magna Powertrain, novel design and process innovations are envisioned for the harmonic balancer that will make Ontario automotive manufacturers more competitive in manufacturing and product development.
2/24/2014
Hani Naguib
$20,000
$25,000
$45,000
Toronto
Calavera Surgical Designs
Patient Specific Craniofacial Implant Generation: Improving workflow, Reducing Cost and Facilitating Expansion
Calavera Surgical Design Corp. has developed a low‐cost surgical mesh forming process that uses custom patient specific molds generated from CT data to bend Advanced health alloplastic mesh for implants to restore normal anatomy in the skull and facial bones inside the operating room. This project aims to introduce into this process a technologies
technologic innovation developed within the Orthopaedic Biomechanics Laboratory at Sunnybrook Research Institute which deblurs clinical CT images used to create these patient specific implants. This is critical in robust and rapid generation of patient specific implants for very thin bone structures as are found in the orbital floor (eye socket). This advancement in image processing will directly solve the major limiting factor in the widespread application of Calavera’s technology to orbital floor reconstruction and will reduce both time and specialized training needed for generation of the desired virtual implants. This innovation is a key factor facilitating multi‐
site expansion for Calavera. We are seeking funding to development of a software package/library to implement the image restoration algorithm within Calavera’s clinical workflow and evaluate its performance in patient specific craniomaxillofacial implant design.
3/10/2014
Cari Whyne
$19,958
$25,000
$44,958
Toronto
Voucher Industry Association (VIA) ‐ Advanced Health
Treventis Corporation;CQDM
St. Michael's Hospital
Development of automated zebrafish high throughput screening technology platforms to accelerate in vivo screening of small molecules in disease models
This OCE‐CQDM Life Sciences R&D Challenge proposal is a groundbreaking collaboration between researchers at St. Michael’s Hospital (SMH) and Treventis Advanced health Corporation (both in Toronto), as well as the University of Montreal. SMH’s Dr. Xiao‐Yan Wen and UMontreal’s Dr. Pierre Drapeau are experts in zebrafish models of technologies
disease. The zebrafish is a robust model for transla onal research because of our understanding of zebrafish biology and its overlap with that of humans.
Protein misfolding and aggregation are implicated in diverse neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, Parkinson’s, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other chronic disease such as diabetes. Treventis has developed a proprietary in silico computer model to identify compounds that inhibit aggrega on of a wide variety of amyloid proteins, where these amyloid protein aggregates are known to cause Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
The goals of the proposed project is to leverage the academic investigators’ expertise in zebrafish disease models and the robotic high throughput zebrafish screening facility at SMH to validate the Treventis’ library of compounds identified by their computer model, as well as to demonstrate (using Treventis as a test case) the utility of the zebrafish model and screening facility for automated high throughput drug screening research. The expected outcomes will accelerate Treventis selection of compounds for clinical development in neurodegenerative diseases, as well as establish the SMH’s zebrafish screening facility as the state‐of‐the‐art automated high throughput drug screening facility.
3/26/2014
Xiao‐Yan Wen
$150,000
$900,000
$1,050,000
Toronto
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 36
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
Azastra Opto Inc.
Optoelectronic Design & Testing of High‐Efficiency Monolithic III‐V Semiconductor Photo‐Transducers
Many challenging applications demand noise‐immune data transmission and power delivery while operating in high‐voltage, magnetically active, high electromagnetic Digital media and interference, or spark‐free environments. These applications include power utilities, communications (including wireless), aerospace, medical, and defence. An information & alternative to standard conductive wire interconnections is the power over fiber system. These optical systems can transfer high‐speed data at the same time as communication several watts of photonic power over optical fibers using near‐infrared light. This approach provides interconnections that are safe, lightweight, nonconductive, technologies
produces no electromagnetic interference, and is not affected by environmental conditions such as temperature, moisture, crosstalk, electromagnetic (EMI) or radio frequency (RF) interference, electric or magnetic fields, or lightning. To enable this connection, a vitally important component of the system is the photo‐transducer which receives the photonic power from the optical fiber and converts it into usable electrical power at the remote location. Improvement of this photo‐transducer will reduce costs and increase its power conversion efficiency, expanding the suitability of power over fiber systems to an even wider range of applications. It is the objective of this proposal to investigate the operation and performance of this component. The Ottawa‐based industrial partner Azastra Opto Inc., an optoelectronic component provider, has developed an improved photonic detector that will significantly improve power‐conversion efficiencies and reduce costs for systems, therefore allowing this market to expand to new applications. The SUNLAB, a world‐renowned research group at the University of Ottawa, has proven expertise in the areas of both semiconductor device simulation and characterization. The research in this project will execute full optoelectronic simulations of the detailed photo‐
transducer device structure to predict, interpret, and optimize its performance. The research will also complete full characterization of photo‐transducer samples provided by Azastra Opto of their alpha and beta products, which will then provide feedback to the optoelectronic simulations for refinement of the computer model and further op miza on, yielding updated high‐performance designs for manufacture.
3/10/2014
Karin Hinzer
$20,000
$39,200
$59,200
Ottawa
McClymont & Rak Inc.
McMaster University
Advanced Geothermal Storage Systems with Integrated Thermal Assist Strategies
McClymont & Rak (MCR) Inc. is a specialty consultancy firm with broad experience in geo‐engineering. Established in 1982, the Ontario operations include 28 Bio‐economy and clean employees focusing on an array of geo‐engineering applications. The geotechnical group specializes in ground exploration and provides foundation recommendations. technologies
The group carries out foundation, tunneling and shoring design reviews, instrumentation and monitoring, and materials testing. MCR’s environmental group, working closely with geotechnical people, provide clients with pre‐purchase site assessments, as well as designated substance/demolition reports. Services include site clean‐
up and filing of Record of Site Condition with the Ministry of Environment. The geohydrology group focuses on temporary dewatering and permanent drainage of project sites.
3/10/2014
James Cotton
$20,000
$30,480
$50,480
Hamilton
The geothermal group has been at the forefront of the innovative geothermal energy for the last 20 years. Recently the geothermal groups focus has been on addressing the sector specific challenge of ensuring the longevity of geothermal systems in a climate such as Canada. As Canada has more heating days than cooling days there is a higher demand on the system for heating than cooling, over time this heating demand depletes the heat content within the ground faster than it is replenished. This causes direct use geothermal systems to become inefficient and prone to freeze. This challenge is overcome with the use of hybrid systems which replenish the ground thermal energy with the use of electrical resistive heating such as solar PV in remote communities, solar thermal stocking or storage of waste heat as a seasonal storage solu on.
McClymont & Rak have invested $500,000 in developing a hybrid ground source heat pump (GSHP) system with an electrical heating thermal assist strategy. They have recently established a new office at the McMaster Innovation Park (MIP) and a partnership with the team at McMaster University to address current challenges, understand the thermodynamics of the system towards developing novel design tools and further develop alternative GSHP thermal assist strategies such as solar thermal and waste heat from commercial and industrial systems for season storage.
Lafarge Canada Inc.;City of St. Catharines
Water quality benefits of Hydromedia under high traffic conditions
Cities drastically change the landscape of our environment and the natural water cycle. Permeable and vegetative lands are converted to impermeable roof, roadways Bio‐economy and clean and parking lots generating large volumes of runoff during storm events. Eventually these hardscapes contribute to urban flooding which is dangerous and technologies
destructive. Paved surfaces also introduce many harmful pollutants into stormwater which damage aquatic habitats and can make river and lake water unsafe for recreation uses. Hydromedia Pervious Pavement is a new product which can infiltrate and clean stormwater. This project will study the benefits of Hydromedia on stormwater quality in ultra‐urban, high‐traffic installations. The parking lot located in downtown St. Catharines is the only monitored ultra‐urban installation of Hydromedia in Canada. As our study site we will observed and measure the capacity of this technology to provide on‐site treatment of stormwater.
3/10/2014
Jennifer Drake
$20,000
$26,400
$46,400
Toronto
FKP Nutrio Foods Inc.
Ryerson University
Development of NutriCubes with FKP Nutrio Foods Inc.
FKP Nutrio Foods Inc. has developed a product line called NutriCube that consists of different mixtures of nutrient‐dense vegetables, fruits, grains, and seeds that are Advanced manufacturing
blended and combined in the form of a cube for convenient use by the consumer in water or smoothies. The target market for this product line consists of males and female adults 18‐34 years of age who lead an active lifestyle and who seek health foods combining great natural nutrition, convenience and flavour. Through several stages of experimentation, FKP Nutrio has been able to reach its goal of developing proprietary blend prototypes that will cater to the nutritional needs of the consumers’ everyday use. Each blend contains several natural food ingredients to help the user consume their daily nutritional requirement to maintain a healthy lifestyle. The successful development of the NutriCubes will set the foundation for a new product line that may effectively disrupt the landscape of the Nutritional Food and Drink Industry in Canada.
3/10/2014
Derick Rousseau
$20,000
$25,000
$45,000
Toronto
3/10/2014
Edmond Young
$20,000
$34,500
$54,500
toronto
With this application, FKP Nutrio has partnered with Ryerson University to move beyond the prototype stage. Together, the Ryerson‐FKP Nutrio team will optimize the formulation and processing of the three different products in the NutriCube brand. The three key steps in the development and optimization of the Nutricube formula ons will focus on their processing, shelf stability and quality parameters. This approach will be based on sound scien fic principles.
FKP Nutrio Foods Inc. has attained a letter of intent from Ryerson Atheletic Centre as the first B2B customer for NutriCubes (see attachments). In addition, FKP has acquired a letter of intent from Riverside Natural Foods Ltd showing their intent and consideration to work with FKP to manufacture the NutriCube product line (see attachments). Lastly, FKP Nutrio Foods has also been invited to join Fasken Martineau's start‐up program (see attachments for letter) that shows the law firm's support for NutriCube. These letters of intent demonstrate the promising business appeal that the NutriCubes will offer. Following completion of the development stage with Ryerson, FKP Nutrio will embark upon scale‐up of its product line with Riverside Natural Foods Ltd and shift into the production and marketing of this exciting business opportunity.
7/10/2015
Bio‐Rad Laboratories Canada
Developing Microfabrication Methods for Volume Production of Plastic Microfluidic Devices
Microscale technologies are compact, easy to use, and often have improved performance and more functions than traditional macroscale technologies. Because of Advanced manufacturing
these advantages, they are being used for biomedical applications, such as for analyzing biological samples like DNA, proteins, and cells in labs and clinics. The biomedical device industry is highly interested in developing the next generation of microscale technologies, but advancing the technology from prototype to commercial product is challenging because it requires the ability to make these devices out of low‐cost, abundant, and manufacturable raw materials like plastics. Bio‐
Rad Laboratories Canada is a global leader in the industry known for making tools and instruments for analyzing biological materials, and is currently faced with the problem of converting microscale test prototypes, which are easy to make out of silicone‐based polymers in small batches, into plastic products that can be manufactured in large volumes. The main goal of this project is to address this problem by developing innovative fabrication procedures for making plastic microscale devices, with potential to scale up the procedures for high volume manufacturing. To achieve this, a combination of microfabrication methods including epoxy molding, hot embossing, and solvent bonding will be tested, optimized and integrated into a streamlined workflow for implementation into Bio‐Rad's research operations. Development of practical and scalable fabrication procedures for plastics will enable a smoother transition from prototype to product, accelerate the advancement of microscale technologies, and help to maintain lower development and production costs. Ultimately, this will benefit the larger biomedical device industry, and allow companies like Bio‐Rad to continue developing and distributing innovative tools and instruments in Canada and worldwide, and maintain their standing as a global leader in the industry.
Section 1 ‐ 37
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
Better Motion Group
Brock University
Prototype development & validation of plyometric Better Motion Group (BMG) was incorporated in 2007 as a Canadian product design and manufacturing company focusing on products for rehabilitation, handicap Advanced health swing device "Strike Force" for enhancement of sport assistance, and sports therapy. BMG aims to improve and utilize their prototype training device, named Strike Force, to accurately replicate and improve bat swing technologies
performance
velocity for baseball players. Coaches and high performance athletes of all levels are always looking to find performance advantages. In baseball, improvement of swing performance is paramount. Conventional training focuses on muscle strength and does not exercise muscles in a sport specific range of motion. Furthermore, feedback to the user over the range of motion, through technique, speed, and strength, is not available in current training aids. Strike Force will allow users to progressively and conveniently train their bat swing as well as provide individualized feedback to their bat swing improvements in a superior product than is currently offered on the market.
3/10/2014
Craig Tokuno
$20,000
$25,560
$45,560
St. Catharines
Sidense Corp.
Improved CMOS non‐volatile memory by the study and modeling of electrical breakdown in thin SiOx
Sidense develops industry‐leading, one time programmable (OTP) embedded Non‐Volatile Memory (NVM) IP that is utilized by semiconductor device manufacturers Digital media and to develop a wide range of Integrated Circuits in standard‐logic CMOS processes. Sidense Logic NVM IP is broadly applied in several applications and in a broad range information & of market segments including digital consumer, mobile, wireless, RFID, code storage, analog trimming, automotive, industrial, configurable processors and logic, communication wearable electronics and medical applications. High‐temperature and low‐power conditions are very desirable from an applications perspective, yet extremely technologies
demanding. Advanced modeling of silicon behavior is an absolute imperative to guarantee success. This research will lead to the development of a predictive model of the OTP bit cell programming, based on a microscopic physical model. This model will enable Sidense to accurately predict the behavior of its bit cell in a range of environmental conditions. This will lead to increased market share due to many factors, including mitigated risk, increased customer confidence and reduced development cycle‐times as well as opening‐up new market opportunities.
3/17/2014
Jonathan Baugh
$19,995
$65,000
$84,995
Waterloo
Screaming Power
Centennial College
Mobile Solution to Collect and Distribute Consumer Screaming Power is excited to announce their new project partnership with OCE, NSERC, and Connect Canada that will revolutionize the collection and distribution of Digital media and information & energy information. This project partnership will result in a mobile solution that will allow utilities to securely communicate with their customers and efficiently Data for Energy Information Management
distribute energy information. It will allow customers to securely access their utility data in a simple way, which to date, has not been available. In addition, tools will communication be provided to extract and manage this data, thus allowing residential, commercial and industrial users to more easily monitor and improve their electric, natural gas technologies
and water usage. The president of Screaming Power, Gary Michor, has expressed his goal, “to develop a simplified solution that is both beneficial to the utilities and their customers”. Through this partnership Screaming Power will be engaging the academic resources from Centennial College and Ryerson University. The development of a mobile solution for energy management provides a unique training and applied research opportunities to the faculties and students in advancing the state‐of the art smart grid practices. 3/17/2014
Trish Dryden
$19,994
$53,834
$73,828
Toronto
C2C link
Developing tests and characterization for a new quantum light source
Quantum light sources have application as a teaching tool, a research tool, and as a tool to distribute encryption keys in a secure manner. In the future, they have the potential to be incorporated into photonic quantum computers, novel quantum sensors, and many quantum communication protocols. C2C link, of Hamilton, has been developing a uniquely manufactured quantum light source over the past 2 years and is now in a position to verify how well this device performs. This voucher will facilitate this final verification step, where the Institute for Quantum Computing will partake in research that will establish the quantum behaviour of this light source, and thereby enable C2C to confidently enter the market as one of the worlds first OEM suppliers of these devices.
3/10/2014
Raymond Laflamme
$20,000
$40,000
$60,000
Waterloo
MicroBonds Inc;Celestica International University of Waterloo
Inc.
Advanced Electrical Conductive Adhesive
New interconnect materials and methodologies are needed to meet the product miniaturization and temperature challenges of new products such as plastic electronics; these products cannot tolerate the rigidity and high processing temperature of traditional interconnection materials (metallic solders). Our solution is to employ a one‐atom thick layer of the mineral graphite or graphene in the standard adhesive formulations to reduce the amount of precious metals (e.g. silver) by 20%, reduce the curing temperature by at least 15 degrees, and reduce the expected price by 20‐50%.
3/10/2014
Boxin Zhao
$20,000
$26,200
$46,200
Waterloo
3/17/2014
Jeffrey Siegel
$20,000
$50,200
$70,200
Toronto
3/10/2014
Rashid Rashidzadeh
$20,000
$26,800
$46,800
Toronto
11/19/2013
Robert Zee
$100,000
$2,653,333
$2,753,333
Toronto
The industrial sponsors are Celestica and Microbonds. Celestica is a $5.8B supply chain leader that introduces 120 new products to market every month and has successfully implemented numerous new technologies in the electronics manufacturing industry. Microbonds has successfully introduced leading interconnect materials into the competitive semiconductor electronics assembly market. Microbonds will commercialize the developed materials using pre‐existing technical and sales networks, established for dielectric and metal coating technologies. Marketing channel strategies will initially consist of direct sampling to existing customers, with the option of direct sales to end‐customers or distribution via partnerships and/or licensees. Celestica will apply the developed material in a much wider surface mount technology (SMT) assembly offering to worldwide market.
Geosyntec Consultants, Inc.
Application of Carbon Dioxide and Formaldehyde as Sub‐slab venting (SSV) and sub‐slab depressurization (SSD) are common practices to control intrusion of volatile organic compounds (VOC) and radon from subsurface Bio‐economy and clean tracers for optimizing sub‐slab venting system design to indoor air to protect the occupants from exposure to these harmful gases. These techniques are based on technology that is about 30 years old with little technologies
innovation and it is becoming apparent that the old approaches are overly costly because energy efficiency was not considered in the performance specifications. The proposed project is to determine the feasibility of using CO2 and HCHO tracers to design, optimize, and monitor performance of SSV/SSD systems in existing buildings to maintain health protection without compromising energy efficiency and cost effectiveness. The use of these sensors have never been used before in SSV applications. Successful outcomes will enable Geosyntec to incorporate these air tracers into our tool to offer a unique service to our customers and provide a competitive advantage.
Landau Gage Inc.
High Speed Coordinate Measurement Machine (CMM) for Transmission Parts
Sinclair Interplanetary;GHGSat Inc.
Ground Target Tracking (Attitude Control) System for The proposal addresses the challenge of enabling low‐cost dedicated satellites to monitor and confirm compliance of greenhouse gas (GHG) emitting sources worldwide, and specifically the use of nanosatellites (satellites under 25kg) to perform space‐based applica ons that require precise ground target tracking ‐ a Next Generation Greenhouse Gas Monitoring Nanosatellite Demonstrator
capability that does not yet exist. The data collection needs to be focused for timely response and the overall cost model must be right for commercial success. Nanosatellite pla orms are poten ally a cost effec ve means to achieve these goals, however, key technologies need to be developed, including an a tude control system that allows for accurate and precise targeting and target tracking. Once enabled, the use of nanosatellites for space‐based monitoring and tracking of GHG emi ers would make it financially feasible and commercially viable to provide these GHG monitoring services interna onally.
Coordinate Measurement Machines (CMM) are widely used by auto industry to measure geometrical characteristics of components in production line. A conventional Advanced manufacturing
touch probe CMM machine takes on average about 15 minutes to measure a typical transmission line part. During the course of two previous NSERG Engage and OCE TPS grants, the research team in this project has designed and implemented a prototype of a laser based CMM machine which reduces the required inspection time from 15 minutes to less than two minutes per part without compromising the measurement accuracy. The product is ready for test in production line. Magna International Inc.,a major auto part supplier for big three automakers, has expressed its interests to see the performance of the implemented machine in its production line. This grant will support the research team to complete the product engineering and prepare the prototype for test in customers production line. Digital media and information & communication technologies
The proposed technology is a compact, high performance attitude control system that enables accurate and precise target tracking on a nanosatellite platform. This a tude control system would be flown and verified on a demonstra on satellite called GHGSat‐D that will be developed over the next two years. Sinclair Interplanetary and the Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) at UTIAS will collaborate to develop the system, leveraging Sinclair actuators and sensors and developing SFL's attitude control algorithms, computing equipment, and simulators. A prototype system will be built and tested and verified in simulation. This prototype will then be incorporated by GHGSat Inc. into GHGSat‐D which will be launched to verify the performance of the attitude control system in an operational environment. The proposed solution will enable the use of ultra‐low‐cost platforms for pinpoint GHG monitoring services and other ground target tracking applications, thereby reducing the entry barrier to space‐based data collection for industry. To date, this capability on nanosatellites does not yet exist.
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 38
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
Voucher Industry Thordon Bearings Inc.
Association (VIA) ‐ Environment/Advance
d Manufacturing
McMaster University
Development of high temperature polymer bearing Grease‐free bearings are becoming attractive to many industrial sectors as replacements to metallic bearings as they minimize both maintenance and environmental Advanced manufacturing
material
disposal expenses by operating without lubricants. An ideal bearing material should demonstrate low friction and low wear in the environment of service. It should be resistant to damage related to thermo‐oxidative and thermo‐mechanical degradation and not be chemically sensitive to water or metallic elements or metal byproducts of corrosion. The research challenges are in finding the raw polymeric materials that, when used in blends, can deliver good bearing's performance while operating in hot water/steam conditions, and whether these materials can have both dimensional and molecular/chemical stability at such high temperatures. In addition, the development challenge lies in defining and developing a proper Advanced Manufacturing process so bearings could be mass produced in different shapes/sizes, at competitive price. The main objective of this project is to research and develop a new formulation for a High Temperature Polymer Bearing material that will have excellent thermal stability, and more importantly hydrolytic stability, combined with an inherent low coefficient of friction, so it could be potentially used as a bearing material operating in extreme Â°C, to as high as 200 Â°C. The main target market would be for media‐lubricated bearings in vertical pumps, steam turbines, or other rotating equipment using journal bearings operating in high temperatures.
3/26/2014
Michael Thompson
Voucher Industry Huys Industries Limited
d Manufacturing
Novel Electro‐spark Deposition (ESD) Technology and Electro‐spark deposition (ESD), a micro‐welding process, is increasingly used to apply surface coatings for repair of damaged high value precision products or modify Advanced manufacturing
Applications
their surfaces for a abroad range of aerospace, defense, automobile, nuclear and medical applications. Huys Industries Limited, a leading company on resistance welding consumables headquarted in Ontario, Canada has developed expertise over a few decades in the use of ESD coating to improve electrode tip life in resistance spot welding (RSW) of Zn‐coated automotive steel sheets. Based on many years' collaborations with the University of Waterloo, Huys has recently developed new ESD technologies (ESD machines and coa ng materials) to improve RSW electrode p life.
3/26/2014
Norman Zhou
3/26/2014
Kaan Erkorkmaz
OCE Commitment
City
$99,999
$349,044
$449,043
Hamilton
$100,000
$353,848
$453,848
Waterloo
$80,000
$363,396
$443,396
Waterloo
This research is to further develop Huys' patented and patent‐pending ESD applicators and power supplies and expand their applications on other coating/workpiece combinations. Specifically, the objectives of this research are to (1) Improve the design of Huys' ESD machines (including power supplies and applicators) based on studying the effects of electrical and applicator parameters on coating characteristics and performance; (2) Improve RSW electrode tip life with TiB2 coating based on studying and understanding of relationships between process parameters, coating characteristics and electrode tip life; and (3) Expand Huys' ESD technologies into others application areas (i.e., new coating and workpiece combinations) based on studying relationships between process parameters, coating characteristics and performance.
The knowledge developed through this work has the potential to improve productivity and quality of manufactured products in many industrial sectors. This work also aims to train 3 graduate students, one undergraduate co‐op student, one post‐doctoral fellow and one research engineer each year and these highly‐qualified personnel (HQP) are badly needed by the Ontario and Canada manufacturing sectors.
Voucher Industry Ontario Drive & Gear Ltd.
d Manufacturing
Hard Shaping and Accelerated Dressing Technologies This project will develop new technologies for achieving higher productivity and quality in gear shaping and grinding operations. The outcomes will enable Ontario Advanced manufacturing
for High‐Productivity / High‐Quality Gear Drive and Gear (ODG) to boost its global competitiveness by offering higher quality products at more affordable costs to its customers. A hard‐shaping process will be developed, targeting the production of high quality internal gears directly out of pre‐shaped and heat‐treated blanks, thus eliminating the need for environmentally Manufacture
unfriendly heat treatment or expensive grinding operations. Research will be conducted to better understand the cutting mechanics, force generation, elastic deforma ons, and vibra ons associated with the gear shaping process, thus allowing ODG engineers to achieve the highest product quality and produc vity.
In applications where grinding is indispensable, the time required for wheel dressing (i.e., trimming the abrasive to the desired tooth profile) takes up a substantial por on of the total cycle me. Accelera ng the dressing typically leads to form and dimensional errors on the produced gears, due to posi oning errors caused by the motion control system of the grinding machine tool. Research will be conducted to develop a trajectory correction algorithm, which will utilize virtual dressing simula ons to improve the accuracy of the actual gears produced at elevated dressing speeds.
These new technologies will be deployed within ODG through well thought‐out technology transfer milestones. Their products are used in the industrial, automotive, aerospace, forestry, off‐road, agricultural, high‐tech, and military industries, all of which will benefit from components with better reliability, efficiency, and lower maintenance and replacement costs. This project will train one postdoctoral fellow / research associate, one doctoral student, and two Master's students in both theoretical and practical aspects of advanced manufacturing.
Voucher Industry Best Theratronics Limited
d Manufacturing
Carleton University
Separation and Purification Unit for Tc‐99m Produced by Low Energy Cyclotrons
The overall objective is to develop a commercial system for producing the medical imaging isotope Tc‐99m by irradiation of a high power solid target of molybdenum‐ Advanced manufacturing
100 with a proton beam (15 MeV) at high currents using a medical cyclotron. The goal of the current proposal is to design and build one component of the overall commercial system: an automated 'turnkey' isotope separation‐and‐purification unit to produce sodium pertechnetate (Na99mTcO4). The objective of the present proposal is to convert recent laboratory scale technologies into a commercial product. The challenge for the designers is dealing with the large amounts of short half‐
life (6.01 h) radioactive chemicals, which require special care. In addition, the molybdenum‐100 comprising the target is expensive, so processing must be done in an efficient manner in order to increase the production yield, and minimize losses and processing time. The process must be done in less than 30 min and at least 90% of the molybdenum‐100 must be recovered and recycled. The separation‐and‐purification unit will be housed at hospitals and regional pharmacies and operated by technologists routinely ‐ it needs to have a small 'footprint' and be robust, easy to maintain and service, and be able to provide a cost effective supply of Tc‐99m.
3/26/2014
Glenn McRae
$100,000
$367,097
$467,097
Ottawa
Voucher Industry Endetec ‐ Pathogen Detection Association (VIA) ‐ Systems, Inc.
Environment/Advance
d Manufacturing
Queen's University
New Tests for the Detection of Bacteria in Water
The proposed innovation is new tests for Enterococcus sp. (ENT) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) bacteria in water that can be done on‐site, with an automated Bio‐economy and clean detection system that requires the user only to pour a sample into a test cartridge and insert the cartridge into an instrument. This will be transformative because, technologies
currently, these samples must be sent to a laboratory and then run in a 24‐48 hr test, with results available typically 2‐4 days after collecting the sample. Our test results will be available in less than 24 hr, and in only a few hours for a sample that is highly contaminated. Our Industry Partner is Pathogen Detection Systems, Inc. (PDS), which is commercializing technology licensed from Queen's for detection of E. coli and coliform bacteria. PDS is now a subsidiary of Veolia Water Technologies, in Veolia's "Endetec" group of companies.
3/26/2014
Stephen Brown
$100,000
$369,194
$469,194
Kingston
6/13/2014
Nirav Mehta
$20,000
$20,000
$40,000
Mississauga
The impact of the proposed work on Canada from commercializing the technology will include both social and economic benefits to Canada. Public health ‐ The new detection platform will provide effective monitoring and rapid alerting to the presence these bacteria, reducing the number of illnesses associated with water exposure in Canada and globally. It will also provide greater confidence in water quality in municipal, industrial and recreational settings. Economic benefits ‐ New jobs in industrial research & development, manufacturing, operations and sales through the Canadian office of Endetec will also be created, following Endete's track record of creating 12 full‐time jobs in Canada. New affordable water monitoring systems will be introduced globally, with the Canadian office playing a lead role in the commercial development and international export of this technology. Queen's University will continue to hold the IP and license it to Endetec, and additional revenue from sales of the new tests will bring additional royalty income to Queen's. The continued funding of research at Queen's by Endetec in the longer term will also be supported by the research proposed here.
Talent Edge
7/10/2015
PaymentEvolution Corporation
Sheridan College Institute Paymentevolution ‐ Intern
PaymentEvolu on is an online Canadian payroll and payment processor established in 2009. Our company is focused on innova ng in the payment space revolu onizing the standard prac ces readily adopted across small business but an quated leading Canada to technologically fall behind. PaymentEvolu on was the first Canadian company to release a small business cloud based payroll application that could be easily and readily adopted by business owners enabling them to pay their employees in minutes of the hire date.
Section 1 ‐ 39
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
Talent Edge
Mesh Consultants
McMaster University
Mesh Consultants
Current digital design techniques make it possible to visualize, model, and build an incredible variety of forms. Supporting these developments, however, are a Advanced manufacturing
number of technical branches of mathematics and physics, including discrete differential geometry, topology, and finite element analysis. Although some of this technical knowledge is prepackaged in 3d modelling applications, simulation engines, and rendering software, it is often challenging to understand and manipulate the core concepts that these programs offer. In response, digital designers are reaching out to experts in these fields to develop customized solutions that give their products and services an edge in this highly competitive market. To address this need, we are developing a suite of digital design platforms that provide a direct pipeline for our expertise in mathematics, computation, and optimization to every stage of project delivery. Our product will address critical manufacturing problems such as repe on of design elements, op mal alloca on of materials, drawing and model coordina on, and customized user interac on. 6/13/2014
Daniel Hambleton
$10,000
$10,040
$20,040
Toronto
Talent Edge
Weber Manufacturing Technologies Inc.
McMaster University
Statistical Process Control
Implementation of a Statistical process control (SPC) software system will provide us with a quality control tool to monitor and improve our production of nickel coated powders.
6/13/2014
Sharon Tippin
$10,000
$16,396
$26,396
Midland Talent Edge
Quantify Labs Inc. (dba Street Contxt) University of Toronto
Business Data Analysis ‐ Summer 2014
Street Contxt is reinventing the way information is shared in the institutional financial industry. We seek the addition of a MBA Candidate under the role of Business Digital media and Data Analyst to assist the team with growth plans, conducting industry research, and perform data/product analysis. information & communication technologies
6/13/2014
Elisha Medeiros
$10,000
$10,000
$20,000
Toronto
Talent Edge
Purifics ES Inc.
Design Purchasing System
Develop a comprehensive purchasing system for ordering, receiving and checking parts involved in building a water purifica on system.
6/13/2014
Bonnie Lunn
$10,000
$11,900
$21,900
London
Talent Edge
Sweep3D Corporation
3D Scanning Technology Commercialization
Sweep3D's mission is to put the power of 3D Scanning in the hands of every user. Our technology provides users with an affordable and easy way to scan objects, Digital media and people and spaces. The technology is portable and works by waving a hand‐held sensor around the object of interest . Two configurations are possible: The sensor can information & be hooked up via USB to a laptop for real time processing and to obtain a 3D model instantly. Alternatively, it can be attached to an android tablet which sends the communication data for processing in our cloud. The user gets the 3D model back in few minutes.The applications of the technology are limitless. For example, we are now focusing technologies
on scanning body parts for healthcare applica ons, scanning full bodies for fashion and virtual apparel fi ng, mapping 3D spaces and reconstruc ng crime scenes. 6/13/2014
Adel Fakih
$20,000
$20,000
$40,000
Kitchener
6/13/2014
Philip Ling
$10,000
$12,200
$22,200
Brampton
6/13/2014
Marina Mann
$20,000
$38,800
$58,800
Toronto 7/3/2014
Tristan Lehari
$10,000
$15,000
$25,000
Uxbridge
The intern will focus on all aspects of commercialization of technology along with system integration into customer’s product portfolio. The system integration process requires the intern to have a solid background in electrical engineering and image processing. Since the intern already has both the engineering and business background it will be easy for us to integrate our existing technology into various customers portfolios. As a result of commercialization of technology there will be many new jobs created in Ontario by 2015. Talent Edge
Powersmiths
Transformer Loss and efficiency field data analysis
This project involves aggregating and analyzing field measurements of transformer losses and efficiency taken over several years in the field with live installed and operating low voltage dry‐type transformers, and determining the field conditions under which the data is least accurate.
Talent Edge
EatSleepRIDE Mobile Inc.
EatSleepRIDE Mobile Motorcycle Connected Vehicle The EatSleepRIDE® App is the most comprehensive and advanced app for motorcycle riders. It features, CRASHLIGHT®, a revolutionary technology that automatically Digital media and and Crash Detection Android Project
detects a motorcycle crash and no fies pre‐set contacts of the rider’s last‐known loca on. In addi on, geo‐aware features provide riders with on‐board data recording information & and visualization. Learn more about the ESR App here: http://App.EatSleepRIDE.com. The CRASHLIGHT® technology was featured on the Discovery Channel. Watch communication the profile here: h p://watch.discoverychannel.ca/#clip997944
technologies
CRASHLIGHT for Android
The company's main offering is the development of connected mobile software for the detection of collisions or accidental dismounting of the rider. Initially developed for the iPhone iOS platform, the company must deliver the CRASHALIGHT technology to the lower‐cost, Android platform to grow market share and reach international markets. Due to the differences in device sensors and platform technology – incremental research, development and testing must be conducted to build pla orm specific data modelling and detec on algorithms for the Android opera ng system.
About Us
EatSleepRIDE (ESR) Mobile Inc. is an early stage technology company, primarily developing globally‐available connected vehicle software and tools for the device‐
connected motorcycle rider. The company’s primary industry sector is Informa on and Communica ons Technologies (ICT), Communica ons Services.
ESR is proud to support and contribute to Motorcycle Tourism in Ontario. According to 'Ontario’s Southwest Motorcycle Tourism Report', motorcycle tourism is iden fied as a significant contributor to tourism spending and local economic impact.
SwIMU is a hardware technology startup focused on developing performance grade wearable technology to make swimmers faster. SwIMU’s flagship device is a sleek non‐invasive unit that calculates a swimmer’s key swim performance metrics throughout their workouts, automatically communicating the aggregated data and statistics in real‐time to a coach on their mobile device, enabling coaches to make quick decisions on the fly. The SwIMU system is designed to provide highly accurate statistical data to help swimmers and coaches train more effectively towards their end goal of becoming a faster swimmer.
Talent Edge
SwIMU Inc.
SwIMU development support
Talent Edge
Ontario Drive and Gear
University of Ottawa; University of Waterloo
Gear and Transmission Noise Analysis Test Unit
A gear and transmission noise analysis unit was proposed to ODG as a 4th year capstone project by students at the University of Waterloo. The concept was to design Advanced manufacturing
a piece of equipment which could capture the vibrations from a gear train and, using software, analyze the signal for potential failures in the gear train or the associated assembly. This proposed project is to complete the design, build, testing, and shop floor implementation of the test apparatus.
7/3/2014
Jamie Mcpherson
$30,000
$31,500
$61,500
New Hamburg
Talent Edge
PathCore
Pathcore
PathCore’s lead product is PathCore OS 2.0, a pla orm neutral opera ng system and suppor ng applica ons for digital pathology.
7/3/2014
dan hosseinzadeh
$10,000
$10,000
$20,000
Toronto
7/3/2014
Syed Mir
$10,000
$11,000
$21,000
London
PathCore OS 2.0 enables digital pathology workflow by overcoming the incompatibilities between various proprietary hardware and software products available to pathologists. It breaks down barriers created by proprietary formats, allowing new hardware to be more easily adopted and integrated into the pathology workflow.
Once the hardware in a pathology lab is standardized and integrated by PathCore’s operating system, users can then take advantage of several high‐value applications included with OS 2.0 that are essential to moving, viewing and managing terabytes of pathology image data. These applications include the following.
Talent Edge
7/10/2015
London Hydro
Mobility Platform
An intern for London Hydro will develop a mobile app to be utilized by field crews to keep track of financial costs incurred on their projects. It is of value to know for Bio‐economy and clean field crew if a project is starting to deviate from the allocated budget as soon as possible to take necessary actions.
technologies
Section 1 ‐ 40
Program
Talent Edge
Partners
Cumulus Dental
Project Title
Cumulus Dental Internship
Project Summary
Cumulus Dental Inc. (CDI) is a federally incorporated pre‐revenue start‐up based in Ottawa, Ontario and an Invest Ottawa portfolio firm. CDI is in the business of developing hardware and cloud based software solutions for dentists and hygienists that will fundamentally change the way they diagnose and treat gingivitis and periodontitis as well as creating a truly "paperless" office. It currently has four employees tasked with seeking financing for the projects and with the design and development of the hardware and so ware products. Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
7/3/2014
Marc Lamarre
$20,000
$20,000
$40,000
Ottawa Our software will greatly save time for the dentist or hygienist, increase patient compliance to dental treatment and will become a teaching tool in dental and hygiene schools. We are currently hiring a 3D animation specialist who recently graduated from Algonquin College in Ottawa. This individual proved himself to us as a student working on the early stage demo of our dental charting software. We are currently assessing 2 other students from Algonquin College who are recent graduates and who also worked on our demo project.
Talent Edge
Opencare
University of Western Ontario; University of Toronto
Opencare Internship Application
Improved user experience for clinics joining Opencare service.
7/3/2014
Julia Ulida
$20,000
$28,838
$48,838
Toronto
Talent Edge
Perimeter Medical Imaging, Inc.
Optimizing image acquisition for breast cancer margin assessment
Breast cancer is the number one cause of new cancer cases and the number two cause of cancer death for women in the US and Canada [1, 2]. Despite its prevalence, Advanced health technologies
an astounding 25% of women undergoing breast conserving surgery (also called lumpectomy) require follow‐up operations [3]. Current intraoperative margin assessment tools such as gross palpation, specimen radiograph, frozen section and touch prep have been shown to be ineffective in reducing these rates. Perimeter’s Margin Assessment Machine (MAM) provides breast surgeons with real time high resolution imaging of excised tissue. This allows surgeons to visualize and assess the surgical margins during the surgical procedure and determine if and where additional tissue needs to be removed while the patient is still on the operating table. Unlike other techniques, MAM is automated, provides full specimen coverage, is non‐contact and non‐destructive. It preserves the integrity of the margin width and the en re specimen for post‐opera ve pathology. 7/16/2014
Elizabeth Munro
$20,000
$28,200
$48,200
Toronto
7/16/2014
Atul Asthana
$10,000
$10,385
$20,385
Markham
It is Perimeter’s goal with the MAM that patients will no longer have to suffer the emotional strain of waiting weeks before receiving any informed feedback about the outcome of their initial procedure. Furthermore it is our goal to reduce the psychological distress and increased morbidity or mortality associated with an avoidable second or third surgery.
[1] American Cancer Society Report: Breast Cancer Facts & Figures 2013 – 2014.
[2] Canadian Cancer Society Breast Cancer Sta s cs
[3] L. McCahill et al, “Variability in Re‐excision Following Breast Conservation Surgery”, JAMA, 2012, Vol. 307 No.5, Pgs. 467‐475.
Talent Edge
Kaypok Inc
Creating Kaypok documentation, training and marketing material
Kaypok is a startup company focused on addressing the field of content analytics as applied to social intelligence. There are many companies in the social media monitoring and analy cs space but none of them are focused on the content itself, preferring instead to take the volumetric approach.
Digital media and information & communication Kaypok provides the next generation of unstructured text analytics solutions for enterprises. The technology analyzes data regardless of source, including public social technologies
media, proprietary internal data, customer surveys, email, blogs etc. We take intelligence gathering and decision making to the next level. Kaypok’s high‐performance algorithm processes the noisy, unstructured information extracting usable knowledge and insights about what people are saying, sentiments and the root information elements driving analy cs.
The Kaypok engine has wide applicability in the Enterprise and online Internet business space — we are initially focusing on three specific enterprise customer use scenarios:
Marketing departments — who need to analyze a large amount of unstructured data in real‐time, to understand what people are saying, manage issues, get feedback from campaigns, and explore compe ve strengths & weaknesses.
Customer Service departments — who need to know the top issues and the impact of corrective actions, identifying and arming customer service representatives with solu ons, insights into crea ng new products or policy changes.
Online based businesses — that can benefit from subjective or qualitative feedback information, in addition to the quantitative base information they already have today.
With our focus on unstructured textual content and analytics, we need to find new and novel ways of visualizing the output as well as defining new processes for users of our solution. This project has attracted the best visual analytics students from OCAD U, who want to contribute in defining and designing user interfaces and interaction (UI and UX) in this space. Inputs from different points of view will provide us a rich set of options to chose from and the interns provide a unique insight as they are not coloured by how such topics have been handled in the past.
Talent Edge
MMB Research
MMB Research ‐ Intern 2
Bio‐economy and clean MMB Networks has deep experience in mesh networking technologies, bridging multiple network and device protocols, and adding connectivity to consumer electronics devices. Our team has a mix of strong hardware design, software and embedded development, and QA/testing expertise. MMB’s hardware and embedded technologies
software allows consumer electronics OEMs to rapidly add connectivity to their products — in a way that is compatible with multiple emerging platforms. We’re now working with our customers to develop connected home solu ons of their own with our gateway, cloud, and mobile products and services.
7/16/2014
Theema Mohamed
$20,000
$36,000
$56,000
Toronto
Talent Edge
MMB Research
McMaster University
MMB Research ‐ Intern
MMB Networks was founded in 2008, by a team with deep experience in mesh networking technologies, bridging multiple network and device protocols, and adding Bio‐economy and clean connectivity to consumer electronics devices. We are based in Toronto, with a mix of strong hardware design, software and embedded development, and QA/testing technologies
expertise. MMB’s hardware and embedded software allows consumer electronics OEMs to rapidly add connectivity to their products — in a way that is compatible with multiple emerging platforms. We’re now working with our customers to develop connected home solutions of their own with our gateway, cloud, and mobile products and services.
7/16/2014
Theema Mohamed
$20,000
$32,666
$52,666
Toronto
Talent Edge
RideShark Corporation
Multimodal GIS map‐based web application development
RideShark is a web‐based response system that provides travel op ons between a specified origin and des na on.
A critical project within the RideShark is to develop a multimodal map and pictorial based response to web‐based queries on travel options between a specified origin and destination. The resulting response by the RideShark application will allow users to select the travel option that best suits their particular needs based on search criteria and filtered preferences. The result will encourage and support active and sustainable travel options while building awareness and understanding of the cost, health and environmental impacts of their choice. 7/16/2014
Sharon Lewinson
$20,000
$28,333
$48,333
Ottawa
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 41
Program
Partners
Talent Edge
The Rumie Initiative
Brown University
Talent Edge
Stylekick
Talent Edge
BioDiaspora Inc.
Project Title
Aboriginal Education Technology Project
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
The Rumie Initiative is a not‐for‐profit organization bringing free educational content to underserved communities through low‐cost technology. Rumie’s $50 tablet Digital media and enables underserved elementary and high school students to access over $5,000 worth of high‐quality educa onal content that can be easily accessed offline.
information & communication Rumie is currently working to implement these devices in isolated or underserved communities in Ontario to help close the education gap. Starting in the summer of technologies
2014, Rumie will be working with a partner in an Ontario First Nations community to deliver its product and measure its impact, specifically focusing on improving literacy and knowledge of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) subjects. After the pilot project is completed and conclusions are drawn from it, Rumie intends to repeat the process in an urban community in Ontario to fine‐tune and scale up the First Na ons deployment. Rumie hopes to develop a streamlined process that is guaranteed to improve educational outcomes cross‐culturally and automatically measure impact, thus creating a product that has the potential to close educational inequalities in Canada but indeed address the fact that over 1 billion children globally do not have access to a basic quality education.
7/16/2014
Tariq Fancy
$20,000
$28,500
$48,500
Mississauga
York University: University Stylekick ‐ Internship
of Toronto
Stylekick is building a Pandora‐style recommendation engine for fashion. Our technology centres around creating highly personalized browsing and shopping experiences for apparel and footwear. Our iPhone app, which makes ou it recommenda ons is growing between 20‐70% a week. This is an applica on for the TalentEdge internship program, which allows us to hire recent STEM grads from Ontario into front‐end and mobile developer roles with our company.
7/16/2014
Karn Saroya
$40,000
$40,000
$80,000
Toronto
York University: University Enhancing functionality of Disease Risk Assessment of Saskatchewan
Product
BioDiaspora's vision is to create a healthier, safer, more prosperous world through the use of Big Data and predictive analytics. The BioDiaspora technology platform Advanced health is a first of its kind, patented web‐based software technology that generates real‐time predictive analytics on emerging global infectious disease threats. BioDiaspora technologies
is extensively used by United States Centers for Disease Control, Public Health Agency of Canada, and other leading institutions that seek to mitigate against the health and economic risks of infec ous diseases.
7/16/2014
Albert Tseng
$40,000
$45,600
$85,600
Toronto
7/16/2014
Viliam Makis
$120,000
$144,000
$264,000
Toronto
7/16/2014
Randy Busch
$10,000
$43,400
$53,400
Toronto
7/16/2014
Murray Thomson
$10,000
$20,000
$30,000
Toronto
7/16/2014
Dave Patterson
$10,000
$10,000
$20,000
Aurora
7/16/2014
Mike Upton
$30,000
$56,000
$86,000
Ottawa
As a consequence of global population growth and other major forces of globalization, new dangerous infectious diseases are emerging faster today than at any other time in human history (e.g. SARS, H1N1, H7N9, MERS) while many previously controlled diseases are re‐emerging (e.g. TB, dengue, malaria). In addition, more than two and a half billion travelers board commercial flights every year, creating unprecedented opportunities for local infectious disease outbreaks to rapidly transform into interna onal epidemics or pandemics that present major threats not only to human health, but also na onal security, and global economic ac vity.
The focus of the two internship projects is to accelerate our speed of development to enable us to expand our market penetration, while keeping young talent in Ontario working on what we feel is an exciting innovation developed right here in Canada.
Talent Edge
Bombardier
Model Development in Scheduling and Allocation of Recent analyses in Bombardier indicate that the efficiency of some operations can be improved and the labor capacity can be better utilized, which will lead to Manpower in Preflight Process at Bombardier increased productivity, reduction of the production time and production costs, and a considerable profit increase. Inefficient production can be a result of some Toronto Plant
important factors such as manpower allocation and task scheduling, disruptions in process, and equipment. Among these factors, efficient manpower allocation and task scheduling, and disrup ons play key roles in aircra industry, because most of the opera ons are assemblies done by the highly skillful operators.
Disruption occurrence is one of the most important factors affecting the efficiency of the process by extending the production cycle time. Therefore, as the first objective, we will apply the failure mode, effect and criticality analysis (FMECA) to identify all possible disruptions and waste in the process and try to reduce or remove them.
Allocation of the operators is another important factor in production efficiency. When a disruption is recognized, the new job or jobs will be generated to remove it. So, the second objective is to allocate the operators to each job to minimize the cycle time. Currently, in Bombardier the manpower allocation for each operation is not done in an optimal way. Therefore, one of the objectives of the proposed research is to develop the mathematical model for manpower scheduling in the process to get the best labor u liza on and minimize the cycle me considering a finite me horizon.
The new daily information can change the manpower allocation done in the previous step. To consider this information, the mathematical model based on a stochastic
dynamic programming formulation and a rolling time horizon will be developed which will enable to update the task scheduling and manpower allocation on a daily basis in an op mal manner.
Talent Edge
Brightspark Capital Inc.
Not Applicable
Equity Funding Network
Brightspark is working with Canadian Accredited Investors to create specific Venture Capital Funds to invest in the best early stage Canadian companies. Brightspark Digital media and information & applies its proven focus of selecting the best technology startups in Canada with a strong focus on great teams, great markets and great returns for investors. communication Accredited investors become equity holders in Brightspark‐managed venture funds – which then fund specific private companies. Investors receive information on potential company investments including access to the Brightspark “private area” website. The result is that investors get unprecedented access to the opportunities technologies
they want and the ability to build their own diversified portfolio. Brightspark management and team develop technology, build the investor network, evaluate and due diligence investment opportuni es and work with entrepreneurs post‐investment to develop and grow companies into commercial and financial successes.
The developers will work with Brightspark professionals to develop a secure and appealing Accredited Investor Network site that enables interaction between investors and presents them with investment opportunities. The Interns will also work with Brightspark professionals to define and test marketing and social media member recruitment campaigns.
Talent Edge
Tenova Goodfellow Inc
Development of a multipoint LIBS and TDL system for Tenova Goodfellow Inc. (TGI) is the worldwide leader in the optimization of the Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) and Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) steelmaking processes Bio‐economy and clean the real time, in situ measurement of the off‐gas and using the off‐gas analysis and mathema cal models.
technologies
the metal composition in steel plants
TGI is developing a multipoint Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) and Tunable Diode Laser (TDL) system for the real time, in situ measurement of wet and dusty off‐gas and the metal composition from the steelmaking process. Amirhossein Alikhanzadeh (the intern) has hands‐on experience and knowledge in optics, Labview and Matlab. The main work that the intern will be involved is to build the LIBS and TDL setup and then to do data analysis for the correct identification and quantification of species of interest from the off‐gas samples and molten metal samples. This work will help TGI to speed up the project. Talent Edge
Invotek Electronics Inc, dba MIS Automotive
Internships for MIS Automotive
Talent Edge
Gambit IT Solutions Inc
Enterprise M2M wireless monitoring and notification Gambit IT Solutions develops high‐end enterprise hardware and software, and cloud‐based technologies and services. To further augment it's business offerings, platform
Gambit has developed an enterprise‐level Machine‐to‐Machine (M2M) wireless monitoring and notification platform. The platform has been deployed for large‐scale applica ons in industry. Our goal for this project is to revise our exis ng pla orm so that it can be applied to more industries, and more types of sensors. The challenge in this project is to encapsulate the details of M2M in such a way that it can be applied to many industries without heavy redesign effort. This challenge involves abstracting many of the configuration and customization details in M2M.
7/10/2015
Safety Systems in automobiles are on the verge of a significant transformation that will emphasize collision avoidance, vehicle to vehicle communication, and vehicle Advanced manufacturing
to infra‐structure communication. New technologies are needed to achieve the 360° situational awareness required. MIS Automotive is designing and commercializing a suite of automotive imaging sensors that will provide OEM's with superior performance.
Section 1 ‐ 42
Program
Talent Edge
Partners
Kapik Integration
Project Title
Project Summary
Kapik Integration ‐ Multiband SerDes Communication The demand for bandwidth is continuing to grow in short‐range data transmission applications such as servers and data communication routers. This means that the physical infrastructure that was originally designed to transmit data at speeds of less than 5 billion bits per second (5Gb/s) is now being pushed toward 30Gb/s and beyond. At these speeds we are approaching limit of what is possible using conventional serialize/deserialize (SerDes) techniques over copper wires. Companies looking to provide faster solutions will either need to begin using other transmission materials (such as optical fibres), or they will need to begin using less conven onal SerDes techniques.
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
7/16/2014
Dustin Dumwell
$20,000
$59,956
$79,956
Toronto
7/16/2014
Srinivas Krishna
$20,000
$20,000
$40,000
Toronto
7/31/2014
Syed Mir
$10,000
$11,000
$21,000
London
Kapik Integration has developed one such unconventional SerDes technique that uses frequency division multiplexing (FDM). Our experience using FDM in long‐haul optical applications has allowed us to translate the technology to be used in short‐haul electrical applications as well. Preliminary simulation results indicate that up to 56Gb/s can be achieved over electrical links using this technique.
In this project, we propose to take this idea from concept and initial simulation results to a commercially viable architecture through development of integrated circuit IP. At least one company has confirmed a significant interest in such a product and we are confident that it will have a significant impact on the global market for high‐
speed data transmission products.
Talent Edge
AWE Company Limited
Ryerson University
Speech Interface for Mixed Reality Platform
AWE Company Ltd. is creating the technology to enable a mixed reality tour of Fort York National Historic Site. Experienced by visitors on camera‐enabled mobile devices, the content of the tour consists of eight interactive mixed reality exhibits each representing different moments in the history of the Fort and the City that has developed around it. Visitors will be guided to each of the exhibits spread across the grounds of the Fort through an intent‐driven, natural speech interface. Support from the OCE through TalentEdge assists AWE in customizing the voice recognition system for this new attraction at the Fort. Talent Edge
London Hydro
Small Business Energy Management ‐ Green Button‐ London Hydro has been chosen by the Ministry of Energy / MaRS to pilot a Green Button Connect My Data (CMD) software application with a launch target of 1,000 based apps
customer sign‐ups by May 1, 2015. This pilot is the first 'Open Source' and 'Cloud' based solution in North America. This pilot along with the London Hydro’s demonstrated commitment to the Green Button concept has earned London Hydro international recognition from the US White House/DOE as leading the way in Ontario for Green Bu on adop on. Bolstering the pilot effort, London Hydro is separately inves ga ng methodologies to acquire more discreet data from consumer’s wishing to know more about their electricity consumption. The internships sponsored herein will contribute their technical expertise in engineering and computer science, acquired at university, to investigate and assess additional behind‐the‐meter devices and develop a program that manages their delivery and assessment. In turn, they will gather business and application development experience in the utility industry.
Talent Edge
London Hydro
Electric Vehicle Mobility Adoption and Prediction
London Hydro has engaged an intern to assess the readiness of London Hydro's residential distribution systems to accept plug‐in electric vehicle battery charging by homeowners.
7/31/2014
Syed Mir
$20,000
$28,000
$48,000
London
Talent Edge
Solana Networks
Carleton University
Performance Evaluation of Traffic and Security Monitoring Tool
Solana Networks has products in traffic monitoring and security monitoring space. The product names are Sparrow and SmartFLow respectively. Major development of these products took place in last 3 years. There is a need for performance evaluation and benchmarking these products. The information is required for future product enhancements. Also, these specifications are important for customers. Major performance parameters for Sparrow are: maximum number of flows per second supported by the tool, ability to detect various applications, time taken to generate reports, response time of dashboard etc. Major performance parameters for SmartFlow: what a acks are detected, level of false posi ves and false nega ves etc.
7/31/2014
Biswajit Nandy
$20,000
$21,040
$41,040
Ottawa
Talent Edge
Zighra
Carleton University
Kinetic Locker
7/31/2014
Deepak Dutt
$30,000
$30,000
$60,000
Ottawa
Zighra develops secure technology solutions for mobile users through unique software methods of user identification and authentication. It is a well‐know fact that nearly 60% of mobile phone users disable screen locks and leave apps perpetually logged in due to friction in mobile authentication without realizing the risk of data being compromised or phones being stolen or lost. Exis ng authen ca on mechanisms such as PINs and passwords entail too much fric on.
Zighra proposes to develop KineticID Locker, a standalone Android application that will leverage users Kinetic motion to unlock smartphone applications and replace PINs/passwords for authentication.
Talent Edge
Gesturelogic
Carleton University
Gesturelogic Lactic Acid Threshold Development
GestureLogic will be performing a study to validate the possibility of acquiring lactic acid measurements non‐invasively from the surface of the skin in real‐time using GestureLogic's proprietary wearable fitness technology. Lactic acid is a better indicator of athletic performance then traditional heart rate measurements and therefore is useful for quantifying performance in real‐time for endurance type activities. To our knowledge no one has attempted to track lactic acid concentrations at the surface of the skin in real time. Coupled with the inherently invasive methods of doing such tests that currently exist this research may potentially solve a very interesting problem. The study will be done in co‐operation with a high performance fitness centre in the Ottawa region and will include a population of people with ranges of muscle composi ons and age.
7/31/2014
Mark Klibanov
$10,000
$10,100
$20,100
Ottawa
Talent Edge
Clear Software Inc.
B2P2 Software Development
Clear Software Inc. (CSI), based in Waterloo Region, is developing scalable mission‐critical enterprise software to address global client needs in the area of customer service, interac on and e‐commerce. In addition to being highly available and reliable, our solutions must adapt to the widely varying business needs of our enterprise customers, and seamlessly integrate with their existing systems. This is even more challenging to deliver in a solution that is deployable onsite at an corporation’s own data centre, as a cloud‐based offering, or as a hybrid of both. A new suite of so ware products with these capabili es is the focus of our OCE project proposal.
7/31/2014
Stephen Grinyer
$40,000
$104,944
$144,944
Waterloo
7/31/2014
Afifa Siddiqui
$20,000
$20,250
$40,250
Toronto
CSI will leverage its extensive experience providing strategic solutions to industry leaders, and build on current best practices as well as innovative approaches to architecture and core technologies, to deliver these solu ons.
Many corporations have much of their customer data and business processes running in dated computer systems that are difficult to modify and maintain. CSI’s solutions must seamlessly integrate with these systems to make services available directly to the enterprise’s customers in a friendly manner across all modern device types. Enabling this self‐service model provides a win‐win approach both in expense reduc ons for the enterprise as well as improved service levels for their clients.
CSI is excited to participate in the TalentEdge Internship Program offering new graduates an excellent opportunity to expand their skills and gain valuable experience while helping us solve the demanding technical challenges of bringing trusted enterprise solu ons to market around the globe.
Talent Edge
7/10/2015
Careerleaf Inc.
Job Engine Optimization
Careerleaf has developed a platform for optimizing online job search. We have integrated our award winning candidate experience (intelligent job seeker tools) with a job board product to create an integrated end‐to‐end solution. The next phase of development is to optimize the job search engine with algorithms that apply artificial intelligence to further enhance our recommendations and job matching functionality. Similar optimizations will apply on each of the three modules of our core database: applicants, employers, and administrators.
Section 1 ‐ 43
Program
Talent Edge
Partners
Air Xposure
Project Title
Air Xposure Digital Management Intern
Project Summary
Air Xposure, an aerial cinematography company, is proposing to hire Patrick Lagowski as an intern for the purpose of implementing enterprise resource management solutions to improve efficiency. There are many key business processes that Air Xposure needs to follow in order to legally operate an aerial cinematography business in Canada, including permit applications, safety plans, checklists, logs and schedules. Managing and tracking all this content is very tedious, especially as Air Xposure plans to expand their flight team. It will be Patrick's duty to develop and implement a company wide content management system which will store, organize and manage all of the documents in real time. Patrick will also develop a custom quoting algorithm designed for a business within the Aerial Cinematography industry. With this algorithm, Air Xposure will mitigate their risk (by charging more for higher risk operations) and provide customers with the fairest rates possible. With Patrick's experience in digital management, and interest in drone technologies and videography, Air Xposure believes that the internship benefits both the intern and the company.
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
7/31/2014
Denis Loboda
$10,000
$10,011
$20,011
Mississauga
DLS Technology Corporation (DLS) is an Ottawa‐based system integrator and product development company. It develops and integrates hardware and software Digital media and technologies and services to enterprises and governments that allow users to access their mission critical applications and information. In parallel, the company information & provides choice of flexibility that allows users to a secure network from anywhere, any me, on any device.
communication technologies
One of the software products that DLS has developed is called vKey® Device that provides remote users to connect to their corporate networks within a trusted virtual environment through any computing devices. The vKey can run from a bootable USB device with its own operating system (OS) that allows booting off the vKey, separate from the local hard drive of a hosting computer. When reboots any computer in a remote location, it immediately disables the OS on the computer and runs its own OS securely.
7/31/2014
Eric She
$20,000
$25,488
$45,488
Ottawa
7/31/2014
Deepak Dutt
$10,000
$10,000
$20,000
Ottawa
Patrick graduated from the University of Toronto in Digital Enterprise Management, and he has experience in digitizing content while working as a Digital Coordinator for Performance Publica ons Media Group, an automo ve magazine publisher. Talent Edge
DLS Technology Corporation
Fleming College
vKey Device Security Enhancement and Implementation Project
The project that DLS is undertaking under this application is vKey Device Security Enhancement and Implementation project that will leverage the intern’s (Zackary Troop) educa on and skills in the area of so ware development and computer security inves ga on.
Talent Edge
Zighra
York University
KineticBizApp
Zighra develops secure technology solutions for mobile users through unique software methods of user identification and authentication. It is a well‐know fact that nearly 66% of mobile phone users disable screen locks and leave apps perpetually logged in due to friction in mobile authentication without realizing the risk of data being compromised or phones being stolen or lost. Exis ng authen ca on mechanisms such as PINs and passwords entail too much fric on.
Zighra proposes to put together a campaign to validate the market and product market fit of its KineticID Locker (leveraging users Kinetic motion to unlock smartphone applications and replace PINs/passwords for authentication) technology.
Talent Edge
Fleetmetrica Inc.
McMaster University
Intern for Fleetmetrica Inc.
Fleetmetrica offers a safety monitoring technology for monitoring driver behaviour within fleets of commercial trucks. The objective of this project is to strengthen the navigation capability of their solution for larger fleets where multiple organizational tiers exist (eg. region, division, etc.). Digital media and information & communication 8/8/2014
Ward Warkentin
$10,000
$15,000
$25,000
Thornhill
Talent Edge
Kela Medical Inc.
Durham College
Kela Medical TalentEdge Application
Kela Medical Inc. is initiating the internship project on the research and development of cookie cutter configurations for the Network and IT components for the Personal Medical Record (PHR) and Electronic Medical Record (EMR) solutions to clinics. The goal is to turn the manual processes of network configuration, server setup, software installation, security re‐enforcement, monitoring, backup and upgrading into semi‐automated or automated solutions. Advanced health technologies
8/8/2014
Daniel Sin
$20,000
$20,000
$40,000
Whitby
Talent Edge
Stathletes
Niagara College of Applied Stathletes‐ Business Development in Hockey Arts and Technology; Analytics
Brock University; Dartmouth College
Stathletes is a dynamic analytics company focused on improving the understanding of true player performance in hockey. Our unique proprietary data set and tracking ability allows for sequential possession metrics and advanced analytics which give greater understanding into player performance. Near real time data with correlations to success and winning can drive decision making from various positions in the sport. Stathletes seeks to further our business operations and scale within the industy by focusing on research and innovation. The challenge is to be on the forefront of innovation in big data and sports analytics. The interns will provide extremely relevant and progressive research in helping Stathletes' continue to be the gold standard in hockey and develop further within the Niagara region. Digital media and information & communication technologies
8/8/2014
Meghan Chayka
$50,000
$50,000
$100,000
St. Catharines
Talent Edge
One Love Network, Inc
Fanshawe College of Applied Arts and Technology; Humber College; University of Western Ontario
One Love Network coding
The One Love Network (1LOVE) empowers today’s socially minded youth to make a difference through everyday purchases and volunteering. The One Love Network will partner with essential stakeholders – retailers, middleware providers and charities ‐ to offer a unique loyalty program, rewarding consumers with credits which they can donate to selected pre‐screened causes. We are looking to hire 4 interns students of which 3 have already been involved with One Love through the OCE VEB project at Fanshawe College. Need to code 5000 lines of front‐end code using HTML and CSS ‐ also need to code 15000 lines of back end code using PHP and MYSQL. We need to ensure quality assurance (QA) for all the coding work completed throughout our summer intern program, therefore, Tech Alliance will help us by allowing some of their employees the opportunity to use and test the system in early August, in me for 2 pilot demonstra on projects to start in September.
Our intern program will also have room for hands on mentoring with company executives, Sr. programmers, other tech companies’ Sr. management and business advisors. Digital media and information & communication technologies
8/8/2014
Daniel Hines
$40,000
$50,749
$90,749
London
Talent Edge
Aditude Media
CANARIE DAIR RTB SERVER DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT
For over 9 years, ADitude Media has provided customers with the automated collection and distribution of multimedia content (news, RSS, Video feeds, live‐streamed Digital media and video) from multiple sources in multiple languages to smart IP display nodes (e.g., TVs in office lobbies, elevators, doctor's offices). In collaboration with the University information & of Ottawa, we are currently developing a facial recognition technology that will allow our camera/TV installations to identify the age and gender of people watching communication our screens and retrieve and display advertisements that match their demographics. This project will establish a development hosted environment on DAIR technologies
(CANARIE) and is designed to be our hosted environment for real time ad serving servers. The scope of the project is to install a server environment on CANARIE DAIR's cloud duplicating ADitude Media operational environment. Once the hosted environment is developed and integrated with our existing technology, it will be deployed at 3 customer trial loca ons.
8/8/2014
Maher Awad
$20,000
$20,200
$40,200
Ottawa
Talent Edge
NuPhysics Consulting, Ltd.
Mathematical Formulation and Algorithm Development of Quantum Adsorption into Navier‐
Stokes Flow Equations
Flows of liquids and gases are important in many areas of science and engineering, including evaporation and absorption. Computer simulations of these multiphase Pharmaceutical research flows are required across a range of industries, such as oil and gas exploration, fuel cell development, high‐speed aircraft, pharmaceutical development and delivery, and manufacturing
and water and wastewater treatment. However, multiphase flows are challenging to simulate, and are presently not possible using conventional, commercial computa onal fluid dynamics (CFD) packages.
8/8/2014
Hanif Montazeri
$10,000
$10,000
$20,000
Toronto
Based on 10 years of software development, NuPhysics offers specialized CFD software capable of solving these complex multiphase problems. Our software can perform mul phase simula ons at much higher accuracies than commercial so ware.
Presently, the target sectors for our software are Water Treatment and Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices. To be able to continue to deliver accurate multiphase simulations to these industries, we need to incorporate the latest, most advanced adsorption theories into our software. A highly accurate and complete absorption theory, based on molecular properties of the materials in question, has been developed at the University of Toronto. This TalentEdge grant from OCE will allow us to leverage top talent from the University of Toronto with access to the latest in scientific and engineering technology. The intern that we will hire using this grant will enable us to offer high‐impact multiphase simulations, which will benefit these industries in Ontario, Canada, and around the world. And we plan to develop this game‐
changing software right here in Ontario. 7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 44
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
Talent Edge
Celestica International Inc.
Technology Analysis and Recommendations
The Global Technology and Innovation group has the mandate to analyze, invest, develop and deploy new technology capabilities for Celestica and our customers. Advanced manufacturing
The Technology Radar project is designed to assess emerging technologies for senior executives, so they can make informed technology investments for profitable and sustainable growth. The project will evaluate emerging technologies in the market against technologies developed by our R&D group to make recommendations on how to best leverage the developments and allocate investments.
8/8/2014
Wilson Wong
$20,000
$26,000
$46,000
Toronto
Talent Edge
Interaxon Inc.
Testing surface impedance of conductive rubber sensors on Muse EEG headset
InteraXon is an early stage BCI company developing a proprietary EEG headset for cognitive training applications on mobile platforms for consumers. This project seeks to address specific challenges the hardware team has had addressing carbon impregnated rubber sensors built into the ear loop system of our EEG headset. We plan to apply experimentation with new materials, sensor design and manufacturing techniques to eliminate issues of signal strength within these sensory apparatuses. 8/8/2014
Lou Pino
$10,000
$11,699
$21,699
Toronto
Talent Edge
York University
Communications and Enterprise BU Strategic Planning
Conduct research into markets, accounts and competitors using both internal and external sources of information in support of the ongoing development and Advanced manufacturing
refinement of market based strategies for the Communications and Enterprise Business Unit (BU) within Celestica, and for different groups within the BU. Expectations will include the identification and clear written communication of market trends, competitive dynamics and potential areas of opportunity. The role will serve as a training environment into a real world strategic planning process along with its underlying elements.
8/8/2014
Luke Russell
$10,000
$13,000
$23,000
Toronto
Talent Edge
Software Developer for Part Status Project
The student will participate in all aspects of design, development, and testing of a new web based tool in support of our supply chain operations. They will work closely with our technical and business owners responsible for the design and utilization of the new tool to identify part status.
8/8/2014
Susan Li
$10,000
$13,100
$23,100
Toronto
Talent Edge
North Line Canada
Durham College
North Line Canada
North Line Canada Ltd,. for over 2 decades, has been a leading supplier across Canada of unique world class technologies. We have evolved from simple distribution as a supplier, consultant, and OEM of intelligent traffic detec on hardware and systems.
Our clients predominantly include the roads and highway departments of Cities, Towns, Municipalities, Regional Governments and Ministries across Canada. Their equipment is essential for gathering road and highway statistics used for planning and maintenance. Much of the new technologies provided by North Line is used for intersection detection and control and safe pedestrian crossing corridors.
8/8/2014
Bernard Timothy
$20,000
$29,995
$49,995
Huntsville
Talent Edge
Go Kin Packs
Lakehead University
Electro‐Mechanical Development of Energy Harvesting Device
Go Kin Packs is a company that is designing and manufacturing a human body powered device that uses the motion of walking to charge personal electronics (eg. cell Digital media and phone). As your feet move, two cords attached to your shoes excite a generator held in place at your waist, creating the voltage for charging. The product is placed in information & a backpack and targets the outdoor enthusiast market. In places where there is no access to an electrical grid, the Go Kin is an energy source more reliable than solar communication or wind.
technologies
The product is near commercialization, however, engineering expertise is required to bring it to market. Therefore, the intern will complete ‘Phase 2’ of product development, which includes:
8/8/2014
Bill Ostrom
$20,000
$28,315
$48,315
Thunder Bay
8/8/2014
Eugene Cherny
$10,000
$10,000
$20,000
Toronto
8/8/2014
Wilson Ma
$20,000
$20,000
$40,000
Markham
8/8/2014
Syed Mir
$10,000
$11,000
$21,000
London
‐Developing an appropriate tes ng pla orm
‐Improving its manufacturability
‐Op mizing the power generated from the device
‐Obtaining industry cer fica ons.
Upon successful completion, the intern will have used his skillset to increase product quality, speed the time to market, and develop methods that improve future product development.
Advanced health Today patient transportation industry is facing a problem ‐ transportation and lifting of the patients using the stretchers is requiring big physical effort.The vast majority of occupational injuries to healthcare workers and personal care attendants are related to back strain suffered while transitioning patients to and from bed, technologies
toilet, etc. The automated stretcher gives patients virtual independence in their movements within nursing home, hospital or private residence. Our patented Method of motion enables to develop the power stretcher with features that will solve this problem.We plan to produce a full line of stretcher models with specialized features. Each would replace the use of several conventional assistive devices. As with all Argonault products, adaptability to multiple functions will ensure the automated stretcher’s competitive edge in all areas of the market. Talent Edge
Argonault International Inc
Argonault Power Strecher prototype
Talent Edge
ASCO Numatics (div. of Emerson Canada)
McMaster University
Supporting Business Development Growth Through ASCO Numatics is a division of Emerson Electric Canada Limited. Numatics primarily supplies fluid automation solutions (automatic switches, solenoid valves, etc.) to Advanced manufacturing
Streamlining Internal Processes, Performance support a variety of Canadian sectors including advanced manufacturing, metals and mining, research (ex: life sciences), and power genera on among others.
Metrics, and Marketing a new line of Cylinders
The Business Development Team at Numatics requires a new graduate with a business background to support analytic and customer facing activities including streamlining of internal processes, segmenting and profiling existing customers, and exploring key market verticals. The individual will work closely with sales, operations, finance, and management to develop an overarching strategy and tactical plan to grow ASCO Numatics.
Talent Edge
London Hydro
Smart Metering Innovation Workbench
Historically metrology was the main function of meter testing, now with electronics and software upgrades, communications testing is also required. Need a way to provide energy, demand and cost information to large commercial and industrial customers. Need to ensure Smart Meter communications functions are working correctly.
Talent Edge
DreamQii Inc.;N/A
Ryerson University
DreamQii Communications Device
DreamQii Inc. is developing a hardware component that allows our clients to communicate with and control one or many robotic devices from a mobile computing Digital media and device. This device allows our clients to control these devices at distance ranging up to 10 miles from the operator. Current mobile electronic devices (cell‐phone, information & tablet, etc.) use Bluetooth and wireless networks for communicating wirelessly with other devices, but both of these have range limits which are a barrier to sending communication and receiving data with robotic equipment that are physically beyond the operating range of these wireless protocols. The project which DreamQii plans to undertake technologies
will conduct the testing and development of communication equipment which will allow mobile devices to establish wireless connection with a robotic platform without the need for physical modifica on to exis ng mobile products.
8/8/2014
Klever Freire
$10,000
$10,000
$20,000
Toronto
Talent Edge
Yunite Inc.
University of Western Internships for Yunite Inc
Ontario; University of Guelph; Fanshawe College of Applied Arts and Technology
Through the Ontario Centres of Excellence TalentEdge Internship Program, Yunite Inc., a cloud‐based platform for organizations and associations, is able to hire 5 new Digital media and employees for their growing team. Yunite's platform provides organizations and associations with operational infrastructure so they can manage, coordinate and information & engage their members.
8/8/2014
Luke Swanek
$50,000
$50,000
$100,000
Gravenhurst
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 45
Program
Talent Edge
Partners
Watrhub
McGill University
Project Title
WatrHub Data Insights & Analytics
Project Summary
The research project will enabled the collection and analysis of water‐related information from fragmented datasets of water‐related data across North America in order to create insights and visualiza ons that can drive decisions and innova on to manage your water resources.
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
8/8/2014
Sunit Mohindroo
$10,000
$10,000
$20,000
toronto
WatrHub's goal is to liberate all that data and make it available to innovators that are solving our most pressing Water challenges. While many industry veterans believe that the risk‐averse nature of the Water Industry is stalling innovation in Water, we believe that the real issue is access to information. Data actually reduces the risk of failure. With enough data, we can start analyzing trends and predic ng failures in our Water Infrastructure. Talent Edge
Ecopia
Developing a proprietary GIS work‐flow
Millions of geospatial images are collected by satellites, airplanes, and vehicles every day. With large amounts of data becoming available at an increasing rate, efficient retrieval and organization of useful information from this data has become a large issue. As a result, much of this information is not accessible to those who need it most. Ecopia Tech creates intelligent systems that vastly improve the process of analyzing geospatial imagery through the employment of computer vision techniques. Through this proposal, Ecopia seeks to hire an intern to develop a standardized project work‐flow using Ecopia’s proprietary so ware tools.
8/8/2014
Jon Lipinski
$10,000
$10,000
$20,000
Waterloo
Talent Edge
Knowledge4You
Knowledge4you Intern
The objective of this research project is to develop, using theory and evidence relevant to the concept of ‘customer engagement’ (CE), Engage—a pragmatic customer engagement instrument.
Engage will provide organizations with utilizable information: the ways in which their customers are engaged, the magnitude of their customers’ engagement across different metrics, their customers’ a tude towards their engagement, and what ideal engagement would look like, as envisioned by their customers.
8/8/2014
Radu Vestamean
$10,000
$10,241
$20,241
Markham
8/8/2014
Wilson Ma
$20,000
$20,000
$40,000
Markham
Engage will ideally have numerous applications. Quantitative CE measures are useful in giving an overall picture, and might be used as to estimate repurchase rates and customer reten on rates; qualita ve CE measures can provide insight into what an organiza on’s R&D priori es should be.
Talent Edge
Emerson Climate Technologies div. of University of Waterloo
Emerson Canada
Streamlining Internal IT Sharepoint, and Transitioning Emerson Climate Technologies is a division of Emerson Electric Canada Limited.
Emerson Climate Technologies' to a new Business Emerson is on the path towards modernizing its Internal Communication Technology and Business Systems. This project contains two components: the first part System
involves methodically designing, developing, and customizing all elements of the IT Share Point system for all cross functional departments; the second requires the new grad to scope all of the internal needs to transition to a new Management Information System (will include helping with the migration of all aspects of the business from pricing, management reporting, and inventory management, etc. to a new platform); this will help build capacity, flexibility, and enable high quality data to be used for decision making.
Talent Edge
Emerson Canada
Emerson Climate Technologies ‐ Marketing Internship Launch
Emerson Climate Technologies is the leading manufacturer of HVAC components in the world, delivering comprehensive solutions for temperature‐critical applications Digital media and across numerous industrial and residential applications. We combine technically superior products from our industry‐leading divisions—such as the Copeland ScrollTM information & compressor, White‐Rodgers thermostats, and Flow Controls filter driers—along with our engineering, design, distribution, installation and monitoring capabilities, for communication technologies
unquestionably reliable climate systems. These industry‐defining, proprietary technologies of Emerson Climate Technologies provide our customers with the competitive advantage of the most advanced, environmentally friendly climate control systems available. Our summer intern will be working on 3 core projects to ensure WR Canada’s sustained growth in FY15. The 3 core projects are: Amazon.ca, Technical School and Training Program and Marketing projects including but not limited to Contractor and sales channel database creation, SRT and IAQ programs.
8/8/2014
Sonia Kabir
$10,000
$10,025
$20,025
Markham
Talent Edge
International Data Corporation
Ryerson University
3D Printing in Canada
The goal of this project is to provide IDC Canada’s subscribers with a short series of business case studies that use both primary and secondary data to best assess the Advanced manufacturing
competitive landscapes of the 3D printing market here in Canada. The business cases will provide anecdotal insight gathered from a series of surveys ,questionnaires and interviews. The business cases will explore market opportunities from both the end user perspective and from the dealer/channels point of view.
8/8/2014
Linying Dong
$10,000
$10,000
$20,000
Toronto
Talent Edge
MsFilter
Carleton University
Multistage Filtration Remote Community Pilot
Biofiltration is a sustainable methodology for water treatment as it improves the quality of the water while utilizing less chemicals for water treatment. However, Bio‐economy and clean more research is required with respect to treatment of low temperature waters with biofiltration. Ozonation and other advanced oxidation processes can assist technologies
biofiltration by helping to breakdown organic molecules into more readily biodegradable forms. This project will conduct on‐site pilot testing of ozonation, and other potential advanced oxidation processes, during the fall months as temperatures start to decline in water sources to develop recommendations on appropriate operating conditions and to better develop an understanding of biofiltration during seasonal water quality changes. 8/8/2014
onita basu
$10,000
$13,400
$23,400
Ottawa
Talent Edge
Bombardier Aerospace
Ryerson University
Bombardier Aerospace Internships
Bombardier Aerospace is collaborating with the Aerospace Engineering Program at Ryerson University to carry out 3 collaborative projects. These projects addresses Advanced manufacturing
specific research challenges in the areas of aircraft performance and operations. Successful completion of these 4‐month projects will enhance our aircraft performance and operation.
8/8/2014
Fengfeng Xi
$30,000
$30,000
$60,000
Toronto
Talent Edge
International Data Corporation (Canada) Ltd.
Ryerson University
IDC Canada Research Projects
IDC Canada is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. IDC Canada is part of a network of over 1000 analysts providing global, regional, and local expertise on technology, industry opportunities and trends with more analysts dedicated to understanding the Canadian market than any other global research firm.
8/8/2014
Ron Babin
$20,000
$25,000
$45,000
Toronto
8/18/2014
Jeffrey Kemp
$40,000
$40,000
$80,000
London
Two projects are iden fied where two MBA interns will be working with IDC Canada:
Project 1 ‐ Prac cal and innova ve uses of Big Data and the Internet of Things
IDC estimates that there are 4.4 trillion gigabytes of data in today's Digital Universe which by the end of this decade will expand to 40 trillion gigabytes, or 5,200 gigabytes for every man, woman, and child in this world. This project will look at the practical and innovative uses of Big Data and the Internet of Things (IoT, which includes embedded and connected sensors in machines and other physical objects). The project goal is to develop a quantitative model to assess the impact the ROI of Big Data and IoT ini a ves.
Project 2 ‐ Assessing the impact of offshore outsourcing on Canada
IDC Canada wants to understand and quantify the impact of increasing use of IT services offshoring on the Canadian economy. The project will encompass developing a quantitative model to assess the impact of offshoring on Canadian productivity and employment in addition to factors such as innovation and the long‐term sustainability of the IT resource market. IDC's Canadian database of economic, revenue and survey data, as well as IDC's worldwide sources of data including global reports and outsourcing contract data will be used as part of this project.
Talent Edge
7/10/2015
Digital Engagement Xperience
DEX Data, Rules, Mobile & Automation Expansion
Helping Organizations, Businesses and People connect and drive value through cloud‐based digital engagement platforms.
Section 1 ‐ 46
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
Talent Edge
CrossChasm Technologies Inc.
FleetCarma Real World Effects
CrossChasm Technologies consists of three divisions, all of which offer advanced vehicle services. The consulting division offers energy simulation and rapid control Bio‐economy and clean systems design to help small‐to‐mid‐sized OEMs generate industry‐leading hybrid, electric and plug‐in vehicles, on‐time and on‐budget. The FleetCarma division offers technologies
its fleet customers the ability to assess and predict fuel consumption, electrical consumption, and drivable range pre‐purchase for a wide selection of vehicle‐types, including internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug‐in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and battery electric vehicles (BEVs). With this data in hand, fleet managers often see how adding PHEV or BEV vehicles to their fleets can save them money while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The predictions are determined using sophisticated vehicle models based on real‐world driving data, tested under temperate conditions without the use of heating or air conditioning (HVAC). This project proposes to improve the accuracy of the predictions by accounting for the effects of varying temperatures throughout the year, such as battery performance, engine performance, and HVAC loads. The MyCarma division offers similar pre‐purchase vehicle performance predictions as FleetCarma, but to individuals through car dealerships.
8/18/2014
Jennifer Bauman
$20,000
$28,080
$48,080
Waterloo
Talent Edge
Akindi Inc.
Akindi
Akindi is a web based tool that automates the grading of multiple choice paper assessments using regular paper and any scanner. The product dramatically improves Digital media and the process of distributing, conducting and grading multiple choice assessments for school teachers and higher education instructors.
information & communication technologies
8/18/2014
Mahmoud Hashim
$10,000
$10,000
$20,000
Richmond Hill
Talent Edge
Prism Valuation
Prism Valuation Internship 2
This project partially funds two interns to aid in the further development of an existing library of internally developed mathematical models for pricing derivatives and other financial contracts, and in the integra on of this library into Prism's daily process. Digital media and information & communication technologies
8/18/2014
Keldon Drudge
$20,000
$20,000
$40,000
Toronto
We believe that this development will allow us to substantially improve existing services for our clients and also to offer qualititatively new services, making us more compe ve inthe globlal independent valua on and risk management space.
Talent Edge
Part Time CFO Services Inc.
Trent University
Part Time CFO Services Intern
Part Time CFO Services Inc. works directly with entrepreneurs, owners and management to improve a company's long‐term financial health. By becoming part of the Digital media and organization's team, bringing its diverse experiences and network of resources, the Part Time CFO Services team provides the most customized solutions. Acting as a information & Part Time CFO, we provide methods to reduce costs and iden fy new strategies to improve profitability, at a frac on of the cost of a full me CFO.
The OCE's TalentEdge Intership Program funding will be a key enabler to drive the marketing and sales initiatives as Part Time CFO Services Inc. strives to be the pre‐
eminent financial and business consulting solution for SMEs (small and medium‐sized enterprises) in southeastern and central Ontario. Primary activities include updating both the design and content of the website to better reflect the value proposition, creating a catalogue of quarterly newsletters for future distribution, a crea on of a regional sales database, including data collec on.
8/18/2014
Darryl Goodall
$10,000
$13,146
$23,146 Hamilton Township
Talent Edge
TellSpec
TellSpec Master
You want to know what’s in your food before you buy it and before you eat it – because the quality of your health depends on what you eat. Many foods contain Advanced health ingredients that you want to avoid, such as additives, allergens, refined carbohydrates, and trans fats, but it can be difficult to know whether these are in your food. technologies
How can you tell how many calories are in a serving of home‐cooked food? How can you tell if your food contains the nutrients you need? When available, food labels can give us some informa on, but they are not always intelligible and some ingredients may not even be reported.
TellSpec tells consumers the allergens, chemicals, nutrients, calories, and ingredients in their food before they buy it and before they eat it. TellSpec has three components: (1) a pocket‐sized scanner to capture the spectrum of the food, (2) an algorithm to analyze the data, and (3) an app to report the findings on a smartphone or any compu ng device.
The information consumers receive is personalized for their specific interests and needs. You can even get recommendations of similar but healthier, more nutritious foods. As consumers scan food over time, they will learn about their cumulative intake of individual ingredients, helping them reach their dietary goals. As consumers provide feedback on their responses to foods, this food data can be integrated with other biometric or self‐quantification data, helping them identify their food sensi vi es.
TellSpec’s venture‐backed product is uniquely positioned within a rapidly growing market of individuals and organizations concerned with understanding more about the foods they consume on a daily basis. Millions of consumers worldwide are spending increasing amounts on medications and services targeting food‐related issues such as weight‐loss, diabetes, allergies, and vitamin/mineral supplements. TellSpec’s product taps into this expanding market; with ever‐growing rates of dietary restric ons, preferences, and food intolerances, a tool that can provide informa on on and track food consump on is increasingly important.
TellSpec’s mission is to build a greener world by empowering people to make informed choices about what they eat. TellSpec brings an invaluable tool to consumers; by helping people better understand the foods they consume, TellSpec will spark vital change in the way people eat and the way food is produced. Our goal is to make our food analysis system available to everyone, everywhere, and to encourage others to use our tools to invent more great ways to improve human health and create a greener and healthier world.
8/18/2014
Isabel Hoffmann
$10,000
$16,664
$26,664
Toronto Talent Edge
EcoSpex Inc.
Ryerson University
Quality Assurance Research Project
EcoSpex™ is a powerful online platform for the verification, documentation, and specification of sustainable construction materials that solves a critical procurement Digital media and information & issue in the burgeoning green building industry – how to source the best, leading edge technology that delivers the promised performance. communication The tool was developed in response to user feedback and market research that highlighted among the top barriers to green building materials procurement and technologies
source of frustration to purchasers and specifiers, were the fragmented environmental rating schemes, competing product certifications and proliferation of emerging building products and technologies. These factors made it difficult to source the right product within a rapidly evolving and increasingly complex built environment. Construction industry professionals indicated that time‐intensive research, incomplete product information from disparate sources and scepticism of environmental and technical claims all added to building project costs and risks. 8/18/2014
Julie Scarcella
$10,000
$10,001
$20,001
Clarksburg
8/18/2014
Bryan Smith
$10,000
$24,733
$34,733
Kitchener
At the heart of platform is the Verified Enhanced Listing (VEL) service in which a product’s environmental and technical claims are assessed by EcoSpex’s expert third‐
party verification team and approved prior to listing, bringing much needed credibility to manufacturers. The robust methodology and value‐add verification service sets EcoSpex apart from other online catalogue‐type product listing services. As shown in the VEL components figure, the comprehensive verification process includes seven core components and product information encompasses lifecycle and facility assessments. Enthusiastic feedback from early adopters that include leading architect firms (Perkins+Will, TAES), utility companies (Union Gas), industry associations and manufacturers suggests of a strong pent‐up demand for the tool’s resources.
Talent Edge
7/10/2015
TrendRadius Inc.
TrendRadius
TrendRadius is a customer insight analytics solution that helps companies build profitable products. Companies are now able to prioritize features, evaluate development effects on customer acquisition/retention, and perform analysis using the insights TrendRadius provides. TrendRadius leverages data that already exists in an organization by leveraging integrations with sales, marketing and support systems to obtain customer data and then converts it all into actionable insights for product teams. Ontario Centres of Excellence
Section 1 ‐ 47
Program
Talent Edge
Partners
Gold Line Telemanagement Inc.
Ryerson University
Project Title
Social Media Data Analysis
Project Summary
Group of Gold Line is leading company in the field of providing video and voice over IP solutions. It has introduced variety of products during last two decades. It was started in 1991 and currently employs more than 250 employees in its main office in Richmond Hill, Ontario (please see http://www.groupofgoldline.com/profile.aspx for more details). Some of its telecommunication products include long distance telephone cards (distributed to over 100,000 points of sale across the globe), video and voice over IP and e‐learning products. Gold Line Telemanagement Inc. is the sales and marketing department of Group of Gold Line that analyses various data and provides marke ng and adver sements plans for the company.
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
8/18/2014
Abdolreza Abhari
$10,000
$10,000
$20,000
Toronto
In this internship program a collaborated project is defined to analyze the data from social networking websites for the purpose of enhancing marketing and advertisement of Gold Line products. In the first two months of this project related data that users have entered in the social media web sites such as Facebook and Twitter about Gold Line products will be collected. Then in the next two months sentimental analysis for enhancing marketing and advertising plans will be performed on this data. The outcome of the project will be seen in the differences of the Gold Line name and products in comparison to its competitors. This project will help Gold Line Inc. to enhance their adver ng plans based on the social networks data analysis performed for different geographical loca ons of their clients. Talent Edge
uFluidix
Queen's University; University of Toronto
uFluidx ‐ Intern
uFluidix is a private company that uses proprietary technology for the manufacturing of a new type of devices called Lab on a chip. Lab on a chip are primarily used in Advanced health technologies
life sciences field such as diagnostics. Current clients are top international companies such as Intel Corp, or Johnson and Johnson. During this project uFluidix is developing a portable system for the instant diagnosis of infectious diseases. 8/14/2014
Aarash Sofla
$80,000
$80,000
$160,000
Toronto
Talent Edge
BitAccess Inc.
Carleton University; University of Ottawa
Digital Currency Kiosk
BitAccess Inc is a world leading manufacturer of Digital Currency Kiosks based in Ottawa, Ontario, that dispenses Bitcoins. Bitcoin is a new and innovative form of Digital media and digital payment that is being adopted globally. Bitcoins can be transacted globally, and instantly, without fees. There are already a number of global retailers accepting information & Bitcoins online for purchases, such as Expedia, or Overstock.com. A number of people have started purchasing the Bitcoins through these kiosks to allow them to communication technologies
purchase digital items on this new payment network, as well as to transfer funds to friends and family. 9/5/2014
Moe Adham
$30,000
$30,000
$60,000
Ottawa
The challenges that the current technology poses and for which BitAccess plans to hire 3 interns is in the areas of security, interface design and marketing/customer rela ons.
We expect to leverage the talent of the interns that we have selected for this project from top Canadian Universities allowing BitAccess Inc. to scale its business globally. Key areas of research will be Security, Interface Design and Customer relations. Current customers are located in 10 countries worldwide, and range from individual business owners, to mul na onal cash management businesses so it is becoming cri cal for our business to provide the products and services worldwide.
Talent Edge
Robin Hood Technology Inc.
University of Manitoba
INSIGHTS Application
Founded in 2006, Robin Hood Technology is located in Milton, Ontario, Canada and works with clients all throughout North America. Robin Hood Hood Technology is a Digital media and software and technical consulting company that provides marketing automation and project management software for ad, marketing and creative agencies. Our information & newly acquired intern will be working to further develop the analytics portion of our PIVOTSTACK software. PIVOTSTACK is a marketing automation tool for ad, communication marketing and creative agencies to execute marketing for its clients. We are developing an analytics system that will be able to give topical analysis data combine technologies
with visitor data, to give a true, real‐time picture of the type of interests of visitors across all online properties. The system will also allow for tracking of individualized data of each visitor across multiple properties and devices. 9/5/2014
Michael Koehler
$10,000
$10,000
$20,000
Milton
Talent Edge
Energent
Migration of existing data API to secured RESTful web services layer
Energent is a Waterloo‐based Energy Informatics company, providing state of the art software and service solutions for energy management. The company serves a Bio‐economy and clean diverse set of clients in multiple sectors, including industrial, commercial, institutional and retail. The company also works closely with utilities as they create programs technologies
for Conservation and Demand Management. The emergence of the "Smart Grid" has created additional opportunities for the application of Energent's mathematical techniques, including the Province of Ontario's Green Button pilot program. The desired candidate Michael Dougall brings the skills and experience Energent requires as it undertakes a program to migrate its core technologies forward, and provide some enhanced user views and reporting capabilities. The project is estimated to be of 8 months duration ( two consecutive 4 month internship units) , with the second 4 month phase contingent on competitive landscape and market demands. The benefits to Energent resulting from this effort are a more compelling and competitive product in the marketplace, and a platform that is better suited for the addition of future enhancements and derivative products.
9/5/2014
Chris Reid
$20,000
$20,002
$40,002
Waterloo
Talent Edge
Advance Property eXposure Canada Inc.
Memorial University
Building Tactical Information System ‐ Application development
The Emergency Facility Management for Intelligent Building Response is a collaboration project for a Public Safety Software Solution which integrates technology and Digital media and information & National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) standards to realize the vision of making real‐time building information accessible to emergency first communication responders that will save lives and enable safer, more efficient emergency response.
technologies
The main objective of this project is to develop a mission critical software solution that will deliver real‐time building information via a 9‐1‐1 dispatch centric interface to emergency first responders through wireless networks while they are on‐route significantly reducing incident reaction times. The solution development is based on industry standards in order to permit interoperability with other Public Service Access Point (PSAP) and Computer Added Dispatch (CAD) technologies in existing 9‐1‐1 centers. The project requires software engineering resources to further develop the web based interface, RESTFul API, databases, Content Management System and Wireless Gateway. The solution will also log/report information transactions of information such as sent, received, read and removed. This further development will assist to the company to commercialize this innovative technology. 9/5/2014
Paul Martin
$20,000
$46,125
$66,125
Ottawa
Talent Edge
Greyter Water Systems, CTO;Greyter University of Toronto
Water Systems, CEO;Cut Membrane Technology
Pilot Study of a Novel Ultrafiltration System for Greywater Treatment
Bio‐economy and clean There is a large and expanding worldwide market for greywater treatment towards long‐term plans of combating global water crisis. This project will study and develop the use of a novel ultrafiltration system as a robust, maintenance‐free and energy‐efficient technology to treat domestic greywater to high water quality for technologies
the reuse in plant irrigation and toilet flushing within the buildings. The results of this project will enable Greyter to offer membrane‐based technology that meets the stringent water quality demand of its current/poten al customers locally and interna onally. 9/5/2014
Mark Sales
$10,000
$10,000
$20,000
Mississauga
9/5/2014
Rhonda Lavigne
$20,000
$30,000
$50,000
toronto
Sara Sadreddini, M.ASc., is selected as the potential technical intern to lead the technical aspects of this R&D project for Greyter. The engineering feasibility milestones of this project is expected to be reached by four months of pilot testing, data analysis, and engineering design. The future direction of this project will be towards building the treatment prototype package, validation, and finally launching in the market. The dependent variables of this project are the final effluent water quality and the type of the ultrafiltration, mainly pore size, chemistry, and module configuration. The independent variables to be monitored include flow rate and hydraulic characteris cs such as headloss.
Talent Edge
Dynaplas
Durham College
Robot Cycle time Optimization, Part Disriminatio system, Contaminant Mitigation system
An industry leader and manufacturer of high‐precision injection moulded, plastic components. The Company designs, engineers, and manufactures technologically advanced vehicle components sold to global automo ve suppliers.
Dynaplas Ltd. is a vertically integrated manufacturer for both automotive as well as non‐automotive injection molded components and assemblies manufactured for global export.
Tooling is designed, machined, and maintained in‐house, as well as precision plastic components injection molded on site, along with custom manufactured automatic assembly machinery.
The three projects supported by this Talent Edge proposal will continue to keep Dynaplas at the forefront of precision injection molded components and assemblies, con nuing to allow Dynaplas to not only compete in a global marketplace, but also grow our exports.
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 48
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
Talent Edge
tBOT
Durham College
tBOT ‐ Team Funding
For on‐the‐go urbanites, tBOT is a fast and convenient automated kiosk that creates a customized cup of loose‐leaf tea right before your eyes. The OCE grant will help Advanced manufacturing
support the prototype launch and fund future Research and Development work including manufacturing costs and salaries for our engineering and design teams.
9/5/2014
Brian Lee
$30,000
$30,000
$60,000
North York
Talent Edge
Blacktree Fitness Technologies Inc.
Intern at Airo Health
Airo Health helps you live better. We are building a bracelet that automatically tracks your diet, exercise, stress, and sleep. All of it through a wrist‐worn sensor that Advanced health beams data to your smartphone, which keeps track of your health for you. Diverse as humans are, the bracelet performs better when calibrated to the various body technologies
types. Our intern will be working on the team solving this calibration problem, which involves using his knowledge of computer science and integrating it with human biology to derive a suitable solution.
9/5/2014
Naman Kumar
$10,000
$10,000
$20,000
Kitchener
Talent Edge
Powersmiths
Optimization & Automation of Transformer Field Measurement Data Collection
Bio‐economy and clean This project involves deploying a new Current Transformer error characterization technique to field technicians who are measuring transformer losses under live operating conditions with the goal to reduce the measurement error especially under low load conditions, then optimizing the process of collecting and validating the technologies
data collected. 9/5/2014
Philip Ling
$20,000
$23,200
$43,200
Brampton
Talent Edge
London Hydro
Home Area Network (HAN) / Behind The Meter Services
One of London Hydro’s strategic directions is to leverage its investment in Smart meters and AMI services to develop and deliver new services to its customers. One Bio‐economy and clean area of particular importance and value to London Hydro is that of what is typically referred to as “Behind the meter”. Having the ability to extend data acquisition technologies
through unobtrusive wireless technology will be essen al to developing these new services that allow the customer to shi load and reduce their overall bill. It is believed that major electricity generation and infrastructure costs can be abated if peak load demand can be reduced through a Demand Response program that includes effortless customer load shi ing.
The goal of a successful residential Demand Response (DR) program is to temporarily shed or displace electricity load to ease constrained generation, transmission or distribu on resources.
Emerging residential Home Area Network (HAN) communication and control technologies are being evaluated in conjunction with the Smart Meter and Green Button initiatives of the MOE with a view to remotely controlling or influencing consumer load demands such as air conditioning on the electrical system during periods of peak usage. 9/5/2014
Luke Seewald
$10,000
$11,000
$21,000
London
Talent Edge
Proximify Inc
Knowledge GIS for UNIWeb software
Proximify's main product, Uniweb, is a research information system that replaces existing ad‐hoc software developed in‐house by universities and research centres. Uniweb has two main components: a CV manager and a research network. The CV manager provides an efficient way to apply for research funding, and offers powerful import and export options. The research network is a real time map of how researchers and graduate students are connected based on their current research interests. In this network, people don't choose their connections. Instead, they enter their research interests in a public profile and the system takes care of helping individuals within the ins tu on iden fy poten al collaborators and advisors.
10/15/2014
Diego Macrini
$20,000
$20,000
$40,000
Ottawa
10/15/2014
Arian Rahbari
$10,000
$10,575
$20,575
Toronto
$200,000
$200,000
$400,000
Waterloo
$10,000
$15,000
$25,000
North York
There is currently no other company offering academic CV management software that is compatible with the new Canadian Common CV (CCV) used by Government granting agencies. Canadian universities find that Uniweb is not only a way of modernizing their annual evaluation processes, but also a tool to better connect their researchers among themselves, to industry partners, and to current and prospective graduate students. The emerging market of research information systems is redefining how research information is managed and shared across a large ecosystem of institutions, funders and partners. Proximify is at the centre of a major paradigm shi that is establishing new methods and processes of research informa on management that will be in use for the next decades.
While UNIWeb is mature and has successfully penetrated the market, we now face the challenge of being able to innovate in order to strengthen our position and open new markets. This project will result in the addition of a valuable and promising new feature demanded by our customers: a way for visualizing the geographical distribution of talent and expertise within an institution or organization. This feature will allow the members of an organizations to share resources and geolocate the organization's expertise, and will visually cluster the organization's members by combining information about their specific knowledge associated to a geographical region. This organizational knowledge will lead to better use of existing knowledge‐based resources and more collaborations within the organization. This is particularly important for universities, that have researchers working around the world who specialized knowledge on very specific regions of the planet, which they can share with their colleagues and industry partners.
Talent Edge
Singspiel Inc.
SingSpiel ‐ Talent Edge
Singspiel Inc. is an education technology company based out of MaRS Discovery District in Toronto. It is like a virtual music teacher that provides you realtime feedback on how you play. Singspiel is the music learning equivalent for what Duolingo is for language learning. Using our product, Students can self‐sufficiently develop their performance, aural and theory skills in music.
Singspiel proprietary solution offers a unique comprehensive package for an individual who wants to learn music. Users can assess their practice sessions and at each step along the way, Singspiel measures their errors and analyze the performance data. It can aggregate that data, learn from the pattern it sees and offer appropriate lessons plans. Using Singspiel you can: 1. purchase your favourite song (sheet music) 2. play through it using your own real instrument 3. our algorithms listen to your performance in real me by u lizing the built in microphone 4. Singspiel provides feedback based on your prac ce and guide you to the right exercises. 5. Through the gamified experiences, you will have real‐time score follower on the sheet music, get real‐time error detection, rhythm feedback, and automatic page turner.
Singspiel is VC backed company that has received more than $300,000 in investment funding from private sources. Singspiel's flagship product was launched in May 2014 and is currently being used by global educational institutions (e.g. El Sistema) ‐ http://www.sistema‐
toronto.ca/uploads/Media_Release_Sistema_Toronto_May_12_Singspiel.pdf.
Talent Edge
C‐Com Satellite Systems
Digital media and Low‐cost Low‐Profile Smart Antenna Technology for The proposed research is aimed at commercializa on of low‐cost low‐profile 2‐way land‐mobile satellite terminal for Ka‐band car‐to‐satellite
communication on‐the‐move (SOTM). During this research project a proof‐of‐concept prototype featuring all main aspects and characteristics of the aforementioned information & SatCom On‐The‐Move
technology will be developed and used to confirm the proposed concepts.
9/18/2014
Safieddin Safavi‐
Naeini
Talent Edge
NeuronicWorks Inc.
Ryerson University
Neuronic Works Intern 1
10/22/2014
Titu Botos
7/10/2015
The intern for NeuronicWorks would perform Firmware Development for controller board. NeuronicWorks (www.neuronicworks.com) specializes in complete custom electronic design for today’s technical challenges and tomorrow’s market reality. The company has been incorporated in Ontario, and is located in Toronto. The company specializes in hardware and software design, embedded system design, VHDL, RF, sensors and control of complex distributed systems. The intern for NeuronicWorks has expertise in hardware design and firmware development, and would perform Firmware Development of controller board for circulation pumps used in boiler applica ons.
Section 1 ‐ 49
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
Talent Edge
The Impact Group
Research Money Inc ‐ Intern Project
RE$EARCH MONEY, Canada's leading newsletter on Canadian science, technology and innovation policy and investment, is developing an international online edition Digital media and that will highlight people, research, companies educational institutions and projects, focusing on opportunities for international collaboration. The international information & version will be distributed to all Canadian trade commissions around the world and redistributed to relevant stakeholders in each country and region.
10/22/2014
Jeffrey Crelinsten
$10,000
$10,000
$20,000
Toronto
Talent Edge
Clearpath Robotics
University of Alberta
Software Infrastructure Development for Modular Operating System for Unmanned Vehicles
The project objective is to develop an autonomous vehicle operating system which can guide vehicles traveling at road speeds while carrying high loads on steep offroad grades, localize and dock with better‐than‐human accuracy, recognize items of interest to prevent themselves from getting lost, classify and track pedestrians, vehicles, and other moving objects, support remote updating of key software modules, support multi‐agent operations, provide remote diagnosis functionality from across a continent, and be operable by users with no robotics experience. We are developing an operating system applicable to any vehicle which operates on land or sea, whether the vehicle is operating indoors or outdoors, in urban terrain or in rugged off‐road situations, and at scales ranging from small person‐portable ground vehicles to mining vehicles weighing hundreds of tons. Most importantly, it is designed to be applicable very quickly with limited tuning required, significantly reducing the barriers to its use in new applications.
10/22/2014
Ryan Gariepy
$20,000
$44,134
$64,134
Kitchener
Talent Edge
German Energy Alternatives Inc.
Internship
Wind exerts different types of loads on the solar panel array mounted on roofs (Sliding, upli and overturning forces) where these effects are the maximum. Bio‐economy and clean Determining the magnitude of these loads depends on the climate, geometric (or aerodynamic) parameters of the solar panel system (slope, spacing, height, size, etc. technologies
of the solar array), the geometry of the building and the roof on which they will be installed, and the surrounding terrain conditions. Despite these facts, the wind load can also be controlled/reduced through aerodynamic mitigation. This is due to their dependence on geometric parameters that can be controlled by the designer, such as changing the corner details or adding perforations on the solar panel system. This creates unique opportunities to reduce or control the wind loads. However, aerodynamic mitigation potentials for solar panels are not systematically explored. In fact, solar panels have the worst aerodynamic shape characterized by sharp corners initiating flow separations that produces large drag or uplift. In practice, the wind load on these rooftop structures is considered to be one of the design controlling parameters. 7/21/2014
Girma Bitsuamlak
$20,000
$20,000
$40,000
London
$220,000
$220,000
$440,000
Waterloo
German Energy Alternatives Inc., based in London, Ontario is interested in determining methods and cost‐effective designs to mitigate the wind loads on roof‐
mounted solar panels in order to reduce the amount of ballast weight required to hold them in place, without significantly altering thermal/flow conditions which would decrease the efficiency. This will open the market to alternative energy retrofits of existing low rise commercial buildings that are not designed to accommodate the current high ballast load, as well as reduce the cost of installation on new constructions.
Talent Edge
Alcohol Countermeasure Systems Corp. (ACS)
Internship
Drinking and driving continues to be one of Ontario’s most significant road safety issues. During the past decade, more than 2,000 lives have been lost and more than Advanced health 50,000 people have sustained injuries in collisions involving a drunk driver. Increasing alcohol consumption coupled with the rise in the number of road accidents technologies
caused by drunk drivers has boosted the demand for breath testing devices. Breathalyzers are the instruments used for estimating blood alcohol content concentration (BrAC) levels from human breath. These devices are also gaining importance owing to a rise in demand for effective detection of BrAC levels at work places. The global breathalyzer market was valued at USD $402.1 million in 2012 and is estimated to reach a market worth USD $4.5 billion in 2019 at a compound annual growth rate of 41.3% from 2013 to 2019 [9]. Clearly market growth comes in large part from the development of a new market for breathalyzers as healthcare diagnos c tools, along with the demand for commercially viable and compe ve alterna ve technologies.
Fuel cell based breathalyzers or alcohol fuel cell sensors (AFCSs) respond differently to human breath samples than other types of alcohol sensor systems typically used in portable breathalyzers. The unique AFCS response is attributed to differences in fuel cell construction, which makes it a promising candidate as compared to other types of alcohol detectors such as semiconductors and spectrophotometers. The heart of AFCSs is a membrane electrode assembly (MEA), which consists of a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) and catalyst layers (CLs). In order to acquire more efficient and cost‐effective AFCSs with higher longevity, technical barriers must be overcome, including high cost, insufficient performance, and durability challenges.
This project provides significant technological advancements to the current state of AFCS component materials. With an industrial partnership with Alcohol Countermeasure Systems Corp. (ACS), these material components can be modified based on Dr. Zhongwei Chen’s patented nano‐engineered catalyst technologies and management systems and can then be taken from the nanotechnology engineering design and development stage to application and commercialization in large scale AFCS system modules. The positive impact to the technological capabilities and marketability of products produced by University of Waterloo and ACS will be immense. Moreover, the economic, environmental and social benefits of successful AFCSs render the results of this project very attractive to Ontario breathalyzer industry, residents and government agencies.
9/18/2014
Zhongwei Chen
Talent Edge
Internship
9/18/2014
Datong Song
$40,000
$40,000
$80,000
Toronto
Talent Edge
Landau Gage Inc.
Internship
Automakers are increasing their demand for transmission parts and will continue to do so as vehicle sales rise. Additionally the standards for consistency and accuracy Advanced manufacturing
are essential. The manufacturing process of these parts is extremely complex and maintaining the dimensional integrity for all parts is critical. Therefore, high speed inspection has been a necessity for today's market. Coordinate Measuring Machines (CMM) are commonly used to measure geometrical characteristics of transmission parts. It takes on average 15 minutes to measure a typical transmission part using a conventional touch trigger probe CMM machine. In this project a contactless laser based CMM machine will be developed to reduce the measurement time to less 2 minutes without compromising the degree of details due to the time constraint.
9/18/2014
Rashid Rashidzadeh
$20,000
$20,000
$40,000
Windsor Talent Edge
MORGAN SOLAR INC.
Internship
Concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) solar electric power technology, under development by MORGAN SOLAR INC. (Toronto, Ontario), has the potential to achieve twice Bio‐economy and clean the efficiency of the conventional fixed flat panel (FFP) technologies being installed today, and to provide more stable daily power generation load curves friendly to technologies
electricity grid managers. CPV technology is more complex than FFP, drawing on advanced optical and compound semiconductor photovoltaics devices which have a stronger spectral dependence than conventional silicon or cadmium telluride. Optimal performance follows if the spectral response of CPV systems is well‐matched to the spectral content of sunlight throughout the lifetime of a CPV field installation. The uOttawa SUNLAB group will provide sophisticated existing capability and innovative new techniques in spectral analysis and modeling of optics, photovoltaics and longitudinal atmospheric conditions, to thoroughly characterize the Morgan Solar technology in two regions, in order to identify technology design improvement opportunities and establish the basis for accurate bankable lifetime financial models.
9/18/2014
Henry Schriemer
$20,000
$20,000
$40,000
Ottawa
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 50
Program
Talent Edge
Partners
PROTO Manufacturing
Project Title
Development of Novel Embedded X‐ray Diffraction Control System
Project Summary
Sector
Proto Manufacturing Ltd. manufactures software‐controlled X‐ray diffraction (XRD) machines. The firm is a world leader in the development, manufacturing, and Advanced manufacturing
utilization of XRD equipment to measure residual stresses. Proto has also obtained a solid share of the Laue XRD market; selling machines that measure single crystal material orientation. In 2014 Proto rolled out its Powder XRD machine which has some superior features to competitive products. Proto's current product offerings include portable iXRD machines that measure residual stresses. Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
11/7/2014
Robert Drake
$20,000
$22,480
$42,480
Oldcastle
Proto Manufacturing is currently developing new portable x‐ray diffraction machines. These new iXRD machines require minimal electronics in order to reduce size and weight of the product. Currently, the iXRD utilizes software to control all moving parts and motors. Software‐controlled systems are expensive, bulky, and inefficient compared to microcontroller‐based systems. Significantly fewer wires and electronics are required by a microcontroller system, increasing the portability of our systems. Hussein Wehbe will design and implement a microcontroller‐based system for our iXRD system. A microcontroller‐based design will reduce manufacturing costs, required computing power, and the required space for our current electronics in our systems. In addition, software‐controlled motors require constant computer‐to‐motor communication, taxing the CPU of any computer running our software. Microcontroller systems do not require this constant computer‐
to‐motor communication. Direct communication of our mechanical parts with a microcontroller eliminates risk of failure by reducing complexity of the design. Talent Edge
COSI
York University
COSI ‐ Charlie Andrews Internship
The Centre for Opera Studies and Appreciation (COSI) provides extraordinary opera performance and production training programs for emerging artists. An OCE intern will ensure the company can overcome its technological and company‐specific problems by researching and developing a marketing plan to optimize outreach, analyze demographics, and measure success, in addition to implementing digital and new media resources to market company programs strategically, as well as developing resources to analyze/collect data and create a Customer Relationship Management database. The intern will allow COSI to increase capacity and produc vity, within the company, while sustaining quality programming.
11/7/2014
Marlene Nyilassy
$10,000
$10,000
$20,000
Toronto
Talent Edge
Tactual Labs Canada;NSERC
Internship
Users have an expectation of responsiveness when they make input to a computer. The slower the device responds, the greater the impact on the user’s performance, and the greater their frustration. Until recently, the developers of interactive computing software, such as applications and operating systems, have worked under an assumption that ever‐increasing processor speeds and decreasing costs will enable fast, responsive computers capable of running increasingly complex code. This is based largely on Moore’s Law, a prediction made in 1965 by the co‐founder of Intel that the number of transistors on a chip will continuously double every two years.
11/13/2014
Daniel Wigdor
$60,000
$60,000
$120,000
Toronto
While this has proved largely to be true, in 2011, a tipping point was reached: for the first time, worldwide sales of smartphones and tablets outpaced more powerful desktop and laptop computers. This new focus on mobile devices has caused two important changes for the developers of interactive computers. First, because these devices conserve power for the sake of mobility, their processing capabilities are set back several generations of Moore’s doubling. Second, because these devices are used for media consumption, they are designed to maximize screen size, which has forced the adoption of input made directly to the screen (commonly called “multi‐
touch”, first developed at the University of Toronto). Multi‐touch input compounds slow responsiveness, because users are able to see a physical separation between an object being manipulated and their finger. Our preliminary work has found that the current high levels of latency reduce user performance by over 25%. This project produces so ware architectures which eliminate the need for faster processors, and which guarantee real‐ me response to all user input.
Talent Edge
Bionik Laboratories
Ottawa Hospital Research Internship
Institute
Advanced health Lower extremity powered exoskeletons are intelligent assistive devices that enable people with spinal cord injuries to walk and interact with their chosen environment in an upright position. These devices are self‐supporting walking frames with powered actuators at the hips, knees, and/or ankles that are controlled in technologies
realtime to create motion and resist limb collapse. A partnership between The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) / University of Ottawa and Bionik Laboratories Inc. will develop and test the new ARKE exoskeleton, a novel Canadian exoskeleton from Bionik Laboratories that should provide a cost effective and highly functional device for people with spinal cord injuries or lower extremity weakness. This exploratory study will evaluate ARKE use within a physical rehabilitation environment to improve physical capacity for people with spinal cord injury (SCI) and then use this informa on to refine ARKE so that it is ready for everyday use.
11/13/2014
Edward Lemaire
$80,000
$80,000
$160,000
Ottawa
Talent Edge
Queen's University
This VIP2 program is centered on the development and application of a new high power illumination system with a key industry partner in Ontario. The new Advanced manufacturing
illumination system leverages an emerging technology that employs economical high efficiency blue laser diode light combined with a new highly robust phosphor material capable of withstanding high laser power. The client company, a leader in its field, continues to invest in new technology especially in illumination which is a key component of its product. By inves ng R&D funds in this project the company will be able to offer the most up to date product in its compe ve market space.
11/13/2014
Vladimir Krstic
$60,000
$60,000
$120,000
Kingston
11/13/2014
James Cotton
$80,000
$80,000
$160,000
Hamilton
Internship
Talent Edge
7/10/2015
Pizza Pizza;Thermal Electronics Corporation
McMaster University
Internship
This project will advance the development of a novel technology for the harvesting and recirculation of exhaust gas energy ‐‐ the Pizza Oven Waste Energy Recovery (POWER) system. Created for natural gas pizza ovens in the short term, this modular device will be easily deployable in the future to a wide range of commercial furnaces or ovens operating on natural gas. This transformative system will capture lost energy and redeploy it as electricity. Benefits include the significant conservation of natural gas by recycling waste energy a reduction in emissions that harm our environment, and lower operating costs achieved through natural gas and electrical consumption savings and energy resiliency in the event of a power outage. This project brings together an iconic Canadian Fast‐Food Giant Pizza Pizza, advanced technology partners, and world‐class university researchers to provide a truly "made‐in‐Canada" innovation that will deliver environmental and cost benefits to restaurants worldwide.
Section 1 ‐ 51
Program
Talent Edge
Partners
Project Title
Internship
Project Summary
The challenge is to study, test, and research the development of a less expensive, easy, and quick method for municipalities to rehabilitate corroding steel girder bridges. Successful laboratory testing on these steel girders recovered from a closed bridge will lead to in‐situ testing of the actual bridge repair technique to be developed and validated based on the laboratory results. With the majority of Ontario’s infrastructure built more than 60 years ago, many of these structures are reaching or already past their intended (design) lifespan. Bridges must be closed or vehicle loads are limited when deficiencies due to corrosion are found. Many municipalities do not have the required funds to replace or rehabilitate these structures and hence, they are sometimes even closed down indefinitely affecting the surrounding communi es.
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
11/13/2014
Sreekanta Das
$20,000
$20,000
$40,000
Windsor
MEDA Limited and the University of Windsor plan to undertake this research and complete these tests using a new composite fibre material for rehabilitation on these damaged steel girder bridges and compare it with current methods of rehabilitation. The current rehabilitation method used by various municipalities is to remove or grind the corroded part of the girder and replace with a new steel piece. This rehabilitation method causes disruption in the traffic flow and keeps the corrosion problem alive. The new fibre material which will be used in this study is 100% recyclable and has proven successful in applications to concrete structures and MEDA and University of Windsor research group, led by Dr. Das, believe that the product can be used in alternate forms to repair steel structures resulting in an easy and cost‐effective repair method. Talent Edge
Ryerson University
Web Visitor Engagement Measurement and Maximization
A very important measure of how well a news website is doing in providing content, as well as how attractive they are to advertisers, is how engaged their visitors are Digital media and with their site. News websites need to maximize visitor engagement, however, they do not currently have an accurate way to measure engagement. Ideally they information & could measure a visitor’s time spent looking at their website, but the web analytics software available in the marketplace all fall short in their ability to do this communication accurately, as they always miss the last page of a visit, and they include time that they should not (for example, when a visitor physically has walked away from their technologies
computer). The Globe and Mail is seeking a machine learning & big data solution to help them accurately measure engagement, and to then optimize for it. They need tools that help them optimize the selection of articles promoted on their section homepages at any given time, as well as their ordering, such that engagement is maximized. 10/22/2014
Pawel Pralat
$35,000
$68,932
$103,932
Toronto
Talent Edge
PROTO Manufacturing
Development of Advanced X‐ray Diffraction Instrumentation
PROTO Manufacturing, based in Oldcastle, Ontario, manufactures and designs X‐ray diffraction systems for residual stress measurement, powder diffraction and Laue Advanced manufacturing
single crystal orientation. As part of an expansion effort by the company, PROTO Manufacturing is currently developing a single crystal X‐ray diffractometer for molecular structure determination. Single crystal X‐ray diffractometers are used world‐wide in research laboratories to determine the structure of molecules and materials. These sophisticated instruments are an essential analytical tool for university laboratories, pharmaceutical companies, and the industrial chemical industry, among others. Currently, single crystal X‐ray diffractometers available in the market have certain weaknesses related to data collection and processing which could be improved. PROTO Manufacturing is in need of assistance to develop a single crystal diffractometer which can improve on those weaknesses. This collaborative proposal will allow for the development of an advanced single crystal X‐ray diffractometer which will improve on those weaknesses and allow PROTO Manufacturing to expand and compete with other interna onal diffrac on companies.
10/22/2014
Steve Loeb
$70,000
$121,840
$191,840
Windsor
Talent Edge
Fellowship
9/18/2014
Datong Song
$70,000
$100,000
$170,000
Toronto
Talent Edge
Coraltec
Fellowship
Sprays and nozzles are used in a wide range of industries with a variety of applications. The applications include coating, cooling, cleaning, painting and fueling. In all Advanced manufacturing
these applications, the spray characteristics impacts the industrial process. The characteristics include the spray droplet size, velocity and mass distribution. Arguably, the spray droplet size is most important as it determines the amount of liquid sprayed as a result improper spray can cause significant damage to the process. Oversizing can produce valuable waste. It can increase the consump on of water and electricity and decrease the quality of the finished product.
9/18/2014
Pierre Sullivan
$35,000
$50,000
$85,000
Toronto
11/7/2014
Ben Liang
$70,000
$100,000
$170,000
Toronto
Currently there are different methods for spray size measurement. The most common methods of non‐intrusive measurement of droplet size are: (1) Optical Particle Counter (imaging) (2) laser diffraction analyzer, and (3) Laser or Phase Doppler Velocimetry. Image processing lacks accuracy; however, it can be used to characterize a variety of liquid sprays and is relatively simple and low cost. Laser based systems, on the other hand, provide a large amount of accurate data in a short time, however, they are very complicated, and their installation and application is very time consuming. Their use requires a lab environment and equipment and tests cannot be performed on site. They are also very expensive devices, therefore, they are mainly used for research purposes and hardly used in the industry as a tool to characterize spray size. The usual protocol is to send the nozzle to a research facility where the required equipment is available for tes ng.
Currently, there are no method of measuring droplet sizes in a simple, inexpensive and rapid fashion. Industrial operators mainly rely on visual tests and do not change a nozzle until it’s visually defective. But it is well‐documented that a nozzle is defective long before it is visually detectable. A solution which addresses this will benefit many industries as well as academia and research centers which do not have access to high‐end testing equipment and facilities. The main object of the project is to improve a spray droplet sizer based on a new and patented concept. The device will be portable, easy to use, accurate, fast and affordable for on‐site and online spray tests. The current project aims to study the measured signal and characterize its behavior to quan fy droplet size and velocity based.
Talent Edge
Ericsson Canada
Advanced Techniques for Interference Management Ericsson is a world leading Telecom company that employs over 100,000 employees world‐wide, over 3,000 in Canada and over 1000 in Ontario. Ericsson is heavily involved in both building mobile network infrastructures and monitoring/analyzing data from these networks that sa sfy the Telecom requirements.
with Network MIMO
Ericsson Ottawa is a global R&D site working on wireless access technologies. Ottawa R&D site has over 30 years of Radio access technology development, and it is a leading developer of LTE, next generation technologies, carrier grade WiFI and heterogeneous small cell and indoor solutions.
Talent Edge
DNAStack Corporation
MedSavant: A clincial platform for the storage, interpretation, and visualization of personal genomes.
Advanced health Advancements in DNA sequencing technologies have economized the reading of individual genomes, creating potential to improve diagnostics and treatment for patients affected by genetic diseases. A significant challenge in realizing this potential, though, is in the translation of enormous genomic datasets into medically technologies
actionable information. DNAstack develops technologies that allow researchers to easily explore these datasets, facilitating discoveries in genetics and informing clinical integration of personal genomics. This proposal aims to further develop DNAstack's offering to provide a robust cloud‐based service that is scalable to support thousands of concurrent users and petabytes of genomic data. It also aims to extend the analytical functionalities of the platform to address challenges in the study of complex disorders like cancer and neurodevelopmental disorders that affect a large number of individuals in Canada and worldwide. 8/8/2014
Marc Fiume
$70,000
$100,000
$170,000
Toronto
Talent Edge
Ericsson Canada Inc
Carleton University
Ericsson TFP
Ericsson is a world leading Telecom company that employs over 100,000 employees world‐wide, over 3,000 in Canada and over 1000 in Ontario. Ericsson is heavily involved in both building mobile network infrastructures and monitoring/analyzing data from these networks that sa sfy the Telecom requirements. Ericsson Ottawa is a global R&D site working on wireless access technologies. Ottawa R&D site has over 30 years of Radio access technology development, and it is a leading developer of LTE, next generation technologies, carrier grade WiFI and heterogeneous small cell and indoor solutions
9/5/2014
John Luszczek
$70,000
$100,000
$170,000
Ottawa
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 52
Program
Talent Edge
Partners
Giatec Scientific Inc.
McGill University
Project Title
Giatec Fellowship
Project Summary
Sector
Giatec iCOR™ is a hand‐held non‐destructive device for predicting the corrosion rate of steel reinforcement in concrete. The device is using a high tech electrical circuit combined with sophisticated numerical modeling techniques to predict the corrosion rate of reinforcement. However, the rate of steel corrosion in concrete is affected by several parameters, such as ambient temperature, degree of moisture, and the exposure condition, which makes it very difficult to accurately measure the corrosion rate of reinforcement in the field. Existing commercial techniques for predicting corrosion rate are often difficult to practice, and time consuming; and the results can be easily affected by ambient and surface condi ons.
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
9/5/2014
Pouria Ghods
$70,000
$100,000
$170,000
Ottawa
9/5/2014
Martin Cloake
$35,000
$52,064
$87,064
Ottawa
9/5/2014
Elisha Medeiros
$35,000
$84,020
$119,020
Toronto
Digital media and information & communication Kaypok provides the next generation of unstructured text analytics solutions for enterprises. The technology analyzes data regardless of source, including public social technologies
media, proprietary internal data, customer surveys, email, blogs etc. We take intelligence gathering and decision making to the next level. Kaypok’s high‐performance algorithm processes the noisy, unstructured information extracting usable knowledge and insights about what people are saying, sentiments and the root information elements driving analy cs.
9/5/2014
Atul Asthana
$70,000
$175,000
$245,000
Markham
The main objective of this proposal is to address practical challenges associated with the field applications of Giatec iCOR™. This includes certain optimization on the inverse modeling algorithm used to predict the corrosion rate of steel reinforcement in concrete in the field. The reliability and repeatability of the device for real use applications will be validated through a systematic test plan in which the corrosion rate measurement results will be compared with actual measurements determi
ned through a proven test procedure.
Machine Telemetry Fellowship
Machine Telemetry produces sensors to track the productivity of a process in real‐time. This data is used by business owners to track productivity helping them Advanced manufacturing
instantly identify areas for improvement. Currently, the technology does not interpret the data for the user; for many users simply seeing the data is enough to help them drive significant improvements. As our customers become more efficient, and we begin to work with customers who already are efficient, we need to be able to offer more specific information about what needs to be done to improve performance. With the large amount of data obtained from the sensors, there is sufficient information available to view trends and begin to characterize productivity behaviour in more detail. The purpose of this project is to begin to analyze the data, identify trends, and build automated tools to uncover trends that would be impossible for a person to discover. Once trends are identified our goal is to integrate a predic ve algorithm into our SaaS pla orm that will help users predict future performance.
Quantify Labs Inc. (dba Street Contxt) McMaster University
Development of a Data Science Framework for Financial Analytics Research
Street Contxt is a Toronto‐based startup that’s reinventing the way information is shared in the institutional financial industry. In order to overcome specific challenges for contextualizing content, and achieving a new communications platform we are seeking support to hire a new Data Scientist to apply new tools in the field of data science, machine learning, applied statistics and computational programing. Kaypok Inc
Text analytics product UX, UI? research and development
Kaypok is a startup company focused on addressing the field of content analytics as applied to social intelligence. There are many companies in the social media monitoring and analy cs space but none of them are focused on the content itself, preferring instead to take the volumetric approach.
Talent Edge
Machine Telemetry Inc.
Talent Edge
Talent Edge
The Kaypok engine has wide applicability in the Enterprise and online Internet business space — we are initially focusing on three specific enterprise customer use scenarios:
Marketing departments — who need to analyze a large amount of unstructured data in real‐time, to understand what people are saying, manage issues, get feedback from campaigns, and explore compe ve strengths & weaknesses.
Customer Service departments — who need to know the top issues and the impact of corrective actions, identifying and arming customer service representatives with solu ons, insights into crea ng new products or policy changes.
Online based businesses — that can benefit from subjective or qualitative feedback information, in addition to the quantitative base information they already have today.
With our focus on unstructured textual content and analy cs, we need to find new and novel ways of visualizing the output as well as defining new processes for users of our solution. This project has attracted the best visual analytics students from OCAD U, who want to contribute in defining and designing user interfaces and interaction (UI and UX) in this space. Inputs from different points of view will provide us a rich set of options to chose from and the interns provide a unique insight as they are not coloured by how such topics have been handled in the past.
Talent Edge
Nuraleve
Clinical training program for neuromodulation service
Nuraleve is a healthcare services provider that specializes in neuromodulation technology for the treatment of chronic pain. The company's present neuromodulation Advanced health technology is called transcranial direct current stimulation, or tDCS. For the launch of our commercialization phase, our company plans to hire a Scientific Liaison post‐ technologies
doctorate fellow (PDF) to build a training program on how to use this technology effectively in a clinical setting. During this time, the PDF will bring tDCS research experience to increase the company's knowledge transfer to present and future clients. The PDF will also gather valuable feedback about the company’s pain management program and issue recommendations for improvement.
9/5/2014
Mathieu Lemay
$70,000
$105,560
$175,560
Ottawa
Talent Edge
Podo Tech Inc.
Parametric Shoe Last Design and Advanced Manufacturing Methods
Podo Tech’s primary business pertains to technology for the various footwear related markets. In the current TalentEdge Fellowship, Podo Tech seeks to develop a revolutionary approach to the design and fabrication of shoe lasts and orthotics. The software will become a hub component within Podo Tech’s existing and under development suite of technologies, nearing the company to becoming a complete provider of footwear development solutions, both for the mass and custom markets. 9/5/2014
Tezera Ketema
$70,000
$110,000
$180,000
Toronto
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 53
Program
Talent Edge
Partners
Tellspec
Project Title
Tellspec Fellowship
Project Summary
Sector
Advanced health You want to know what’s in your food before you buy it and before you eat it – because the quality of your health depends on what you eat. Many foods contain ingredients that you want to avoid, such as additives, allergens, refined carbohydrates, and trans fats, but it can be difficult to know when these potentially harmful technologies
ingredients are present. How can you tell how many calories are in a serving of home‐cooked food? How can you tell if your food contains the nutrients you need? When available, food labels can give us some informa on, but they are not always intelligible and some ingredients may not even be reported.
TellSpec tells consumers the allergens, chemicals, nutrients, calories, and ingredients in their food before they buy it and before they eat it. TellSpec has three components: (1) a pocket‐sized scanner to capture the spectrum of the food, (2) an algorithm to analyze the data, and (3) an app to report the findings on a smartphone or any compu ng device.
The information consumers receive is personalized for their specific interests and needs. You can even get recommendations of similar but healthier, more nutritious foods. As consumers scan food over time, they will learn about their cumulative intake of individual ingredients, helping them reach their dietary goals. As consumers provide feedback on their responses to foods, this food data can be integrated with other biometric or self‐quantification data, helping them identify their food sensi vi es.
TellSpec’s venture‐backed product is uniquely positioned within a rapidly growing market of individuals and organizations concerned with understanding more about the foods they consume on a daily basis. Millions of consumers worldwide are spending increasing amounts on medications and services targeting food‐related issues such as weight‐loss, diabetes, allergies, and vitamin/mineral supplements. TellSpec’s product taps into this expanding market; with ever‐growing rates of dietary restric ons, preferences, and food intolerances, a tool that can provide informa on on and track food consump on is increasingly important.
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
9/18/2014
Isabel Hoffmann
$70,000
$110,500
$180,500
Toronto Digital media and information & communication technologies
10/6/2014
KinWai Leong
$70,000
$145,008
$215,008
Kanata
This Fellowship’s goal is to develop algorithms that can identify and predict the presence and quantity of microsugars, nutrients and common allergens in unknown foods scanned in unknown environments. We will be hiring two Fellows with expertise in Machine Learning and Spectroscopy Applications to conduct this research and help create TellSpec’s unique product.
TellSpec’s mission is to build a greener world by empowering people to make informed choices about what they eat. TellSpec brings an invaluable tool to consumers: by helping people better understand the foods they consume, TellSpec will spark vital change in the way people eat and the way food is produced. Our goal is to make our food analysis system universally available, and to encourage others to use our tools to invent more great ways to improve human health and create a greener and healthier world. Talent Edge
Viscore Technologies Inc
Tsinghua University
System software architecture for optical hypergraph Viscore Technologies Inc is a photonics company specializing in developing a new kind of parallel optical network which can significantly boost the performance of data center interconnections. Today's data centers face enormous challenges due to explosive traffic growth and increasingly complex traffic mode patterns such as network
multicast. Viscore proposes to address these challenges with its unique network technology which is scalable, reliable, and energy efficient. Its optical technology also has unique intrinsic properties ideally suited for processing today's complex traffic mode patterns, and can help to drastically offload traffic bottlenecks faced by exis ng networks.
Talent Edge
AWE Company Ltd.
Ryerson University
AWE ‐ TFP
AWE Company Ltd. has entered into ongoing research collaborations with Ryerson University and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology as it develops a Digital media and standalone commercial software application for the production and delivery of shared, interactive, augmented and mixed reality content to multiple users at the same information & time. By bringing significant R&D capabilities into the company,the OCE TalentEdge Fellowship will enable AWE to effectively migrate research results into ongoing communication product development and undertake complementary R&D in‐house. Over a two year period, the TalentEdge Fellow will develop and implement solutions that will technologies
significantly improve the scalability and robustness of the application and the quality of the user experience.
10/6/2014
Srinivas Krishna
$70,000
$107,416
$177,416
Toronto
Talent Edge
McMaster University
Content Recommendation System
Digital media and The news industry is undergoing radical transformation, and is struggling to remain both profitable and relevant to their audience at the same time. The Globe and Mail is seeking a machine learning & big data solution to help them in this regard. They have developed a prototype of a recommender system, and in internal testing, information & have identified many areas where the recommender could be enhanced to perform well in the unique circumstances of their news platforms & audiences. They have communication a very rich dataset that they can leverage for these enhancements, and need access to the advanced data science skillset they are seeking through this fellowship.
technologies
The desired outcome of this fellowship is to fully develop the recommender algorithms such that the company will be confident in using them to deliver a personalized experience to its readers. 10/6/2014
Michael ONeill
$35,000
$96,432
$131,432
Toronto
Talent Edge
7D Surgical Inc.
Graphical parallel processing for 3D visualization of medical images for use in surgical navigation
7D Surgical Inc. was created to fill a clinical need, specifically, to provide fast and accurate guidance to surgeons when inserting screws into the spine. There are over Advanced health 600,000 spinal fusion procedures per year in North America. These are difficult surgical procedures, with a 5% surgical revision rate at $24,000 per revision surgery. technologies
These surgical errors cost the North American health care system over $720M per year. To combat these revision surgeries, surgical navigation exists, but these systems are difficult to use and add a costly 20‐30 minutes of setup time ($100‐$150/min) to each surgical procedure. As such, these complex navigation systems have only achieved 15% penetration into spinal fusion procedures. 7D Surgical has developed a workflow optimized surgical navigation system that takes less than 1‐2 minutes of surgical setup time. In North America alone, this could lead to a potential health care savings of $480 million per year. This cost savings are due to lower surgical revision rates, while improving patient outcomes. Our products have the potential to drive patient throughput to lower patient wait times (Canada), while also driving hospital revenue (USA).
10/22/2014
Beau Standish
$70,000
$125,000
$195,000
Toronto
10/22/2014
Harminder Sekhon
$70,000
$200,306
$270,306
Mississauga
11/7/2014
Aaron Froese
$35,000
$52,500
$87,500
Hamilton
Our Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) Talent Edge Fellowship program proposal includes the hiring of a highly qualified individual with expertise in three dimensional data processing and visualization to continue to improve the overall surgical navigation work flow during spinal fusion procedures. The specific objectives of this proposal are described in this applica on. Talent Edge
Baylis Medical Company
Talent Edge
SP‐Nanobiotech Inc.
Technion – Israel Institute Development of Lipid to Nucleic Acid Adducts
of Technology
7/10/2015
Optimized sheath kit for improved transseptal access This project will work towards the creation of an optimized suite of products to be used during non‐invasive endovascular transseptal procedures for cardiac rhythm management.The successful completion of this project will yield a family of specialized products facilitating a refined and streamlined treatment. Advanced health technologies
This project is in support of the development of nucleic acid and lipid adducts required for the construction of self assembling liposome drug delivery nanoparticles. Pharmaceutical research and manufacturing
The project will fund an able post‐doctoral candidate in the field of organic chemistry to perform the synthesis, develop new adduct linkage chemistry, and create new methods for purification and separation of both adducts and small proteins. The strength of the project comes from an active cultivation of academic and industrial partnership required to build a highly adaptive delivery platform. With self assembling nanotechnology, all of the components required to make the delivery vehicle are mixed together in a vessel and come together correctly by designed specification. This allows one to create nanoparticles with a limitless array of shapes and target specificity to bring tailor made smart drugs to previously unreachable loca ons in the body.
Section 1 ‐ 54
Program
Partners
Project Title
Talent Edge
Mirexus
Formation and Morphology of Polysaccharide Nanoparticle Films
Talent Edge
AbCelex Technologies Inc.
University of Buenos Aires Development of antimicrobial feed additives for controlling food‐borne pathogens in broilers
Project Summary
Sector
Nanomaterials offer enormous potential for a wide variety of applications. However, two major factors have restricted the adoption of conventional nanotechnology: Bio‐economy and clean technologies
the high cost of making synthetic nanomaterials and the toxic nature of synthetic nanoparticles. Mirexus has solved these problems by developing a new nanomaterial that is extracted from corn, is low‐cost and is completely safe and edible. Mirexus’ platform material (PHYTOSPHERIX™) is a natural biopolymer that can be isolated in the form of uniform‐sized nanoparticles, which have many unique & desirable properties including water retention, film formation, and high loading fraction in water. These properties make it a valuable additive in the cosmetic, nutraceutical, pharmaceutical and agricultural markets. Our research program will focus on the film‐forming properties of PHYTOSPHERIX™ nanoparticles on biological surfaces such as skin, hair, seeds and fruit. We will study physical attributes such as strength, thickness, durability and permeability to water and gases in order to understand the mechanism by which PHYTOSPHERIX™ films can be used to stabilize and preserve organic materials.
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
11/7/2014
Phil Whiting
$35,000
$58,000
$93,000
Guelph
11/17/2014
Saeid Babaei
$70,000
$280,795
$350,795
Mississauga
11/17/2014
Michael Montgomery
$70,000
$100,000
$170,000
Toronto
12/4/2014
Steve Parker
$35,000
$50,013
$85,013
Toronto
12/4/2014
Suzanne Harrison
$35,000
$66,500
$101,500
Ottawa
12/4/2014
Ue‐Li Pen
$70,000
$100,000
$170,000
Toronto
Food safety‐related illnesses that are caused by bacteria in food have been a concern for public health and resulting in economic loss due to costs associated with hospitalization and the loss of productivity. The bacteria can transmit from livestock to human either directly through food or water that has become contaminated from animal sources or through other means such as insects and rodents. Campylobacter is the most prevalent cause of bacterial foodborne illness in the western world, and currently there are no cost‐effective strategy to mitigate this important pathogen in poultry. Antibiotics have been traditionally used to eliminate or control Campylobacter in poultry; however, their applications in animal feed have resulted in emergence of antibiotic resistant strains. Consequently, use of antibiotics in animal feed as growth promoter has been banned by European Union and other regions around the globe.
AbCelex is developing a line of innovative non‐antibiotic feed additive products to eliminate or significantly reduce Campylobacter and other food‐borbe pathogens such as Salmonella transmitted through consumption of poultry meat. The technology is based on tiny antibodies that bind and inactivate Campylobacter in the chicken gut. AbCelex tiny antibodies can be cost‐effectively produced and also re‐engineered for a variety of applications in the food chain supply management.
Talent Edge
Kinetica Dynamics Inc.
Development of a Seismic Resistant System with Viscoelastic‐plastic Dampers and the Associated Performance‐based Design Methodology for Seismic Risk Reduction
The goal of the research project is to develop Kinetica's viscoelastic coupling damper (VCD) for the performance enhancement of low to medium‐rise structures in highly seismic areas. The TalentEdge fellow will collaborate closely with Kinetica engineers and a leading California structural consulting firm to develop the VCD structural system and concomitant design guideline for the design of new, and the retrofit of existing hospital and other high importance post‐disaster facilities. The project will develop a full product line for the potentially larger, and more seismically oriented low to medium‐rise market for the VCD.
Talent Edge
Kelvin Storage
Ryerson University
Kelvin Storage
Kelvin Storage Inc. (“KSI” or “Kelvin”) is developing, optimizing and commercializing its Thermal Matrix Energy Storage (“TMES”) technology that will store large Bio‐economy and clean quantities of off‐peak electrical energy in the form of high temperature (up to 2200C) thermal energy in side graphite core containers. This “high‐valued” heat can technologies
then be delivered immediately or later in the form of usable thermal energy which can be used as a substitute burning fossil fuels to create high‐temperature heat or steam. Since off‐peak power generation tends to come from base‐load "clean" generation sources such as hydro, nuclear, wind (ie. in non‐peak periods fossil‐fuel power generation is typically ramped down to a minimum) the use of TMES heat has the impact of reducing greenhouse gas emissions ("GHG") emissions. The storage of electricity to thermal (e2t) heat in TMES units, even offers low‐cost gas‐fired users (cogens, oil sands, industrial process heat manufacturers) the ability to purchase off‐peak electricity at costs per MWh thermal cheaper than natural gas. Alterna vely, exis ng e2t users can significantly reduce their electricity costs by using TMES heat created from off‐peak electricity purchases during high‐peak periods avoiding the higher electricity peak prices as well as reducing peak demand charges (or, in the case of Ontario, Global Adjustment charges). Talent Edge
Blinq Networks
University of Alberta
Advanced Wireless System Performance in NLOS Channels
BLiNQ Networks the industry leader in sub 6GHz non line of sight backhaul. Non line of sight backhaul is designed to be deployed in urban environments that present a unique set of wireless challenges. Wireless channels in urban environments suffer from high multipath, time and frequency dependent fading, dispersion, diffraction, and depolarization of EM waves. In order to maintain the company’s position as an industry leader we must always focus on overcoming the challenges of urban non line of sight communica ons to increase spectral efficiency. R&D Challenge BLiNQ Networks currently has a gap in the system team. The company is seeking a fellow to focus on wireless system research and improvements. Dr Taheri's research will address physical layer challenges and system design issues inherent with broad band urban wireless communication. The outcome of Dr Taheri'sresearch will improve the performance of BLiNQ Networks. The objec ves of the project are twofold. The primary objec ve of the project is to increase the robustness of BLiNQ’s Networks physical layer in urban non line of sight channels. The secondary objective of the project is to develop new communication algorithms to increase the spectral efficiency of BLiNQ’s future designs. Dr Taheri’s will be expected to take a three pronged approach to achieve the objectives. The initial phase of the project will be simulation based. The second phase shall involve lab testing to validate simulation findings. Finally all simulation and lab measurements must be tested in the field. The third component of the project requires an outdoor test campaign. Talent Edge
7/10/2015
Thoth Technology Inc
Real Time Radio Monitoring Using High Gain Dishes
This project substantially improves the capability of the Algonquin Radio Telescope with real‐time software. It enables on‐the‐fly detection of radio‐frequency interference in the signal, and calibration of space radio signals. The new innovation includes a high bandwidth 8 input 800MSPS software defined radio system, with real time correlation spectrum analyzer. This enables real time detection of radio interference by correlation with reference antennae, real time confirmation of celestial signals, real time indication of locking onto satellite signals. It provides the necessary infrastructure to enable real time calibration and active radio noise cancellation.
Section 1 ‐ 55
Program
Partners
Talent Edge
Solinst Canada Ltd.;University of Waterloo
Talent Edge
Talent Edge
Ryerson University
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
Development and Testing of a Watershed Monitoring Water management in rapidly urbanizing watersheds requires spatially and temporally dense hydrologic data streams that can be integrated in different ways, Bio‐economy and clean Device with Smart Data Collection and Trigger relevant to the interests of various key stakeholders. Depending on the nature of the issue, access to these data streams may be required on a near real‐time basis. technologies
Operation
However, the integrated, real‐time monitoring of hydrologic processes at the watershed scale has proven to be problematic due in part to the diverse and transient nature of the data streams and to the remote distribu on of the sensor networks.
Specific stakeholder groups including provincial and municipal government water management authorities, natural resource development industries including the mining and petroleum sectors along with various components of the agricultural industry would all benefit from the development of this technology.
In cooperation with University of Waterloo researchers, Solinst Canada has been developing the "iWT" system which will allow the collection of data from multiple sensor type from multiple manufacturers, with the ability to remotely and automatically adjust the timing and frequency of data collection based on variations in data collected from different areas within a watershed. The iWT will also provide for two‐way communication between each field location within the watershed, and the Home Sta on, via radio or cellular transmissions.
The main overall objective of this proposal is the establishment of triggering protocols that control the sampling density for the various sensors within the hydrologic network to the development of two way communication strategies between centralized and remote monitoring hubs and the subsequent compilation and transmission of the data streams to accessible storage infrastructure or Home Station. The intention is to establish the first watershed‐scale hydrologic monitoring network that will provide decision makers with timely, integrated data streams for near real time assessment of critical components of the watershed under highly variable climatic conditions. In essence, the conventional sense and respond approach that is routinely used in hydrologic monitoring will evolve towards a more predic ve format that can respond to dynamic changes within the watershed.
The development of this advanced hydrologic monitoring system would be of immediate utility to a wide range of stakeholders. For example, this technology would provide municipal water managers with early warnings of rapid changes in water levels that could result in flooding conditions within critical areas of a watershed or changes in water quality conditions that might impact the performance of a drinking water treatment facility or surface water intake. In addition, mine managers who are constantly concerned about the potential for offsite pollution would benefit directly from real time monitoring of surface and groundwater quality within the mining region so that immediate responses would be possible. Often pollution risk is directly related to transient hydrologic events that would be efficiently captured through the new technology. Another key example of the utility of the near‐real time data streams that are derived through this advanced data collection and transmission technology would be in the management of irrigation timing and rates that depend on a series of parameters such as soil moisture, depth to groundwater and climatic drivers, all of which would be integrated into the information package required by the farm manager.
1/5/2015
Jim Pianosi
$35,000
$43,700
$78,700
Georgetown
Perkin Elmer Health Sciences Canada University of Toronto
Inc.
Development of innovative sensor array devices for Air pollution monitoring received a growing interest in recent years due to the health effects of human exposure to air pollutants. The six common air pollutants set Advanced manufacturing
reliable air pollution monitoring
by clean air act are ozone, particulate matters, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and lead. Human health and environmental damage criteria are measured based on the level of these pollutants in the environment. Several sensor networks, including Perkin Elmer`s ELM system were developed in response to the need for air pollution monitoring. While these sensor networks have some potential for detecting a subset of relevant pollutants, there are many issues that must be resolved in order to obtain reliable results.The main gaps associated with these sensor networks are the low selectivity, interferences of the gases, aging and irreversible changes of the sensors and long‐term stability issues. In this research project, University of Toronto in partnership with Perkin Elmer Inc. will develop innovative, reliable, and portable microelectronic devices to monitor urban air pollution, for mixtures that may include O3, NOx, CO, CO2, VOCs, and PM, 1/5/2015
Greg Evans
$35,000
$57,500
$92,500
Toronto
Pratt & Whitney Canada
Design and Process Optimization of Gas Turbine Engine
1/5/2015
Martin Peeters
$70,000
$239,199
$309,199
Mississauga
1/13/2015
Clifford Librach
$70,000
$118,000
$188,000
Toronto
Pratt & Whitney Canada Corp (P&WC) is a global aerospace leader, shaping the future of business, helicopter and regional aviation with new generation engines. Advanced manufacturing
P&WC has a campus in Mississauga that does both engineering and engine assembly work. This office is the centre of excellence for fan, compressor and combustion engineering. To remain a world leader in the aerospace engine market, P&WC must continually invest in the design and development of new engines that meet the highest standards.
The goal of this research project is to develop a step change in the design process that will produce gas turbines that meet and exceed all the demands of the customers by applying statistical tools to examine the impact of thousands of design variations on the performance, manufacturing and maintainability of different engine components. The traditional design process involves the detailed analysis of tens of design variations to arrive at the final design that meet a wide range of requirements including performance, manufacturing and maintainability. In the new process, the evaluation of thousands or tens of thousands of design variations will be used. To make use of this massive amount of data, state‐of‐the‐art statistical analysis will be needed to extract the key information used to guide the design. This is a very significant change in the design process and holds the promise of yielding much more compe ve products.
Talent Edge
7/10/2015
CreATe Program Inc.
Development of a next‐generation‐sequencing CReATe Fertility Centre is participating in the Ontario Centre for Excellence TalentEdge Fellowship initiative to improve fertility treatments for Ontarians. New, Advanced health platform for advanced preimplantation genetic affordable genetic tests will be developed to better identify the embryos produced from in‐vitro fertilization (IVF) that are most likely to give rise to a successful technologies
screening of human embryos during IVF: aneuploidy pregnancy, and assist in choosing a single embryo for transfer to the uterus. Selection of one good embryo for transfer will reduce the time to achieve successful screening and identification of novel genetic markers pregnancy while also reducing the numbers of multiple pregnancies, which often lead to health complications. Improving the success rate and reducing complications of embryo developmental competence.
of fertility treatments would significantly benefit Ontarians who suffer from infertility, lessening the emotional and financial burden for them. In addition, reduced complica on rates, especially for offspring of assisted reproduc on, would have marked economic benefits for Ontario’s health care system.
Section 1 ‐ 56
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
Talent Edge
Tessonics Inc.
Transcranial Imaging Device
Tagged as a “silent epidemic” nearly a decade ago, head injuries are a leading cause of death and disability among a predominately young population. Estimates run as Advanced health technologies
high as 10 million cases of head injuries per year worldwide. Annually, within the U.S., there are about 2 million emergency room visits for head injuries, roughly 575,000 admissions for brain trauma, nearly 52,000 deaths and approximately 80,000 cases of severe long‐term disability. About 10% of combat injuries sustained during conventional land warfare involve head injuries, including skull and brain traumas. The spectrum of these injuries ranges from minor fragment wounds to mu la ng blast injuries. It is cri cal for op mal treatment to be able to iden fy the internal head injuries in minutes a er occurrence.
In the past few decades, a set of imaging techniques has been employed to assist in the diagnosis of head injuries, brain disorders and detection of brain tumors and abnormalities. The most famous methods are Computed Tomography (CT), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Electroencephalography (EEG), Positron Emission Tomography (PET), and Ultrasonography (US). However, signs and symptoms of internal head injuries are difficult to diagnose in civilian emergency settings due to the lack of portable transcranial diagnostic equipment. Some of the above‐mentioned imaging techniques are not field deployable while the existing portable ultrasonic diagnostic machines are not able to image through thick skull bones. Ultrasonography has the advantages of low cost and portability compared to other methods, fast real‐ me imaging, and no use of ionizing radia on.
The main obstacles known to complicate the ultrasonic approach are strong absorption and distortion of the ultrasonic field by thick, multilayered human skull. If conventional ultrasonography techniques are used for imaging of brain traumas, strong ultrasonic phase aberration effects of the human skull could result in significant distortion of beam patterns causing defocusing of the ultrasonic field. These effects, along with human skull's natural strong attenuation, lead to significant degrada on of the image quality, loss of spa al resolu on, and possibly large displacement or total disappearance of reflec ng targets in the resul ng image.
During his PhD program at the University of Toronto, Dr. Kiyanoosh Shapoori has developed an innovative technique to compensate for major ultrasonic distortional effects of human skull. The simulation and laboratory results reported in his PhD thesis depict promising potential of his invented method for practical ultrasonic imaging of traumatic brain injuries. While the developed method has been initially validated through a set of laboratory tests in an academic environment, its practical applicability s ll requires further research and development and Tessonics Inc. is willing to accommodate such R&D.
This project will develop a portable device for primary transcranial diagnostics of internal head injuries and blood disorders in environments where the use of other clinical methods is difficult. The final phase aberration correction algorithm and adaptive beamforming method could either be applied to an individual self‐integrated device or be added as a new modality to currently existing biomedical ultrasound imaging systems. Such an imaging device would then allow responders to quickly diagnose the existence of a brain trauma in both conscious and unconscious patients. The early identification of internal HI can play a significant role in facilitating transporta on of cri cally injured people to sta onary medical facili es, which can both verify an early diagnosis and offer therapeu c and/or surgical interven on.
1/13/2015
Joe Udzbinac
$70,000
$100,000
$170,000
Windsor
Talent Edge
Ericsson Canada Inc
Carleton University
Ericsson ‐ Akram Bin Sediq
Ericsson is a world leading Telecom company that employs over 100,000 employees world‐wide, approximately 3,500 in Canada and over 1400 in Ontario. Ericsson is Digital media and heavily involved in both building mobile network infrastructures and monitoring/analyzing data from these networks that sa sfy the Telecom requirements.
information & communication Ericsson Ottawa is a global R&D site working on wireless access technologies. Ottawa R&D site has over 30 years of Radio access technology development, and it is a technologies
leading developer of LTE, next genera on technologies, carrier grade WiFI and heterogeneous small cell and indoor solu ons
1/13/2015
John Luszczek
$70,000
$100,000
$170,000
Ottawa
Talent Edge
Geomechanica Inc.
Development of a parallel rock mechanics simulation Geomechanica Inc. develops simulation software and provides consulting services for rock engineering applications. The simulation software relies on an innovative Bio‐economy and clean software
hybrid finite‐discrete element method (FDEM) capable of tackling complex rock engineering problems, involving rock fracturing, fragmentation, and interaction of technologies
discrete deformable bodies. The unique algorithms designed to model rock deformation and failure (i.e., 'sound physics'), together with the use of state‐of‐the‐art High Performance Computing techniques (i.e., 'fast computations') sets Geomechanica apart from its competitors. Incorporated by a group of University of Toronto graduates, Geomechanica has been steadily growing ever since and is establishing itself as a state‐of‐the‐art simulation‐aided consulting company serving mining, oil & gas, nuclear waste disposal, and tunnel construction projects that deal with the stability and failure of rock. Geomechanica has been actively consulted for the site‐
selection process and safety assessment of a deep geological repository in Northern Switzerland to analyze the impact of the excavation damaged zone around underground structures on the favourable long‐term isolation properties of the host rock formation. In addition to a number of mining projects, more recently, Geomechanica has been developing geomechanical models for the analysis of hydraulic fracturing treatments in discon nuous unconven onal reservoirs.
1/21/2015
Omid Mahabadi
$70,000
$117,200
$187,200
Toronto
1/21/2015
Phil Whiting
$35,000
$43,000
$78,000
Guelph
One of the most challenging problems when developing numerical tools for modelling rock‐masses is to correctly reproduce both their continuous and discontinuous behaviour. Most commercial software packages currently use conventional continuum formulations that assume rock‐masses are continuous and homogeneous. Although this assumption was valid when considering some early engineering problems regarding excavation shape, effects of in‐situ stress, and stress concentrations in pillars, the mechanics of brittle failure and subsequent fracturing and fragmentation cannot be captured. Indeed, none of the‐state‐of‐the‐art commercial software packages can properly model the en re loading and failure process, including the transi on from con nuum to discon nuum.
Our R&D objective is to overcome the shortcomings of continuum‐based numerical models for addressing rock‐engineering problems. To achieve this goal, we are building upon the FDEM approach, which combines continuum and discontinuum methods. Because current FDEM methods are computationally intensive, they are not yet practical for accurate simulations of very large rock structures. Therefore, taking advantage of recent advances in parallel computing, we are developing new mathematical formulations that allow the implementation of a fully‐parallel hybrid FDEM technology. This technology will offer numerous advantages over current state‐of‐the‐art computational methods, including the ability to capture the transition from continuum to discontinuum, to explicitly reproduce the material and geometrical heterogeneity and discontinuities of the rock matrix and the effect of friction within the fractured rock‐mass. Furthermore, with the computational power of general‐purpose graphics processing units (GPGPUs), we expect a substantial gain (two orders of magnitude) in computational speed, allowing large simulations, which would now take more than a month, to be completed in few hours.
Our development of a parallelized FDEM technology is expected to overcome these limitations and provide engineers and researchers with a reliable predictive tool for analyzing complex engineering and research problems in rock mechanics.
Talent Edge
7/10/2015
Mirexus
Chemical Modification of Polysaccharide Nanoparticles
Bio‐economy and clean Nano‐materials offer enormous potential for a wide variety of applications. However, two major factors have restricted the adoption of conventional nanotechnology: the high cost of making synthetic nano‐materials and the toxic nature of synthetic nanoparticles. Mirexus has solved these problems by developing a technologies
new nano‐material that is extracted from corn, is low‐cost and is completely safe and edible. Mirexus’ platform material (PHYTOSPHERIX™) is a natural biopolymer that can be isolated in the form of uniform‐sized nanoparticles, which have many unique and desirable properties including water retention, film formation, and high loading fraction in water. These properties make it a valuable additive in the cosmetic, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical markets. Our research program will focus on the chemical modification of PHYTOSPHERIX™ nanoparticles to confer different chemical properties, such as greater water retention and oil solubility. We will study physical attributes such as particle size and modification sites to determine the feasibility of modification and the possibility of increasing the scale of production. Chemical modification also introduces the possibility of employing modified PHYTOSPHERIX™ as a carrier for pharmaceutically active compounds. Through successful modifica on, we seek to extend the range of poten al applica ons of PHYTOSPHERIX™ in cosme cs, nutraceu cals and pharmaceu cals.
Section 1 ‐ 57
Program
Talent Edge
Partners
Mesh Consultants
York University
Project Title
Mesh Consultants Fellowship
Project Summary
Sector
The digital design industry has developed sophisticated tools for 3D modelling, facilitating the visualization and construction of a huge variety of spatial forms. Underpinning these tools is a body of technical mathematics, including discrete and computational geometry. While 3D modelling software implements these ideas, it can be challenging for designers to access and manipulate the core concepts without technical assistance. MESH addresses this need by providing geometry consulting services, allowing a transfer of advanced and cu ng edge mathema cs research to industrial manufacturing problems.
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
1/21/2015
Daniel Hambleton
$34,892
$52,200
$87,092
Toronto
2/6/2015
Lou Pino
$35,000
$50,000
$85,000
Toronto
11/13/2014
Vladimir Krstic
$70,000
$100,000
$170,000
Kingston
11/13/2014
Sreekanta Das
$35,000
$50,000
$85,000
Windsor
3/6/2015
Ue‐Li Pen
$70,000
$50,000
$120,000
Toronto
3/6/2015
Ibraheem Khan
$69,978
$101,018
$170,996
Toronto
While 3D modelling software is recognized as an essential tool for designers, architects and engineers, it is an untapped tool for mathematicians. The ability to easily manipulate geometric objects, paired with the technical knowledge required to customize output provides a rich and fertile ground for new mathematics research. It is expected that the TalentEdge fellowship will produce several research‐quality algorithms which will both be implemented into products offered by MESH Consultants, and presented in an academic context.
Dr. Elissa Ross completed her Ph.D. in discrete geometry, specifically the structural rigidity of repetitive materials. She has additional expertise in computational geometry, graph theory and tilings/patterns, and a long history of collaborative and interdisciplinary projects. Her specialized knowledge is complementary to the background of MESH Director Daniel Hambleton, which will allow MESH to significantly broaden the scope of its geometry consulting services. The fellowship would facilitate the transfer of knowledge from advanced mathematics research to industry application in the digital design world. It would also recruit Dr. Ross back to Ontario, having left Canada to pursue work in the USA.
Talent Edge
InteraXon
Universite Aix‐Marseille
Moffat ‐ InterAxon
InteraXon, an innovator in the emerging field of brain‐sensing technology, is conducting clinical trials with academic research institutions in Canada and the US to validate its product, Muse, a consumer EEG device. Muse is a six‐sensor EEG headset that detects and measures the electrical activity of the user’s brain while they are participating in a guided meditation session via a mobile application called Calm. Research findings will be used to improve and modify the device for specific clinical populations, beginning with anxiety, depression, ADHD, tinnitus, insomnia and chronic pain.
Talent Edge
Queen's University
Fellowship
This VIP2 program is centered on the development and application of a new high power illumination system with a key industry partner in Ontario. The new illumination system leverages an emerging technology that employs economical high efficiency blue laser diode light combined with a new highly robust phosphor material capable of withstanding high laser power. The client company, a leader in its field, continues to invest in new technology especially in illumination which is a key component of its product. By inves ng R&D funds in this project the company will be able to offer the most up to date product in its compe ve market space.
Talent Edge
Fellowship
The challenge is to study, test, and research the development of a less expensive, easy, and quick method for municipalities to rehabilitate corroding steel girder bridges. Successful laboratory testing on these steel girders recovered from a closed bridge will lead to in‐situ testing of the actual bridge repair technique to be developed and validated based on the laboratory results. With the majority of Ontario’s infrastructure built more than 60 years ago, many of these structures are reaching or already past their intended (design) lifespan. Bridges must be closed or vehicle loads are limited when deficiencies due to corrosion are found. Many municipalities do not have the required funds to replace or rehabilitate these structures and hence, they are sometimes even closed down indefinitely affecting the surrounding communi es.
MEDA Limited and the University of Windsor plan to undertake this research and complete these tests using a new composite fibre material for rehabilitation on these damaged steel girder bridges and compare it with current methods of rehabilitation. The current rehabilitation method used by various municipalities is to remove or grind the corroded part of the girder and replace with a new steel piece. This rehabilitation method causes disruption in the traffic flow and keeps the corrosion problem alive. The new fibre material which will be used in this study is 100% recyclable and has proven successful in applications to concrete structures and MEDA and University of Windsor research group, led by Dr. Das, believe that the product can be used in alternate forms to repair steel structures resulting in an easy and cost‐effective repair method. Talent Edge
Thoth Technology Inc
SOSCIP Astronomical Data Mining
The rapid advance of the computing revolution enabled digital processing of radio frequency data, from HD television to satellite radio. This project proposes to implement a more flexible version of digital signal processing, known as software defined radio, for Canada's largest radio telescope, the Algonquin Radio Telescope. Instead of customized digital hardware with customized protocols, the advanced SOSCIP Blue Gene/Q (BGQ) facility allows pure software implementation of space radio signal processing techniques. Software implementation has a much shorter development cycle, enabling a competitive advantage by bringing a product to market sooner, and being able to leverage the newest computing hardware developments. This OCE proposal enables the SOSCIP project "astronomical data mining" to enable international very‐long‐baseline‐interferometry (VLBI) capability.
Talent Edge
SmarterAlloys
Processing novel shape memory alloys for application specific customer solutions
Conventional shape memory alloys (SMAs) exhibit two unique properties, namely the shape memory effect (SME) and Pseudoelasticity (PE), both of which are Advanced manufacturing
enhanced with Smarter Alloys innovative processing technologies. For example, SME is the ability of an SMA to remember a single shape at a specific temperature allowing the material to be applied as an actuator. Smarter Alloys is the only company in the world with the ability to embed multiple permanent memories into a single SMA greatly increasing the functionality of these materials. Pseudoelasticity on the other hand allows for the material to have a high degree of flexibility across the SMA component; a property heavily utilized by the medical industry for example to prevent kinking of devices used in minimally invasive surgical procedures. Smarter Alloys’ processing technologies can also precisely embed multiple pseudo‐elastic forces into a single SMA component, again greatly increasing functionality. The processed area can be as small as a few microns in width with multiple zones, each having a discrete transition temperature or PE stress level. These ground‐
breaking technologies have many applica ons in various industries including Automo ve, Medical Devices, Orthodon c, and more.
Smarter Alloys has an in depth understanding of how their core technologies affect the most common SMAs; namely binary NiTi alloys. However, more advanced SMA technologies are constantly being developed such as single crystal CuAlNi alloys or high temperature ternary NiTiX alloys. In order to meet the growing demands of potential clients Smarter Alloys must expand its process capabilities and technologies to accommodate these novel alloys. This will allow Smarter Alloys to harness benefits such as, but not limited to, increased operating temperatures, small hysteresis and improved fatigue properties. This two year project is intended to expand engineering know‐how and intellectual property to include these alternative SMAs. Process‐structure‐performance relationships will be developed following the completion of the first stage of this project followed by the development of a database and empirical models in the second stage allowing for accelerated SMA product development.
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 58
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
Talent Edge
Mirexus Inc
University of Durham
Revealing Mechanisms of Enhanced UV and Thermal Nano‐materials offer enormous potential for a wide variety of commercial applications. However, two major factors have restricted the adoption of conventional Bio‐economy and clean Stability for Bioactive Compounds in Complex with nanotechnology: the high cost of making synthetic nano‐materials and the toxic nature of synthetic nanoparticles. Mirexus has solved these problems by developing a technologies
Polysaccharide Nanoparticles
new nano‐material that is extracted from corn, is low‐cost and is completely safe and edible. Mirexus’ platform material PHYTOSPHERIX is a natural biopolymer that can be isolated in the form of uniform‐sized nanoparticles, which have many unique and desirable properties including water retention, film formation, high loading fraction in water, and the ability to stabilize other bioactive ingredients against thermal and UV degradation. Our research will investigate the ability of PHYTOSPHERIX nanoparticles to stabilize molecules such as vitamins in nutraceuticals and skin creams, UV absorbers in sunscreens, and proteins used in vaccine formulations. We will use spectroscopic techniques to identify the binding sites of these molecules to the nanoparticles in order to reveal the molecular mechanism of stabilization, and predict which commercially relevant compounds are likely to benefit from formulations with PHYTOSPHERIX.
3/6/2015
Phil Whiting
$35,000
$50,500
$85,500
Guelph
Talent Edge
SP‐Nanobiotech Inc.
McMaster University
Fusion Peptide Alignment and Catalysis Characterization
Self assembling DNA nanotechnology is becoming an essential tool for the creation of nanoscaled instruments and drug vehicles. At SP‐Nanobiotech Inc. we are Pharmaceutical research developing liposome “bubble” based drug vehicles which self assemble using DNA as an internal scaffold. SP‐Nanobiotech’s development operations are being carried and manufacturing
out in collaboration with Dr. Todd Hoare of the Chemical Engineering Department at McMaster University. Our first‐of‐its‐kind product is a kit tailored for the research academic market which will allow smart drugs, gene editing systems, synthetic chromosomes and genomes to be delivered directly into the cell nucleus in tissue cultures and in research animal models. One important component of our technology is the membrane fusion catalysis peptide which initiates fusion with the target cell membrane barrier. Our fusion catalysis peptides function with some efficiency to augment liposome based drug delivery, however greater efficiency is desirable. In this talent edge grant proposal we describe a project to research the evolutionarily conserved basis of our membrane fusion model and based on this informa on to further improve the fusion catalysts which func onalize our kits.
3/26/2015
Aaron Froese
$35,000
$52,500
$87,500
Hamilton
Talent Edge
Aquanty Inc.
University of Calgary
Development of Probabilistic Assessment Tools for Flood, Drought and Crop Production Risk Using a Fully Integrated Surface/Subsurface Hydrologic Model
For decision makers and stakeholders seeking to inform water management policy and to understand hydrologic risk, a watershed encompassing a few hundred Bio‐economy and clean square kilometers is typically the smallest area of interest; while depending on the scenarios under consideration, the region of interest can easily expand to that of a technologies
major river basin with well over one hundred thousand square kilometers. Given the potential for an increase in the frequency and severity of extreme hydrologic events under future climate scenarios, the intrinsic value of comprehensive hydrologic risk assessments is anticipated to increase. To assist with these types of assessments, hydrologic models are often employed, and there is growing recognition of the value that hydrologic models offer to those people tasked with understanding hydrologic risk. With the advancement of high performance scientific computing resources there has been a coincident increase in hydrologic modelling capabili es; however, to date this capability has not been fully u lized for hydrologic risk assessment.
The objective of this project is to develop a risk assessment framework that utilizes the capabilities of the HydroGeoSphere (HGS) hydrologic modelling software. HGS is widely viewed as the most technologically advanced hydrologic model available, and it has the potential to define water related risks that span hydrologic conditions ranging from drought to flood at spatial scales that range from 10’s to 1000’s of square kilometers. The technology and proof‐of‐concept demonstration that will be developed as part of this project will focus on the agricultural sector, as it is recognized that agriculture has heavy exposure to hydrologic risk and that there is a growing demand for state of the art technology to help better understand the spatially and temporally varying risks to crop production. The primary technical challenge that will be addressed within the scope of work will be in developing a methodology to utilize real‐time weather forecasts (short and long term) to drive HGS simulations, and to interpret the results of the hydrologic simulations in a probabilistic sense in order to quantify short term and long term hydrologic risk to crop produc on.
The Post‐Doctoral Fellow who will spearhead the scientific development required in this project will work with Aquanty Inc. Aquanty is an international hydrological sciences and research company that provides cutting edge hydrogeological modelling services and software to a broad base of government, academic, and industrial sectors. Aquanty`s flagship software platform is HydroGeoSphere, which as previously mentioned is the class leader in fully‐integrated three‐dimensional surface/subsurface modelling. Aquanty is situated in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. 3/26/2015
Steve Berg
$70,000
$111,000
$181,000
Waterloo
Talent Edge
Telus Communications Company
Development of Radio Resource Management Techniques for Heterogeneous Networks
The Wireless Technology Development group, within TELUS, has a mandate of preparing for the continued growth of TELUS’ capabilities. As TELUS prepares to meet growing demand for wireless data (and in the longer term, for a transition from 4G LTE to 5G, the fifth generation of wireless networks), they recognize that emerging networks are characterized by increased heterogeneity: heterogeneity in both network architecture and in users’ demands. TELUS needs to develop an effective and scalable solu on to be ready to meet the growing demand for wireless communica ons services in the near future.
3/26/2015
Raviraj Adve
$35,000
$50,760
$85,760
Toronto
Heterogeneous networks (HetNets) are widely accepted as being crucial to meet the growing demands being made ‐ and will continue to be made ‐ of public wireless networks. HetNets augment the traditional base station‐based cellular network architecture with a dense layer of small‐cell access points (APs) ‐ bringing the APs closer to the users improves power efficiency, but most important, enables greater frequency reuse. However, by significantly increasing the number of nodes in the network, it is important to develop effec ve radio resource management (RRM) techniques for HetNets. This proposal addresses a problem of growing importance to TELUS, ‐ RRM in HetNets, but in the context of the growing heterogeneity of users ‐ emerging applications such as video conferencing, mobile television, Voice‐over‐LTE (VoLTE) impose stringent real‐time (delay) constraints and must co‐exist with more mature applications such as email, which have very different characteristics. Treating all traffic as the same is very inefficient and there has been little work on RRM for heterogeneous traffic in the context of HetNets. It is this gap in available research that this effort is trying to fill.
In this context, we are concerned with networks that are heterogeneous in both architecture and in traffic:
• Heterogeneity in having various type of access points and access technologies (a mix of small cells and tradi onal base sta ons)
• Heterogeneity in traffic classes (delay sensitive or realtime & delay insensitive or non‐real‐time applications), in QoS requirements (such as minimum bit‐rate, maximum delay, in reliability requirements, both short‐term and long‐term), in fairness requirements, and in temporal traffic fluctua ons.
Limiting TELUS', indeed any service provider's, ability to provide services is foremost, the limited bandwidth resources available. The goal of this project is to design fair channel‐aware, traffic‐aware, dynamic resource allocation algorithms which make decisions related to different aspects of network in time, space, frequency, and are optimized for HetNets.
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 59
Program
Talent Edge
Partners
The Cooperators;3M;Tembec;BASF Canada
Project Title
Finding Research Based Solutions for Sustainability Practice
Project Summary
Sustainability involves building prosperous economies, resilient communities, and healthy ecosystems. While sustainability manifests in many forms in business, this project addresses a sustainability problem iden fied by its company partners: how businesses can collaborate with compe tors to innovate for sustainability.
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
3/26/2015
Tima Bansal
$70,000
$50,000
$120,000
London
Firms across an industry can collaborate in order to generate innovative solutions to sustainability issues. But they are not investing in innovative collaborative solu ons due to the risk generated by the fundamental tension between coopera on and compe on. This two‐year project will answer the following question: How can businesses effectively collaborate with their competitors to find innovative solutions to industry specific sustainability issues? The researcher will employ qualitative methods and analyses to help the corporate partners improve their ability to collaborate with compe tors for sustainability innova ons.
At the end of the two studies, the researcher, working with the corporate partners, will create checklists, decision guides, and best practices reports. These products will be both based on rigorous research and readily implementable. As such, this project will help participant companies generate more value out of their efforts to have a positive impact on environmental and social sustainability, both for themselves and for their stakeholders. Because the researchers and corporate partners will disseminate the research findings to other companies in Ontario, many Ontario‐based businesses will also benefit from this research. Talent Edge
The Cooperators;3M;Tembec;BASF Canada
Part 2: Finding Research Based Solutions for Sustainability Practice
Sustainability involves building prosperous economies, resilient communities, and healthy ecosystems. While sustainability manifests in many forms in business, this Bio‐economy and clean technologies
project addresses a key sustainability problem iden fied by its company partners: how businesses can increase the value of their sustainability repor ng prac ces.
Businesses engage in sustainability reporting to communicate their social and environmental practices, policies, and performance to their stakeholders. The benefits of sustainability repor ng, however, are not jus fying its costs because current modes of communica on are not mee ng audiences’ informa onal needs. This two‐year project will answer the following questions:.How can sustainability reporting processes be constructed to meet the informational needs of all relevant audiences? The researcher will employ qualita ve methods and analyses to help the corporate partners improve their sustainability repor ng prac ces.
At the end of the study, the researcher, working with the corporate partners, will create checklists, decision guides, and best practices reports. These products will be both based on rigorous research and readily implementable. As such, the project will help participant companies generate more value out of their efforts to have a positive impact on environmental and social sustainability, both for themselves and for their stakeholders. Because the researcher and corporate partners will disseminate the research findings to other companies in Ontario, many Ontario‐based businesses will also benefit from this research. 3/26/2015
Tima Bansal
$70,000
$50,000
$120,000
London
Talent Edge
CRS Technology Corp.
Innovation Concierge
Innovation Concierge by CRS Technology Corp. is a collaboration platform for facilitating open innovation processes by utilizing share economy and gamification functionality to establish connections between various players in the innovation ecosystem. In this way, it incorporates crowdsourcing, skill sharing, asset sharing, and crowdfunding along with game mechanics to entice positive community behaviour amongst enterprises, start‐ups, students, freelancers, and suppliers. The types of collabora ons range from volunteer contribu ons for earning points and recogni on to partnerships for the sharing of commercializa on rights and earning revenue.
The intent is not to directly compete with pure play share economy platforms like Kickstarter, but rather to combine share economy functionality in a unique manner to create a network effect for coupled open innovation‐‐where alliances are formed between complementary parties, each giving and taking along the value chain, toward producing commercial outcomes.
Innovation Concierge is taking a mobile first approach in both how prospective users will interact with the platform and the types of product innovations it envisions its users creating for an increasingly mobile society.
8/14/2014
Jutta Treviranus
$35,000
$105,000
$140,000
Toronto
Talent Edge
Continental Automotive
Particle deposition in low‐Reynolds number, high‐
curvature and highly‐diffusing flows
The aim of the project is to identify reasons for the deposition of contaminants in automotive valves which allow the inlet of atmospheric air to the sealed fuel system Advanced manufacturing
under certain conditions. Deposits can prevent valve from closure which, when detected, will cause a check engine light and driver inconvenience. Initially, computational fluid dynamic modeling techniques will be used to investigate the relative contribution of a number of factors known to enhance particle deposition. This information will then be used to develop general design guidelines for products to avoid or minimize particle deposition. Finally, the existing accelerated experimental technique for determining particle deposition rates will be investigated and utilized to compare the results of selected cases. 9/5/2014
Jeff Defoe
$10,000
$35,100
$45,100
Windsor
Talent Edge
UTComp
York University
Validation ‐ Comparison of UTComp PDS with Destructive Test Results
Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic (FRP) structures are widely used in many different types of applications including industry and civil structures. Different from the traditional structural materials, the defects or internal damages in the FRP are not visible to inspectors until the catastrophic failure occurs. Therefore, it is critical to find not only the internal defects but also the residual service life of the composite structures in service without physically damaging the structures. Most of the existing non‐destructive UT testing technologies are only able to detect the defects in the composite structures. They are unable to predict the residual service life of the defected or aging composite structures based on the UT testing results. In most of the cases, the destructive tests, which require to stop the operation and cut a small samples from the composite structures in service, are the only way to determine the residual service life. UTComp has introduced a unique and innovative approach to the inspection of FRP structures and determine their residual service life without damaging the structures. The UTComp System determines properties of FRP using the non‐destructive ultrasonic (UT) proprietary testing technology. The UTComp System has applied it in industrial applications to predict the Remaining Service Life of FRP structures as well as to identify features of the health conditions of the FRP in the structures. The proposed project is to validate quantitatively this novel proprietary technology by the standard ASTM destructive testing technology.
10/22/2014
George Zhu
$5,000
$15,000
$20,000
North York
Talent Edge
Chrylsler Canada ARDC
Road Profile Recovery Using On‐Board Measurement The industry partner is a large automotive original equipment manufacturer (OEM), and has initiated this project with the intention of improving overall vehicle Data
quality, particularly durability of the suspension components. As one would expect, when a vehicle is driven over bumps or other rough terrain, the suspension components can experience large forces and accelerations, which can potentially lead to premature wear or failure of the components. Of course, the level of stress on the suspension is highly influenced by the type of road, and the size and number of disturbances. As a result, the design of the suspension is based on some expectations of the road quality, which is often challenging to gauge accurately. Typically, an expensive and highly specialized instrumented vehicle is driven over a special testing ground to to obtain some measurements related to the road and the vehicle response. The industry partner hopes to replace this approach with a small number of convenient on‐board acceleration measurements to allow any vehicle to recover information about the road profile history on any road. Unfortunately, the process of using the measured data to determine the road profile is not a simple one. The primary activity of the research project will be to develop and assess computational algorithms to recover the road history from these measurements. The industry partner expects that the primary benefit from the project will be an improved ability to assess the design of their suspension components, which will in turn reduce the number and severity of component failures, leading to improvements in overall quality and marketplace competitiveness.
11/7/2014
Bruce Minaker
$10,000
$30,000
$40,000
Windsor
Talent Edge
Logikor, Inc.
Internship‐CC
8/14/2014
Michael Haughton
$5,000
$15,000
$20,000
Waterloo
7/10/2015
Digital media and The goal of this study is to provide insights to enable optimum utilization of freight transportation capacity in the long‐haul trucking sector. Optimal capacity utilization is of importance because it contributed to lower costs for (a) clients whose freight must be transported on trucks, (b) end‐consumers of the merchandise, information & and (c) the public in the form of lower vehicle excess emissions and other related environmental consequences. This proposed study will accomplish its stated goal by communication identifying and analyzing initiatives to increase capacity utilization.
technologies
Section 1 ‐ 60
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Talent Edge
Remotronic Corp.
Carleton University
Internship‐CC
Remotronic is an Ottawa‐based high‐tech company. The main product of Remotronic is an innovative 2D vehicle birdview system, which provides an integrated video solution that merges four (4) videos from the cameras on a vehicle into one (1) birdview video, thus greatly enhances the driver's situation awareness. Currently, several customers (e.g., Holder Tractors Inc, a large German‐based tractor manufacturer) have been using Remotronic’s product.
Despite the success of Remotronic’s current 2D product, some customers request more advanced features. Specifically, some customers prefer a system with 3D vehicle birbview, which can be seen from a mobile device. For large sized vehicles (e.g., large truck, school bus, combat vehicle, and snow removal truck), the blinding zones usually cannot be covered by traditional measurements, such as mirrors and singe rear view camera. Remotronic’s system can efficiently solve this problem. this project, we intend to use recent advances in information and communication technologies to design 3D vehicle birdview systems. This project will give Remotronic a valuable edge over its global compe tors.
Talent Edge
PPG Chemfil Canada
Internship‐CC
Talent Edge
Arada Systems
Talent Edge
SPP Canada Aircraft Inc. (SPPCA)
Talent Edge
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
9/15/2014
Richard Yu
$5,000
$15,000
$20,000
Ottawa
The release of phosphate, a nutrient, from municipal and agricultural wastewater is an environmental concern as it leads to the uncontrolled growth of algae in lakes Bio‐economy and clean and waterways ul mately threatening aqua c life by the crea on of dead‐zones devoid of oxygen.
technologies
PPG Chemfil is very interested in developing a phosphate filtration unit which will be centred around a phosphate biofilter recently developed in Dr. Mutus' laboratory at the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at the University of Windsor. The phosphate removing biofilters are made from chitosan a water insoluble biopolymer obtained from shellfish. Chitosan is plentiful, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly. The phosphate biofilters are made from chitosan‐copper composite and have a high capacity for phosphate. In addi on, the biofilter‐bound phosphate can be recovered and the biofilters regenerated for reuse.
The objectives of the proposed project are: 1‐Design and build filtration units capable of treating ~3,000L of wastewater per day; 2‐ Determine the in‐the‐field phosphate ‐binding capacity under changing environmental conditions; 3‐Optimize the in‐the‐field regeneration of the filters with a variety of regeneration solutions; 4‐ Determine the in‐the‐field lifetime of the filters; 5‐ Determine the chemical composition of the spent filters with a view of utilizing them as a composting material; 6‐
Explore the commercializa on of the filtra on units.
9/15/2014
Bulent Mutus
$5,000
$15,000
$20,000
Windsor
Internship‐CC
This project will design and implement specialized software to facilitate the use of vehicle‐to‐vehicle (V2V) and vehicle‐to‐infrastructure (V2I) communication technologies to improve safety and to minimize economic losses due to lost productivity resulting from traffic congestion. The transportation and related industries are working on creating innovative products and systems that can meet the goals of an intelligent transportation system (ITS), with reliable vehicular communication capabilities. It is imperative that such products and services be extensively tested and validated, before they can be deployed in real environments. Availability of suitable framework and algorithms that facilitate development of reliable applications is a serious obstacle for the industry. Due to the time‐sensitive nature of the data and relatively high probability of packet loss, it is critical to develop algorithms that are efficient, secure and can operate even with some incomplete/incorrect inputs. This project will develop software modules that can capture and analyze data generated by the electronic control units (ECU) inside vehicles. This data will then be processed, aggregated and potentially combined with data from surrounding vehicles to build applications that will improve passenger safety and minimize traffic delays. Furthermore, this project will also develop a simulation platform that can help test and validate safety applications to ensure they meet the required performance standards. 10/20/2014
Arunita Jaekel
$10,000
$30,000
$40,000
Windsor
Internship‐CC
In this research project, we focus on developing a standardized approach for simulation of the dynamic behavior of aircraft landing gear during the landing and ground Advanced Manufacturing
maneuvering events. These results will be correlated to structural loads experienced by the landing gear and used to develop a Health Monitoring and Usage System. The simulation tool developed to implement this approach of dynamic modeling will be used at SPPCA as the primary prediction software for used in performance analysis of Landing Gear.
11/17/2014
Kamran Behdinan
$15,000
$45,000
$60,000
Toronto
Woodstock Hydro Services Inc.
Ryerson University
Internship‐CC
3DSolar is an innovative web‐based 3D environment for modeling and precisely estimating solar energy potential on urban rooftops. Using 3DSolar, users can explore Bio‐economy and clean 3D model of their rooftops, play and place the selected solar panels, and get instant estimation of the output of electricity generation, with other simulation results technologies
such as environment footprints (CO2 savings, equivalent tree saved, etc.). 3DSolar will introduce the first 3D solar modeling, analysis and simulation solution that runs in web browsers without installation of any software components and that provides a user‐friendly interface to assist the design and decision‐making of rooftop solar by solar installation contractors and the public, as well as grid planning by utility companies. Closely working with the Woodstock Hydro primarily for enhancing its public outreach capacity and electricity planning, 3DSolar is expected to be a new tool that benefits Canadian energy companies, municipalities and the public.
11/17/2014
Songnian Li
$5,000
$15,000
$20,000
Toronto
Talent Edge
DCL International Inc.
Internship‐CC
Methane emission from natural gas engine exhaust is not being regulated currently but is expected to be regulated within the next few years. In order to meet the increasingly stringent environmental regulations, advanced catalytic technology is required for the abatement of un‐combusted methane. This topic is widely recognized as a long standing challenge towards cleaner air and lower greenhouse gas emissions. Addressing the challenge has become an increasingly urgent issue, because of the increase in using natural gas as an alternative fuel source in both stationary and mobile power generation systems. DCL International Inc., a Canadian based exhaust emission control company with a headquarter and research centre in Concord, Ontario, is partnering with University of Toronto to develop advanced catalytic technology for methane abatement, specifically focusing on developing new sulfur resistant catalysts for treating low temperature natural gas engine exhausts. The project will adapt combined kinetic and catalyst characterization strategies to explore new catalyst formulations, their performance, and catalyst regeneration methods. The findings from this project would lead to next generation catalyst materials with higher sulfur tolerances and catalyst regeneration strategies. This work will also provide essential catalyst performance data for developing next generation methane abatement technology and position DCL Interna onal Inc. to develop a market‐ready product for commercializa on.
11/17/2014
$5,000
$15,000
$20,000
Toronto
Talent Edge
Exact Delivery Inc
Brock University
Internship‐CC
Exact Delivery Inc and Brock University are partnering to develop a new family of biocompatible Positron Emission Tomography (PET) agents that can target sites of Advanced health cancer for imaging and diagnosis. Positron Emission Tomography (PET scans) use radioactive drugs to search the body for cancer, helping doctors better track the technologies
course of treatment. The expanding use of PET scans for diagnosis is being driven by the development of new radio‐pharmaceuticals. Exact Delivery Inc. is a lipid technology company with a new concept for a family of biocompa ble radioac ve fluorine (F‐18) tagged PET agents that can be adapted to target a variety of tumors.
11/17/2014
Jeffrey Atkinson
$5,000
$15,000
$20,000
St. Catharines
One of the key elements of this partnership is to be able to address the technical issues of optimized and expedient production of F‐18 since it has a short half‐life of 109 minutes. The structures of the proposed agents lend themselves to being incorporated into a lipid‐based delivery system for more precise diagnosis control.
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 61
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
Talent Edge
Lafarge Canada
Ryerson University
Internship‐CC
Bio‐economy and clean Pervious concrete is a type of concrete characterized by high void content that allows the drainage of rain to re‐charge the ground water reservoir. It is used as technologies
pavements in parking lots or low traffic areas, as well as sidewalks. It has been successfully used as an effective storm water management tool. The use of pervious concrete offers many benefits including: (i) provide continuous flow and filtration of water, (ii) reduce the heat island effect defined as the increase in temperature in urban areas compared to nearby rural areas, and (iii) optimize land use through replacing large‐area retention ponds. Similar to all other cement‐based products, wintertime conditions must be considered in the design process. While the effect of different deicing salts or liquids on normal concrete has been studied to some extent, there is a need to investigate the effects of deicers on pervious concrete and determine the types of deicer that can be applied to it with minimum deleterious effects. Indeed, the increased need to use pervious concrete and the evolving development of deicing agents raise the need to evaluate the effects of such agents on pervious concrete.
The objective of this research is to assess the effects of various types of deicing agents on the durability of pervious concrete when exposed to wintertime conditions (Freezing and thawing cycles). As deicing agents are available in several forms ranging from liquid to various grain products of different chemical compositions, the study will focus on evaluating the effects of common types of deicing agents. The research work will initially aim at collecting and analyzing data followed by optimizing a test method to enable evaluating different deicers in a small scale laboratory program. Ultimately, the findings of this research will lead to perform a larger scale field trial. By the end of this study, both theoretical basis for further research as well as practical recommendations on the treatment of pervious concrete in winter me condi ons will to be established.
11/17/2014
Medhat Shehata
Talent Edge
Polar Sapphire
Queen's University
Internship‐CC
The objective of this proposal is to examine the possibility of sintering high purity alumina (Al2O3) powder. The supporting company, Polar Sapphire is a start‐up Advanced manufacturing
company in business of manufacturing high purity alumina powders (99.999%) for use as raw material for the growth of transparent single crystal sapphire to be used as displays in various electronic devices and LEDs. Currently, the company uses several powder synthesis routes to manufacture high purity alumina powders.The end product of these processing techniques is the partly agglomerated alumina powder. In order to become a commercially viable product, the powder has to be sintered to densities of over 90% of its theoretical density. Although sintering of submicron size alumina to high densities using dopants such as MgO, TiO2 or SiO2 is a standard process in industry, sintering of high purity alumina to high densities without dopants represents a significant challenge.
12/15/2014
Talent Edge
BOCO Technology
Internship‐CC
Bacteria poses serious health risks as a direct menace to human life due to deadly infections, adding billions to health care related costs. Everyday objects such as cellphones, keyboards, door knobs and money are simply few among many that are multiple factors subjected to bacterial growth. While there are products such silver nanoparticles that possesses innate antimicrobial resistance, however, not only it is extremely expensive and difficult to implement, it also possesses serious health risks due to its nano‐scale inorganic nature. Imparting common items with antimicrobial resistance cheaply and effectively is a serious question that remains unanswered today.
OCE Commitment
City
$10,000
$30,000
$40,000
Toronto
Vladimir Krstic
$5,000
$15,000
$20,000
Kingston
12/15/2014
Hani Naguib
$5,000
$15,000
$20,000
Toronto
As the world leader in the commercial development of chitin nanowhisker (nanomaterial derived from crustacean shells that is innately anti‐microbial among many other unique properties) BOCO Technology Inc. is proud to partner material scientist Professor Hani Naguib of the University of Toronto, supported by Ontario Center of Excellence. The goal of this research project is to develop a material that possesses innate microbial resistance, derived from an indefinitely renewable source that can be harnessed cost effectively and poses absolutely zero health risks; this unique material property can be transferred to many polymer based objects or applied as coa ng to a number of surfaces.
The research team at BOCO and U of T will invistagate the viability of incoporating chitin nanowhiskers into polymer based anti‐microbial coatings or anti‐microbial nanocomposite material. Together, we intend to systematically study the microbial resistance of chitin nanowhiskers, develop methods and technique to impart or transfer such properties to polymeric coating and polymer nanocomposites. We believe valuable knowledge gained through this research partnership will be absolutely critical to a germ free future.
Talent Edge
C‐Com Satellite Systems
Digital media and Low‐cost Low‐Profile Smart Antenna Technology for The proposed research is aimed at commercializa on of low‐cost low‐profile 2‐way land‐mobile satellite terminal for Ka‐band car‐to‐satellite
communication on‐the‐move (SOTM). During this research project a proof‐of‐concept prototype featuring all main aspects and characteristics of the aforementioned information & SatCom On‐The‐Move
technology will be developed and used to confirm the proposed concepts.
9/18/2014
Safieddin Safavi‐
Naeini
$50,000
$150,000
$200,000
Waterloo
Talent Edge
Andrew J Hart Enterprises Ltd.
Safety and Usability Testing of "MoveEasy Pole Kit" ‐ We are developing a novel mobility aid, “MoveEasy Pole Kit” (MoveEasy), to promote safer and more independent mobility in the home. MoveEasy Pole Kit is a a novel system of poles and handrails for safer and modular system of vertical grab poles and clip‐on horizontal handrails that provide stable support for transfers and walking, and that can be installed without more independent mobility in the home
permanently modifying the home. This internship project comprises the final stages of MoveEasy development and testing leading into the first commercial release, and will consist of two phases that focus on assuring its safety and understanding its usability in the field:
Product Safety: Engineering planning and review of failure experiments for MoveEasy; ensuring compliance with relevant codes and standards; and recommending a safe user weight limit
Product Usability: In‐home field evaluation of MoveEasy, with a focus on assessing how specific features of the product affect the ability of users to undertake key ac vi es of daily living, such as walking and toile ng.
1/5/2015
Geoff Fernie
$10,000
$10,000
$20,000
Toronto
The results from the MoveEasy safety testing and review are critical in ensuring that the Kit is appropriate for use as a mobility aid for a clinical population, while the outcomes of the field evaluation will be instrumental in guiding the design of both Kit add‐ons or modifications as well as concepts for other novel products that will promote healthy and independent aging‐in‐place.
Our team at Toronto Rehab has a strong history of successful collaboration with Andrew J. Hart Enterprises. We have invented, developed, and commercialized a number of products that address common challenges among individuals with limited mobility. Two notable examples of this success include “Toilevator” (a device that can be easily installed at home to raise the height of a toilet seat in a discreet and stable way, thereby helping many older adults to more safety transfer on and off a toilet), and “Staxi” (a nestable wheelchair with space to transport luggage in addition to a person; the world’s leading airport wheelchair). MoveEasy Pole Kit will be a key addition to this family of products that will allow Andrew J. Hart Enterprises to manufacture in Ontario – thereby increasing its Ontario workforce and complement the engineering design, marketing and sales that are already done in the province.
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 62
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
Talent Edge
Hydro One Networks Inc.
Comprehensive Software for Analysis of Transmission Line Structures under High Intensity Wind Loads
Electricity plays a vital and essential role in our daily life. Transmission lines are responsible for carrying electricity from the source of production to the distribution Advanced manufacturing
systems. Failure of transmission lines has devastating social and economical consequences, so it is imperative to understand how failure occurs and how to prevent it. A transmission line consists of towers, conductors, ground wires and insulators. The towers can be classified into three categories; tangent towers, tension (angle) towers and end towers, based on how the conductors are supported. Transmission towers are slender and flexible structures, which makes them vulnerable to strong winds. Localized sever wind events in the form of downbursts and tornadoes are referred to as “High Intensity Wind” (HIW) events. These events are responsible for more than 80% of all weather‐related transmission line failures worldwide. Many transmission towers have failed in Canada during HIW events, including Manitoba Hydro’s near Winnipeg and Hydro One’s in Ontario. Despite this fact, codes of practice and design guidelines for transmission line structures remain based on wind loads associated with large scale events. In addition, currently, there is one commercial software package in the market for analyzing and designing transmission lines. This package includes software "TOWER" for lattice steel towers and "PLS‐POLE" for transmission poles. Both programs do not account for loads resulting from HIW events. Two years ago, researchers at Western University started working on a research project funded by Hydro One Ontario, OCE and NSERC to develop and validate a fluid/structure analysis numerical code that is capable of predicting the critical loads acting on transmission line structures due to tornadoes and downbursts. So far, this code is limited to model tangent towers (self supported or guyed) and reinforced concrete towers. The main objectives of the current research is to extend this numerical code to be capable of simulating other types of lattice towers (tension (angle) and end towers) under HIW events. This will lead to a comprehensive software package, named “HIW”, which will be validated using a new testing facility, the WindEEE dome, recently constructed at Western University. WindEEE is the world’s first facility where models of structures can be tested under simulated downburst and tornado events. Since commercial software packages does not account for HIW loads, the end product of this research project, “HIW” software, will be developed to be compatible with the industry‐program “TOWER”. This compatibility will lead to the development of unique software that is not available elsewhere. This comprehensive software package, which will be commercialized by Western University, will be utilized to refine Hydro One’s transmission line analysis procedure and design criteria and will further enhance the overall transmission system reliability. It will also be commercialized by Western University as the first software package in the word that is specialized in the analysis and design of transmission line systems under HIW. 1/5/2015
Ashraf El Damatty
$25,000
$75,000
$100,000
London
Talent Edge
Aviation Training Resources
Carleton University
Development of Critical Technologies for Cost‐
effective Simulators
Full‐flight simulators (FFSs) and flight training devices (FTDs) are available for large commercial aircraft and are used for the training of commercial airline pilots. The Advanced manufacturing
primary benefits of these devices ‐ improved training effectiveness and reduced training cost ‐ are known to extend to ab‐initio (introductory) pilot training. However, devices suitable for introductory flight training are either not available or are prohibitively expensive for most flight schools. A recent project in the Applied Dynamics Laboratory at Carleton University built an evaluation prototype of a cost‐effective type‐specific small aircraft simulator and concluded that it is feasible, and identified current technological shortcomings. The proposed project will focus on the further research and development of an optimized flight model, innovative cockpit interfaces, reconfigurable LCD flight instruments, as well as the development of a novel, graphical approach to the evaluation of flight simulation fidelity. Flight tests will be conducted to validate the fidelity and effectiveness of the developed technologies. The simulator technology under development offers the potential for widespread improvement in the quality and cost‐effectiveness of ab‐initio flight training through greater use of FTDs; and correspondingly, improvements to aviation safety. 1/13/2015
Robert Langlois
$15,000
$45,360
$60,360
Ottawa
Talent Edge
Brisk Synergies
Development of Brisk Analytics for Cloudsourced Cycling Data
Brisk Cycle is a platform developed by Brisk Synergies for city planners to collect a large amount of cycling trip data from cyclists in their cities. The collected data can be used to plan, design and manage urban cycling infrastructure for improved safety, mobility and sustainability. The objective of this project is to enhance the exis ng data analy cs of Brisk Cycle, including data filtering, demand analysis, condi on es ma on and visualiza on.
1/13/2015
Liping Fu
$5,000
$18,000
$23,000
Waterloo
Talent Edge
Enbridge Gas Distribution
Ryerson University
Energy audit and cost/benefit analysis for selected small and medium‐sized industrial customers of Enbridge Gas Distribution Inc.
The proposed project and related research is to be undertaken on behalf of Enbridge Gas Distribu on Inc (EGD) by graduate students at Ryerson University.
Through its programs, Enbridge Gas Distribution (EGD) provides various services to small‐ and medium‐sized industrial customers to encourage them to adopt energy efficiency practices for reduced natural gas consumption. These services include conducting energy audits at no cost, and providing financial incentives. All industrial customers within rate classes 6, 110, 115, 135, 145 and 170 qualify to receive the aforemen oned services.
1/13/2015
Alan Fung
$20,000
$60,000
$80,000
Toronto
1/13/2015
Bo Cui
$10,000
$30,000
$40,000
Waterloo
EGD has partnered with Ryerson University to conduct energy assessments and analysis of natural gas consumption in an effort to research energy efficiency performance of small and medium sized industries and also to investigate gas consumption trends, best practices, benchmarks and energy saving opportunities specific to small and medium‐sized enterprises. The energy audits will be performed for customers that belong to the rate classes 6, 135 or 145 and consume less than 1.5 million m3 of natural gas per year. The selected customers will be within a 75 km range from the par cipa ng university.
This project seeks to enhance the current EGD’s demand side management (DSM) program, and to set up the fundamentals for a long‐term province‐wide program. While firms will get the benefit of knowledge transfer in energy efficiency at no cost, Ryerson students will gain access to, and will analyze, real energy consumption data, to iden fy consump on trends and pa erns, and ul mately to develop province‐specific energy efficiency strategies.
A major component of this research will consist of energy assessments conducted by Ryerson University`s graduate students at no cost for firms, together with analysis of natural gas consumption data to derive information regarding natural gas end‐uses in industrial facilities. The project would also involve identification and recommenda on of energy saving measures specific to industrial customers of Enbridge. This approach accomplishes three major goals:
Alleviates any technical and/or financial barrier firms may have in adop ng energy efficiency prac ces;
Allows hand‐on experience for students to analyze energy usage, assess equipment parameters, estimate process efficiency, and identify areas of improvement for EGD industrial customers, and aligns with provincially mandated energy efficiency programs which EGD is expected to endorse. This research may well help to set up similar ini a ves in provinces other than Ontario by providing a reference research to facilitate energy efficiency programs.
The targeted EGD customers consist of medium size firms whose consump on ranges from 300,000 to 1 million cubic metres of natural gas per year. To ensure project objectives are met, students will be trained to conduct energy audits comparable in level to ASHRAE Level 2. Trained EGD specialists along with Ryerson faculty member(s) will ensure quality of energy audits. The natural gas‐powered energy related systems to be investigated are steam generation systems, process and heat recovery applications, and space heating and ventilation. The duration of the each intern’s research will be 4 months full‐time.
Talent Edge
Nanodevice Solutions Inc.
Batch fabrication of high aspect ratio AFM tips
In collaboration with the supporting company, NanoDevice Solutions (NDS), this project aims to solve a critical problem within the nanotechnology industry. Our goal Advanced manufacturing
is to make cu ng edge devices more available to the R&D community. A widely used tool in nanotechnology is the Atomic Force Microscope, aka the AFM. The most important part of the AFM is the AFM tip which "feels" the sample surface and creates an image based on the forces that it feels. In order to get high quality images, very high aspect ratio tips are required, i.e. have to be long and skinny. But these high aspect ratio tips are extremely difficult to make and consequently very expensive ($70‐$500 per tip) and therefore only bought sparingly. NDS has developed and patented a disruptive technique that enables the fabrication of these tips for a fraction of the cost, in some cases as much as 66% cheaper than the cheapest alternative in the current market. The key point that differentiates NDS' technology from the competing ones is that the tips are fabricated in high throughput in a batch manner, whereas the current commercially available high aspect ratio tips are all fabricated one by one. By making these tips more affordable, we will be helping researchers all over the nanotechnology industry and laboratories by providing them with access to a product that they can use to obtain high quality experimental data at an affordable price.
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 63
Program
Talent Edge
Partners
Rassettica Testing Limited
Carleton University
Project Title
Test Methodology, Software and Hardware for Testing Taser X‐2 and X‐26E
Project Summary
Sector
Police forces in Canada are deploying Conducted Energy Weapons (CEW’s) in increasing numbers as an alternative to lethal weapons. In Ontario, the provincial government has recently authorized police services to deploy the current generation of CEW (Taser X‐26E) to all sworn police officers whereas before 2014, only 17% of sworn officers in Ontario (Tactical Team members and Supervisory Sergeants) could carry and deploy the Taser X‐26E. The potential for widespread deployment of Tasers is imminent in Ontario. Other provinces already authorize the carriage and deployment of Tasers to all properly trained officers.
Widespread testing of the current generation of CEW’s (in Canada) is centered in Ontario. Other provincial police services have used the services of two Ontario‐
based companies for regular testing of their new and in‐service CEW’s on a commercial basis since 2010. Testing and electrical characterization of in‐service CEW’s came late to the deployment of the weapon in Canada (2009) and only after considerable negative publicity and judicial attention. Other provinces have only recently re‐introduced the use of CEW’s by police services after having embargoed them completely after the Vancouver airport incident which resulted in a judicial inquiry. One of the key recommenda ons of the judicial inquiry was to regularize tes ng of the weapons by independent authori es. Date
Applicant Name
1/21/2015
Andy Adler
1/21/2015
OCE Commitment
City
$5,000
$16,000
$21,000
Ottawa
Jennifer Johrendt
$10,000
$30,000
$40,000
Windsor 1/21/2015
Andrzej Sobiesiak
$10,000
$30,000
$40,000
Windsor
Our goal is to provide high quality engineering standards, software and hardware for benchmark and periodic performance testing of a new generation of Conducted Energy Weapons for police services in Canada.
Why is this research important to Ontario? Carleton University and Ontario companies have been in the forefront of independent testing of Tasers for 5 years now. The Canadian Test Procedure[1] was written in Ontario and has been the de facto minimum Canadian standard procedure for 5 years. This test procedure has been published and referenced in numerous peer‐reviewed academic journals. It is prudent to design and develop a test procedure and hardware before a new weapon is introduced to Ontario. Reactive measures after negative events do not instill public confidence or indicate the best use of taxpayer dollars. Ontario has established Centers of Excellence in Taser tes ng which are referenced in numerous regulatory and scien fic fora.
While the Taser X‐2 (and X‐26P) are not yet authorized for use in Canada, they will be introduced in a 2‐5 year window as the current generation of weapon (X‐26E) is withdrawn from service. Manufacturing of the X‐26E has ceased and Taser International has publicly indicated that warranty support will expire by 2019 at the latest. it is essential that sound engineering design work and testing methodology be developed in advance of the deployment of new weapons rather than in response to unfortunate incidents which generate unnecessary nega ve publicity and disinforma on.
This project will 1) design and validate a test procedure, software and hardware for in‐situ testing and 2) document the procedure and results in public and peer‐
reviewed fora.
[1] h p://curve.carleton.ca/papers/2010/CEW‐Test‐Procedure‐2010‐ver1.1.pdf
Talent Edge
Chrysler Canada Inc.
Effects of Heat Transfer on Vehicle Front End Cooling A large automotive original equipment manufacturer (OEM) has introduced this project with the goal of refining their engineering design process associated with vehicle thermal management. Typically, to design an automotive component, computer models are developed to gauge the effect of design changes on component Airflow Simulation
performance. The accuracy of the model is determined by comparing its simulated results with experimental data collected from physical prototypes. Often, limitations in computing capacity require simplifying assumptions during model development at the cost of the accuracy of its predictive results. This compromise will generally result in additional design iterations before a final design decision is made. As our modeling and computing capacities increase, it is necessary to revisit design processes to ensure that efficiencies are realized. Arriving a final production‐intent design earlier not only saves time and money, but also provides more accurate system performance informa on earlier in the design process.
It is important to appropriately predict vehicle cooling performance characteristics during the design phase of vehicle development to reduce the number of costly design iterations using physical prototypes and experimental validation. If fewer simplifying assumptions results in improved accuracy without adding significant computational burden, then changes will be implemented to their engineering design process relevant to vehicle thermal management.
Talent Edge
Chrysler Canada Inc.
Development of a Deterministic Expander Model for A large automotive original equipment manufacturer (OEM) has determined that there is potential for substantial fuel savings through the implementation of a waste Advanced manufacturing
heat recovery (WHR) system in their vehicles. In order for a system of this complexity to be implemented properly, it must be rigorously tested and validated before it a Waste Heat Recovery System
can be utilized. Typically, simulation tools are developed for such systems to predict performance parameters and observe the system response to design changes. The accuracy of these models is weighed against the computing time necessary to achieve a result, and often involves simplifying assumptions which lower predictive accuracy but allow for more reasonable computa on mes. These models must constantly be modified and expanded as industry needs evolve.
One such area is the development of a simulation tool which can precisely predict the transient performance characteristics of a device within the WHR system called the expander. To date, the OEM employs simulation tools which can only model steady state expander conditions. Simply, of interest is the behaviour of the expander as the vehicle is tested under required procedure or driven under typical daily driving conditions including frequent starts, stops, and accelerations. The proposed model will address this need and be made as a generic tool which can be modified to analyze various forms of expanders. By implementing such a tool, the performance of multiple expander technologies can be analyzed within the WHR system, allowing for validation of the most appropriate expander technology to be used in future vehicles. The benefits of such a detailed, deterministic model include not only increased precision of simulation results, but the ability to verify which expander technology provides the most performance benefits within the system without the need for expensive prototyping and experimental testing.
Talent Edge
1QB Information Technologies
York University
Software Re‐engineering for Adiabatic Quantum Processors
1QBit works closely with hardware developers to develop coding techniques that open up the unusual architecture of quantum processors for practical uses. This Digital media and project relates to implementing techniques for the selection, conversion, and encoding of mathematical models to be solved on newly available types of processors information & that specialize in optimization problems. These processors use a technique known as quantum annealing and are an approach to adiabatic quantum computation. This communication research investigation aims to improve and implement new solvers that harness these processors to act as an "oracle" for a classical Turing machine (ie. a digital technologies
computer) to solve intractable problems that currently result in bottlenecks or approximations with their known solutions. The project is part of 1QBit's exploration of how to best utilize an annealing processor for various high‐value optimization problems (ie. portfolio optimization, trading algorithms, scheduling problems) and develop a specialized so ware development sector currently unique to Canada.
2/6/2015
Jia Xu
$5,000
$15,000
$20,000
Toronto Talent Edge
NuPhysics Consulting, Ltd.
Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation for Heterogeneous Soil Remediation
Flows of liquids and gases are important in many areas of science and engineering, including evaporation and absorption. Computer simulations of these multiphase Bio‐economy and clean flows are required across a range of industries, such as oil and gas exploration, fuel cell development, high‐speed aircraft, pharmaceutical development and delivery, technologies
and water and wastewater treatment. However, multiphase flows are challenging to simulate, and are presently not possible using conventional, commercial computa onal fluid dynamics (CFD) packages.
2/6/2015
Brent Sleep
$5,000
$15,000
$20,000
Toronto
Based on 10 years of software development, NuPhysics offers specialized CFD software capable of solving complex multiphase problems. Our software can perform multiphase simulations at much higher accuracies than commercial software. Accuracies at such levels are often required in our target industries, water and wastewater treatment, groundwater remedia on problems, and pharmaceu cal and medical devices.
Contaminant transport in groundwater, surface water, and wastewater treatment processes often includes complex phenomena such as adsorption, evaporation, condensation, dissolution, and reactive degradation. Engineers frequently use computer simulations in design; however, current methods for simulation of contaminant transport with complex phenomena are expensive and time‐consuming, due to the large number of calculations that need to be performed to obtain accurate solutions. Enhancing our existing code to include contaminant transport modelling will allow NuPhysics to deliver even more accurate and rapid solutions to complex problems. While accurate, however, development and derivation of the algorithms is highly complex. This TalentEdge proposal will allow us to engage a highly‐qualified intern with direct expertise in this field, to implement these modifications into our proprietary software. The proposed intern will enable us to offer high‐impact multiphase simulation capability, which will benefit the industries in Ontario and Canada, and develop game‐changing software, right here in Ontario.
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 64
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
Talent Edge
Ericsson Canada
Advanced Techniques for Interference Management Ericsson is a world leading Telecom company that employs over 100,000 employees world‐wide, approximately 3,500 in Canada and over 1400 in Ontario. Ericsson is Digital media and with Network MIMO
heavily involved in both building mobile network infrastructures and monitoring/analyzing data from these networks that satisfy the Telecom requirements. Ericsson information & Ottawa is a global R&D site working on wireless access technologies. Ottawa R&D site has over 30 years of Radio access technology development, and it is a leading communication developer of LTE, next genera on technologies, carrier grade WiFI and heterogeneous small cell and indoor solu ons.
technologies
2/23/2015
Ben Liang
$20,000
$60,000
$80,000
Toronto
Talent Edge
Cinnos Technologies Inc.
McMaster University
Cinnos Mission Critical Rack
2/23/2015
Lotfi Belkhir
$15,000
$45,000
$60,000
Hamilton
2/23/2015
Miriam Capretz
$25,000
$75,000
$100,000
London
$5,000
$15,000
$20,000
Toronto
$15,000
$45,000
$60,000
Toronto
Cinnos Technologies Inc. specializes in introducing to market innovations that achieve higher efficiencies, while reducing emissions in the mission critical facilities Advanced manufacturing
sector. A mission critical facility is a specialised building that houses equipment that is Mission Critical to a business. Businesses deem Mission Critical activities, devices, services, or systems whose failure or disruption will cause a failure in business operations. These facilities are typically build with specialised systems such as backup generators, uninterruptble power supplies, fire suppression, precision cooling, environmental monitoring, building management systems, and racking infrastructure – data centers would fall under this category.
CINNOS has identified the next evolution in the mission critical facility market and the strong need to bring these facilities within budget and on time. Cinnos is developing an All‐In‐1 Smart Mission Critical Rack (MCR) as a fully integrated and functioning mission critical facility. The current two (2) methods of building missing critical facilities, traditional (brick and mortar) and prefabricated modular containerized solution in many cases lack in meeting the fundamental customer needs of cost and time. The Cinnos’s proprietary MCR, will eliminate wasted capacity when compared to traditional and prefabricated modular containerized and reduce cost by 40% and 30% compare to the exis ng methods respec vely.
Cinnos will bring positive impact to Ontario socially, environmentally, and economically. Cinnos was founded in Hamilton, Ontario and will be based out of Hamilton, Ontario. Cinnos will be incorporating sustainability in the solution that it is bringing to market by creating a dynamic equilibrium that allows for continued profitability while maintaining social responsibility. The goal of our product is to create positive social change in the way that data centers are deployed today by eliminating the wasted capacity and reducing energy consumption by about 25%. This wasted capacity translates to higher power consumption and wasted coolant gases. Cinnos is also aiming at being an industry leader in the initiatives that the company will take in providing products that facilitate the reduction in the amount of activities that result in scope 3 emissions. Companies that operate data centers will now have the ability to expand their data centers on a per rack basis, thus reducing the resulting scope 3 emissions generated from data centers. Profitability is achieved by the focus on innovation and customer needs while maintaining a strong company that compensates its employees, suppliers and contractors fairly. Thus, our aim is to develop products to be inherently sustainable in the way that it operates and how it serves society.
Talent Edge
Powersmiths International Corporation
Enterprise App Store for Smart Communities
Powersmiths is committed to build a sustainable future by supplying products and services to manage and control Green House Gas (GHG) emissions, reducing electricity waste and identifying resource use at a building's sub‐system level. Powersmiths currently commercializes the Window on the World (WoW) software platform, and since its introduction in 2010, the company has successfully implemented WoW in many buildings and communities throughout North America. WoW draws on live measurements of building’s systems and rich media to support energy management and conserva on.
Powersmiths aspires to develop the new WoW 2.0 which will build on the existing WoW platform with the objective of offering additional features to the existing customers and accessing new customers and new markets. The Enterprise app Store for Smart Communities to be developed in this project will be integral part of the WoW 2.0; it will provide a digital distribution and management platform for energy applications. There will be two forms of app store: a store for mobile applications and a store for web applications. The challenge is to provide isolation among different applications running in the cloud environment, isolation among data belonging to different clients, and to ensure privacy.
The results of this project will provide Powersmiths with a modern enterprise app store to extend its current capability in the smart connected buildings and communities. As organizations increasingly focus on building resource utilization and making buildings more efficient, stakeholders will rely on smart software based systems to do most of the work.
Talent Edge
Blackberry Ltd.
Ryerson University
Development and testing of an approach to assess human factors capability in an organization
The role of human factors (HF) in an organization extends beyond mere injury prevention, though few processes or tools exist to demonstrate an organization’s HF Advanced manufacturing
capability beyond Occupational Health and Safety. This project focuses on the development, testing, and dissemination of a method of quantifying HF capability in a manufacturing organization. A draft tool will be developed and tested within the organization across a range of organization functions. An organizational “HF capability score” and refined tool will be created from this collaboration, to provide a HF capability benchmark for the company as well as an industry‐validated tool that may be shared with other organiza ons.
2/23/2015
Patrick Neumann
Talent Edge
Sigma Bio‐instruments Inc
Internship‐CC
Advanced health The KB test is a blood test performed on approximately 15‐20% of pregnant women to measure the number of fetal red blood cells entering from a fetus into a mother’s bloodstream (i.e., fetal‐maternal hemorrhage).Fetal‐maternal hemorrhage can result from Rhesus hemolytic (Rh) diseases or loss of integrity of the normal technologies
physiological barrier between the fetal and maternal circulation. The state‐of‐the‐art practice in hospitals for KB test relies on manual counting by certified technologists. A lab technologist prepares a blood smear from the mother’s blood. Sample preparation with an acid results in a KB slide where fetal red blood cells appear dark red and maternal cells appear light pinkish. The lab technologist, looking through the eyepieces of a microscope, manually counts the fetal and maternal red blood cells (RBCs). To have reliable results a minimum of 2,000 cells are counted and the percentage of fetal to maternal cells is calculated. Manual counting of 2,000 cells takes ~15‐20 minutes.
1/19/2015
Yu Sun
Human errors are always a clinical concern because of the nature of the manually performed task. This project aims to develop a low‐cost instrument prototype for automated fetal and maternal RBC count in clinical KB test. The system prototype will include custom‐developed hardware for positioning and imaging KB slides. The system will process the captured RBC images to count and distinguish fetal and maternal RBCs. The system will position KB slides to count a high number of cells (60,000 cells vs. 2,000 cells) and will enhance the accuracy of traditional KB tests. We will also prove that the low‐cost instrument will offer significant savings in time and efforts (8 minute automated operation vs. 20 minutes manual counting). Within this project, we will evaluate the performance of the system prototype and compare KB test results with those from certified hospital technologists and benchmark results from flow cytometry. The technology has the potential to standardize how RBCs are counted in clinical KB test.
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 65
Program
Talent Edge
Partners
Screaming Power
Ryerson University
Project Title
Internship‐CC
Project Summary
Screaming Power is pleased to announce its partnership with Ryerson to develop a secure and private cloud infrastructure to manage the capture, storage, analysis and distribution of Utility information to Screaming Power’s mobile applications. This new R&D project will build upon a mobile app solution already developed and being piloted at this time in order to allow utilities to securely communicate with their customers and efficiently distribute energy information. The integrated cloud infrastructure combined with the mobility solution will allow customers to securely access their utility data in a simple way, which to date has not been available. In addi on, tools will be created to extract and manage this data from the u lity. Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
2/25/2015
Soosan Beheshti
$15,000
$45,000
$60,000
Toronto
2/25/2015
Zbigniew Wasilewski
$15,000
$45,000
$60,000
Waterloo
2/25/2015
Alan Fung
$5,000
$15,000
$20,000
Toronto
$5,000
$15,000
$20,000
Waterloo
$10,000
$30,000
$40,000
London
The goal of this new research and development project, called 'Cloud‐based Infrastructure for Big Data Retrieval, Analysis, and Delivery of Energy Information', is to securely manage large amounts of information (‘big data’) to allow residential, commercial and industrial users, utilities, and Government to more easily review and improve their electric, natural gas and water usage using the principles of “Privacy by Design”. The cloud solution will simplify the management of data so proper review of business, benchmarking and conservation efforts can be managed, evaluated and achieved. This solution is an extension of previous work already completed and is beneficial to the utilities and their customers, as well as the Government. Through this partnership, Screaming Power will be engaging the academic resources from Ryerson University (utilizing both the Talent Edge and OCE VIP I programs). The development of a complete enterprise mobile platform for energy management provides unique training and applied research opportunities for the faculty and students in advancing state‐of‐the‐art 'smart grid' and ‘big data’ management prac ces.
The project will entail research, design, development and programming of a cloud solution that is capable of managing multiple mobile and Enterprise applications on one cloud platform. This solution will allow many parties with multiple interests to easily review their information (i.e., manage user / data interaction with utility informa on, and / or perform 'big data' analysis).
Objec ves of the OCE project:
‐ Create a Cloud infrastructure that is architected to securely allow both private access to user‐specific data and public access to sani zed 'big data' (de‐personalized data).
‐ Distribute this data securely and efficiently to cross‐pla orm mobile applica ons for individual, u lity, Government and enterprise use.
‐ Be an extensible, scalable Cloud infrastructure that can accept all types of data (e.g., real‐time, historical, outage, trading, conservation data, etc.) beyond the initial mobile applica on to allow for quick integra on to other Enterprise Mobile applica ons that we (or other third party developers) will develop in the future.
Talent Edge
TeTechS
Internship‐CC
Prof. Zbig Wasilewski is internationally renowned for his contributions to the field of Molecular Beam Epitaxy, quantum‐dot and quantum‐well photonic devices such Advanced manufacturing
as terahertz Quantum Cascade Lasers. Prof. Wasilewski is the director of the MBE laboratory at the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN). The UW MBE laboratory is a unique facility for growing state‐of‐the‐art semiconductor materials for optoelectronics, photonics, and quantum electronics applications. In this project, novel semiconductor material system will be developed for the next generation of TeTechS' terahertz sensor technology. The new groundbreaking semiconductor material system will enable TeTechS to develop cost effec ve vision sensor solu ons for its current and future customers. TeTechS Inc. is a leading innovator of advanced terahertz vision sensor technology solutions for industrial and scientific applications. TeTechS draws on the distinctive characteristics of leading‐edge terahertz technology to develop unique vision sensor solutions that use terahertz waves to find previously undetectable objects and defects in advanced manufacturing processes. The terahertz vision sensors can see through opaque barriers to make objects and defects behind those barriers visible, and can identify materials by resolving their unique spectral signatures. The customers' problems can be solved in ways that cannot be address by other technologies such as visible, infrared, and x‐ray vision sensors.
Talent Edge
Ecologix Heating Technologies Inc.
Ryerson University
Internship‐CC
Buildings consume a significant amount of primary energy and a major source of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. Several proven technologies available for Bio‐economy and clean building heating/cooling differ in terms of energy saving potential, GHG emissions mitigation and dependency on fossil fuels. The successful acceptance of any new technologies
technological development depends on its efficiency, cost‐effectiveness, reliability, and competitiveness with other technologies. Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHP) are considered a promising technology which can enable buildings to eliminate or minimize the use of natural gas, oil, and electricity. However, the ASHP systems has achieved a limited acceptance in Canada due to their reduced heating performance in winter season. The ASHP systems heating capacity and the coefficient of performance (COP) decrease considerably as the source (air) temperature drops below zero degree centigrade. On the other hand, solar thermal collector provides an emissions free source of heat, but cannot provide all the hea ng needs of buildings, especially during cold season.
The intent of this project is to overcome the performance limitations of both ASHP and solar thermal technology by combining the two heating concepts in an integrated system, which can allow the complete or par al subs tu on of conven onal hea ng technologies based on natural gas, oil or electricity.
The new innovative design will allow residential and commercial buildings to operate as energy generating systems and provide the opportunity for a transformation from fossil fuel based technologies to net zero energy buildings. The project will lead to a better understanding of the technical potential and benefits of the combined system based on the Building Integrated Photovoltaic‐Thermal Collectors (BIPV/T), ASHP, and Thermal Energy Storage (TES). The project is a significant research in natural science, engineering, and in the growth of net zero energy building concepts. The expected outcomes of this research will contribute in the development of optimized design of combined system with better control strategies. It will also provide credible information to the building industry, policy maker, and the system integrators. In addition, this research will increase the existing university expertise on the combined technology for future research and training, and will prepare a team of highly skilled personnel on the subject.
Talent Edge
Class 1 Inc
Internship‐CC
The inhaled anesthetic gases used in hospitals are currently collected by the ventilation system and emitted to the atmosphere. These gases are relatively strong Advanced manufacturing
greenhouse gases and are ozone depleting, like the CFC refrigerants, and therefore there is a desire to prevent their emission. In addition, since they are relatively expensive there is a potential to capture and reprocess them for reuse. Class 1 Inc has developed a centralized ventilation system that can capture the major anesthetic gases using an adsorbent material. In collaboration with researchers at the University of Waterloo, it is desired to further develop the technology to permit a cost and energy‐effective method to recover the gases in a liquid form that can be reprocessed. In this project, installation of additional equipment on a test system that is at a local hospital will be performed and the system run for a period to assess its performance. Lab tests will be used as required to verify the quality of the recovered product, as well as to troubleshoot any identified operating concerns. At the end of the project, a prototype system will have been fully developed and tested on‐site at a hospital, and the performance and purity of recovered anesthetics will be characterized. This will allow Class 1 Inc to proceed with manufacture of the first commercialized version of the technology for sale later in 2015.
3/19/2015
William Anderson
Talent Edge
BlackBerry Limited
Internship‐CC
Every year, hundreds of thousands of people are killed in car accidents. For example, over 1.2 million people were killed in road traffic accidents around the world in 2003, another 50 million were left injured. Most of the victims are young adults between the ages of 15 and 44. Generally speaking, the major road accident causes are different from one country to another. However, a common major reason for car accidents is the driving while disregarding weather, road, and traffic conditions. This behavior is denoted as speeding. A speeding driver might be driving below the posted speed limits however his/her speed could be much higher than what it should be. In fact 50% of fatal accidents occur at impact speeds less than 55 km/hour. Consequently, speed limits should be set and enforced according to weather, traffic, and road condi ons.
2/20/2015
Abdallah Shami
This project aims at developing an autonomous agile traffic control system. The proposed system will utilize cutting edge wireless networking technologies to replace the current fixed speed limits posted on the roadside with variable speed limits that change based on the road, weather and traffic conditions. The speed limits will be communicated via a special receiver that will be mounted inside the vehicle. The in‐vehicle receiver will also have the capability to communicate information about the driver compliance with the variable speed limits via 4G/5G networks.
The proposed project aims at integrating mobile and wireless communications technologies in the highway and roads infrastructure. Therefore, it is among the topics of highest consideration as listed by the OCE (Communication Systems).
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 66
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
Talent Edge
Cytec
McMaster University
Fundamental developments and applications of organophospine technology
This research proposal will address the discovery of new technology for the preparation of organophosphines and phosphonium salts as well as applications of these Pharmaceutical Resarch materials in areas relevant to small molecule and pharmaceutical synthesis.
and manufacturing
3/26/2015
James McNulty
Talent Edge
Cave Spring Cellars
Brock University
Innovative Application of Proximal Sensing to Assess Due to the variability of environmental factors that exist within large vineyards, Niagara’s wineries continue to face the challenge of providing consistent wine quality Bio‐economy and clean technologies
Variability in Agriculture Productivity
on a yearly basis. The goal of this research program is to test and verify the usefulness of GreenSeeker® proximal sensing technologies for mapping important variables such as vigor, yield, fruit composition, and disease incidence in Ontario vineyards. The intern will work with Cave Spring Cellars to collect optical measurements of the vineyard and record these findings as a series of spatial maps throughout the season. Quantitative testing of various environmental factors that affect vine health and fruit quality will be performed simultaneously to determine whether correlations can be made to these spatial maps. By gathering customized and detailed information about the unique environmental characteristics of the Cave Spring Estate, we hope to demonstrate how GreenSeeker® maps can be used to develop or improve upon existing management strategies. Overall, as a result of this project we expect that Niagara growers will appreciate the GreenSeeker® system as a practical tool to map vineyard variability, which in turn could affect management decision making, disease scouting, harvest planning and wine production.
3/26/2015
Andrew Reynolds
Talent Edge
Bombardier Transportation
Ryerson University
Bombardier ‐ Ryerson TalentEdge
TrackSafe is a safety system that is being developed to improve safety for railway track workers while enhancing their productivity. TrackSafe is the result of a collaborative activity that Bombardier had undertaken with the McMaster RFID Applications Lab since 2009. The initial research and development was supported by the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) through a Collaborative Research and Development grant and by MITACS through various fellowship and industrial internship programs. The team has continued to work closely with workers from various transit agencies to gather requirements, validate the concept and to ensure the resultant technology enhances decision making for workers at the track level as well as train operators and control center employees.
Over the years TrackSafe has been recognized for the innovative approach at tackling track worker safety. It has also been awarded numerous awards, a key one being the IET award for the Embedded and Critical Systems category for 2012. The IET judging panel summarized their views as “TrackSafe has the potential to have a major social impact because on a global scale it would improve both trackside worker safety and urban transportation productivity. The project has demonstrated a high degree of collaboration between industry, local operators and academia in order to gain the full benefits of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and other technologies.”
The TrackSafe technology was also selected for two pilot projects. A key project was funded by the FTA to evaluate the impact TrackSafe can have on enhancing track worker safety. The support from FTA was provided to pilot TrackSafe at the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA). Both MARTA and the FTA have been supportive of the project and the team is working with them to expand on the current pilot. The need for the current research stems from the experience the team was able to have while supporting the pilot project at MARTA. It was noticed that there was no easy way for the team to diagnose any malfunctions or to monitor the health of various components. Some components were not acting as reliably as the lab testing and or component specifications had led us to believe. It also enabled the team to experience the challenges associated with accessing the equipment, at the track level, to perform any updates or maintenance. Accessing equipment at the track level can be expensive and disruptive to the normal operations of transit agencies. As such it was determined that the proposed research and development of self‐health monitoring be carried out. MARTA believes that this would result in a lower cost of ownership for them and that it would be a requirement for them to move the commercial discussions past pilot deployments to a commercial deployment.
3/26/2015
Talent Edge
MC Countermeasures Inc.
Carleton University
IRAP‐OCE TE Partnership ‐ MC Countermeasures ‐ Graduate Engineer
The intern will take part in the design and development, production, and testing of radar environment simulators and radar jammers. This will include both digital and Bio‐economy and clean RF designs. As part of this work, the intern will be required to support MCCM products both in Ottawa and in customer facilities worldwide. technologies
Talent Edge
Lake Central Air Services (LCAS)
Carleton University
IRAP‐OCE TE Partnership ‐ Youth Project Proposal‐
Aeronautical Engineer Graduate
The Lake Central Air Services Aeronautical Engineer Graduate shall provide enhanced technical capability to the designing and Transport Canada approval of LCAS aeronautical projects.
Talent Edge
Dajcor Aluminum Ltd
IRAP‐OCE TE Partnership ‐ Dajor
Utlize lean manufacturing principles in developlng an efficient product realization process from RFQ through product launch to meet the ever increasing demands of quick turnaround in a highly competive business environment.
Talent Edge
Grantek Systems Integration Inc.
McMaster University
IRAP‐OCE TE Partnership ‐ Grantek
The graduate will be working on two projects:
Digital media and 1) A Grantek client is a leading provider of contract drug development and manufacturing services. This client has an employee base of approximately 6,000 personnel information & providing services at 13 commercial facilities and 8 development centers across the world. With this expansive network of facilities, this client is well equipped to communication provide pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies access to the expertise and resources required to bring drug candidates from the preclinical stages through to technologies
commercial manufacturing. OCE Commitment
City
$20,000
$62,000
$82,000
Hamilton
$5,000
$15,000
$20,000
St. Catharines
Rafik Loutfy
$20,000
$60,000
$80,000
Toronto
8/15/2014
Scott McDonald
$10,000
$25,000
$35,000
Nepean
8/7/2014
Elton Townsend
$10,000
$25,000
$35,000
Gravenhurst
8/8/2014
Wayne Cowell
$10,000
$25,000
$35,000
Catham
8/21/2014
Laura Stevenson
$10,000
$25,000
$35,000
Burlington
The client is currently running a push button panel for one of their blender systems in the GMP area. The client has enlisted the assistance of Grantek to provide a solution to upgrade this push button panel to one that utilizes a PanelView HMI and operates similar to an updated blender system in another GMP area of the facility.
The graduate will be part of the team working to solve this problem.
2) Grantek will design a new control system to support the delivery of petrolatum, glycerine, and propylene glycol to all four Symex compounding systems. The equipment within the existing control system that is currently servicing Symex #1 will be migrated to the new system (Grantek will provide a new VFD and HMI to replace the legacy equipment on the existing Symex glycerine loop). Grantek will modify the existing tank farm control system to support delivery requests for all three products from the new system.
Three HMI panels will be supplied to allow for operator interaction with the tank farm from within the new Symex rooms, with functionality similar to that of the existing Symex interface.
The graduate will be part of the team working on this project as soon as the client schedule will call for it.
Talent Edge
Nortak Software Ltd
Heritage College
IRAP‐OCE TE Partnership ‐ Nortak
The main goal of this project is to hire a recent graduate to rewrite the CallBase Inbound module C#.Net4.0. Additional enhancements for HTML5, WET compatibility Digital media and and mobile device compatability will also be considered in scope.
9/12/2014
Craig Mackay
$10,000
$25,000
$35,000
Gloucester
Talent Edge
MappedIn
IRAP‐OCE TE Partnership ‐ Mappedin ‐ The Goliath Project
The Goliath project is one of two core platforms that MappedIn has developed as a solution to indoor way finding and venue management. One of the main objectives Digital media and of this project is to deliver our kiosks quickly, by requiring less customization per kiosk. This project will aim to develop and implement the necessary processes to information & meet this objective.
9/19/2014
Hongwei Liu
$10,000
$25,000
$35,000
Kitchener
7/10/2015
Section 1 ‐ 67
Program
Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
Talent Edge
Teslonix Inc
Carleton University
IRAP‐OCE TE Partnership ‐ Teslonix Inc– Investigation Teslonix develops innovative wireless charging technologies, based on recent advances in wireless power transfer, new industry standards and progress in advanced of Robust Wireless Power Transfer Systems
semiconductors. Our goal is to develop products allowing wireless battery charging over distances of up to a few meters. The intern in this project will investigate efficient techniques to transmit and receive wireless power in the lower Industrial/Scientific/Medical (ISM) unlicensed brands (6.78 MHz and 13.75 MHz). Specifically, the project will target robust wireless power transfer systems.
10/3/2014
Paul Slaby
$10,000
$20,000
$30,000
Ottawa
Talent Edge
Teslonix Inc
Carleton University
IRAP‐OCE TE Partnership ‐ Teslonix Inc– Extending the range of Wireless Power Transfer Systems
9/10/2014
Paul Slaby
$10,000
$20,000
$30,000
Ottawa
Talent Edge
OTI Lumionics Inc. (“OTI”)
IRAP‐OCE TE Partnership ‐ OTI Lumonics – Sales, The purpose of this project is three‐fold:
Business Development, Fundraising, and more Sales 1) Increase OTI’s capacity to conduct business development and contract with partners already in the pipeline;
for OTI Lumionics Inc.
2) Increase OTI’s sales and sales support capacity; and
3) Contribute to OTI’s ability to raise capital.
10/31/2014
Thomas Lever
$10,000
$25,000
$35,000
Toronto
Talent Edge
Little Services Gateway
IRAP‐OCE TE Partnership ‐ LITTLE SERVICES GATEWAY Build a real‐time payment processing interface for the Logistrics Taxi Android driver application that is compliant with Payment Card Industry (PCI) security standards. Digital media and information & INC.–Payment processing interface for the Logistrics communication Taxi Android driver application
technologies
10/31/2014
Vish Visweswaran
$10,000
$25,000
$35,000
Toronto
Talent Edge
GymTrack
Carleton University
IRAP‐OCE TE Partnership ‐ Gymtrack‐ Developing Gymtrack's Android Application
The purpose of this project is to develop the Android application to allow users of GymTrack's software to create their own workouts, share workouts, and automatically track their workouts. We'll also be iimplementing other feautures (i.e. a rest timer in between sets, workout summaries that display total reps, time in gym, etc.).
11/27/2014
Pablo Srugo
$10,000
$30,000
$40,000
Ottawa
Talent Edge
TesMan Inc
Laurentian University
IRAP‐OCE TE Partnership ‐ Tesman ‐ Youth Project ‐ EIT
TesMan Inc is hiring a recent grad with the support of IRAP in the capacity of an engineer in training. The person will be helping to develop underground technologies Digital media and to strengthen our capacity in the mining industry and learn the mining consulting industyr.
11/11/2014
Clara Steele
$10,000
$35,500
$45,500
Sudbury
Talent Edge
Spoonity
Queen's University
IRAP‐OCE TE Partnership ‐ Spoonity ‐ Interface Developer
Development of mobile applications and dashboard interfaces to assist in scaling the company and decreasing product release times.
11/19/2014
Max Bailey
$10,000
$30,000
$40,000
Ottawa
Talent Edge
Myndtec
IRAP‐OCE TE Partnership ‐MyndTec‐Developing the Next Generation MyndMove System
Developing the Next Generation MyndMove System
11/13/2014
Geoff Graham
$10,000
$30,000
$40,000
MIssissauga
Talent Edge
Dapasoft Inc
Ryerson University
IRAP‐OCE TE Partnership ‐ Dapasoft ‐ Personal Health Use Graduate (Master Degree) to work on IT project.
Record System
12/3/2014
Stephen Chan
$10,000
$25,000
$35,000
Toronto
Talent Edge
Klipfolio Inc.
Queen's University
IRAP‐OCE TE Partnership ‐ Klipfolio Inc.– Establish Strategic Alliances Program
Create the model for Strategic Alliances, build relationships, and related content.
12/12/2014
Stephanie Laframboise
$20,000
$50,000
$70,000
Ottawa
Talent Edge
RealDecoy Inc.
IRAP‐OCE TE Partnership ‐ RealDecoy–Increasing Productivity Through Technical Improvement through Operational Support
The Operational Support Systems used at RealDecoy provide the ability to predict and allocate talent to billable client projects. The outcome of the project is increased Digital media and productivity through the technical improvement of these systems.
12/29/2014
Geoff Waddington
$10,000
$25,000
$35,000
Ottawa
Talent Edge
OTI Lumionics Inc. (“OTI”)
IRAP‐OCE TE Partnership ‐ OTI Lumonics ‐ OLED Lamp The purpose of this project is to improve the control system interface for equipment operators.
Development and OLED Equipment Control Interface Development
1/19/2015
Thomas Lever
$20,000
$50,000
$70,000
Toronto
7/10/2015
Teslonix develops innovative wireless charging technologies, based on recent advances in wireless power transfer, new industry standards and progress in advanced semiconductors. Our goal is to develop products allowing wireless battery charging over distances of up to a few meters. The intern in this project will investigate efficient techniques to transmit and receive wireless power in the lower Industrial/Scientific/Medical (ISM) unlicensed brands (6.78 MHz and 13.75 MHz). Specifically, the project will target the selection of optimum transmit coil sizes and geometries for the targeted ISM brands.
Section 1 ‐ 68
Commercialization
Section 2
Commercialization
Program
Market Readiness CB
Company / Partners
Encycle Therapeutics
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
More "user friendly" therapeutics for inflammatory Canadian, American and European gastroenterologists have identified the need for an cheaper, oral therapy for inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), including Crohn's Advanced health bowel diseases
disease and ulcera ve coli s, as a major priority. Using our proprietary technology, Encycle Therapeu cs has designed a unique macrocycle-based therapy that targets technologies
a protein in the gut called integrin α4β7 and promises to meet the stated needs of these physicians.
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
4/22/2014
Jeff Coull
$250,000
$280,090
$530,090
Toronto
4/8/2014
Miriam Tuerk
$250,000
$875,000
$1,125,000
Toronto
9/22/2014
Anne Cheung
$150,000
$340,000
$490,000
Toronto
10/23/2014
Mirvise Najafe
$125,000
$126,498
$251,498
Markham
1/15/2015
Irena BarbulovicNad
$125,000
$125,000
$250,000
Toronto
10/23/2014
Abe Heifets
$124,988
$125,133
$250,121
Toronto
The clinical relevance of integrin α4β7 has been demonstrated by the monoclonal antibody, vedolizumab, which is a highly efficacious and safe treatment for IBD, and which the FDA recently recommended for market approval. The disadvantages of this medication are that it must be infused intravenously, is very expensive, and its efficacy "wears off" in a significant number of pa ents.
Encycle based its proprietary modulators on a structure that was discovered by Genentech more than 10 years ago. Unlike Genentech's compound, however, Encycle's macrocycle has the poten al to be orally administered and demonstrate drug-like pharmacokine cs.We wish to secure OCE MR3 funding to defray costs associated with the op miza on of our leads (proper es and pharmacokine cs) so as to prepare them for full IND-enabling (and clinical) development.
Success in this project should allow the company to attract substantial foreign capital, and potentially enter into strategic partnerships with pharmaceutical companies. Discussions with both investors and representatives of pharmaceutical companies have already commenced in earnest and there is substantial interest in our technology and program.
Market Readiness CB
Clear Blue Technologies
Centennial College
Clear Blue - Market Readiness Phase 3
Clear Blue Technologies’ “Smart Off-Grid” combines the power of clean energy with the proven advantages of communications and cloud technology to deliver high Bio-economy and clean performance off-grid lighting, security and other mobile solutions. The Clear Blue hybrid solar and wind controller is designed to be easily integrated into a variety of technologies
products to deliver highly reliable off-grid alternatives. What makes Clear Blue unique in the market is our “Smart Off-grid” cloud-based software that provides real me monitoring and control of the off-grid system over the Internet from any PC or smartphone, delivering unmatched reliability and performance.
Clear Blue Technologies is a privately held company based in Toronto Canada and is led by experts from the power electronics, telecom, networking and software industries.
Sales Traction: >100 systems, >40 customers, on 3 continents
Market Readiness CC
InDanio Bioscience Inc.
Commercialization and Scale-up of a Novel In Vivo Drug Screening Platform
InDanio Bioscience Inc. (“InDanio”) is a life science company with a transformational drug discovery platform for the development of new medicines targeting nuclear Pharmaceutical research receptors (NRs) to treat major diseases including: diabetes, obesity, cancer, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s disease, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), cardiovascular and manufacturing
disease, autoimmune disease, inflammation, respiratory diseases and cancer. Our aim is to discover efficacious and safe medicines that act with greater selectivity and specificity than those currently available.
Our proprietary technology is superior to conventional test tube based drug discovery technologies as we use a live vertebrate animal (zebrafish) model for high throughput screening. As such, we have the ability to better predict uptake, toxicity, stability and metabolism, resulting in greatly reduced drug failure rates, faster drug development and lower associated costs.
The OCE’s Market Readiness program has been and continues to be a a source of business-critical financing and support for InDanio. In 2013, Indanio successfully obtained MR Phase 2a funds which enabled the company to complete the production of 32 transgenic zebrafish lines representing human NRs that are most strongly implicated in metabolic disease and cancer. We validated functionality by screening at least 5 active lines against a library of well characterized drugs. We also identified endogenous ligands for 3 “orphan” nuclear receptors, which is a highly attractive undertaking as ‘de-orphanizing’ nuclear receptors represents a powerful advance in discovering new medicines to treat major diseases. InDanio’s successful application of MR Phase 2b funds will enable the company to complete commercial scale-up of our technology, and to accelerate the company’s business development and commercialization efforts through the offer of drug discovery services and/or out-licensing of our pipeline products to pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry clients. This additional funding represents vital matching funds to the strategic research collaboration with McGill that is currently funded by CQDM. InDanio has been able to leverage OCE’s financial support through the MR2 program and succeed in applying for the CQDM-OCE life sciences research partnership, which funds collaborative life sciences research projects between Ontario and Quebec. The CQDM-OCE funded project advances research of target genes and genetic pathways specific to nuclear receptors, which could be used to enable diagnostics and treatment strategies for metabolic disease (diabetes, obesity, hyperlipidemia) and cancer. This CQDM-OCE project is on track and more importantly has enabled collaboration amongst InDanio and McGill researchers and CQDM Pharmaceu cal Industry Mentors.
Market Readiness CC
Engage Biomechanics
York University
Engage Biomechanics MR2
Bedsores and accidental falls in healthcare institutions are common and highly preventable sources of pain, discomfort, and potential death for patients. The costs are Advanced health billions of dollars globally, but can be largely eliminated through adherence to “clinical best prac ces”.
technologies
Current solutions and technologies are either prohibitively expensive or lack necessary functionality for many healthcare institutions. Engage Biomechanics has created one of the first wireless, wearable, remote monitoring technologies developed to address pressure ulcer prevention, falls prevention and broader patient monitoring.
The requested funding will allow Engage Biomechanics to service large, referenceable customers, publish a study, integrate with key partners, and prepare expansion across Canada and US. The company will create new jobs, investing in a hybrid of cutting-edge, high-skilled, knowledged-based fields in wireless communications, internet of things, wearables and medical device development. Success of the product will meaningfully impact health care quality outcomes and deliver a strong ROI. Market Readiness CC
Kapplex Inc.
Development of Point-of-Care Diagnostic Platform Kapplex Inc. is an Ontario-based start up positioning itself to exploit the rapidly growing trend in patient-centric care where cost and convenience become key drivers Advanced health for Multiplexed Respiratory Infectious Disease Panel in healthcare delivery. Our mission is to develop a small, low-cost, FDA and Health Canada cleared diagnostic device suitable for easy use right in the doctor’s office or technologies
clinic that can rapidly and accurately diagnose pa ents with the common causes of respiratory illness (The RightNow™ Respiratory Panel). Our test is symptom based, looking at multiple potential causative pathogens simultaneously, with results provided in a simple “YES” / “NO” format not requiring further laboratory analysis or interpretation. Since our tests inform clinical decision-making during the patient visit, we resolve the problems associated with long delays waiting on lab results, thereby lowering total costs to patients and payors, improving health outcomes, reducing the over-prescription of antibiotics, and ensuring the right medica on is prescribed the first me—even for an bio c resistant organisms.
Our innovation is driven by our patented digital microfluidics (DMF) technology. The genesis of the company and much of its IP estate comes from the internationally respected labs of Prof. Aaron Wheeler at the University of Toronto.
Market Readiness CC
7/10/2015
Atomwise
Channel Partner Development
Atomwise has created groundbreaking technology that uses artificial intelligence to discover medicines. This technology has the power to transform the pharmaceutical industry by finding vital new treatments, reducing costs, and increasing speed. The Ontario Centres of Excellence is providing critical support by cofunding this project.
Pharmaceutical research and manufacturing
Section 2 - 1
Commercialization
Program
Market Readiness CC
Company / Partners
Formarum Inc.
Ryerson University
Project Title
Dive Smart Sanitizer
Project Summary
Formarum is an engineering company that has developed a revolutionary smart water sanitizer technology for recreational water treatment. Our first product, DiveTM Smart Sanitizer, is targeted at the residential swimming pool market. DiveTM combines safe pool sanitization, automation, and wireless monitoring and control in an effortless all-in-one device. Dive’s patent-pending technology improves water quality and cuts operating costs, by reducing harmful chemical consump on of pools by up to 90% while making pool sani za on effortless using intelligent automa on and wireless control.
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
12/1/2014
seyed nourbakhsh
$125,000
$207,800
$332,800
Richmond Hill
The Market Readiness Investment by Ontario Centres of Excellence will enable Formarum to finalize the commercial product and deliver the first shipment of units in response to Letters of Intent from two pool product distributors. By achieving these major milestones, the company will be in a great position to secure additional capital to fuel growth in sales, manufacturing capabili es and engineering team.
Market Readiness CC
COFOVO Energy
The COFOVO Project: Phase 2
Bio-economy and clean COFOVO Energy is an Ottawa-based company developing next-generation solar systems and sensors optimised for the global sun-belt. COFOVO has recently technologies
developed an advanced, ultra-efficient solar panel that operates at twice the efficiency of standard solar panels. Through this project, COFOVO will deploy the first integrated solar power plant based on COFOVO’s solar panel technology. The power plant will be located in the Ottawa area and employ sixteen of COFOVO Energy's 30+% efficient solar panels, integrated with a self-ballasting solar tracker and power conditioning components to supply over 4 kW of clean, solar electricity to the grid. The power plant will be used to validate the performance of COFOVO’s technology at the system scale, thereby enabling COFOVO Energy to move forward and execute on its first sales contracts.
3/27/2015
Richard Beal
$125,000
$211,284
$336,284
Ottawa
Market Readiness CC
SunWash
Not Applicable
SunWash -MR-CC Product Launch
The Food and Beverage industry, in particular, struggles to maintain a sanitary environment in all stages of food preparation. It is estimated that annually 79 million people in North America become ill from contaminated food, cos ng the US about $3.13 billion. Some cases are serious, and lead to hospitaliza on and death.
SunWash Technologies Inc. aims to be a world leader in photocatalytic self-cleaning polymers. SunWash photocatalytic polymers can produce free hydroxyl radicals and super oxide ions by receiving energy from light irradiation. These radicals are very strong oxidants which cause oxidation of organic materials, deterioration of cellular membranes, and inhibi on of microorganisms. The first coa ng products released will be targeted to the food processing industry.
9/22/2014
Patrick Therrien
$125,000
$143,000
$268,000
London
1/15/2015
dan hosseinzadeh
$124,646
$130,208
$254,854
Toronto
With this project we are requesting funds to further de-risk our technology to potential investors, partners and customers through the execution of our go-to-market strategy.
Market Readiness CC
PathCore Inc
Not Applicable
Pathcore MR2
PathCore’s lead product is PathCore OS 2.0, a pla orm neutral opera ng system and suppor ng applica ons for digital pathology.
PathCore OS 2.0 enables digital pathology workflow by overcoming the incompatibilities between various proprietary hardware and software products available to pathologists. It breaks down barriers created by proprietary formats, allowing new hardware to be more easily adopted and integrated into the pathology workflow.
Once the hardware in a pathology lab is standardized and integrated by PathCore’s operating system, users can then take advantage of several high-value applications included with OS 2.0 that are essential to moving, viewing and managing terabytes of pathology image data.
Market Readiness CC
Alaunus Inc.
Alaunus MR CC
Alaunus is revolutionizing remote care delivery with mobile PM (Practice Management) software for home care firms that streamlines manual and paper-based processes to save minutes of administration each visit, drive more revenues, and improve the overall quality of patient care.
9/22/2014
Andrew Ringer
$125,000
$125,457
$250,457
Waterloo
Market Readiness CC
Acumyn Inc.;UHN Techna
Acumyn Pilot Program
Acumyn, incorporated in Ontario, is a spin-off from Princess Margaret Cancer Centre (PMCC). Acumyn's first product is AQUA, a quality control and management (QC&M) so ware that was developed at PMCC and has been used internally since 2012. Acumyn is located at Ban ng Ins tute at University of Toronto.
9/22/2014
Ferhan Bulca
$125,000
$207,400
$332,400
Toronto
MicroMetrics has developed a platform for collecting customer feedback at brick-and-mortar retail businesses that enables them to collect customer feedback data Digital media and information & more effectively, and then transforms that data into immediately-actionable insights. With our flagship iPad-based solution, our clients have consistently attained customer engagement rates 10-25 times greater than with competing solutions. These insights are made available to our decision-makers in real time via our intuitive communication technologies
web applica on, empowering the organiza on to improve customer experience, monitor staff performance and decrease opera onal costs.
12/1/2014
Martin Kratky-Katz
$124,955
$126,212
$251,167
Ottawa
12/1/2014
Brandon Burke
$125,000
$141,000
$266,000
Toronto
Quality Control of radiation therapy devices (linear accelerator and peripheral devices) is a safety procedure regulated by national agencies. Management of quality control procedures and data is crucial for the safety of patients. Acumyn is committed to delivering QC&M software products that ensure the ultimate level of patient safety in radiation devices through seamless integration of devices and automation of procedures. Acumyn products help physicists and therapists focus on delivering the best treatment to their pa ents with full confidence in performance and safety of radia on devices. Market Readiness CC
MicroMetrics
MicroMetrics - Post-Pilot Conversion Project
The purpose of this project is to boost & support MicroMetrics' onboarding & business analysis capabilities, with the aim of driving a high post-pilot conversion rate. Currently, MicroMetrics has 13 paid pilot engagements with retail/QSR chains either underway or slated to begin in Q4 2014, representing a prospective pipeline of over $3.1M in ARR. The ability to consistently convert pilot clients into long-term clients using the platform on an organization-wide basis is a keystone to MicroMetrics' short-term & long-term success.
By the end of the project, it is expected that MicroMetrics have well-defined pilot support processes that consistently results in a post-pilot conversion rate above 50%.
Market Readiness CC
7/10/2015
Legworks Inc.
Not Applicable
Key Market Entry and Customer Acquisition
Advanced health Toronto based LegWorks, in partnership with Holland Bloorview Children’s Rehabilitation Hospital, has developed an innovative proprietary prosthetic knee joint technology that allows lower-limb amputees around the world to walk safely and comfortably at an affordable cost, which has completed technical validation and has technologies
resulted in market pull of partners DOI-Ortho and the International Committee of the Red Cross, amongst others. This project facilitates our start-up’s entry into key markets by providing the funding and support to develop our customer on-boarding process and build a healthy sales pipeline with sales achieved to our initial customers. Strategic learnings from this project will enable LegWorks to create a repeatable and scalable sales process. Ontario Centres of Excellence
Section 2 - 2
Commercialization
Program
Market Readiness CC
Company / Partners
TrendMD Inc.
Project Title
TrendMD Inc.
Project Summary
Sector
TrendMD Inc. is a peer-reviewed content discovery platform that aims to amplify research. You can think of us as Google AdSense for scholarly publishers and Google Digital media and AdWords for peer-reviewed content producers, such as researchers, industry, funders, and publishers. However, instead of distributing banner ads, we algorithmically information & distribute both sponsored and non-sponsored links to peer-reviewed content across publishers, journals, websites, pla orms, apps, blogs, and other online resources. communication technologies
TrendMD has created a free content recommendation widget that publishers can place next to online articles. The widget generates article recommendations based on content similarity, click behavior, and social media buzz to increase engagement and generate additional revenue for websites through “sponsored” peer-reviewed content. Online readers use the widget to identify other relevant content that is of interest to them from the same journal/publisher or from sponsored content from other publishers.
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
10/23/2014
Paul Kudlow
$125,000
$125,520
$250,520
Toronto
Content producers, such as researchers, industry, funders, and publishers, can use TrendMD to promote their papers and drive traffic to their best peer-reviewed content. Buyers select a budget and pay only for the attention and/or traffic they receive. While paying to publish in Open Access journals was a first step towards researchers and funders enhancing the visibility of their work, TrendMD is a novel technology that addresses the unmet need of researchers and funders to actively promote and showcase their best work across publishers and journals because of the underlying competition to get their work cited by other researchers as many mes as possible. From May to September 2014, TrendMD has experienced a five per cent week-to-week growth rate. At first, the widget was available on only one journal; it is now live on 145 top online journals and blogs. TrendMD now recommends over 20 million ar cles each month to over two million readers across the world.
TrendMD is seeking $125,000 from OCE Market-Readiness Customer Creation Program to: a) develop the most effective sales and marketing tactics in order to scale our ini al customer base and convert to revenue, b) op mize and scale to product/market fit, and c) secure follow-on investment. TrendMD determines product and market fit through two key metrics: a) Recrui ng at least 15 top scholarly publishers that cumula vely control more than 15 per cent of the market to use the product
b) A rac ng at least 500 authors and/or funders to pay TrendMD to promote their peer-reviewed content. Our secondary objec ve is to reach our op mal break-even point of $30,000 per month within a one-year me frame. Market Readiness CC
Sensibill
Not Applicable
Sensibill Customer Conversion
Sensibill is a cloud-based service powers banking applications with digital receipt functionality. The service enables shoppers to manage their line-item transaction receipts directly from their desktop and mobile banking account. The platform that Sensibill has developed will simplify accounting and bookkeeping for consumers and businesses, and allow shoppers to access their receipts for proof of purchase from trusted applications they already use. Digital receipts powered by Sensibill are dynamic, allowing for contextual communication between business and consumer in ways previous unrealized. Digital receipts will contribute to increased produc vity of businesses, higher trust for receipts submi ed as proof of purchase, and paper savings for merchants. During the project period Sensibill will continue its strategy of penetrating, and ultimately controlling, the Canadian banking market and begin its expansion into the US market. Sensibill plans for its service to enter produc on and be available for public use some me in 2015.
9/22/2014
Corey Gross
$125,000
$128,200
$253,200
Toronto
Market Readiness CB
Gesturelogic
Not Applicable
Leo: Wearable Fitness Intelligence
GestureLogic is bringing to market LEO, a uniquely intelligent wearable fitness product that provides real-time, straightforward, and actionable information to users. Advanced health Developed by Carleton University Professor Leonard MacEachern and his students, LEO incorporates the technology of a $50,000 laboratory electromyography technologies
machine in a wearable and affordable leg band. LEO introduces innovative muscle monitoring capabilities in addition to the features found in existing products on the market. LEO provides activity-specific analysis and applies data mining technology to data collected from the user population thereby increasing its ability to provide ac onable informa on over me.
8/27/2014
Leonard MacEachern
$250,000
$1,501,269
$1,751,269
Ottawa
Gesturelogic has raised more than $200k through friends and family and nearly $150k through an IndieGoGo campaign (goal was $50k) that ends in early September. OCE funding will be matched by $1.5M in private investment in a round with Capital Angel and Georgian Angel networks and other private investors. The injection of capital will allow Gesturelogic to accelerate the development of LEO with the expectation of launching LEO in Q1 2015.
Market Readiness CC
Autom River Inc.
McMaster University
The Greenlid - Launch and Customer Acquisition
Bio-economy and clean Collecting organic waste in the kitchen is often messy and unpleasant. To increase participation, many municipalities allow the use of plastic or “compostable” bag liners. Unfortunately these bags collapse in on themselves and leak, creating a mess that needs to be cleaned after every use. The Greenlid is the first organic waste technologies
container that can be completely disposed of and composted, effectively eliminating the mess from composting and removing the need for plastic bag liners. The Greenlid is made from 100% end-of-life recycled pulp paper, a material similar to egg cartons. It is made leak-proof through a proprietary mixture of food grade additives that prevent moisture penetration. The Greenlid is a clean and easy way to collect and dispose of organic waste in the kitchen. The entire system consists of a compostable container, a reusable Greenlid that absorbs smells and conceals organics, and a compostable lid for clean disposal. Using the Greenlid is easy! Just fill it, seal it with the supplied compostable paper lid and place it in your outdoor collection bin or even your home compost pile. Then immediately replace it with a fresh new container! This proposal is to support the initial launch and customer acquisition for the Greenlid and it's technology across Canada and internationally.
2/19/2015
Morgan Wyatt
$125,000
$125,000
$250,000
Toronto
Market Readiness CC
Sesame HQ Inc.
Assessment Portfolio Tool for Ontario
Teachers from across kindergarten to high school are creating and capturing more digital content than ever with their laptops and mobile devices. In addition to their lesson plans, they also save student work along with evaluation and feedback on a day-to-day basis, and then track everything against thousands of standardized learning requirements. Technology for capturing data has just begun to work its way into the classrooms. Teachers are currently using these devices to create and capture student work. However the students work is either stored directly on the laptop or in separate programs. Sesame enables teachers to capture and assess a student’s work then organizes it into a personalized student por olio that can be easily shared with the student and their parents in one place.
1/15/2015
Ian Tao
$125,000
$125,000
$250,000
Kitchener
Sesame is a digital platform that helps teachers capture student achievement and assessments on a day-to-day basis to provide a more holistic overview beyond report cards. In today’s classrooms, students are demonstrating learning proficiency in more ways than ever and teachers are capturing rich evidence and observations in ways that traditional report cards simply cannot summarize. It is extremely cumbersome for teachers to organize and share their insight on each individual with stakeholders in the learning process such as colleagues, students, and parents. Sesame is working with Brock University to create a planning and assessment pla orm that is tailored to the 21st century learning methodologies to provide a more personalized learning experience for each student.
7/10/2015
Section 2 - 3
Commercialization
Program
Company / Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
AdvancingHealth Program
m-Health Solutions
Sunny Brook Hospital
Implementing and Evaluating an Innovative Mobile This proposal is a collaborative investment to improve cardiac diagnostics and stroke prevention in Ontario. It addresses the diagnosis of one of the most common and Advanced health Technology Cardiac Arrhythmia Diagnostic Service in treatable risk factors for stroke – atrial fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation is an irregular heart rhythm that can be dangerous because it can lead to blood clots in the heart technologies
Ontario
that can travel to the brain causing debilita ng strokes.
The problem is that atrial fibrillation can be difficult to diagnose because it often occurs sporadically and without any symptoms. For patients who have had a stroke or mini-stroke, improved methods for diagnosing atrial fibrilla on are needed so that correct an -clo ng medica ons can be prescribed to prevent recurrent strokes.
To correct this practice gap, our proposal aims to accelerate the uptake of an innovative new heart monitoring technology that is being pioneered in Ontario by mHealth Solutions. The ultimate goal is to prevent recurrent strokes by implementing a cost-effective and sustainable provincial strategy that will improve the iden fica on, and consequently the treatment, of more pa ents with atrial fibrilla on.
In the demonstration project, mHS will work with specialists at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Medtronics of Canada Ltd and 5 other Hospital partners representing a total of 6 Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs). This project will optimize heart and stroke care in Ontario, and help Ontario lead the way na onally in providing state-of-the-art mobile heart monitoring technology.
1/28/2015
Sandy Schwenger
$349,323
$750,733
$1,100,056
Burlington
Mackenzie Health
Mackenzie Health
Mackenzie Health Innovation Unit: An internet of things approach to mobile, “smart”, and secure clinical alerting and messaging
1/28/2015
Tiziana Rivera
$349,999
$1,258,920
$1,608,919
Richmond Hill
Synaptive Medical is a private company based in Toronto, Canada that is developing next generation image guided surgery technologies that supports minimally Advanced health invasive surgical procedures. The company’s leading product line, BrightMatter, is focused on neurosurgery. The BrightMatter suite includes real-time intraoperative technologies
3D image guidance, planning tools, robotics and visualization that integrate to a common platform. Synaptive's systems are specifically designed to enable the surgeon to be er plan and perform neurosurgical interven ons with enhanced precision and safety. 1/28/2015
Norman Pyo
$349,811
$696,389
$1,046,200
Toronto
1/28/2015
Franck Hivert
$300,000
$303,000
$603,000
Mackenzie Health Innova on Unit: An internet of things approach to mobile, “smart”, and secure clinical aler ng and messaging
Despite major advancements in communications technology over the last decade, communication failure has consistently remained above 60% as a root cause of hospital errors leading to death or permanent loss of function. Mobile clinical messaging and alerting platforms can transmit audio calls from patients, clinical alerts such as critical laboratory results, and medical device alarms directly to a nurse’s or doctor’s wireless device. “Smart” devices work together to assist people in carrying out their everyday life activities and tasks using information that is collected and interpreted by the network connecting these devices (the Internet of Things). “Smart” devices work together, using information about people, such as where someone is or what task they are performing, to assist people in carrying out activities by anticipating their needs and providing location or task specific information at the right time. A “smart” mobile clinical messaging and alerting system uses intelligent rules to automate hospital alerting and alarms. For example, automatically forwarding a patient’s call to a different nurse when the patient’s primary nurse is on a break or off of the unit. Or combining alarms from different medical devices, such as the vitals signs monitor, IV pump, and hospital bed to determine that a patient may be at increased risk of a medication overdose, and then notifying the patient’s nurse or doctor. “Smart” systems keep patients safe by keeping track of far more informa on than a person can, and then automa cally no fying the right nurse or doctor “just in me” to avoid a poten al problem.
By combining Mackenzie Health’s clinical expertise in patient care and Patient Care Redesign® with ThoughtWire’s Ambiant(TM) platform and expertise in device integration and “smart” systems, Cisco Canada’s expertise in wired and wireless network infrastructure and secure unified communications, and Blackberry’s expertise in mobile devices and secure mobile device management, we have assembled a “dream team” for the evidence-based design, implementation, evaluation, and spread of an Ontario-grown integrated, mobile, “smart”, and secure clinical messaging and alerting solution. By partnering with research scientists from University of Toronto, we will be able to demonstrate the value of our solu on in terms of both process improvement, and health economics.
This project will see the installation of the ThoughtWire Ambiant(TM) platform into the Mackenzie Health Innovation Unit, and integration with our Cisco medical grade wireless network, Blackberry Enterprise Server and Blackberry mobile devices, as well as the smart beds, hand hygiene system, nurse call system, and real-time location system already present in the Mackenzie Health Innovation Unit. This project will demonstrate the value of mobile, “smart”, and secure clinical alerting and messaging in a healthcare environment.
Synaptive Medical
Improving the utilization of fiber tract imaging (tractography) for planning and intraoperative navigation of neurosurgical procedures
Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) is a MRI imaging technique that uses the diffusion principles of water in the cerebral white matter tracts in order to create a 3D representation of fiber tracts. In this project, Synaptive is collaborating with the neurosurgery group at Western University in London, Ontario, to demonstrate the role of DTI in presurgical planning and surgical navigation to minimize damage to important white matter structures and improve neurosurgical outcomes. Specifically, we aim to demonstrate that utilizing Synaptive's system with its DTI functionality in pre-surgical planning and intra-operative guidance will reduce the incidence of Visual Field Defects (VFDs) in temporal lobe resections, a neurosurgical procedure to treat drug-resistant epilepsy.
Oculys Health Informatics
Oculys BRUNO-PIAH Solutions
Oculys Health Informatics, an emerging healthcare information technology company, works with hospitals developing innovative real-time solutions to solve operational challenges. Oculys Solutions are designed for complex hospital environments to connect their leaders and teams to their important operational information. By automating and streamlining communication and data, hospitals are beginning to realize the benefits of our technology. Simple to implement and built to be used in all patient-related situations, Oculys translates into greater visibility and accountability – and is available any time from anywhere on any device. Our solu ons empower people – so they can make informed mely decisions that impact a pa ents’ care and experience. Advanced health technologies
Kitchener
Oculys’ demonstration project highlights complimentary innovative hospital solutions that provide real-time visibility for nursing units and leaders based on hospital needs. Two community hospitals - St. Mary’s General Hospital and Grand River Hospital, both located in the Waterloo Region in Ontario – one of Canada’s primary technology hubs - will participate by installing the Oculys Solutions in two specialized nursing units. Both solutions are displayed on either a large interactive or a small bed-side screen. By visually communica ng relevant informa on, both nursing staff and pa ents / family receive current care needs. The nursing unit solution, currently named BRUNO, is a large interactive display that includes data from a number of different computer systems. It allows various members of a patient care team, including physicians and community care case managers, to access and update current information about a patient and eliminate frustra ng and costly delays.
The bedside solution, currently named PIAH, is a small patient specific screen that is updated in real-time. It provides patients and families with relevant information and eliminates the need to seek out staff about specific care instructions including dietary restrictions, mobility precautions, safety risks, attending physician, diagnos c test scheduling, and the expected date of discharge.
Oculys Solu ons are cost effec ve and deliver real results that posi vely impact the pa ent experience while reducing hospital opera ng costs.
7/10/2015
Section 2 - 4
Commercialization
Program
Company / Partners
Shift Health Paradigms Ltd.
Hospital for Sick Children
Project Title
Project Summary
OCE Commitment
Date
Applicant Name
1/28/2015
Sandra Whitehouse
$350,000
$275,610
$625,610
Toronto
Advance Property eXposure Canada Inc. has developed a very cost effective Building Tactical Information System (BTIS) to enable first responders (Police/Fire/EMS) to Digital media and reach the precise location of an untoward event within seconds of reaching the site. Critical building information, especially in multi-complex sites, is communicated to information & communication a wearable wireless device that responders have on their arm from a central database while on-route to the emergency call. First responders will receive through their portable wireless devices building layout, hazardous, occupant, building emergency contact list and construction information sent to them at times of emergency technologies
from 9-1-1 or command center based dispatcher. Touchscreen technology has revolutionized the mobile devices market, and is changing the way people can receive informa on and the richness in the data that is communicated to them.
2/19/2015
Paul Martin
$124,400
$215,970
$340,370
Ottawa
Introducing an mHealth Platform (TickiT®) to Improve Today, healthcare professionals and organizations capture important and highly-valuable patient information via paper-based assessments or questionnaires, or Patient Engagement
digital forms. However, both currently lack focus around the end-user - the patient - where text-based survey responses are often limited due to boredom, survey fa gue, and low healthcare-literacy levels, and only collect informa on - they do not allow for interac on with the pa ent.
Shift Health has created TickiT - a patient-friendly software solution that has been designed to generate data that is of higher quality and a greater reflection of the individual’s perceptions of their care and/or their overall health. TickiT's interactive interface and unique design are easy to use for patients at any literacy level, and with English as a second language (ESL). Sector
City
In collaboration with SickKids, the TickiT platform will be used in four clinical areas: Cardiology, Emergency Department, Plastic Surgery, and Adolescent Medicine, where the platform will host a series of screening and intake assessment tools. In addition, the platform will also be used to demonstrate its ability to better capture the patient experience in selected clinical program groups within SickKids hospital. The outcome of the project could have large implications on how healthcare organizations and leaders can better understand the patients they serve, and act more quickly on areas of improvement through the platform’s ability to provide realme feedback to those involved in the pa ent’s care journey.
Market Readiness CC
Advance Property eXposure Canada Inc.
Not Applicable
BTIS Customer Creation - Canadian Market
Advance Property eXposure has developed its minimum viable product based on the Lean Start-up model and is now positioned to pursue early stage customers and create user demand driving opportunities into the sales channel and build a repeatable, scalable sales process. The company is also positioning itself for follow-on angel investors.
Advance Property eXposure is an Ottawa based software company spun out out of research conducted at the University of Ottawa and has developed its first product which has been validated by the market, is being trialed and is now ready for commercialization.
Market Readiness CC
DOT Innovations Inc.
Not Applicable
DOT innovations
DOT Innovations seeks to commercialize globally a product developed at McMaster University called CASPer (Computer-based Assessment for Sampling Personal characteristics). This is an online video-based situational judgment screening test, which effectively screens candidates in an applicant pool for soft skills like ethics, empathy and judgment. The tool is, in part, very effective because answering test questions is time limited, giving the applicant little chance to answer in an inauthentic way. CASPer questions can evaluate for a number of key characteristics (professionalism, communication skills, ethics, collaboration, problem solving, resilience etc.), depending on the needs of the program and has data validating the ability to predict for future performance of candidates against these personal characteris cs. Digital media and information & communication technologies
12/1/2014
Rich Emrich
$125,000
$125,000
$250,000
Hamilton
Market Readiness CC
Roadmunk Inc
Ryerson University
Roadmunk - MR2
Roadmunk is a company wide platform that enables our users to create, manage and design beautiful roadmaps quickly. Our users are constantly challenged with fumbling between excel and powerpoint to create the perfect visualization. With roadmunk they can upload their spreadsheet, create a well designed visualization and download to native formats like PNG, PTT and PDF to be presentation ready. We offer this as a SaaS service, and in our first two months out of beta, we've closed over $72.5k in business, across 27 companies in 8 countries. Our key customers include Nike, Marriott Hotels, Babbel, Unitron and Phonak. Because our tool is agnostic, in that you can create any type of roadmap (Eg. marketing, hiring, or consulting roadmaps etc) we've penetrated over 6 verticals including: software, hardware, financial services, consul ng, marke ng and educa on companies. Digital media and information & communication technologies
1/15/2015
Latif Nanji
$125,000
$125,000
$250,000
Toronto
When we received Smartstart funding from OCE, we aimed to finish beta development, put together a full marketing strategy, launch our website and on-board our first 10 customers -- in a period of 6 months. We ended up comple ng those milestones in 4 months and closed 27 customers within 60 days. With OCE Market Readiness II support we aim to go above and beyond our 3 key milestones which include: close 180 customers including 5 major enterprise companies, hit 30k MRR and raising a large seed of 750k-1mil over the course of this project.
We have a team that has over 6 years of working history together (@Miovision) holding management, product and technical roles. We've worked in over 7+ startups combined and have the execution mindset to get anything and everything done. Market Readiness CC
Charity Republic
Hour Republic Market Expansion
Waterloo Region based company, Charity Republic, has developed a web and mobile platform for hour and activity tracking, management and reporting in the education and non-profit sectors, contributing to increased graduation rates and efficiencies. They are currently working with school districts, universities, non-profits and strategic partners across the province of Ontario. OCE’s investment and support will better position the company to expand and meet growing demand through increased capacity related to business development, sales, marke ng, product development and customer service and implementa on.
2/19/2015
Popy DimoulasGraham
$125,000
$125,000
$250,000
Kitchener
Market Readiness CC
XOR-Labs Toronto Inc..
Not Applicable
XOR EVLP System
XOR Labs Inc. (XOR) is a Toronto based, leading edge medical device company, which is in the process of developing and commercializing a system that will Advanced health exponen ally increase the number of donated lungs available for transplanta on around the world.
technologies
XOR technology has the potential to help hundreds of thousands of people who are in critical need for lung transplantation due to diseases like pulmonary fibrosis. As context, in the United States alone, there are 230,000 patients in critical need of a lung transplant, yet less than 2,000 procedures are done each year due to the limited available of quality lungs. In other words, less than 1% of critical need patients are being helped and as a result 20% of patients die waiting for a lung transplant. Beyond this group of cri cal need pa ents, there are millions of people who could benefit from lung transplanta on.
XOR’s product offering at its core is a standardized, mobile, and scalable commercial version of a system currently used at University Health Network (UHN) called Toronto Ex Vivo Lung Perfusion (Toronto EVLP). Using the Toronto EVLP system, donated lungs are removed from the body, placed in a dome, oxygenated and provided with nutrition for an extended period of time. The benefit of doing this is that lungs which previously would have been discarded can be assessed in terms of effectiveness. If that lung performs well it will be transplanted. Moreover, injured lungs which previously would have been discarded can recover and, if sufficiently recovered, be transplanted. This process has been used over 160 times over the past 6 years and has become the standard of care at UHN which is considered the worldwide leader in lung transplantation. Moreover, results using the Toronto EVLP system have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the most prominent and well respected medical journal. Published data suggests that using the Toronto EVLP system can approximately double the utilization of donated lungs (e.g. from 20 out of 100 to 40 out of 100), improve lung quality, reduce costly complications and improve the cost economics of lung transplants. In the future, XOR believes it will be able to triple the utilization of donated lungs (e.g. from 20 out of 100 to 60 out of 100) and apply this technology to other organs including heart and liver.
XOR’s ultimate goal is to reduce waiting list deaths to zero and to make Ontario the worldwide leader in advanced transplantation technology. OCE support has been and con nues to be cri cal in helping XOR achieve this vision.
2/19/2015
Jon Rogers
$125,000
$127,500
$252,500
Toronto
7/10/2015
Section 2 - 5
Commercialization
Program
Market Readiness CC
Company / Partners
SSIMWave Inc.
Project Title
Perceptual Video Quality of Experience Monitoring
Project Summary
Sector
We live in the midst of expanding video economy as the amount of video data produced and transported over networks is exponentially increasing. Growing Digital media and consumer expectations for high-quality video content is a bigger challenge than ever before. As a result, accurate and reliable video quality analyzers are highly information & desirable by streaming media providers, broadcast systems, telecommunication service providers, graphical workflow solution providers, over-the-top content communication providers, video-on-demand service providers, and post production houses. SSIMWave Inc., an innovation-driven spin-off company from the University of Waterloo, technologies
recently launched its revolutionary product for real-time video quality-of-experience (QoE) monitoring (http://ssimwave.com/product-sqm). SSIMWave's video QoE monitor (SQM) is developed by a team of leading experts, widely known for their award-winning contributions to the field of video quality assessment, processing and compression. The product differentiates itself from its competitors by providing Media and entertainment industry can benefit immensely by employing SQM for measuring viewers' video QoE as the solution is vital for video QoE measurement, video encoders' performance comparison, and determination/optimization of resource allocation strategies for adaptive bit-rate streaming systems. SQM differentiates itself from its competitors by providing accurate, real-time, and device/viewing condi ons adap ve video QoE predic on.
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
3/27/2015
Abdul Rehman
$125,000
$277,900
$402,900
Waterloo
3/27/2015
Robert Reichmann
$125,000
$179,500
$304,500
Toronto
SQM has recently been licensed by a few leading companies in the media and entertainment industry. The project will provide a big push towards realizing the SSIMWave team's vision of making SQM industry's gold standard for video QoE monitoring. The company is expected to grow rapidly in the next five years and make positive impact on the economy and job market in South Western Ontario.
Market Readiness CC
VISR
Ryerson University
VISR Launch Through Incorporating Beta Learning
VISR (pronounced visor, like advisor) is a mobile SaaS technology for early detection of personal safety issues kids face in their online interactions - sort of like an alarm system for kids' social media. We do this by analyzing social interactions to help us identify potential threats (including bullying, violence, drugs, sexting etc.), and because parents have different sensi vi es and preferences, alerts are personalized for each child based on the parent's interac ons with alerts over me.
VISR aims to be the safety layer between users and apps, specifically as it relates to children's safety and wellness. Building from our successful OCE Smart Start project, we have a validated product and have gathered user feedback essential to improving on our beta release. During the OCE Market Readiness project, we hope to launch out of beta by incorporating key user feedback into our product features, add social media channels, improve our data science capabilities and secure key strategic partnerships. Upon completion of the project, we will have a polished product with over a thousand users, and a promising revenue opportunity.
Market Readiness CC
myHealthSphere Inc
Ryerson University
myHealthSphere - MRCC
myHealthSphere is a health tech company that created an enterprise software solution focused on improving employees’ daily health. Dooo (pronounced Do) has >90% employee engagement after 60 days with over 50% of users returning daily. The research is phase 1 of myHealthSphere’s mission to improve health outcomes for the mass population world-wide. The program recent success has been featured as a high impact solution by Insurance News Net, Yahoo and Recruiter.com. Digital media and information & communication technologies
3/27/2015
Jane Wang
$125,000
$130,700
$255,700
Toronto
Market Readiness CC
FR8Nex;Nulogy
Ryerson University
Scaling FR8nex.com sales and product
FR8nex.com helps small to medium manufacturers and distributors manage their freight opera ons. We help our clients save an hour a day, everyday.
By building direct pipes with countless freight carriers (trucking companies) we empower our customers with information, pricing and communication between all their stakeholders.
3/27/2015
Justin Bailie
$125,000
$155,000
$280,000
Toronto
2/20/2014
Jason Riley
$48,750
$32,500
$81,250
Kingston
2/20/2014
Vincent TabardCossa
$50,000
$35,540
$85,540
Ottawa
We enable our customers to save both time and money in the second highest cost of goods sold category at most goods companies.
MScPoP
ArcheOptix
Queen's University
(2013-2014)-OCE-Handheld device for hematoma (Traumatic Brain Injury) detection
Hematoma (bleeding inside the skull) is a significant cause of death and long term brain damage, a hallmark of traumatic brain injury (TBI). TBI is a contributing factor Advanced health technologies
to one-third (30.5%) of all injury-related deaths in North America. ArcheOptix is a start-up medical device company based in Kingston, Ontario. We have developed a handheld detector for on site, non-invasive, non-ionizing, rapid diagnosis of hematoma to help in timely treatment of these injuries, thereby saving millions of lives and reducing brain damage in survivors. The device uses patent pending technology including novel software and electronics that are developed at Queens University. We are using various facilities at Queen's University including rapid prototyping, and the Center for Neurosciences and Trauma Center of Kingston General Hospital to develop and evaluate the technology. The proposed project includes a feasibility study to develop the first handheld prototype to bring this technology one step closer to commercialization. The impact of this technology will include, not only saving lives and long term disabili es, but also economic benefits in saving millions of dollars in long term health care costs in managing TBI pa ents. MScPoP
7/10/2015
Abbott Point of Care
Nanopore-based DNA Analysis Technology for Next- Medical Diagnostics is undergoing a technological revolution, where individual genomic information of a patient will be used to make critical healthcare decisions. This Advanced health new era is called personalized medicine. This is made possible by the advent of novel diagnostic detection methodologies, which hold the potential to deliver simple, technologies
Generation Clinical Diagnostics
rapid and low-cost diagnostic assays/systems. Of the few emerging breakthrough technologies, nanopore-based sensing is considered the leading candidate for future genera on low-cost, electrical DNA sequencing pla orms, and for the rapid electronic analysis of DNA disease biomarkers.
This proposal is leveraging a newly developed and patented technology, by Dr. Tabard-Cossa laboratory at the University of Ottawa, to manufacture solid-state nanopore-based devices with sub-nanometer precision, at extremely low-cost and high yield. This innovation is, to date, the only technique that offers both the satisfactory fabrication quality and the low manufacturing cost required for the commercialization of nanopore-based technologies for medical diagnostic applications. The overall goal of this proposal is to develop a solid-state nanopore device designed to rapidly analyzing multiple nucleic acid sequences electronically that can be integrated in a low-cost, handheld medical instrument for point-of-care genetic testing. As a proof-of-principle, we will focus our efforts on the detection of rare somatic mutations on the KRAS gene, which are found at high rates in leukemia, and colon, pancreatic and lung cancers. The results obtained will also be applicable to the development of other gene c disease diagnosis and infec ous disease tes ng.
Section 2 - 6
Commercialization
Program
MScPoP
Company / Partners
Medella Health Inc.
Project Title
Medella Health Inc.
Project Summary
Medella Health is developing a revolutionary glucose monitoring system that solves critical health IT and disease management issues. Medella Health is developing contact lenses that continuously and non-invasively monitor glucose levels and transmit the information to a nearby mobile device, so patients can better manage their diabetes. This solves two major problems:
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
2/20/2014
Harry Gandhi
$49,790
$68,000
$117,790
Kitchener
Advanced health A revolutionary new energy harvesting technology is being developed by researchers at the University of Waterloo. This technology will convert naturally occurring vibrations within the body into useful electricity to significantly extend the operating lifetime of implanted medical devices. Potential applications include pacemakers, technologies
cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), blood pressure sensors, cardiac ac vity recorders, and neuro-s mulators.
2/20/2014
Armaghan Salehian
$38,798
$44,969
$83,767
Waterloo
Most diseases have their roots in genes. Gene is a blue-print of the disease heredity and knowing the genes (sequence) in the cells can provide detection, prevention Advanced health and treatment means and clues. Understanding Genetics is critical to improve health and reduce health care cost. Many diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, Breast technologies
Cancer, Heart Diseases or Rheumatoid Arthritis have a significant genetic root. This means even if a person has a genetic predisposition towards a disease there is a lot that can be done to prevent or treat it if the genetic information is available and known. The Ottawa Heart Institute and Medical Devices Innovation Institute have built a portable, non-invasive prototype device that is capable of detecting genetic information (blueprint) from a person’s fingerprint, hair, and saliva. The objective of this application is to reduce the time it takes to obtain this genetic blueprint from 15 minutes to 15 seconds (compared to days and weeks as with current devices) while improving its accuracy and reducing its cost. Current genetic identification technologies are invasive, costs thousands of dollars, and takes hours if not weeks to obtain the blueprint.
2/20/2014
Pasan Fernando
$50,000
$28,000
$78,000
Ottawa
1) Continuous and closed feedback loop for patient: by continuously monitoring their glucose levels, the diabetic patient is able to take immediate action when critical thresholds are reached. When these critical thresholds are reached (which can be setup for hypoglycemic or hyperglycemic patients), a push notification is sent to a paired mobile device to indicate the condi on.
2) Provides evidence-based medicine for health care providers: the paired mobile device can store data regarding glucose levels allowing patients to a manage diet, exercise and medica on. With the data, overall trends in glucose fluctua on can be mapped, allowing health care provider to make evidence-based medical decisions.
Problem
Diabetes is one of the quickest growing diseases in the world, affecting more than 9 million people in Canada. Since it is a long-term disease with multiple complications, it proves to be extremely costly to the healthcare system. The Canadian Diabetes Association (CDA) estimates that diabetes will cost the Canadian healthcare system $16.9 billion per year starting in 2020. A large part of this cost is associated with monitoring and regulating patients’ glucose levels. In the current system, the patients are asked to measure their glucose level via a discontinuous and painful method, and do not provide the health care providers with enough glucose data to make evidence-based decisions. In addition to this, the current system does not generate continuous feedback necessary for patients to take immediate action. In severe cases, the lack of this immediate feedback can lead to fainting, seizures and strokes. In the long term, diabetes leads to other diseases such as kidney failure, cardiovascular diseases and blindness.
Solu on
From our interaction with clinicians in major hospitals, a non-invasive and continuous method to monitor glucose levels is the “holy-grail” of diabetes management. Currently, Medella Health is developing micro-machines that continuously monitor glucose levels and provide patients and health care providers with accurate data to take immediate action necessary to maintain the required levels. Since this micro-machine is integrated into contact lenses, it is non-invasive, easy to apply and most importantly, creates a continuous glucose monitoring system. Medella Health’s glucose monitoring system will communicate with a synchronized mobile device to provide real-time data of the patient’s glucose levels. The mobile device will have the IT framework to analyze relevant trends, to communicate respective information to health care providers, and to inform the patient of any immediate risks so that they can take action.
MScPoP
Accolade Energy Harvesting Technologies
Energy Harvesting Module for Medical Implants
A team of researchers and entrepreneurs has formed to commercialize the technology and create a spin-off a company, Accolade Energy Harvesting Technologies. The technology has already attracted media attention from CBC and a number of engineering magazines including Phys.org. Additionally, the team has been contacted by mul ple medical devices companies who have expressed their interest in the technology. The team requests a medical sciences proof-of-principle grant from OCE to support the development and commercialization of the new technology.
MScPoP
Medical Devices Innovation Institute
Portable DNA Detection Device
MScPoP
Konona Health Tech;The Georgina Ice McMaster University
An EEG-based tool developed for the assessment of Years of research by our team and others have demonstrated that behaviorally based assessments of mental states or cognitive abilities can be inaccurate when Advanced health cognitive function
examining people with communication problems. Stroke, autism, traumatic brain injury, and spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy are just several of the conditions that technologies
often lead to such communication difficulties. For example, the inaccuracy of behaviorally based consensus diagnosis of vegetative state, caused by brain damage has been shown to be inaccurate over 40% of the time. Even in cases of mild traumatic brain injury (that is, concussion) behavioral assessment is often unreliable and inaccurate. Our group has developed methods using brain recordings that have demonstrated their ability to reveal mental activity when behavioral assessment claimed there was none. With the assistance of the Ontario Centres of Excellence, commercialization of this work will commence so that these research achievements can be made available to Ontarians, Canadians, and the rest of the world. It is anticipated that this commercialization process will lead to both manufacturing and service sector opportuni es for Canadians.
2/20/2014
John Connolly
$50,000
$14,510
$64,510
Hamilton
MScPoP
Best Theratronics Ltd.
Carleton University
Advancing a Moly Target for Cyclotrons
Cyclotrons are proposed as an alternate source for the production of the medical isotope technetium-99m, which is currently used around the world in over 50,000 medical procedures daily. The fragility of the current supply of Tc-99m was demonstrated in 2007 with the unexpected shutdown of NRU reactor at Chalk River for over a year, and the subsequent shutdown of HFR reactor in Holland soon after. These reactors produce over 70% of the world’s Tc-99m, the most widely used medical isotope. Since then, governments and industry have focused considerable attention and budgets towards developing new reactor-independent supply. For example, the Canadian government has invested over $70M during the last six years in an attempt to develop accelerator and cyclotron technologies capable of producing Tc-99m. Both of these technologies require robust targets of molybdenum (moly) metal on a copper substrate. Targets have been produced for demonstra on purposes, however, targets for general-purpose produc on have yet to be developed.
Best Theratronics Limited intends to manufacture and sell robust targets to healthcare facilities for use in their existing cyclotrons, as well as manufacture and sell complete cyclotron units. The purpose of the current work is to assist Best Theratronics to develop commercially viable production targets for Tc.
2/20/2014
Glenn McRae
$50,000
$48,250
$98,250
Ottawa
MScPoP
MDDT
OCE-Tremor Treatment using Kinematic Analysis
Tremor is one of the most common movement disorders doctors see in clinic. However, due to the complexity of limb and body movements, visual assessment of tremor is extremely challenging for doctors to perform. This prevents doctors from offering an effective treatment for these patients. With our technology, we are able to help doctors pinpoint the problem areas on the body that produce tremor. Through the use of non-invasive sensor technology, our system can analyze the complex bio-mechanical movements from the pa ent and give meaningful informa on to the doctors to be er treat their pa ents.
2/20/2014
Mandar Jog
$40,000
$162,000
$202,000
London
There are over 40 million Essential Tremor patients worldwide, as well as millions of Parkinson's patients that suffer from tremor. Tremor prevents patients from enjoying the simple things in life, making day-to-day tasks almost impossible such as eating, shopping or dressing themselves. Our pilot study has show that in well over 40 patients, we have been successful in not only reducing the tremors, but also showed significant improvements in the quality of life of our patients. We look forward to further developing this technology and making it widely available for doctors in treatment tremor pa ents worldwide.
7/10/2015
Section 2 - 7
Commercialization
Program
Company / Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
MScPoP
Genemis Laboratories Inc
Rapid Water Testing Method for Infection Control
Genemis Laboratories Inc., in collaboration with the University of Waterloo, is commercializing rapid microbial water testing technologies aimed at the medical and Advanced health commercial water testing market. The aim of this work is to further test a technology developed at the University for the microbiological testing of water samples in technologies
dental offices and similar clinical settings. The water quality in dental offices is of increasing concern and new standards have been recommended. However most currently available tests use traditional microbiological culture methods, which take several days to perform, require highly specialized microbiology labs, and qualified microbiologists. Delayed reporting of microbial water quality parameters increases the likelihood of public exposure to pathogens making development of rapid methods important for public health protection. A fairly simple, cost effective and rapid test kit has been developed to address this issue. The test requires only a few minutes with minimal sample handling, and can be conducted even by an untrained person and without the use of specialized equipment or instruments. This project will enable field testing with prototype kits and engagement of potential end-users for final assessment of the technology's commercial potential.
2/20/2014
William A. Anderson
$49,551
$40,020
$89,571
Waterloo
MScPoP
Not applicable
Processing TEE Images to Full Potential for Aortic Valve Repair
This project will refine an aortic valve surgery simulation tool developed by the University of Ottawa and the University of Ottawa Heart Institute so that it can be Advanced health commercialised through a new company that will provide high value services to cardiac surgeons. Using the simulation technology, the company will fill a market need technologies
to better analyse the data in order to help surgeons to determine when to use new, less invasive, and less costly techniques that are emerging in the field of aortic valve surgery. The service offerings will be of particular interest to patient with aortic valve insufficiency, which is a condition characterised by a leak when the valve closes. This is a condition that affects as much as 115,000 people in Canada alone. With this tool, these patients are more likely to receive a valve repair surgery, rather than a complete replacement of the valve. The benefits are immediate, with a cost saving of around $10,000 over the replacement cost of $30,000 at the time of surgery. In addition, this eliminates the need for long term use of anticoagulant drugs that can have their own complications, as well as the need to replace the artificial valve that has a life of 15-20 years. These are important considerations given the relatively young age of the typical patient. Surgeons will access the service by uploading the ultrasound data through a web portal, where trained technicians will use the tool to provide a much richer analysis of the data than is currently done. Given the cost savings to the health system, and that such service models are starting to emerge in the health care field, this opportunity has potential to result in a sustainable company. The proof of principle funding will help us in refining this technology so we can meet our goals of starting this company, resulting in economic growth and highly skilled jobs in Ontario, while improving health care delivery for cardiac patients in Canada and around the world. 2/20/2014
Michel Labrosse
$49,994
$48,500
$98,494
Ottawa
MScPoP
Not applicable
Waterproof Bioadhesive
Tissue adhesives are a versatile and valuable alternative for wound closure. They offer important benefits over conventional mechanical methods, i.e. surgical sutures, Advanced health staples, and clip. Tissue adhesives are non-invasive and easy to apply; they cause no additional trauma and are uniquely suitable for friable tissues. However, the technologies
current tissue adhesive options still present some significant drawbacks such as high toxicity, low mechanical strength, and poor adhesion in wet conditions. As a result, mechanical methods still account for 60% of wound closure technologies. There is a high demand for better tissue adhesive that is both robust and biocompatible; and the market for tissue adhesives poses the potential for significant growth, where the global market for adhesives is projected to reach $38 billion by 2017. Inspired by superior marine adhesives in such biological organisms as zebra mussels, barnacle and castle worms, we have invented a unique synthetic underwater adhesives or superglue, which can work effectively in wet or underwater conditions. Based on the full patent application filed on November 27th, 2012, this medical Proof-of-concept grant project will advance this technology for biomedical applications and turn it into an innovative tissue adhesive product, which is biocompa ble, has high strength and superior adhesion in wet condi ons.
2/20/2014
Boxin Zhao
$49,998
$25,000
$74,998
Waterloo
MScPoP
Not applicable
Rapid detection of contact lens case contamination using colorimetric nano-sensors
There are over 70 million contact lens wearers worldwide that use reusable contact lenses which are replaced once a month. Only 32% of these users are compliant in Advanced health taking care of their contact lenses and cases. Currently, there is no pathogen detection method for contact lenses or cases and hence, the wearers inability to predict technologies
when their contact lens or case is contaminated with pathogens, leads to an increased risks of microbial keratitis. To address this fundamental challenge, we are developing a simple, inexpensive sensing solution that will be used to quantify pathogens in contact lenses cases. The sensor output is colorimetric based and will be used in a normal home setting by contact lens users with minimum training. A positive test would indicate a user with elevated chances of pathogen contamination in the contact lens case, who needs to replace the contact lens case immediately to avoid an infection. Alternatively, this technology can also be used by an eye care professional as a point-of-care sensor to rapidly assess the likely strains of pathogens in order to prescribe suitable anti-microbial agents for a timely treatment. The unique nature of this novel diagnostic sensing technology will be used to prevent and control microbial keratitis, and generate better health outcomes for contact lens wearers. In addition to prevent microbial keratitis, this sensing system is a true platform technology that will have rapid pathogen detection applications for clean water industries, hospital, rural and long-term care facili es. 2/20/2014
Frank Gu
$50,000
$52,800
$102,800
Waterloo
MScPoP
Not applicable
Detection of THA in Blood and Bacteria in Urine
In the medical diagnostic market, there is a major opportunity for new technology platforms that support society’s need to deliver the highest level patient care Advanced health possible in a timely manner, at an affordable cost. These technologies must deliver tests with high sensitivity and specificity at a low cost, while being portable, or technologies
small enough to be used at the point of care. This allows doctors and their patients to benefit from results with minimal delay. Researchers at the University of Ottawa have developed a new testing platform based on its patented Long Range Surface Plasmon Polariton microfluidic chip technology that shows promise in meeting these requirements. The OCE Medical Science Proof of Principle project is designed to build on initial data, by demonstrating that the technology can meet the standards required for diseases that are challenging to detect, and represent the major needs of our society. The project will demonstrate that this technology has the sensitivity of the state of the art genetic based tests, but at the specificity and lower cost of the well established tests widely used today, all in a convenient and easy to use format. This is a key step to advancing discussions with the medical diagnostics industry as we advance this technology towards new medical tests. 2/20/2014
Pierre Berini
$50,000
$21,000
$71,000
Ottawa
MScPoP
Gesturelogic
Carleton University
OCE -Gesturelogic
GestureLogic is commercializing a wearable fitness technology that directly monitors muscle activity using electromyography (EMG). Our technology measures true Advanced health muscle output; a unique capability in wearable fitness that differentiates the product from existing activity trackers. The device can optimize training efficiency, help technologies
with injury prevention, and provide statistical analyses of historical training data to track progress and compare results to others. The metrics are displayed using an intuitive user interface in real-time on a mobile device as well as uploaded to a cloud server where individuals can access their data from a PC. Our technology takes the capabilities of a $40,000 cumbersome clinical unit and make it accessible to a wider market at an expected disruptive selling price of under $300. The device also includes the capabili es of fitness devices already on the market such as heart rate, calories burned, hydra on, and body fat. 2/20/2014
Mark Klibanov
$49,936
$28,800
$78,736
Ottawa
2/20/2014
Melanie Pilkington
$45,000
$12,500
$57,500
St. Catharines
The first iteration of our product will target cyclists directly, providing exactly the metrics that fit their unique needs. Examples of these metrics include cadence, stroke, lactic acid threshold, balance, muscle insight, and muscle power. The product will also help with predicting potential injuries and muscle rehabilitation. Next generations of the product will target additional activities starting with running, then resistance training. The additional activities will utilize the same base hardware with applications targeting the particular fitness activity. The grant will help with the commercialization efforts pertaining to hardware development, industrial design user testing and algorithm development. These efforts will bring the product to the beta stage where the product can be placed on a pre-order campaign to generate early interest in the market as well as tested in a real world environment with a large beta user base.
MScPoP
7/10/2015
Not applicable
Brock University
Development of a new family of magnetic resonance The technology relates to the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents that have improved safety profiles and customizable ligands for imaging (MRI) contrast agents
enhanced therapeutic and diagnostic activity. The Pilkington lab has developed GdIII and MnII based MRI contrast agents with significantly higher relaxitivty values (for improved images), stable metal centres (to minimize bio-toxicity), and an ease of functionalization that can fulfill the current industry aspiration to attach novel molecules for the purpose of targe ng specific areas of the body for diagnos cs and therapeu c effects (theranos cs).
Section 2 - 8
Commercialization
Program
Company / Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
MScPoP
Innovation Factory
McMaster University
OCE -Micro incubator arrays for diagnostics of infectious disease by measuring growth of bacteria
Infectious diseases are a leading cause of death in the world even today. Current molecular diagnostic methods such as DNA based identification are convenient and Advanced health fast in providing the identification of the pathogen through its genetic profile. However, they generally do not provide information on the bacterial viability, load nor technologies
the efficacy of a particular drug on that specific infection and are indirect indicators of the information that is sought by health professionals in diagnosing and devising a treatment. Culture based methods are more direct providing information on the growth, identification and effect of drugs on the specific specimen. However, they take a long me for accurate diagnosis as well as the need to have dedicated laboratories for this purpose.
We have developed a new method that uses miniaturization and parallelization of bacterial culture to automatically measure growth rapidly with fast turnaround while still providing accurate information on the presence of pathogens, its viability and the drugs that are useful to treat the infection. In addition, this method requires minimal sample preparation and single step operation. This new approach is likely to revolutionize diagnosis of common bacterial infections such as Tuberculosis, E.Coli, Salmonella, Campylobacter and Staphylococcus.
2/20/2014
Ravi Selvaganapathy
$50,000
$12,560
$62,560
Hamilton
MScPoP
Applied Brain Research Inc
BlueGene Platfoming of Waterloo U. World’s Largest Dr. Chris Eliasmith and his research team in the Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience (CTN) at the University of Waterloo have developed the world’s largest functional Advanced health brain model, the seman c pointer architecture unified network (Spaun). Spaun was built using Dr. Eliasmith’s Neural Engineering Framework (NEF).
technologies
Functional Brain Simulation
2/20/2014
Chris Eliasmith
$50,000
$16,000
$66,000
Waterloo
Spaun is currently the largest functional simulated brain model available for study in the world. Spaun has 2.5 million simulated neurons and requires 2.5 hours of computing time to simulate 1 second of real time. Spaun is able to perform decision making, digit and character recognition, motor control and inductive reasoning tasks. The brain areas that underwrite these tasks are implemented in thousands of neurons and integrated to deliver Spaun’s behaviour. Dr. Eliasmith and his research team are currently developing extensions to Spaun’s capabilities by adding a more complete visual system, more realistic motor and motor planning systems, more robust working memory and improved learning capabilities. Several research teams have expressed interest in using Spaun to model neural diseases, neural trauma (e.g. stroke), and normal brain function to gain a better understanding of the link between neural spiking, neuron network dynamics and observed behaviors and pathologies. In order to scale Spaun to commercial viability in this market and begin the first step to commercializing the underlying technology, Spaun must run much faster to be able to provide the research teams shorter experimental windows and more detailed simulations. Specifically, a model of this scale needs to run approximately in real me (9000x faster than the current simula on), to allow researchers to perform a large number of independent experiments in a few days.
In 2012, Dr. Eliasmith and six of the PhD’s from the CTN who developed Spaun formed a company with Peter Suma to commercialize Spaun and the underlying technologies. The first application is to enable a SAS commercial version of Spaun to support this need for higher performance and more detailed experiments for the research community.
We are seeking OCE funding to support the porting of the Spaun code to the IBM Ontario Blue Gene in order to offer the service on the Ontario Blue Gene to the research community globally. The ultimate commercial aims beyond the research market are to commercialize the underlying technologies for the applied health (i.e. clinical), nonlinear control and ar ficial intelligence markets. MScPoP
DQE Instruments Inc;Amol Karnick Consulting
Low Cost Digital X-Ray for Developing Nations
Advanced health The project is aimed at delivering low cost digital x-ray to developing nations. The end-product is focused on developing a solution for chest imaging, which is a significant issue in developing nations. More than 5 million people die annually due to pulmonary disease, such as Tuberculosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary technologies
disease, and pneumothorax. Their lives could potentially be saved by a simple screening or diagnostic x-ray of the lungs, following which corrective measures could be initiated. The proposed project will develop a small format digital chest X-ray detector prototype and validate the research prototype with an arm's length partner to ensure that the detector technology is competitive in performance to existing state of the art.
2/20/2014
Karim Karim
$45,000
$27,000
$72,000
Waterloo
MScPoP
Not applicable
Lakehead University
MI-Medical Devices-Biaxial driving of piezoeiectric actuators for therapeutic ultrasound
Biaxial driving of piezoeiectric actuators for therapeutic ultrasound
11/12/2013
Oleg Rubel
$25,000
$10,425
$35,425
Thunder Bay
MScPoP
Not applicable
Centre for Addication and MI-Life Science-Epigenetic profile of circulating DNA Epigenetic profile of circulating DNA as compainion diagnosis biomarkers for abiraterone acetate treatment in prostate cancer
Mental Health
as compainion diagnosis biomarkers for abiraterone acetate treatment in prostate cancer
11/12/2013
Arturas Petronis
$75,000
$75,000
$150,000
Toronto
7/10/2015
Section 2 - 9
Entrepreneurship
Section 3
Entrepreneurship
Program
Company / Partners
Project Title
SmartStart Seed Fund Fernando Kerr Design
Regional Innovation Centre
On‐Campus Entrepreneurship Activities (OCEA)
George Brown College of George Brown College OCEA
Applied Arts and Technology
Ryerson University;George Brown College;Accelerator U
Project Summary
Batch Production and Development of Safety Needle Fernando Kerr Design (FKD) would like to leverage the Smart Seed grant to help us produce and place 30‐50 thousand samples of our packaged, sterile safety needle product. The sale of these units will give us valuable feedback to help us iterate our design, and show to our investors that there is demand for our product. Also, by Device
creating a large batch of product, we demonstrate to our investors that FKD can make its product economically at scale, which is essential for moving the business towards an acquisition, or ongoing revenue. This project will allow us to meet a monthly demand of 80,000 units.
George Brown College (GBC) is a public, fully accredited college of applied arts and technology with three campuses located in downtown Toronto: St. James, Casa Loma and Waterfront. The College offers 135 full‐time programs and 189 continuing education certificates/designations across a wide variety of professions to a student body of over 24,500 full‐time equivalent students, including over 3,200 international students; and over 61,000 continuing education registrants. Toronto is home to many of Canada’s major industries and is an important economic hub in North America. GBC partners with companies and organizations that train students for employment, but that also play an academic role by advising on course curricula, providing opportunities for field education, and participating in applied research and technology development projects. Nurturing students to meet industry needs and gain skills that are highly sought after in the job market is facilitated with GBC’s downtown location and close relationships with industry leaders. GBC is ideally situated to foster on‐campus entrepreneurship activities (OCEA) due to its focus on experien al learning in all areas.
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
8/1/2014
Joe Kerr
4/28/2014
OCE Commitment
City
$34,894
$57,661
$92,555
London
Dawn Davidson
$200,002
$378,044
$578,046
Toronto
4/28/2014
James Watzke
$200,000
$445,939
$645,939
Markham
Students, viewed by GBC as life‐long learners, graduate job‐ready through experiential learning that integrates academia with industry via applied research projects integrated into learning. The College has an established reputation for equipping students with the skills, industry experience and credentials to pursue the careers of their choice, including self‐employment. GBC supports OCEA activities as a key element to enhancing youth employment and economic development opportunities throughout Ontario. Via these activities, the city of Toronto essentially becomes a living laboratory for GBC students. GBC student entrepreneurs impact the economy in many areas, such as retail (e.g., salons, hospitality, restaurants, fashion outlets), specialized services (e.g., consulting, financial planning, accounting, bookkeeping, marketing, graphic design, plumbers, construction contractors, daycares) and technology‐intensive services (e.g., videogame development, environmental technologies, healthcare technologies, food technologies). Current GBC OCEA programs include: education and training in entrepreneurship; access to entrepreneurial advice and expertise via coaching and mentoring programs; experiential training via working side‐by‐side with small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises on technology development, product development and applied research projects; specialized support for emerging entrepreneurs across multiple sectors; and support for existing student‐led businesses. Many GBC graduates launch aforementioned main street businesses and specialized services, which tend not to be the type of startup companies assisted by Toronto’s exis ng regional innova on centres and campus‐linked accelerators.
GBC’s OCEA programs provide an excellent foundation for a culture of on‐campus student entrepreneurship, which will be strengthened by a new coordinated, campus‐wide approach. This will maximize the awareness, impact, and accessibility to GBC’s suite of programs for the whole student body and develop deeper relationships with the external entrepreneurship community. The newly created position of GBC OCEA Manager, who will be hired through this proposal, will take the leadership role in achieving these objectives. The Manager will ensure the evolution of OCEA programs from the current separated approach to a coordinated youth entrepreneurship ecosystem whereby students can become aware of, and gain access to, entrepreneurship activities that meet their needs. Creating this position will also lay the groundwork for expanded capacity of GBC OCEA activities to serve more students, and to create a more efficient hand‐off between programs, and between the College and its external entrepreneurship partners once students graduate.
Seneca College of Applied Arts and Seneca College of Applied Seneca College OCEA
Technology;ventureLAB;York Arts and Technology
Region;Economic Development Department, City of Markham;Town of Richmond Hill, Office of the Chief Administrative Officer;City of Vaughan, Economic Development;Association of Chinese Canadian Entrepreneurs;Startup Weekend ‐ York Region;DECA Ontario
A key strategic priority of Seneca College is to provide its students with experiential and cross‐disciplinary learning opportunities. On‐campus youth entrepreneurial activities are seen as an excellent way to actualize this priority. Seneca’s proposed On‐Campus Entrepreneurial Activities (OCEA) will feature two streams of OCEA activities, both of which are expected to focus on “youth–led business ventures that develop personal health products and services (PHPS) and employ leading edge technology, as well as effec ve usability and design thinking”. In Stream I, students from across all Seneca campuses, as well as youths from York Region not attending Seneca, will be encouraged to articulate their business ideas (within the PHPS domain) and gain access to a number of activities/resources, e.g., a) entrepreneurship seminars delivered by experts, b) the Virtual Entrepreneur Market Place (a custom web portal for youth entrepreneurs), and c) the opportunity to participate in the Seneca Innovation and Entrepreneurship Day. The short‐
listed ventures from the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Day will be invited to enroll in Seneca’s Start‐Up Weekend event, where the top judged ventures will be invited to enroll in OCEA Stream II.
In Stream II, venture teams will engage in more intense entrepreneurial activities within an on‐campus incubator environment: THinC – a Technology Health Collaboration for Youth Entrepreneurs. Each THinC venture team will have access to a venture specific, cross‐disciplinary expert mentor team (comprised of Seneca faculty and external community experts). A unique feature of Seneca’s OCEA incubation experience will be the availability of a “Baby Boomer volunteer test group” with which all incubates can explore the design, func on, and commercial feasibility of their PHPS products and services.
Upon graduation from THinC, Seneca’s OCEA team will facilitate the handoff of the highest potential ventures to assorted partner organizations within the Ontario innovation ecosystem (e.g., ventureLAB, SouthLake's CreateIT Now), who in turn will continue to help those ventures on their journey to commercial viability. Like all Seneca alumni, the Seneca OCEA team will keep track of all THinC graduates to see where their entrepreneurial drive takes them, one, three, five years out.
Greater Niagara Chamber of Brock University
Commerce (GNCC);City of St. Catharines;Niagara Falls Small Business Enterprise Centre;Brock University;Innovate Niagara;Venture Niagara;United Way of St. Catharines and District;South Niagara Community Futures Development Corporation;Niagara Angel Network
Brock University OCEA
Bio‐economy and clean Kick Starting Entrepreneurship will strengthen Brock’s five pillars of entrepreneurial activity and in turn grow Brock's entrepreneurial culture and opportunities in Niagara over the long‐term. Targeting Brock students across all departments and youth across Niagara aged 18 to 29 Kick Starting Entrepreneurship will build on the technologies
University’s commitment to entrepreneurship and its surrounding communities to develop activities that encourage Niagara's youth to advance their early stage entrepreneurial aspirations. It will strengthen Brock’s new on campus entrepreneurship focal point by increasing awareness of BioLinc and on and off‐campus resources available to youth across the region. It will also leverage Brock’s partnerships within Niagara’s entrepreneurial ecosystem to develop a unique youth‐centric training program that opens the door to entrepreneurship through mentor supported experiential learning and will 'kick start' the early stage entrepreneurial ideas of Niagara's youth. Through Kick Starting Entrepreneurship, Brock will create a stronger on‐campus entrepreneurial ecosystem and expand the programs available to Niagara's entrepreneurial youth to increase the region’s pipeline of investment ready entrepreneurs with the skills and knowledge to succeed.
4/28/2014
Brian Hutchings
$199,600
$206,750
$406,350
St. Catharines
Advanced CERT Canada;Bioindustrial Lambton College of Innovation Canada;Bluewater Power Applied Arts and Distribution;Impact Centre;Feher Technology
Machine & Manufacturing Inc;Western‐Sarnia‐Lambton Research Park;TechAlliance of Southwestern Ontario;Sarnia‐Lambton Economic Partnership;Lambton College
Lambton College OCEA
The Sarnia‐Lambton region is an economically diverse area relying largely on the petrochemical and agricultural industries. In last 15 years a few of these chemical and Bio‐economy and clean petrochemical industries have downsized, moved, or closed their local operations, which has consequently had a significant impact on the regional economic outlook, technologies
population demographics and innovation network in recent years. Today, enhancement of innovation and entrepreneurship culture is a proven way to react to regional economic and social gaps. In 2010, the Sarnia Lambton Workforce Development Board conducted a comprehensive study for the region to address demographic and skill development issues. The result was “Workforce2020: Sarnia Lambton’s Workforce Action Plan” report card that put forth six core strategies that address three key regional priorities: Entrepreneurship, Workforce Quality, and Economic Diversity. Within the entrepreneurship priority, two key strategies are listed as: a) create a culture of entrepreneurship in the region, b) develop a pipeline of students who can become region’s next generation of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial workers. Clearly this is a region‐wide priority that has been recognized for several years.
These strategic regional priorities have led to an ever‐expanding role for Lambton College as a significant economic driver in our community. As the only post‐
secondary institution in the region to provide education, Lambton operates in partnership with countless local companies, organizations, government ministries, and leading‐edge innovators across all academic faculties. Lambton has a demonstrated track record collaborating with local entrepreneurs and start‐up companies, and support Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) through applied research, development and commercialization activities. In addition, Lambton College has launched na onally recognized entrepreneurial ac vi es through the student‐run organiza on, Enactus.
4/28/2014
Donna Church
$199,990
$286,400
$486,390
Sarnia
Lambton College has recognized that creating a college‐wide entrepreneurial environment will require institution‐wide commitment and organizational mentality. Central in facilitating sustainable and effective entrepreneurship education and training was embedding this mission within
7/10/2015
Section 3 ‐ 1
Entrepreneurship
Program
Company / Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
our organization’s overall strategy. The strength of our commitment can be seen by the formation of ‘Entrepreneurship’ as one of the college’s four key strategic pillars presented in the Strategic Mandate Agreement‐SMA (2013‐2018).
Due to the strong linkage between research and entrepreneurship, and in order to achieve our SMA goals, Lambton College is developing a “Centre of Research and Entrepreneurship”. This unique regional centre will be the focal point for entrepreneurship activities on Lambton College campus as well as regional node for local start‐up companies and SMEs for applied research and development projects. Lambton College’s on‐campus entrepreneurship activities (OCEA) program will be the main driver for the Entrepreneurship side of the centre. The Centre of Research and Entrepreneurship (CoRE) will enable Lambton College to initiate and build entrepreneurial capacity across the College in order to expose students to entrepreneurship culture and engage faculty, regional entrepreneurs and local economic development organiza on to support the forma on of a sustainable future for entrepreneurship in the Sarnia Lambton region.
The on‐campus entrepreneurship activities (OCEA) program will be administrated and managed by an Entrepreneurship Officer who will work closely with student, faculty and staff across College Schools, as well as Regional Innovation Centres (RICs) and regional and provincial entrepreneurs. The Lambton College OCEA will integrate the following programs and services:
Outreach and Promotion: i) Academic program outreach, ii) Web presence, iii) Marketing materials and internal/external promotions, iv) Internal outreach to staff and faculty to embed entrepreneurial culture campus‐wide, v) External outreach to youth and vulnerable members (i.e. First Nations community, international students and at‐risk youth through School‐College‐Work Ini a ve). Training and Development: i) Mini‐Techno boot camp, ii) Entrepreneurship Workshop Series, iii) Lambton peer‐to‐peer business plan consultation, iv) Online training pla orms, v) Training and support for faculty embarking on entrepreneurship teaching ac vi es.
Mentorship, Consulting, and Networking: i) Entrepreneurship Mentorship Program, ii) Entrepreneurship Club, iii) “Ask the Experts” Program: 1:1 consulting with EiR (Entrepreneur in Residence) and community entrepreneurs/ business specialists, v) In‐house consulting and referrals through CoRE, vi) Connections to existing networking groups
Events: i) Pitch competitions, ii) Brainstorming events, iii) Entrepreneurship Week, iv) Seminar series offered by OCEA and TechAlliance v) Entrepreneurship Speaker Series and guest lecturers, and the vi) Entrepreneurship and Research Day.
Funding Opportuni es Support: i) Linkages to funding opportuni es and investment networks, and ii) Training and support with proposal prepara on
Access to Facilities: i) Demonstration labs, ii) Testing labs, iii) Prototyping facilities, iv) Access to software, and v) Working and meeting space for student entrepreneurs.
ThreeFourtyNine;Haptic Lab, University of Guelph;School of Engineering, UofG;Chamber of Commerce;Gowlings, Waterloo Region;University of Guelph;Catalyst Centre, UofG;Innovation Guelph;GIN/Private Donor
Centre for Business and Social Entrepreneurship (CBaSE) at Guelph ‐ OCEA
Background
CBaSE is a structured approach to enabling entrepreneurship across campus by encouraging applied transformational and experiential learning. What began as applied community based learning through our undergraduate business‐consulting course has grown to include graduate consulting, entrepreneurial education, workshops, seminars, speaker series, support for students attending competitions and conferences, and finally the launch of our incubator, The Hub. Collaborating with Innovation Guelph to define and deliver programs that meet the varied needs of students, alumni and members from the community, CBaSE has grown to provide ins tu onal support for entrepreneurship at University of Guelph.
4/28/2014
Melanie Lang
$400,000
$2,910,000
$3,310,000
Guelph
About The Centre for Business and Social Entrepreneurship (CBaSE) Located on the University of Guelph (UofG) campus, CBaSE is a 12,000 square‐foot multidisciplinary co‐working space where students and youth entrepreneurs can access business support and advisory services to turn their ideas into successful businesses. At CBaSE we approach entrepreneurship as a daily practice rather than a discipline. We are committed to offering access to entrepreneurial thinking and experiential learning, which challenges the status quo. CBaSE enables collaboration with the local community and offers programs which have the potential to transform student understanding of their disciplines, worldviews and abilities. From these experiences students are also given the opportunity to master disciplinary knowledge, develop essential skills and attitudes for life and career success. CBaSE acts as the gateway between UofG and the Guelph community facilita ng interdisciplinary collabora on, real world experience and measurable output.
Vision
CBaSE fosters entrepreneurship at the University of Guelph to create youth employment opportuni es and global businesses.
Mission
Providing transforma onal and experien al learning experiences through entrepreneurial thinking.
Values
Entrepreneurial Thinking. Community. Ci zenship.
Objec ves
. Empower a new genera on of business leaders commi ed to community engagement and a sustainable future
. Broker connec ons between campus, businesses and the community
. Be the “one‐stop‐shop” for entrepreneurship curricular programming and planning
. Promote social responsibility while encouraging entrepreneurial ini a ves that benefit the Canadian economy
. Promote organiza ons that foster economic and social well being
. Provide experien al learning opportuni es for UofG students
. Provide support for interdisciplinary and intercollegiate entrepreneurial collabora on
Culture CBaSE fosters an open door culture of collaboration and entrepreneurial thinking. The team promotes UofG's commitment to entrepreneurship and a thriving community by equipping students with the knowledge and tools necessary to navigate the entrepreneurial space. CBaSE also supports knowledge sharing among peers, provides access to a diverse network of mentors, and enables intellectual property protec on and management.
7/10/2015
Section 3 ‐ 2
Entrepreneurship
Program
Company / Partners
Conestoga College;Accelerator Centre;Communitech;Innovation Guelph
Project Title
Conestoga College/Enterprise Conestoga ‐ OCEA
Project Summary
Sector
Conestoga College, the Accelerator Centre, Innovation Guelph and Communitech are all key partners within Waterloo Region's entrepreneurial ecosystem. This OCEA Advanced manufacturing
program provides an excellent opportunity to work collaboratively to foster a vibrant entrepreneurial culture at Conestoga, and to strengthen student engagement in entrepreneurial activities in the broader community. Two key initiatives are planned, which collectively will engage over 2,500 students, and additional youth throughout the region. Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
4/28/2014
Barbara Fennessy
$228,262
$257,349
$485,611
Kitchener
8/14/2014
Jane Cooper
$349,753
$506,075
$855,828
Hamilton
4/28/2014
Gisele Roberts
$200,000
$200,000
$400,000
Sudbury
The first initiative, Entrepreneurship@Conestoga is a set of three entrepreneurial learning modules that enable students to explore Entrepreneurship as a career option and develop entrepreneurial attributes. The modules include "I am an Entrepreneur", "Opportunities to Ventures", and "Entrepreneurial Networking". These fun, interactive,experiential learning activities are designed to inspire students from all disciplines. Available in both in‐class and on‐line delivery modes, the modules will be offered to students, recent graduates, and other youth at our campuses in Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Guelph, and Brantford. The entrepreneurship modules will be delivered with support from a network of entrepreneurs in the community, many of whom are Conestoga alumni. Students who complete all three modules can opt to compete in the annual E@C Pitch Competition. Participants interested in starting their own venture can access business coaching services through Conestoga's Centre for Entrepreneurship (C4E) and engage in further learning activities offered by the Centre and its partners. As a further resource, our Entrepreneurship@Conestoga portal will provide startup tools, informa on, and important links with community organiza ons. The second key initiative, Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT) Catalyst, will leverage the extensive experience of our partners, Innovation Guelph, the Accelerator Centre and Communitech to create a world class model that supports entrepreneurs in advanced manufacturing and related trades. In addition to entrepreneurial training, business assistance is available through the partners' combined network of Entrepreneurs in Residence. Participants will be able to access technical advisors and state of the art equipment and commercialization tools like 3D printers, robots and advanced sensors through Conestoga's Centre for Smart Manufacturing. As well, they can use hardware and software resources in our Tech Sandbox located in C4E. AMT Catalyst will also act as a funnel for other high‐
poten al programs available through our project partners and others in the Regional entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Mohawk College
Mohawk College of Applied Arts and Technology
Interdisciplinary Resources for Young Entrepreneurs ‐ Mohawk Partners with the Ontario Centre of Excellence to Support Young Entrepreneurs in Hamilton
OCEA
Mohawk is bringing together faculty experts in business, technology and applied research to connect with students and community entrepreneurs in order to inspire the development of new products and services. Entrepreneurship development will be encouraged through workshops and mentorship opportunities provided to entrepreneurs as they develop their business plans and launch their start‐up businesses. Creative concepts will be inspired in the “Innovation Think Tank,” a group that guides participants through structured critical and creative thinking processes. Students and community entrepreneurs will be able to participate in the McMaster University, Accelerator, known as the “Foundry” and programs and services offered by the Innovation Factory. Collectively, this initiative will contribute to a culture of youth entrepreneurship in the City of Hamilton.
Laurentian University;Cambrian College;College Boreal;Norcat
Laurentian University
Greater Sudbury OCEA
Entrepreneurs and small businesses are the backbone of the Canadian economy. There are more than 1 million small businesses that employ 48 per cent of Canada’s total workforce, account for 25 per cent of total exports, and provide 30 per cent of our total GDP. Of those small businesses, 4.7 per cent are classified as high‐
growth enterprises and are responsible for 45 per cent of new job crea on in Canada.
At the three Sudbury post‐secondary education institutions, the promotion of entrepreneurship endeavors has been recognized as shared interest and mutually beneficial for it respective campuses. Overall attempts to support activities beyond the classroom have been inconsistent and have offered little in terms of novel ways to promote entrepreneurship experientially. Within the current opportunity offered through the Youth Job Strategy, Laurentian University, Cambrian College, Collège Boréal and NORCAT are partnering to create a regional entrepreneurship program dedicated to supporting students on all three campuses as well as youth outside the ins tu ons who are seeking to grow and expand new businesses. The program will support the salary and activities of the Sudbury Campuses Entrepreneurship Coordinator, a bilingual, self‐motivated individual with experience working in the entrepreneurial milieu. The coordinator will have office space within the three institutions and will be responsible for engaging students, alumni and other stakeholders (faculty, staff, administrators and the Sudbury business ecosystem) to build and implement a program that cultivates and nurtures a positive and strong entrepreneurial culture. These three post‐secondary institutions have existing and strong relationships with the regional ecosystem in Sudbury that currently assists entrepreneurs and SMEs in their business activities. Through these relationships, the current service offerings of organizations such as the Sudbury Regional Business Centre and NORCAT will be enriched onto our campuses to assist students, youths from the region and recent alumni interested in pursuing new business ventures. In addition to the current service offerings, the coordinator will also manage and create additional experiential learning opportunities such as boot camps, seminars, guest speakers, and internships/mentoring relationships as well as creating a repository of best practice models for new start‐ups and funding and development opportunities. The objective of the present application is to secure the resources needed to increase the number of entrepreneurial resources and activities at each of the aforementioned post‐secondary institutions in 2014‐2015 and 2015‐2016, create a positive and supportive entrepreneurial culture and position the institutions so that they may grow into campus‐linked accelerators in 2016‐2017.
Windsor Essex Economic Development St. Clair College of Applied Genesis ‐ OCEA
Corporation; Small Business Arts and Technology
Centre;WEtech;St. Clair College
In 2014 St. Clair College is launching “Genesis” an on‐campus entrepreneurship centre at the Windsor and Thames Campuses. Genesis will be the College’s focal point Digital media and for students, faculty and community members who are interested in or want to learn more about creating their own business. Genesis will provide young information & entrepreneurs access to the regional innovation ecosystem, mentors, business gurus and a wide array of professional service providers. Our vision for Genesis is to be communication a "Regional Hub" for youth entrepreneurship. Our goal is to inspire young entrepreneurs and provide an on campus access point to the existing network of regional technologies
exper se including Small Business Centres, Regional Innova on Centres, accelerators and host of other provincial and na onal resources. 4/28/2014
Peter Tumidajski
$237,200
$521,600
$758,800
Windsor
Investir Ottawa;Carleton University;Conseil de la coopération de l'Ontario
La Cité collégial
Centre jeunes entrepreneurs ‐ OCEA
La Cité’s Young Entrepreneur Centre will be the focal point for all young Francophone entrepreneurs in the National Capital Region. Our mission is to help young entrepreneurs get started in the business world and turn their innovative ideas into reality. A Project Leader will be devoted full‐time to developing entrepreneurial initiatives as part of this project. The resource centre and resulting activities will be available to current and former La Cité students and to other young people in the region. As a gathering place, the Young Entrepreneur Centre will provide the Francophone entrepreneur community with the resources needed to succeed, complementing the resources already available in the region, such as Invest Ottawa, Carleton University and other La Cité partners.
8/14/2014
Sarah Gauthier
$100,000
$207,702
$307,702
Ottawa
Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre;Algoma University;Sault College
Algoma University
Sault Ste. Marie OCEA
The proposed OCEA program in Sault Ste. Marie will be a partnership between Algoma University, Sault College and the Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre (SSMIC). With the economy remaining sluggish, slower Northern Ontario growth, and troublingly high youth unemployment, the importance of promoting the potential of entrepreneurship to young people has never been more apparent. The on‐campus entrepreneurship activities will serve as a confluence of academia and small business and are perfect opportunity for the young person with an idea but who is not sure how to proceed to make that idea a reality. Through programming and educational events geared towards young entrepreneurs, Algoma University, Sault College, and SSMIC in partnership with area stakeholders, will promote the value of entrepreneurship as a career, and help young people understand that in some circumstances, the best way to find a job is by creating one yourself.
8/14/2014
Jamie MacDonald
$129,200
$129,200
$258,400
Sault Ste. Marie
7/10/2015
Section 3 ‐ 3
Entrepreneurship
Program
Company / Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
Mississauga RIC;Humber College
Humber College
Humber College OCEA
Humber strives to provide resources and opportunities that transform our students into career‐ready graduates who combine critical thinking, theoretical Digital media and understanding and practical competence. Humber's current commitment to fostering a culture of entrepreneurism is evidenced through our curriculum, funding information & opportunities and the HumberLaunch accelerator program for student entrepreneurs. We offer more than 25 courses that cover a spectrum of entrepreneurism and communication business development content across five academic schools. From 2010 to the present, Humber has provided more than $280,000 in funding for 41 ventures started technologies
by Humber students and alumni. Through the HumberLaunch program, we have also provided 50 education and networking events attended by more than 400 students, faculty and external members of the local business community, and have a network of more than two dozen mentors that provide business advice to our members. The current proposal is to build on this program by expanding our network of business development support centres, specifically working with the Mississauga Regional Innovation Centre to ensure integrated delivery of services to entrepreneurs in the western GTA. Further, we will welcome businesses that are not affiliated with Humber students and alumni to strengthen our impact on regional innovation and economic development within our community. Over the next three years, we anticipate doubling the number of current and graduated HumberLaunch members, expanding our community partners to improve access to business support for our members, increasing the number of mentors in our network and helping our members in their pursuit of external investment funds to further the success of their business ventures.
4/28/2014
Laura Keating
$200,000
$228,516
$428,516
Toronto
Timmins Economic Development Corporation;Enterprise Temiskaming;Northern College;NorCat;Productivity and Innovation Centre
Northern College Entrepreneurship Centre ‐ OCEA
The Northern College Entrepreneurship Centre is located at our Timmins campus, with services available at all of our campus locations‐‐Moosonee, Kirkland Lake, Haileybury, and Timmins. In conjunction with our many partners, the NCEC will build entrepreneurial awareness, and self‐employment and business start up support for students, clients, community based students, and alumni throughout the far northeast region. Beginning with integrating entrepreneurial awareness elements into program curriculum, other services and activities offered will include an Entrepreneurship Club, pitch competitions, investor network sessions, mentorship, one‐on‐
one consulta ons with the Entrepreneurship Support Officer and more.
For more information, including to speak with someone about this initiative, visit our website at www.northernc.on.ca.
4/28/2014
Tori Hanson
$188,600
$199,200
$387,800
South Porcupine
Niagara College
Niagara College of Applied ncTakeOff ‐ OCEA
Arts and Technology
Niagara College's entrepreneurial culutre is embedded in most of its activities and programs and already has the expertise and an extensive track record in business start‐ups with various groups within the community. With the establishment of ncTakeOff, we will ensure that this expertise and entrepreneurship pedigree is embedded on campus and inclusive of all students on all programs. It will enable NC students to not only be exposed to other environments and specialists across the College, but also the the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem that exists within the Niagara region.
8/14/2014
Vivian Kinnaird
$200,000
$212,720
$412,720
Lake
$200,000
$400,000
$600,000
Barrie
ncTakeOff will engage the relationships we have established with Innovate Niagara, Start‐Up Niagara, the St. Catharine's Enterprise Centre, Job Gym, FueledMinds and Brock University to enable our students to fully engage in on‐campus ac vi es that support a crea ve environment for new venture crea on.
The project is supported by two academic divisions: Business, Hospitality and Environment Division and Media and Technology Division. As an academic collaboration between the two Divisions and Niagara Research, the College's arm for applied research and innovation, we plan to create new opportunities for students through inter and mul disciplinary explora on and the applica on of business and commercializa on know‐how to a variety of business ideas.
Venture Lab
SmartStart Seed Fund Volley Industries Inc.
Georgian College of Applied Arts and Technology
Georgian OCEA
Georgian College, in collaboration with the County of Simcoe and the City of Barrie, will be launching a series of programs and activities specifically designed to Advanced manufacturing
encourage and support student and youth entrepreneurship across Simcoe County and Central Ontario. Innovative, Creative Entrepreneurship (ICE) is the overarching plan that consists of 6 key areas of activities designed to engage students and youth, foster a culture of entrepreneurship, and support innovation and new business development. Each program and activity area has been carefully designed to meet the needs of youth including a new exCite! program that encourages youth through the process of ideation to business plan development; the exCite! toolkit to support the process and allow virtual collaboration among youth entrepreneurs across Central Ontario and the world; the Student and Youth Entrepreneurship Learning Network which will feature seminars, discussions, mentorship and idea exchange over the college video conferencing network connecting 7 campuses and communities together; Georgian College will encourage community businesses to invest in the creation of new hubs and changemaker spaces where many of the new activities and programs will be held and where students and youth will work together and be mentored from any of our 7 campus locations. Becoming an entrepreneurs is not a linear process therefore our ecosystem of activities, programs and infrastructure will consist of a series of platforms, events, programs, activities, access points and exit points for student and youth to use. 4/28/2014
Chris Berni
Ryerson University
Volley Application
Volley is a web‐based application that empowers entrepreneurs and creatives to connect with talented people who were previously too hard to reach. On Volley, Digital media and users submit short requests for business advice, hiring searches, or product feedback, and Volley helps their request propagate across their network's network, information & thereby extending their reach. We have secured $30,000 of investment from Ryerson Futures Inc. which we are looking to match with OCE's Smart Seed in order run a communication technologies
large marke ng campaign for Volley and contribute towards our co‐founders' salaries as we iterate towards product‐market fit. 7/16/2014
Michael Murchison
$31,200
$30,000
$61,200
Toronto
7/16/2014
Kaylie Greaves
$30,000
$30,000
$60,000
Toronto
7/16/2014
Chris Gray
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
Toronto
Our team and investors are confident that Volley is on the verge of becoming a large player in the online networking space. Since releasing our prototype in March, we've already facilitated more than 1,000 successful business introductions across almost 700 users around the world. OCE's funding will empower our team to tell Volley's story to the world in a manner that drives growth, and frees up resources for us to build IP around our core text‐analysis and recommenda on technology.
Our team is fully commi ed to making Volley Canada's next big consumer technology success story. SmartStart Seed Fund Kahoots
Ryerson University
Kahoots
The typical university is segregated by faculty, which is stifling the potential for innovation and project collaboration on campus. Kahoots is an online platform that encourages cross‐faculty student collabora on on por olio work, projects, and startups.
The software is exclusive to students within a particular university. It allows students to create profiles, stating skill sets and fields of interest. Students with an idea can post their project to recruit young talent, stating which skills they're looking for and the duration of commitment desired. Students looking to gain experience and build their resume/por olio through short or long term commitments can browse relevant student projects happening right on campus.
Kahoots is a simple and effec ve way to s mulate innova on on campus while be er preparing students for the post‐graduate workplace. As winners of the Slaight Communications 2014 Business Plan Competition, Kahoots has a received a grant of $25,000. With another $5,000 in founder contribution, Kahoots' total available funds are $30,000. Proper documenta on for both the $25,000 prize, as well as the $5,000 in contribu on are a ached below.
* Please make note, Kahoots' legal name is as follows: 8879818 CANADA INCORPORATED
SmartStart Seed Fund Materialyze
7/10/2015
Ryerson University
Materialyze
In an industry growing at 87% annually and estimated to be worth $5.7 billion by 2017, 3D printing has emerged as one of the most prolific, revolutionary, and disruptive technologies in existence today. Materialyze is an online marketplace for the distribution, secure monetization, and digital rights management of 3D printable designs. Talented designers are often unwilling to upload their creations out of fear of theft or illegal redistribution. Materialyze provides a safe platform for designers to upload, protect, and securely receive payments for the use of their deigns.
Section 3 ‐ 4
Entrepreneurship
Program
Company / Partners
SmartStart Seed Fund DreamQii
Not Applicable
Project Title
DreamQii Robotics
Project Summary
Sector
DreamQii Inc. has developed an ultra‐portable multi‐rotor aircraft called the PlexiDrone. The PlexiDrone is designed to cater the commercial needs of photographers Digital media and and filmmakers. The PlexiDrone has a modular design featuring detachable snap‐fit arms, retractable landing gear, and swappable payload modules.
information & communication The PlexiDrone works with custom built software that allows users to easily control and coordinate a single drone, or multiple drones, through a tablet or smartphone technologies
interface. Users interact with a 3D map to select a point of interest and draw desired flight paths. The software is sleek, intuitive, easy to use, and eliminates the need for expert pilo ng skills and complicated remote controls. Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
11/7/2014
Klever Freire
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
Toronto
Pablo Srugo
$30,000
$42,780
$72,780
Ottawa
DreamQii understands the need to comply with, and gain approval from, transport authorities in order to be a viable option in the commercial space. Our team has first‐hand experience working with transport authorities in the certification and design of aircrafts. As such, we have met with local transport authorities in an effort to ensure that the PlexiDrone meets all requirements for gaining Special Flight Operation Certificate (SFOC) approval, making the PlexiDrone a more viable candidate for commercial applica ons. SmartStart Seed Fund Gymtrack
Carleton University
GymTrack Commercialization
Gymtrack is a tech startup from Ottawa that builds smart, after‐market gym equipment for fitness facilities. By retrofitting existing equipment with gymtrack, fitness facilities allow their users to automatically track their workouts and receive auditory personal training feedback in real‐time through their smartphones. Gym members can use our app or website to see their progress and challenge other gym users, while fitness facilities get access to data about their gym members that they've never had access to before.
8/1/2014
SmartStart Seed Fund Magnusmode Ltd.
Magnusmode SmartStart
There are 200 million people worldwide living with special needs. In North America alone, there are almost two million people with autism. There is a lack of useful, engaging and effective tools for teens and young adults with special needs. Existing tools are expensive, not customizable and not age appropriate. Magnusmode is addressing this problem by developing digital solutions for people with cognitive special needs at each stage of their lives. Focused on a quirky and likeable hero named Magnus, the company's first product, Magnus Cards, is an online and mobile program that combines a proven method of instruction (task analysis) and elements of game design (positive reinforcement) to enable teens and young adults with special needs to live with greater independence. Sarah Dougald, the Manager at Au sm Ontario York Region believes "Magnus is the hero the au sm community has been wai ng for." Digital media and information & communication technologies
10/15/2014
Nadia Hamilton
$34,748
$29,748
$64,496
Toronto
SmartStart Seed Fund Kids Health Record
Ryerson University
Kids Health Record ‐ SmartStart
Kids Health Record is the first information technology platform specifically designed not only for medical information storage, but to provide real time analytics to Digital media and consumers. The project Kids Health Record is proposing will create in‐depth analytic tools from our existing platform. The analytics tools will focus on encouraging information & health and wellness of children at a young age with the goal to combat long term illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. The platform will interact with communication technologies
parents through multiple forms of media, and will allow them to have a level of insight into their children’s health that the healthcare system cannot provide on its own. By integrating this analytics component we will be enhancing our existing offering beyond any competitors and will be able to begin a mass customer acquisition phase. The outcome of the project is to gain 1500 users resulting in $75,000 in revenues. We will work closely with a firm to execute a media strategy in which we are able to reach very targeted audiences. We will focus on consumer to consumer recommendations, through blogs and social sites. It has been reported that 90% of moms trust the advice from other mothers, and 42% of parents would buy a new product recommended by an influential blogger. Our aim is to position the unique offer to excite the community and ultimately drive sales.
8/1/2014
Kathleen Babin
$30,000
$50,960
$80,960
Toronto
SmartStart Seed Fund QReserve Inc.
McMaster University
QReserve
Buying laboratory equipment is expensive and research grants are increasingly difficult to procure. Our platform, QReserve, disrupts the traditional model of scientific Digital media and resource utilization by giving scientists the tools to discover instruments and resources sitting idle within their own campus or nearby institutions. With QReserve, information & scien sts can target research funding toward resources with actual scarcity and ensure that exis ng resources are used to their full poten al without going to waste. communication technologies
Universities in Canada and around the world receive billions of dollars in taxpayer sponsored research funding each year with a large proportion of funds dedicated to purchasing research equipment and instrumentation. Although grant proposal and purchase decisions go through extensive review processes, there is no centralized system in place to track research equipment post‐purchase across laboratories and research institutions. This results in needless duplication of equipment within an organization, under or rarely utilized equipment, and a hindrance for universities or funding agencies to guide industrial users toward researchers with the resources required for industry‐academic collabora ons. 8/1/2014
Brandon Aubie
$24,896
$20,225
$45,121
Hamilton
QReserve is a search engine for research equipment both within and across research institutions around the world. Laboratory managers and researchers simply list their equipment online with as little or as much detail as desired and it becomes available to be found by other users. Once discovered, a user can contact the researcher and initiate a relationship to eventually use the equipment or collaborate. Never before has access to and utilization of research resources been this streamlined and barrier free. QReserve will save taxpayers, universities, and researchers money by avoiding resource duplication, optimizing the use of existing resources, and fostering new research collabora ons.
SmartStart Seed Fund Autom River Inc.
The Greenlid
Collecting organic waste in the kitchen is often messy and unpleasant. To increase participation, many municipalities allow the use of plastic or “compostable” bag Bio‐economy and clean liners. Unfortunately these bags collapse in on themselves and leak, creating a mess that needs to be cleaned after every use. The Greenlid is the first organic waste technologies
container that can be completely disposed of and composted, effectively eliminating the mess from composting and removing the need for plastic bag liners. The Greenlid is made from 100% end‐of‐life recycled pulp paper, a material similar to egg cartons. It is made leak‐proof through a proprietary mixture of food grade additives that prevent moisture penetration. The Greenlid is a clean and easy way to collect and dispose of organic waste in the kitchen. The entire system consists of a compostable container, a reusable Greenlid that absorbs smells and conceals organics, and a compostable lid for clean disposal. Using the Greenlid is easy! Just fill it, seal it with the supplied compostable paper lid and place it in your outdoor collection bin or even your home compost pile. Then immediately replace it with a fresh new container!
7/16/2014
Morgan Wyatt
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
Toronto
SmartStart Seed Fund Blue Orchid Care Inc.
Preventing back injury for caregivers
Blue Orchid is a startup company created at McMaster University as part of the MTEI (Master's of Technology Entrepreneurship and Innovation) program in Hamilton. Advanced health Our company mission is to create and develop assistive living products aimed towards increasing the quality of life for both patients and caregivers. Our first line of technologies
products will focus on mitigating the loss of mobility from aging, and will provide affordable, simple solutions with regards to lifting, moving and handling the patient at home. Our primary stakeholders include caregivers as well as those they care for. Whether it is family members or professional caregivers, we want to ensure that by using our products the patient can receive optimal care without frustration or injury for both parties involved. Our goal is to analyze and design products that would allow the patient to maintain their independence for as long as they can within their home.
9/18/2014
Sina Afshani
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
Markham
SmartStart Seed Fund tBOT
tBOT ‐ Customization through Robotics
For on‐the‐go urbanites, tBOT is a fast and convenient automated kiosk that creates a customized cup of loose‐leaf tea right before your eyes. The OCE grant will help Advanced manufacturing
support the prototype launch and fund future Research and Development work including manufacturing costs and salaries for our engineering and design teams.
7/16/2014
Brian Lee
$35,000
$46,000
$81,000
North York
SmartStart Seed Fund Connected Lab
Connected Lab
Connected Lab is a new ‘product design and development lab’ specializing in connected devices and IoT. We are a new kind of innovations firm that leverages hardware and software talent under one roof in order to create new product experiences for startups and leading global brands. We see a big shift towards connected hardware devices, but the market remains fragmented. We will be leveraging our talent to build a platform that can be used to help connect these devices under one network. Our portfolio of licensed IP is the first stage in helping businesses create their 'connected devices' strategy. The company will be building a platform and application that will allow for communication between multiple connected/smart devices through various settings (at home, in retail stores, payments, etc.). The platform will allow for easy and quick communication channels between the various applications and will be much more efficient and scalable compared to current products in the market. This will provide easier communica on solu ons between the various connected devices. 9/18/2014
Mike Stern
$30,000
$30,000
$60,000
Torornto
7/10/2015
Section 3 ‐ 5
Entrepreneurship
Program
Company / Partners
SmartStart Seed Fund Edusight, Inc.
Project Title
Edusight
Project Summary
Edusight (www.edusight.co) creates tools that help K‐12 teachers capture student grades, behavioural comments, and anecdotal notes in an easy way, while saving teachers me.
Edusight helps teachers understand each individual student’s needs be er, and helps them tailor instruc on by:
1. Capturing be er data on academic and behavioural performance 2. Providing individual student profiles that visualize trends and data correla ons in an easy‐to‐digest way
3. Personalizing insights and recommenda ons ‐ automated alerts on when to intervene, and recommended resources to improve learning outcomes
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
10/15/2014
Vikram Somasundaram
$30,000
$31,200
$61,200
Brampton
7/16/2014
Mathew Biskup
$30,000
$33,125
$63,125
Ottawa
Over 600 Ontario teachers are already loving Edusight, and we are excited to help thousands more.
SmartStart Seed Fund Machine Telemetry
Machine Telemetry ‐ SmarStart
Machine Telemetry produces technology that allows business owners to monitor the productivity of their business in real‐time. The functionality and utility of this technology has been validated through Beta customer trials however work is s ll needed to bring the hardware and SaaS pla orm fully to market.
The purpose of this project is to help quickly transition from the product development and validation phase to market entry and mass production. This transition will require support technologically to ensure that the product offering is robust and has the right features to help customers drive their businesses. It will also require support organizationally to make sure that resources are in place to support new customers. Engineering efforts will focus on refining the hardware for high volume production and user self‐install. The SaaS platform will also be adapted for a large user base and high data throughput. A secondary focus of this project will be development of a marketing plan designed to scale sales globally. An IP plan will also be developed to help create barriers to entry to firms trying to duplicate Machine Telemetry’s technology.
SmartStart Seed Fund Debuggex, Inc.
ParseHub SmartStart
ParseHub lets you extract the right data from the web easily. Without writing code, you can quickly turn websites into APIs or tables of data. Point and click to get the Digital media and information & data you want through the ParseHub browser extension and let us handle the rest. We see a world where data from anywhere is accessible to anyone. We are eliminating the mundane labor of collecting and preparing data, so you can spend more time exploring the useful insights.
1/8/2015
Angelina Fomina
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
North York
SmartStart Seed Fund Gorkon Industries
REN‐GEN SYSTEM
Bio‐economy and clean Gorkon Industries is a start‐up company that has quickly established itself as a solar industry engineering services provider. We specialize in electrical engineering technologies
rela ng to DC system design, AC system design, grid connec ons, project commissioning and quality control. Most projects are 100kW to 700kW in size.
Gorkon Industries is developing an exciting new product that is sure to shake up the energy storage industry. The Ren‐Gen is a back‐up power solution powered by an existing grid‐tied solar PV installation. Whenever desired (normally during a grid failure) a Ren‐Gen powers a residential buildings electrical loads. Ren‐Gen systems are compelling purchases vs. the compe on (conven onal back‐up generators) for these reasons
1) Indefinite power supply, no need to refuel
2) less capital intensive; the solar array is pre‐exis ng in most cases
3) Environmental benefits
4) no noise
5) less maintenance, and more use (can be used economically for peak load shi ing)
2/2/2015
Eric Coverdale
$35,000
$45,125
$80,125
Puslinch
SmartStart Seed Fund Illuster Technologies Inc.
Illuster Tech
Illuster Technologies has developed a state‐of‐the‐art hardware/software system for teaching electronics through hands‐on experimentation. Our solution enables university and college students to learn about modern electronics while gaining real‐world hardware experience. This is achieved by digitally controlling electronic circuits on industry‐standard Printed Circuit Boards and measuring the results with standard lab equipment. The modular system provides opportunity for expansion into different electronics streams, as well as further development by electronics hobbyists and enthusiasts.
8/1/2014
Richard Medal
$32,300
$30,000
$62,300
Toronto
Three Dimensional Vein Locator Device Using SRDRS MedView Technologies Inc. was founded in 2013 by a group of Ph.D. engineering graduate students from the University of Waterloo to pursue the commercialization Advanced health (Spatially Resolved Diffusive Reflectance of a novel, non‐invasive technology based on Spatially Resolved Diffusive Reflectance Spectroscopy (SRDRS) for sensing inside biological tissues with ultra‐high technologies
Spectroscopy)
sensi vity spa ally resolved reflectance imaging.
8/1/2014
Alireza Zandieh
$34,915
$30,013
$64,928
Toronto
7/16/2014
Latif Nanji
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
Toronto
12/10/2014
Alex Sebastian
$35,000
$41,000
$76,000
Toronto
The SmartStart Seed Fund represents an excellent opportunity for our company that will enable us to confidently reach out to a significant number of customers in order to validate our solution and generate some early revenue. Upon completion of this project, Illuster Technologies will be in a strong position to keep momentum moving forward toward company growth.
SmartStart Seed Fund Medview Technologies Inc.
The core IP technology (currently being patented) was invented as part of one of our founders’ Ph.D. academic research at the University of Waterloo.
The first commercial product we are targeting for development is a 3D vein locator device (named VeinVision) to be used for identifying and locating an optimal vein for venipuncture (vascular access) purposes. Our long term goal is to expand the application of our IP technology across multiple product lines in a diverse range of innova ve uses.
This proposed project for OCE’s SmartStart Seed Fund is structured to cover the early stage market/customer validations and technical development of an Alpha‐stage prototype of the VeinVision device.
The primary goals of this project are:
‐ Conduct early stage customer & market valida on to verify that VeinVision (as a Class II medical device):
meets the targeted technical and market requirements & specifica ons
fulfills its intended purpose and usage (i.e. safe, effec ve and benefits the user)
‐ Design, engineer and build the Alpha prototype of VeinVision (within Alpha‐stage requirements & performance specifica ons only).
SmartStart Seed Fund Roadmunk Inc
Roadmunk ‐ SmartStart
Roadmunk is a web application that let executives and product teams create product roadmaps to visualize the future of a product or service. Product managers struggle to use ad hoc tools like excel/powerpoint to create poorly designed roadmaps; subsequently must maintain multiple versions based on their different stakeholders (customers, vendors, execu ves etc) and have difficulty collabora ng.
We are seeking 30k so we can accomplish two milestones. As we are currently in closed beta, (where we have over 300+ users), we want to onboard the remaining 500+ users. Secondly, we need to further our product development so we can launch our web applica on publicly and get users to start paying us. SmartStart Seed Fund Orchard
7/10/2015
Orchard Marketing Discovery
Orchard is a startup focused on creating a more convenient, safe, and secure way to buy and sell used iPhones. All our iPhones are tested using the Orchard app, which ensures that all hardware and software elements are working properly. You can learn more about our diagnostic process at wwww.GetOrchard.com. We also check each of our iPhones against the Device Blacklist Registry to certify that they have not been stolen. That means that every iPhone listed is high‐quality and ready to use. Ontario Centres of Excellence
Section 3 ‐ 6
Entrepreneurship
Program
Company / Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
SmartStart Seed Fund Gata Labs Inc.
Gata Labs
In recent years, the use of mobile applications to manage our time, choices and commitments has experienced a major increase. Major corporations have capitalised on this increase, introducing their own custom applications to access the market. However, it remains a significant challenge for small businesses to do the same and involves significant financial investment. Gata Labs aims to develop a platform that will allow small and medium service business to obtain their own complete mobile application experience in an efficient, cost effective way. It’s first product, Gata Fleet, launched in 2014 and provides a fully integrated cloud based solution for taxi fleets and is already attracting the attention of local firms across Canada. With the significant potential of the software, Gata Labs plans to expand its offering to a wide variety of service based industries in the near future and combine this with a consumer platform to ensure that local businesses can compete in a world experiencing a mobile application revolution. For more information about Gata Labs please visit our website at www.gatalabs.com.
8/1/2014
Neel Lukka
$31,700
$30,000
$61,700
Toronto
SmartStart Seed Fund 8775435 Canada Inc. (Modly)
Modly
Modly is a novel piece of photo/video lighting hardware that provides users with increased control and creative possibilities in their work. It can operate in a stand‐
alone mode, or in a mode that is controlled by a mobile app straight from one's smartphone. Modly provides programmable and fully coloured lighting that enables photographers with control over traditional settings such as hue and temperature, as well as new lighting techniques such as light painting. Videographers will find Modly's dynamic capabilities useful for video effects, such as the flickers of a fire place or lightning flashes. Modly is helping photo and videographers everywhere create be er content.
8/1/2014
Tiange Lee
$34,270
$42,438
$76,708
Toronto
SmartStart Seed Fund Freepoint Technologies Inc
Freepoint process reporting
FreePoint Technologies is developing and launching cost effective IT solutions designed for the factory floor, by providing an extremely horizontal IT topography that Digital media and connects discrete manufacturing processes including legacy machines directly to spread sheets and open data bases. FreePoint's suite of "black box" remote I/O information & communication modules are machine and control agnostic. The data collected is stored in formats and locations that make it easily accessible to people throughout the entire organization. Although there are a variety of good uses for this technology, the primary targeted use will be productivity measurement, and productivity improvement technologies
that follows effective productivity measurement. Additionally, FreePoint is also launching a suite of software and SaaS utilities to give manufacturing companies effective tools to measure their productivity, analyze their data, and share (feedback) that information to the people on the plant floor. Providing proper performance feedback to the people directly involved with production activities is generally accepted and understood to be a good "intrinsic motivator". With FreePoint's technologies deployed, customers will be able to empirically measure the effect and benefit of intrinsic mo va on, as well as all their other CI efforts.
"You can't improve what your don't measure." FreePoint provides manufacturers with a powerful and cost effective suite of measurement tools. 9/18/2014
Sophear Net
$34,319
$65,156
$99,475
London
SmartStart Seed Fund GRABscience
GRABscience customer validation
GRABscience.com produces animated videos to explain difficult scientific or technical concepts to a lay audience. Our service allows our customers to reach out and inform potential clients, investors or just the public about their complex technology, process or treatment. Currently this service is available to larger companies with big marketing budgets and dedicated people, as the process for production is both very costly, highly iterative and time consuming. Given a team of scientists, techies and communicators, GRABscience is able to make that process far less painful for a fraction of the cost.
8/1/2014
Jason Moreau
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
London
Loyalist College of Applied Startup365 ‐ Post Graduate Entrepreneurship Arts and Technology
Program ‐ OCEA
Home to Loyalist College, the Quinte Region struggles to address many economic, social and environmental challenges commonly experienced by rural communities in Advanced manufacturing
Canada. In response to these needs, the Startup365 program was born; an elite, live lab with the aim to connect big ideas, top talent and entrepreneurial action, sparking new startups with limitless potential. Delivered by Loyalist College, this post‐graduate program will be made available to university and college alumni and inclusive of all disciplines. Successful applicants will be formed into teams around high‐growth ideas or existing early stage startups then guided through the building process for a scalable, repeatable and profitable business model. Though the program will be open to nurturing any big idea, it will look to capitalize on local advantages by focusing on industries of strategic importance such as Agriculture, Healthcare, Education, Natural Resources, Aerospace, Advanced Manufacturing and Technology. Students will be exposed to the principles of entrepreneurship while sourcing guidance from a powerful network of expert advisors, faculty and resource rich partners to launch and grow their startup in under a year. Ultimately, the mission of the Startup365 program is to facilitate the next great entrepreneurial success story, creating jobs and wealth in the process.
8/14/2014
Carly Kelly
$196,712
$253,142
$449,854
Belleville
SmartStart Seed Fund Wavecore Inc.
Queen's University
Wavecore
Wavecore is a Toronto‐based technology startup with a mission to help millions of people improve their fitness and lead healthier lives. Founded by a top‐two Advanced manufacturing
nationally ranker sprint kayaker, Wavecore is focused on the development of its eponymous first product ‐ a smart, simple and effective strength training solution for everyone, at any level of fitness. 12/10/2014
Jeff Ralphs
$30,000
$30,000
$60,000
Mississauga
Lakehead University
Thunder Bay OCEA
The proposed project is a partnership between Lakehead University (Lakehead), Confederation College (Confederation) and the Northwestern Ontario Innovation Advanced manufacturing
Centre (NWOIC). Its purpose is to develop opportuni es for entrepreneurship and innova on in Northwestern Ontario.
The region of Northwestern Ontario is one of the largest economic development areas in all Ontario, from Wawa to the Manitoba border (1200 kms) and many rural and remote communi es in the northern Ontario, from Thunder Bay to James Bay (800 kms). 8/14/2014
Bahram Dadgostar
$200,000
$274,160
$474,160
Thunder Bay
Hanley Corporation;Loyalist College;Launch Lab
Lakehead University;Confederation College;Northwestern Ontario Innovation Centre
In Southern Ontario, this geographic area would equate to servicing an area from Windsor to Ottawa and then up to Sudbury. This is an important perspective to bear in mind when looking at the unique challenges and costs of servicing entrepreneurs and communi es in Northwestern Ontario.
As the only post‐secondary educational institutions in Northwestern Ontario, Confederation and Lakehead are uniquely positioned to partner with NWOIC to develop and deliver programming for students and interested community par cipants in areas of entrepreneurship, start‐ups and business sustainability. Also, Confederation has eight regional campuses in Northwestern Ontario that will provide important resources when servicing communities, including First Nations communi es. Lakehead University has two campuses – one in Thunder Bay and one in Orillia. Linkages to Simcoe County will be made through the campus in Orillia.
A new phase of economic development in Thunder Bay and Northwestern Ontario is creating new entrepreneurship and innovation opportunities in areas of engineering technologies, environmental, natural resources, professional business services, healthcare, medical digital imaging, media arts, interactive media, software development, light manufacturing, cultural tourism, hospitality and other service sectors. Therefore the mission of this project is to prepare, encourage and support post‐secondary students, alumni, and residents of Northwestern Ontario to capitalize on economic opportunities in the region with entrepreneurial activities. To this end, this project will promote in its actions three themes. Outreach, to promote entrepreneurship as a career direction, and encourage the initiation and development of an entrepreneurial endeavour. Support, to support new entrepreneurs and their firms as they grow from inception to self‐sustaining enterprises. Finally, Growth, to ensure the ongoing viability of these start‐ups, beyond the time scope of this program project. Taken together, these three themes can be seen as a continuum in which the entrepreneurs can build their ideas from conception to success. To facilitate participants entering the program at any time during the project, each event will have something to offer people that are at any stage along the continuum with their endeavours, or to have the ability to continue their endeavours from previous events.
The key deliverable in this project is the incubator space at both the Lakehead and Confederation sites. The incubator will be a resource that will be freely available to students and alumni of Lakehead or Confederation, as well as community members. To support and draw participants to this resource, a diverse series of events will take place, featuring activities and content that is conducive to promoting entrepreneurship and innovation in the region, and will therefore feature a combination of content relevant to outreach, support, or growth of entrepreneurship. In order to integrate communities and participants in this vast region, Lakehead and Confederation will be making use of remote classrooms and teleconferencing infrastructure. As well, the issuance of travel vouchers is an integral component of each event offered, to facilitate the in‐person participation of people from across our vast region. A regional entrepreneurship conference will serve as a capstone of the project, further crea ng regional connec ons and integra on.
7/10/2015
Section 3 ‐ 7
Entrepreneurship
Program
Company / Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
The proposed project will deliver a range of activities and programming for urban and rural students, including First Nation students, alumni, and others interested in entrepreneurship so that successful start‐up businesses can be encouraged.
The project will focus on different aspects of entrepreneurship and innovation that is specific to certain industries, and relevant to all entrepreneurial endeavours. Industry‐specific content will focus on key areas of economic activity for the region, and industry‐agnostic focus includes content that can be applied to most start‐ups and entrepreneurial endeavours, for example small business start‐up, capital raising, social entrepreneurship, family enterprises, business management, intrapreneurship, strategic alliances, start‐up financing, and import subs tu on. The project will leverage exis ng community entrepreneurship and innova on resources with partner organiza ons, including:
Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Corpora on
Thunder Bay and District Entrepreneur Centre
Northwest Ontario Innova on Centre
Nishnawbe Aski Development Fund
Thunder Bay Ventures
Business Development Bank of Canada
Ambassadors Northwest
Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce
Addi onal resources from Lakehead and Confedera on include:
Lakehead University Economic Development and Innova on Office
Aboriginal Ini a ves at Lakehead University
Office of Aboriginal Financial and Economic Planning, Confedera on College
Office of Applied Research at Confedera on College
By systematically integrating entrepreneurial activities within their institutions, and the broader business community in Northwestern Ontario the project will op mize the exis ng resources, while developing new forms of exper se.
SmartStart Seed Fund FR8nex
7/10/2015
Ryerson University
York Entrepreneurship Development York University
Institute;Lynk Forces;MaRS Innovation;Kingsbridge Conference Centre & Institute;Borden, Ladner Gervais LLP;Southlake Regional Health Centre;York University;ventureLAB
FR8nex Freight Management System
FR8nex.com makes larger than parcel freight effortless. The FR8nex.com web application enables our customers to manage many different preferred trucking companies, while constantly sourcing cheaper freight. Currently, freight is bought and sold through the telephone with archaic freight brokers. FR8nex.com is automating the freight broker industry by offering a marketplace where manufacturers can find better freight options and trucking companies can acquire new customers without needing costly salespeople. FR8nex.com is a fraction of the cost of traditional on‐premise proprietary software and is dragging the freight industry out of the 90's. Contact at us at [email protected]. 1 minute explainer video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7aEBa‐54WY&feature=youtu.be
7/16/2014
Justin Hein
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
Toronto
York University OCEA
Digital media and E2: Entrepreneurship Ecosystem will be a program that is focused on supporting early‐stage entrepreneurship and accelerating start‐up companies within York information & University and the surrounding community. The program will identify students and youth interested in exploring entrepreneurship as a career path, foster their entrepreneurial endeavours, and support the acceleration of high potential ventures. The overall goal is to develop new entrepreneurs and create investment‐ready communication ventures that will lead to the creation of jobs, the development of new products and services, and have a positive impact on the Ontario economy. The E2 program is technologies
a vehicle that will lead to these outcomes.
The E2 program will support students and youth at any entrepreneurial stage, but specifically target early‐stage development, in order to provide students and youth with the tools to turn early‐stage ideas and technology into viable businesses. The value of the E2 program is in the creation of a foundation for entrepreneurial education and acceleration on campus and in the surrounding community, and the leveraging of existing programs funded through both the provincial government and other sources. The E2 program targets entrepreneurship at an early‐stage of development and makes entrepreneurship education and services accessible to a population, on campus and in the surrounding community that has not historically had ‘easy’ access to this type of support. In creating the E2 program, we will be able to target a large number of individuals on campus and in the surrounding community with great potential and entrepreneurial ideas that would otherwise remain untapped.
The E2 program will actively seek students, youth, and self‐identified entrepreneurs with a desire to explore entrepreneurship. The E2 program will use online surveys, social media, and other communication tools to engage them, and create a supportive online community through a collaboration and resource‐sharing tool, Lynk Forces. Mobilizing and communicating with students and youth can be difficult due to geographic spread and the lack of a cohesive communication mechanism; this is especially true given the size of York University and the York Region as a whole. Lynk Forces is a solution that will enable community creation and allow us to communicate effec vely and mobilize the E2 members.
In mobilizing the entrepreneurial community, the E2 program will provide a pyramid of support for E2 members and their ventures. E2 members are encouraged to progress up the pyramid through each layer of the program. The base layers of the pyramid will be accessible to all E2 members and will offer the following: (1) profile creation on Lynk Forces, which will facilitate communication, collaboration, and resource sharing among E2 members, as well as the ability of the E2 program manager to communicate about different opportunities and available resources; (2) a comprehensive set of workshops on topics such as introduction to entrepreneurship, intellectual property, start‐up company creation, industry‐academic partnerships, government funding opportunities, obtaining investment, and existing entrepreneurial resources; and (3) semi‐annual networking events.
8/14/2014
Sarah Howe
$200,000
$344,060
$544,060
Markham
Section 3 ‐ 8
Entrepreneurship
Program
Company / Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
It is anticipated that at each layer of the pyramid attrition will occur, as only the most engaged E2 members will participate in the activities and opportunities offered. As the E2 program progresses, more intensive acceleration supports will be provided to those E2 members and their ventures that have the most potential. In order to ensure that the E2 program has the potential to be meaningful across many different sectors and support students from all ten faculties and community members from the surrounding area, it is important that the E2 program aligns with regional priorities, creates linkages to sector‐specific support services, and draws upon the strengths of our project partners. As a result, the E2 program will create two accelerator program streams: one that aligns with regional priorities and the strengths of ventureLAB targeting the fields of information and communication technology and medical technology, and one that aligns with the priorities and strengths of YEDIns tute, which is focused on delivering a sector agnos c program.
Attendance at workshops and events will be monitored and those E2 members actively participating in the program will be invited to apply to one of two accelerator programs delivered by our project partners, ventureLAB and YEDInstitute. Ten successful applications that fall within the information and communications technology and medical technology sectors will be selected to attend the ventureLAB program and ten successful applications that fall within other sectors will be selected attend the YEDInstitute program. Successful completion of either accelerator program will lead to participation in a pitch competition, where participants will have the opportunity to present their ventures to a judging panel and representatives from the angel and venture capital community. In addition to the opportunity to obtain funding from the investment community, winners will receive cash and addi onal in‐kind investments from the E2 program.
Following the completion of the competition and towards the end of each year, the E2 program will host an exposition and celebration on campus. York University and surrounding community members will be invited to attend the celebration to learn about the entrepreneurial activities of E2 members, and also learn about the E2 program itself. The goal of the celebration is to raise the profile of entrepreneurship at York University and the surrounding community and encourage other students and community members to par cipate in the E2 program in the future. The following diagram provides a snapshot of the E2 program:
As illustrated in this application, York University has an existing culture of innovation and entrepreneurship and the E2 program will play an important role in supporting the continued growth of this culture. However, cohesion and coordination of current entrepreneurship education and support is lacking; as well, support is currently informational and does not formally assist in the acceleration of entrepreneurial ventures. The E2 program provides a solution to these problems, by offering a cohesive program of education and support that engages students and youth across campus and the surrounding community, as well as elevating awareness of the importance of entrepreneurship, and accelerating the development of the most promising entrepreneurial ventures. In addition, it will create a much needed point of access for students and youth to enter the entrepreneurial ecosystem that exists on campus and the surrounding community.
SmartStart Seed Fund Hydrobase Energy Inc.
Business Setup, Commercial Validation, and Hydrobase Energy Inc. is a Toronto based clean technology start‐up. Hydrobase Energy’s proprietary technology efficiently and economically generates electricity Technology Demonstration of Hydrobase Energy Inc. from low‐grade heat and allows businesses and facilities with waste process heat to lower their energy cost, reduce their carbon footprint, gain positive as a Clean Technology Company
environmental reputation, and increase their overall energy efficiency. Hydrobase Energy is currently focused on process heat recovery from industrial and commercial market segments, with future potential of expanding into residential and renewable markets. Furthermore, this project is focused on business setup, commercial valida on and technology demonstra on of Hydrobase Energy Inc. as a clean technology startup.
SmartStart Seed Fund r/ally Inc
r/ally
SmartStart Seed Fund VISR
SmartStart Seed Fund ChargeSpot Wireless Power Inc.
11/7/2014
Sahar Harari
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
Toronto
r/ally is a mobile first, knowledge management platform that answers "who knows what" inside organizations. We match a user's needs to another user's skill sets, Digital media and improving client response time, productivity and employee engagement. r/ally also provides valuable data for organizations, such as documenting employees information & expertise, both self declared and community vetted, and isolating who are the valuable supporters behind revenue drivers. We list Fortune 500 companies among our communication clients. For this proposal, r/ally's focus is to offer a comprehensive self service user administration panel, which will enable customers to deploy and manage a r/ally technologies
installa on with no involvement of our staff as well as building the customer facing reports for our skill discovery and matching data sets. 8/28/2014
Leah Eichler
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
Toronto
VISR | The Future of Parenting
VISR (pronounced visor, like advisor) helps keep kids safe on apps like Instagram, Snapchat, and more. VISR provides parents with a live dashboard of concerning ac vity and sends parent’s smart alerts when safety or related issues are iden fied across social channels.
8/28/2014
Robert Reichmann
$30,000
$34,520
$64,520
Toronto
ChargeSpot ‐ Smart Start
ChargeSpot enables hotels, restaurants / cafes and airports to deploy and manage a network of wireless charging spots. By doing this, we are building out an infrastructure of smart charging spots where customers / users have simple, convenient access to power. Digital media and information & communication technologies
7/16/2014
Mark Goh
$30,000
$33,000
$63,000
Toronto
The University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Durham College, Trent University and Fleming College, in conjunction with Spark Innovation Centre and the Greater Digital media and Peterborough Innovation Cluster, are joining forces to create the first campus wide student entrepreneurial programme across all four campuses. The programme will information & communication be called “Fast Start”.
technologies
The new partnership leverages the existing synergies of each university and college pair in their respective geographic markets as well as those education approaches and student body needs that are common to both colleges and to both universi es.
Fast Start can be visualized as a funnel with foundational programmes at the top, available to all students regardless of institution or field of study, and progressively more focused programmes toward the bottom, available to those students with demonstrated interest and ability. Examples of the focused programmes include boot camps, a student incubator and busines funding. The partners will collaborate to develop and deliver foundational programmes in common. The respective university and the colleges pairs will collaborate to deliver and develop focused programmes suitable for their students in common, while sharing as many resources and tools as possible.
The partners believe that all students will benefit from the opportunity for exposure to entrepreneurial ideas at the foundation level in that they will be able to apply what they learn in their future careers, whether they be in start‐ups, established businesses, social innova on or public service.
For students, as well as other youth in the community with real entrepreneurial spirit, the partners will offer more customized services to prepare them to effectively and efficiently develop a solid business plan.
The natural progression of students through the Fast Start funnel is the transition to the Spark Innovation Centre or the Greater Peterborough Innovation Cluster, where they can quickly advance and launch their businesses.
8/14/2014
Michael Owen
$800,000
$1,026,511
$1,826,511
Oshawa
We currently have one pilot location installed in a public place which. This project has been undertaken to validate our system in more pilot locations to allow for a broader market rollout. This will allow us to target larger customers (commercial chains) and help us attract further investment to continue building the business.
7/10/2015
University of Ontario Institute of Technology;Spark Centre;Durham College;Trent University;Fleming College;Greater Peterborough Innovation Cluster
University of Ontario Institute of Technology
Fast Start ‐ OCEA
Section 3 ‐ 9
Entrepreneurship
Program
Company / Partners
SmartStart Seed Fund Set Scouter Inc.
Ryerson University
Project Title
Set Scouter ‐ SaaS for Professional Location Scouts
Project Summary
Set Scouter Professional (SSP) is a SaaS (software as a service) management platform that allows professional film location scouts to organize and manage large volume of location catalogues. SSP is a combination of an organizational database and a client management system. Built on cloud‐based technology, it allows large catalogues to be accessible and in sync across mul ple devices and allows professional loca on scouts to work efficiently by managing their catalogue on one system.
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
11/7/2014
Alex Kolodkin
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
Toronto
At Aetonix, we are “Connec ng Families” with a simple and powerful video/audio/telemetry communica on pla orm.
We eliminate the isola on of those to whom we owe so much.
Social integration and participation of older adults and people with physical disabilities in society are seen as indicators of being productive and it is widely accepted that social support has a strong protective effect on health. However, seniors and people with mobility issues are at risk of being socially isolated or lonely due to a number of factors such as increased likelihood of living alone,death of family members or friends, poor health, etc. It is imperative that a solution be provided to support senior people residing at home and in institutions. Aetonix is an Ottawa based company driven to increase quality of life for seniors and people with special needs. Aetonix solutions offers "a TouchAway" video/audio/telemetry platform to connect families with their loved ones. Using our product, institutions and homecare providers can offer a much improved quality of life to its clientele. 11/7/2014
Ruqia Nur
$31,145
$45,765
$76,910
Ottawa
Javad Doliskani
$34,574
$46,140
$80,714
London
In September 2013, Set Scouter Inc. launched a marketplace to solve the problem of location scouting for medium and low budget filmmakers. Our digitally advanced marketplace pla orm, internally nicknamed “Indie”, has been incredibly successful and paved the way to explore solving other problems in loca on scou ng. Before endeavouring into the creation of a SaaS solution, Set Scouter partnered with Deloitte Boost, a four month program offered to select startups to help research and validate startup ideas through customer focused lean startup methodologies. The problem is that professional location scouts are under‐served with digitally driven tools catered to their specific needs. The location catalogue a location scout creates over decades in the industry becomes the scout’s lifeline to employment in the industry. Set Scouter Professional allows professional location scouts to browse their en re private catalogue and send selected loca on op ons to film directors within minutes, from anywhere.
The SmartStart Seed Fund will provide financial support to Set Scouter’s team of passionate entrepreneurs. We will use the seed fund to development SSP and grow Set Scouter into a sustainable, successful, and disrup ve business.
SmartStart Seed Fund Aetonix Systems
Aetonix "Connecting Families Solution"
Our customers are home care providers, and institutions, and the end users are seniors and people with special needs living at home. Aetonix's "aTouchAway" is a easy to use peer to peer video/audio communication platform the platform support telemetry acquisition for continuous health monitoring which, combined with the video/audio support, enables health care professionals to remotely provide basic care to senior or people with special needs.
This goal of this project will be to demonstrate Aetonix platform in three customer sites to gain feedback and enhance the technology. Funds will be used to pay developers, cover cost of materials and travel.
SmartStart Seed Fund mizpiz
MizPiz
MizPiz App can help users to find the most liked nearby restaurants, most liked food by their friends, and view full restaurants' menus in different languages.
10/15/2014
SmartStart Seed Fund myHealthSphere Inc.
myHealthSphere ‐ Smart Start
We are building mobile applications for Corporate Health and Wellness programs to increase employee engagement and health, which in turn will positively affect company produc vity. The program will run on a mobile device, with implementa on that is easy and cost effec ve.
8/1/2014
Jane Wang
$30,740
$49,500
$80,240
Toronto
5/13/2014
Dominic Toselli
$25,000
$0
$25,000
Waterloo
8/1/2014
Robleh Jama
$35,000
$90,000
$125,000
Toronto
10/15/2014
Masha Krol
$28,200
$50,600
$78,800
Ottawa
Employees can use the program at home or at the office. Our program is context specific, and can sync with calendars to insert health challenges in free spaces, or break up prolonged sedentary periods with a health break. Employees compete against each other and earn points toward real prizes provided by our vendor partners.
Our core product development team consists of 4 software developers, a UI/UX designer and a sales/marketing associate. For the health content, we have input from our staff MD, personal trainer, nutritionist, and senior advisor from McGill University Faculty of Medicine, all contributing to the science behind the content of the program. Our app is currently in the development phase with our first iteration of the core mobile product ready to be tested in July. We have signed on 7 pilot companies for this July test phase, and are ac vely prospec ng to have 50 pilot companies for August.
Entrepreneurship Fellowships
PetroPredict Inc.
SmartStart Seed Fund Tiny Hearts
PetroPredict Inc.
Our technology stores the production of oil, water and gas, workover reports, and geological log data including pressure, temperature, permeability, porosity, and water viscosity in a MapReduce data storage cluster. We use the MapReduce system to provide distributed machine learning for the analytics, data mining, and general archiving. Our infrastructure is set up using the best practices of other data companies similar to those used at Google and Facebook.
Ryerson University
NEXT Keyboard
During Apple’s most recent WWDC keynote presentation, they unveiled that they will now be allowing 3rd party keyboard apps with the launch of their new operating Digital media and system iOS 8. This opens a whole new market and opportunity to create 3rd party keyboards for the millions of iOS devices. The keyboard currently used on Apple iOS information & devices has been in use for over 7 years, and throughout that me has not been changed or improved.
Our solution is to create a beautiful, gesture based, customizable touch‐keyboard experience which will simplify and personalize a task which we do every day, type on our smartphones. With over 500 million active users and the 3rd party keyboard market opening for the first time, there is a huge opportunity to help improve the average iOS users experience, and be one of the first to market.
Tiny Hearts is an award‐winning app studio based at the Ryerson Digital Media Zone, in the heart of Toronto. We are passionate about creating beautiful, playful, and useful products that make peoples’ lives better in small and meaningful ways. Our apps are used by millions of people worldwide and have been featured extensively by Apple and the media.
SmartStart Seed Fund Travelabulous Inc
7/10/2015
Travelabulous SmartStart
Travelabulous is an Ottawa‐based Internet startup assembling a web and mobile experience that makes travel planning as much fun as the trip itself. Currently, the company has developed a solution for personalized travel planning for lodging. Before taking the solution to market, the company feels that it needs to adding personalized planning for attractions, sites, events and restaurants, and that is the purpose of this proposal. Upon completion of this project, we believe that we will have a commercially viable solution and will be able to start generating revenue and additional jobs in Ontario.
Section 3 ‐ 10
Entrepreneurship
Program
Company / Partners
SmartStart Seed Fund Zpirit Foods Inc
Project Title
Zpirit Sales and Production Scaling
Project Summary
Zpirit Foods Inc. is a beverage innovator, manufacturing and commercialising of Zpirit infuzions. Zpirit is a unique fruit and herb infusion featuring whole fruit pieces for modern health conscious individuals looking for a low‐sugar and natural refreshment.
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
2/2/2015
Philippe Roireau
$35,000
$132,600
$167,600
Toronto
Murtaza Saadat
$30,000
$31,300
$61,300
London
Kelvin Kwok
$34,800
$30,894
$65,694
Toronto
Zpirit opens a new beverage category. The concept has been developed in partnership with George Brown College, Conestoga College and Google.
A er 1 year and 6 months of development, Zpirit launched its first product range in Ontario and Quebec in June 2014.
Having successfully developed a first prototype, Zpirit needs to further develop a proprietary technology to automate the fruit dispensing process in order to scale its activities and gain a competitive advantage. The goal is to bring a proof of concept machine to plant trial readiness and further validate its scalability and continue to grow market trac on.
SmartStart Seed Fund GamePress, Inc
gamepress beta
GamePress Inc, provides an iPad app to allow anybody to create and publish interactive apps easily. Using our simple tool, they can create interactive apps in a few hours and have them ready for the App Store without ever touching a single line of code.
8/1/2014
SmartStart Seed Fund ThinkNation Inc.
Ryerson University
ThinkNation ‐ Smart Start
ThinkNation is a recruitment pre‐screening platform to help companies improve on their decision‐making process when hiring for IT professionals. Existing tools for candidate pre‐screening have been in the market for many years, yet the technology behind them have not caught up to fast‐changing requirements for hiring technical recruits. ThinkNation helps companies compile customized technical tests, based on job description and title, to easily test any candidate applying for an IT job for technical skill‐sets that are needed for a job. ThinkNation streamlines the pre‐screening process and helps recruiters save time and money in effectively screening quality candidates. ThinkNa on brings big data to talent recruitment and HR.
10/15/2014
ThinkNation has successfully been deployed by 4 different companies (1 paid company) to hire for various software developer positions. Over 100 developers have been tested by ThinkNation's testing platform and we have received tremendous feedback on the technology that ThinkNation provides. Currently, we have a growing wait‐list of 30 companies and recruitment agencies ready to use our beta pla orm. ThinkNation has received support from many organizations, including Microsoft BizSpark, Google for Entrepreneurs(NEXTTO), Ryerson's Digital Media Zone, MarsDD, and VentureLab.
ThinkNa on has received media a en on with TechVibes and RogersTV and presented on panels at Elance and Ryerson DMZ.
ThinkNation is currently a resident company of Ryerson DMZ, who ranked #1 in Canada and #5 in the World University Business Incubator Index.
SmartStart Seed Fund Smartto Media Inc
Ryerson University
NewAge Advertising
A new analytical digital signage system which presents viewers with video advertisements on Smartt Mirrors while collecting analytical data, including number of views and duration of each view. Smartto Media’s website enables the company to provide real time uploading of content, performance data retrieval, and troubleshooting remotely from its offices. In real time, it connects with an online dashboard that clients can use to retrieve results. The network of Smartt Mirrors is custom fitted into high traffic locations, such as premium‐casual restaurants. When a customer approaches the mirror, hidden sensors are activated enabling digital video promo ons to “float” on the glass.
The system is made up of a proximity device, data acquisition device, and high definition video player. The proximity device is implemented using an infrared distance sensor, which provides analog information to the microcontroller. The microcontroller is then responsible for reading the analog sensor input, converting it to digital information, and then outputting the information through the USB port. The data acquisition device and high definition video player are both implemented on an embedded Linux system with internet connectivity, USB port, and HDMI port. The embedded Linux system reads the USB for serial sensor information and decides when to display an advertisement (if a viewer is present) while collecting analytical information which is then uploaded to a cloud database. The final behavior of the system allows for the collection of analytics from real‐life advertisements. Each device is accessible remotely.
1/8/2015
Ghazal Masterifarahani
$30,000
$30,000
$60,000
North York
SmartStart Seed Fund Giveffect Inc.
Giveffect Customer Validation for Enterprise Solution Giveffect is an enterprise‐grade SaaS platform that allows Nonprofits to leverage the power of crowdfunding. Our enterprise crowdfunding technology Digital media and (www.giveffect.org) solves the current limitations of existing crowdfunding platforms: tax receipts are issued, donor data is stored in our built‐in CRM and all donation information & dollars go directly to the charity, NOT the individual who started the campaign. communication technologies
Now entering our 2nd year, Giveffect spent its first year conducting testing and market discovery, during which we helped charities raise just under $500,000 in donations through our platform. Due to the success of our crowdfunding platform (www.giveffect.org), we have had several medium‐large sized charities request that we build white‐labelled licensed solutions based on our current crowdfunding software on www.giveffect.org. This will allow charities to leverage the power of Giveffect while keeping donor traffic on their own site. In addition, we have attracted several requests from charities in the US and UK who would like to begin using Giveffect's enterprise crowdfunding solution. 11/7/2014
Anisa Mirza
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
Toronto
Our proposed project with OCE aims to help us with successfully testing market validation for our new product line: licensed enterprise crowdfunding technology to medium‐large sized charities. It is our firm belief that this new enterprise solution will help Giveffect scale an enterprise business.
SmartStart Seed Fund MIJLO
MIJLO ‐ smart start
MIJLO helps people in small spaces live simple and live well, with a collection of well‐designed, quality goods. Digital media and information & communication technologies
10/15/2014
Daniel Eckler
$30,000
$30,000
$60,000
Toronto
SmartStart Seed Fund Qoints
Not Applicable
Qoints
Qoints is a performance benchmarking tool for digital promotions. It's a neutral repository that allows marketers to measure the success of their campaigns against their competition in real time and gain actionable intelligence from the data they collect. Qoints also generates insights from the data collected based on stated goals such as target demographics and overall spend (among many others). The Qoints platform was developed as a solution for brands and agencies to benefit from the massive amounts of data they bring in ‐ it lets them re‐leverage their data over and over again as part of a set of benchmarks, instead of being filed away to collect dust. The SmartStart funding will support the rebuilding of the Qoints architecture and front end, which is necessary for extending the existing functionality to satisfy the growing demands of Qoints' customers.
11/7/2014
Harris Maxwell
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
Toronto
SmartStart Seed Fund Social Asset Measurements Inc
Ryerson University
SAM's Social Return Intelligence Suite
Social Asset Measurements Inc. is Canadian for profit firm that is the leading provider of software based impact measurement solutions for non‐profits, for‐profits, and the public sector in Canada. Our software suite measures, reports, and benchmarks social and environmental impacts across regions, programs, and industries.With a clear focus on research and product development, Social Asset Measurements has led the way in providing cutting‐edge tools through its Social Return Intelligence Suite, which includes software module such as the Ira Impact Reporting & Management Suite, the leading Canadian software product for Social Return on Investment repor ng and management, and Rajas Insights, the first commercial SROI benchmarking tool.
8/28/2014
Anshula Chowdhury
$33,688
$30,000
$63,688
Toronto
11/7/2014
Darren Thompson
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
Toronto
SAM has been twice‐funded by the National Research Council of Canada's Industrial Research Assistance Program, and worked with clients such as United Way, J. W. McConnell Family Foundation, and partnered with various consulting groups to provide ongoing value.
SmartStart Seed Fund MoveSuite;InCubes;INcubes
7/10/2015
Not Applicable
MoveSuite OCE SmartStart Application
The average Canadian takes up to 60 days to update all of their address information when they're moving to a new home and moving is often ranked as one of lifes most stressful events. MoveSuite allows you to transfer over hydro, water, and gas to your new address (and cancel your old utilities), and update drivers licenses, health cards, and more in 20 minutes or less! MoveSuite has also created a network of alliances with qualified and insured moving and packing, junk removal, and storage companies to ensure most of your move can be completed in minutes online!
Section 3 ‐ 11
Entrepreneurship
Program
Company / Partners
SmartStart Seed Fund JamCam;JamCam
Ryerson University
Project Title
JamCam
Project Summary
Sector
Based out of Ryerson University’s Digital Media Zone (DMZ ‐ and RFI funded), JamCam is a mobile application and web platform that allows users to create videos set Digital media and to their favourite song, all in one step. Users can then share to the JamCam community as well as any other social network. Anybody on the web, tablet or mobile can information & watch JamCam videos. Here's a sample JamCam video: h p://www.jamcam.co/v/eXG2 .
JamCam was born out of a frustration; that no other video recording app would keep the music playing during video recording. What started off as a simple tool has grown into much more ‐ in under a year the app has grown into a budding social network, an effective marketing tool for artists and brands, and an entirely new art‐
form that allows people to express themselves in an en rely new way. Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
8/20/2014
Matt Loszak
$32,400
$30,000
$62,400
Toronto
8/14/2014
kim Watkins
$200,000
$200,000
$400,000
North Bay
9/18/2014
Andrew Finkle
$35,000
$60,000
$95,000
Kitchener
8/20/2014
Brett Madill
$29,988
$30,694
$60,682
Asburn
11/7/2014
Jessica Rose
$34,998
$30,030
$65,028
Toronto
10/15/2014
Hassaan Ahmed
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
London
To make a video, all you have to do is get some music playing on your phone, open up JamCam, and tap 'record'. JamCam does all the work behind the scenes, creating an instant mini‐music video that is 15 seconds in length, and loops infinitely while watching. The output is a hosted link that can be shared in any way, including special forma ng for sharing on all the social networks. Users have created a wide variety of content on JamCam, from artistic composition shots to funny or ironic scene‐music combinations. JamCam is still young, and its community is still in the self‐discovery phase in which patterns and trends are still developing. We're excited to see what will happen as the community continues to grow and evolve. On‐Campus Entrepreneurship Activities (OCEA)
Canadore College;IION;Nipissing University
Canadore College
Canadore OCEA
“Our future depends on our ability to remain focused on learning and student success”
Canadore College Strategic Plan – Skilled Solu ons 2017
In partnership with the Regional Innovation Centre (IION) and Nipissing University, Canadore College is launching a youth entrepreneur initiative code‐named “Youth Entrepreneur Success Ini a ve.” Our objective is to stimulate and ignite the entrepreneurial spirit in our current and future students. This initiative will introduce and foster entrepreneurial values, attitudes, qualities, skills and importantly, entrepreneurial experiences. These opportunities will be identified at the outset of the project through the study of a niche‐
business driven urban planning exercise which will focus ac vi es into under‐developed business sectors in our region.
Canadore College is a key provider of applied learning and customized training. The College continues to evolve and expand programming to produce the highly skilled individuals required by the knowledge economy. The College actively seeks out opportunities for new and unique programs and provides creative learning experience within existing programs, especially those that support entrepreneurship. Creativity, collaboration and innovative approaches will guide this initiative’s evolution, as we con nue delivering value to our stakeholders.
Nipissing University provides an exceptional and personalized student experience within a collegial and diverse learning community. The university focuses on excellence, innovation, and creativity in scholarship and teaching. Graduates will embrace lifelong learning and will make a difference locally, nationally, and interna onally.
The College and its partners support existing and emerging sectors of the economy by developing unique partnerships with the public and private sectors. Broad collaboration inherently comes with many challenges. We embrace these challenges and are confident this initiative assists us in meeting our commitments to our diverse stakeholders. Our goal is to provide our students with skills and experiences and to support our community partners and stakeholders. We are confident Youth Entrepreneurship Success Initiative will support our students in achieving a rewarding and successful career in today’s global economy. The approach that is proposed also places additional emphasis on the likelihood of success by researching what business development opportunities exist in our region or are under‐developed. We will link the passions and entrepreneurial spirit of our students to niche based business opportuni es.
SmartStart Seed Fund Structur3D Printing
SmartStart Seed Fund Clipter Inc.
Consumer product development & manufacture of a This project aims to commercialize Structur3D Printing's universal paste extruder for desktop 3D printers. This universal paste extruder will expand the capabilities of paste extruder for 3D printing
exis ng 3D printers to include materials beyond plas c, such as silicone and cake icing.
Platform Expansion and Development
Clipter is a mobile application that makes is easy to capture and quickly/easily produce video content from multiple sources into one video story that can be shared/broadcast in real‐time to a wide audience. The application handles automatically stitching together short videos from everyone's perspective so that people can focus on capturing moments while Clipter handles the rest. We are looking to expand the application onto other platforms, and build out the network to allow for easy exploration and access to content that's being created. The objectives of the project are focused on building out the platform on iOS based on user feedback, expanding the platform onto Android, and building out the channels that support growing the user base.
SmartStart Seed Fund STUDEO
Ryerson University
Seed Fund Studeo
STUDEO is a new, online platform to help the real estate industry improve the home‐buying experience for buyers. This OCE financing will assist STUDEO with its expansion project that will enable us to extend our reach and grow our revenue by increasing and converting online traffic.
SmartStart Seed Fund GYMNUT
Gymnut
Up un l now, if you wanted to get in shape or try to realize your fitness goals, you had the following choices:
Buy a diet or fitness book/magazine – cheap, impersonal, and ineffec ve;
Join a gym, be er but also impersonal and lacking accountability or direc on;
Hire a personal trainer, even be er, but incredibly expensive and o en hit or miss in terms of quality;
Spend hours of your time digging up workouts or routines related to your goal using a variety of websites, blogs, magazine etc., or use standard fitness applications ‐ easy to track your workout but inconvenient, impersonal and ineffec ve in terms of finding what works for each individual
Innovations in web and mobile applications brought about fitness 1.0 – access to vast amounts of workouts, basic progress tracking tools, and a plethora of fitness information that was hard to separate from the noise. It was better yet, but still missing the effectiveness, accountability and direction that a more personalized approach can deliver.
Each individual is unique, and the approach towards fitness must also be. This is where GYMNUT comes in, and it’s all about leveraging the connectivity of the social web 2.0 for fitness. Fitness professionals, personal trainers, fitness models and athletes have only begun to explore the opportunities that this evolution provides, but current tools that allow them to do so are limited. GYMNUT is an e‐commerce driven online training pla orm that allows fitness 2.0 to flourish through a ‘social fitness’ sharing economy.
‘GYMNUT makes it easier than ever to create, share, and showcase workouts through a unique Instagram‐like exploring and purchasing experience. Once a workout is purchased, it can be used at any me, anywhere, and the emphasis is on the compe on of workouts as a means of monitoring progress and earning rewards.’
The experience is tied together in an iTunes like ‘Workout Store’ that makes it fun and easy to explore trending or relevant workouts using tags, or search exactly what it is you are looking for using keywords. The GYMNUT workout store v1.0 was launched in April 2014. 7/10/2015
Section 3 ‐ 12
Entrepreneurship
Program
Company / Partners
SmartStart Seed Fund Love Winter Inc
Ryerson University
Project Title
Love Winter ‐ Smart Start
Project Summary
Sector
Love Winter Inc. is the first brand in the world that is specifically created to change the way people think and feel about winter. 'Love Winter' is a brand and 'Valenki Advanced manufacturing
boots' are the first product of the 'Love Winter' product line. The brand is the embodiment of your embracement of the winter and a testament of your love towards it. Valenki boots are lifestyle two‐piece boots that have originally created for royalty over‐300‐years ago and are now redesigned for modern lifestyle. The unique design of the boots make it possible to wear them inside and outside by simply adding and removing the galosh. Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
9/18/2014
Polina Roufanova
$34,798
$57,500
$92,298
Toronto
8/28/2014
Elizabeth Nenniger
$35,000
$65,550
$100,550
Kitchener
10/15/2014
Ryan Fyfe
$30,000
$33,600
$63,600
Waterloo
Love Winter has a unique marketing and sales strategy for a fashion brand breaking all tradition market entry rules. Using technology as a tool to build brand awareness made it possible for Love Winter to build interest before the company was even launched. Love Winter generated its first sales through an Indiegogo crowd‐funding campaign in November 2013. Later in the season Love Winter Inc. became part of a Start‐up Fashion Week representing fashion in the digital world. Love Winter also joined forces with Fashion Zone at Ryerson University.
Currently, Love Winter is getting ready for next season and has a number of events lined up. The company is going to be part of Pure London Tradeshow which is specifically targeted to luxury footwear brands as well as accessories. Through a PR agency that Love Winter has recently hired, Doug Wallace Media, the company is going to be featured in all major Canadian magazines such as Kit Fashion, Elle Magazine, Canadian Living, Flare and Chatelaine. With OCE support Love Winter will be able to take a next step and general over $250,000 in revenue using technology as a main tool to grow the business. Our goal is to generate $250,000 in revenue within a 6 months period after we receive the OCE funding. In order to do so Love Winter will have to sell 1,000 pairs of boots. We are also planning to hire Canadian young to help us reach our 6‐months goal. We believe that young talent is the best source of new ideas and the fastest way to grow our company. We also believe is suppor ng young Canadians and help them achieve their goals through Love Winter ini a ves.
This is a very exci ng opportunity for Love Winter Inc. and we are keen to make our goal a reality.
SmartStart Seed Fund DraftingSPACE
DraftingSPACE
DraftingSPACE is an online tool that uses an algorithm to generate custom designs for home renovations. Simply draw the walls of the room, select which furniture + Digital media and fixtures you’d like to use and let Dra ingSPACE figure out the best possible design solu ons for your home.
Digital media and Silqe has developed a financial search engine built on open data, enabling financial professionals to analyze company fundamentals. Answers are calculated in real‐
time and pulled directly from the original financial statements ‐ improving decision‐making lead time, while significantly reducing research time and cost.
SmartStart Seed Fund Silqe
Silqe SmartStart SEED
SmartStart Seed Fund Apartmint
Apartmint Inc
Apartmint streamlines the rental process by offering one integrated platform for finding/listing a rental, screening a tenant, and transacting rent. Apartmint integrates Digital media and a map‐based search with a tenant profile that doubles as their application, the ability to rate/review previous tenants and landlords, and a simple rent payment information & processing system to replace antiquated cheques. Apartmint also offers landlords professional photography and a unique walk‐through tour with interactive floor plan communication combined with powerful analytics and promotional tools to ensure the listings that need more exposure can get it. The platform is currently in Beta stage, being technologies
tested in Kitchener‐Waterloo with local property managers. Throughout the next few months Apartmint will focus on growing the platform organically in the Region and scale to other cities in the province. 10/15/2014
Margaret Cichosz
$35,000
$221,770
$256,770
Waterloo
SmartStart Seed Fund Encircle
Encircle
Encircle is redefining the contents claim processes for property and casualty insurance companies (P&C insurers) globally, significantly reducing the billions of dollars lost annually due to inefficient processes. Encircle leverages the advancements in mobile technology to make documenting property claims fast, easy and instantly shareable. Today, the typical method used by the insurance industry involves DSLR cameras, handwritten notes and dictaphones. This information is then passed along to the insurance company in various formats to decipher and enter into their systems. Encircle reduces contents claim processing costs by 40% or more while improving quality standards and reducing theft, fraud and litigation.
9/18/2014
Ronuk Raval
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
Kitchener
SmartStart Seed Fund Physicalytics Inc.
Ryerson University
Physicalytics ‐ Livegauge
Online marketers have always had the leisure of accurately tracking the number of impressions versus clicks that their online text, image, or video advertisement receives. For the real world, these metrics are nearly impossible to track and the current methods that involve manual counting have proven to be inaccurate. Experiential marketing companies (XM’s) are real‐world marketing agencies that run live campaigns at high traffic areas such as malls. Currently, there is no accurate way for an XM to report back to their clients regarding how many impressions and engagements their campaign received. This is where Livegauge (a product of Physicalytics) stepped in to develop a hardware‐cloud solution that can fill in the missing technology gap. Livegauge's sensors track exactly how many people engaged at marketing booths, how many of them walked by, and what average engagement time the XM was able to achieve. By providing XM's with these metrics, they are able to accurately track the reach of their engagements in their campaigns. This allows XM's to be more competitive, build better relationships with their clients, and sign more contracts by allowing their brand partners to more accurately track the ROI of their campaigns. Livegauge is poised to be the trusted tool in the real‐world marketing industry for engagement analytics. Digital media and information & communication technologies
12/10/2014
Sam Seo
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
Toronto
SmartStart Seed Fund Textbooks for Change
Textbooks for Change
Textbooks for Change (T4C) is a for‐profit social venture that collects donated textbooks in two ways; from drop boxes on post‐secondary campuses, and from student Digital media and club collection drives. Close to half of donated textbooks are sent to African universities in dire need of this quality educational material. The other portion are either information & recycled or resold online across Canada at affordable prices. Half of net proceeds from textbooks sold will be used to forward T4C's mission and efficiently run the communication business. The other half of net proceeds will be distributed in the form of micro‐finance loans to entrepreneurs around the world, or given back to socially purposed technologies
student clubs if they conducted a fundraiser. 8/28/2014
Chris Janssen
$32,156
$32,344
$64,500
London
10/15/2014
Tristan Lehari
$30,000
$65,000
$95,000
Uxbridge
After tremendous success running the project part‐time at Western University since 2012, the T4C team decided to allocate a full‐time effort into expanding the initiative sustainably across Ontario. Since the founder Chris Janssen started working full‐time in January 2014, the initiative started to grow faster than expected. T4C now employs three full‐time and two part‐time staff. T4C currently has a presence at five post‐secondary institutions and hopes to strengthen this presence at these schools, while adding three additional campuses by April 2015. In five years time, T4C hopes to have sent one million textbooks to Africa, reused/recycled one million textbooks, and distributed over 2.5 million dollars in micro‐finance loans and dona ons to socially purposed student clubs.
The SmartStart Seed Fund will help T4C have an even larger impact by contributing much needed capital to analyze the current campaign efforts, enabling them to cra a effec ve na onal expansion. Detailed below are the major projects outlined in this proposal:
Outreach ‐ Determine the best individuals to contact with the purpose of gaining or growing a presence on targeted campus.
Campus Ambassador Program ‐ Establish T4C brand presence and learn about individual campus cultures. Drop‐Bin Loca ons ‐ Place drop‐bins in loca ons that will enable students to donate with convenience.
Logis cs Plan ‐ Op mize pick‐up routes by monitoring how full drop‐bins are in real‐ me.
Sales Strategy ‐ Op mize pricing strategy to increase both the amount of books sold, as well as the average dollar amount per book.
Entrepreneurship Training and Development ‐ Ability to properly handle all bookkeeping and website adjustments in‐house. SmartStart Seed Fund SwIMU Inc.;SwIMU Inc.
7/10/2015
Real Time Swimming Coaching System
This project outlines the development of some unique wearable technology for performance athletics. The proposed project will take this technology through the critical beta testing phase and will take it a big step towards market.
Section 3 ‐ 13
Entrepreneurship
Program
Company / Partners
SmartStart Seed Fund Fire X Protections
Project Title
Fire X Eco‐Gel Alberta Initiative
Project Summary
Fire Rein understands the challenges today’s Firefighters face from firsthand experience and because of our experience we are devoted to helping prevent fires as well as assis ng the Fire Service with innova ve concepts to reduce their risk during fire scene opera ons.
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
12/10/2014
Zackery Hodgen
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
Napanee
9/18/2014
Jon Lipinski
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
Waterloo
12/10/2014
Michael Tatham
$30,000
$47,880
$77,880
Kitchener
10/15/2014
Andrew George
$34,705
$31,800
$66,505
Wheatley
Since we are experienced Firefighters from a wide spectrum of backgrounds (Big City, Rural and Wild Land Firefighting) we have all shared in the frustration of being seconds from saving a life and/or property but not having the means to complete the task. In that instance you ask yourself “there has to be a be er way?”
We know our environmentally friendly Gel and On‐Demand Mixing System is the answer to that question ‐ “There has to be a better way”. When a 27 year veteran like Peter Sells says “It is a game changer,” you know you are moving in the right direction. As Chief of the Toronto Fire Academy Peter was approached by countless businesses with products that claimed to be so good at putting out fires that he jokes “some (products) were supposed to be so impressive that simply showing the label to the fire would scare the fire out.” Peter also states “I have seen a lot of products and as a result became very jaded but seeing Gel in action, I was like this is the product that will live up to the hype. It is a game changer.”
Fire X Protec ons; prevent, protect, ex nguish
www.firexprotec ons.com
Funds received for this project will assist Fire X Protections with customer engagement and developing a client base by demonstrating our environmentally friendly FireRein Eco‐Gel and mechanical On‐Demand Mixing System. Demonstrations and marketing material will build our brand, creating a new market in the Canadian economy and jobs in the following sectors; agricultural, industrial, scientific and firefighting.
SmartStart Seed Fund Ecopia Tech Corporation
Ecopia: revolutionary visual recognition for geospatial imagery
Digital media and Millions of geospatial images are collected by satellites, airplanes, and vehicles every day. With large amounts of data becoming available at an increasing rate, efficient retrieval and organization of useful information from this data has become a large issue. As a result, much of this underlying information is not accessible to information & those who need it most.
Through combining proprietary algorithms with leading computer vision techniques and advanced GPU computing, Ecopia has made a groundbreaking improvement in geospatial image analysis. Until now, the cost of image interpretation has been prohibitively expensive, and applications requiring looking simultaneously at millions of pixels have remained impossible. After four years of research and development, Ecopia is now introducing the revolutionary capability of near‐real me large‐scale analy cs ‐ an unprecedented advancement that will change the industry.
Ecopia is applying for the SmartStart Seed fund to formalize business practices, secure repeatable sales channels, develop geospatial imagery partnerships, and iterate our technology to accelerate market adoption.
SmartStart Seed Fund MAJiK Systems
MAJiK Systems
MAJiK Systems builds real‐time production monitoring software for factories and machine manufacturers. We allow factories to continuously improve by capturing machine performance and visualizing operations, connecting machines to the people and systems that depend on them. Non‐profit studies have shown that manufacturers that implement machine monitoring systems see on average a 20% improvement in Overall Equipment Effectiveness less than ten weeks after implementa on.
MAJiK Systems is currently working on a project to build up a set of software libraries to be able to connect to industrial machines made by all major equipment manufacturers as well as existing Factory Information Systems to provide insights such as whether factories are meeting their production schedules, the types of errors that are cos ng companies the most money, and the effec veness of their equipment.
SmartStart Seed Fund Essex Kent Investments
Culture Shock and the Art of Fermentations (CSAF)
Culture Shock and the Art of Fermentations (CSAF) is a health food and beverage processing company that bridges science and taste through the art of fermentation. Bio‐economy and clean Fermented foods in particular, are some of the most functional foods because they contain natural bioactive ingredients, such as probiotic microbes, often prescribed technologies
by health practitioners. Currently, CSAF offers direct distribution, while wholesale products are intended for Phase 2. SmartStart Seed Fund Vetica Interactive Inc.
Chalk.com:Markboard Prototype Development, Validation & Sales
Chalk.com aids K‐12 teachers daily by providing a SaaS based workflow solution for lesson planning, grading, assessment, and attendance. Chalk.com’s products are built for educators and institutions alike with a focus on ease of use, scalability, and collaboration. Teachers are able to choose what applications they want in Chalk.com, and with the same login, access these applications through their browser or tablet. OCE's SmartStart program will aid Chalk.com to reach more customers with accelerated sales. This will enable Chalk.com to be a full solution for teachers. OCE will have an opportunity to create jobs and improve education with Chalk.com. The SmartStart program will further accelerate the impact Chalk.com has in schools. Imagine that even if we save a teacher just one hour a day. That teacher will be able devote more me to their students and could save a struggling student from dropping out. Together, we can increase the quality of educa on.
9/18/2014
William Zhou
$35,000
$54,000
$89,000
Kitchener
SmartStart Seed Fund SparkGig
Customer Acquisition and Product Enhancement (Toronto & NYC)
SparkGig, an online marketplace for live performers and event hosts, will be officially launching in Toronto and New York City in Q3 and Q4 of 2014 respectively. In the Digital media and coming months, the company will continue development on the product and build communities around arts‐oriented regions. SparkGig's vision is to become the norm information & of booking live entertainment in North America and eventually around the world, while providing a reliable, flexible, secured and powerful tool for performers to communication market themselves, locally and internationally, in pursuit of their passion. Starting in 2015, SparkGig will begin research and development into the annual company technologies
donation program, to contribute towards the company's social responsibility model. 9/18/2014
Adrian Wong
$35,000
$68,410
$103,410
Kitchener
SmartStart Seed Fund Teknically Inc.
Webplio Phase 1
Teknically is a software as a solution startup based in Waterloo that is making website data approachable for small business owners. Founders Andrew Paradi and Brandon Chow first met in grade 1 and were good friends through school. At different high schools they both started their own businesses and in August 2013, Brandon's IT hosting company Provision Host was acquired by a US firm looking to expand into the Canadian market. Andrew and Brandon reconnected during their first week at Wilfrid Laurier University and soon began work on a solution called Webplio that would make website management easier for small business owners. Using the lean startup process as part of the Laurier Launchpad entrepreneurship program, Webplio evolved over the course of 248 interviews with small business owners. Based on customer feedback, Webplio pivoted to focus on translating complex Google Analytics website data into easy to understand insights. With these Webplio Insights, small business owners can finally make informed decisions about their website and be er leverage their site to grow their business. Andrew and Brandon also pioneered an innovative way to present their business model canvas and in March 2014 won $25,000 as the 1st prize winner at the Canada Business Model Canvas Competition at Dalhousie University. They went on as a first year undergraduate team to compete against the best MBA and PhD teams from Harvard, Stanford, and other world class universities from around the world at the International Business Model Competition. Hosted by Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, Teknically finished top 40 out of over 2,500 teams worldwide. Digital media and information & communication technologies
9/18/2014
Andrew Paradi
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
Kitchener
10/15/2014
Ian Roberts
$30,000
$33,950
$63,950
Toronto
Andrew and Brandon have since been featured in the Globe & Mail, Waterloo Region Record, TechVibes and other online publications. With funding from OCE, Teknically can open Webplio to more small business owners who want to leverage their website to acquire new customers and grow their business. No complex terminology, no huge time commitments. Webplio is the solution small business owners want and Teknically's new funding from OCE will help them get it to more owners faster. To learn more go to http://teknically.com or check out Webplio for yourself at http://webplio.com.
SmartStart Seed Fund TicketLabs Inc.
7/10/2015
Client Acquisition & Product/Market Fit Validation
TicketLabs Inc. builds software that helps concert organizers sell more tickets to their shows ‐ like Eventbrite, for concerts. We started building in January and have since launched a fully functional product being used by our initial partners. This project will be aimed specifically at acquiring new customers and validating that other concert organizers (beyond our initial partners) find the product valuable. We will be focussing primarily on bringing in new clients in the Southern Ontario region to begin. We also will be iterating on the product as we get feedback from new customers. Ontario Centres of Excellence
Section 3 ‐ 14
Entrepreneurship
Program
Company / Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
SmartStart Seed Fund Tiny Maple Ventures Inc. (dba iamsick.ca)
iamsick.ca virtual waiting room & e‐booking adoption iamsick.ca is changing the way Canadians access healthcare by removing barriers and helping all Canadians find fast, easy, and appropriate care. Through the Advanced health SmartStart Seed Fund, iamsick.ca will position, scale and refine a "virtual waiting room" with live wait‐times and online/mobile appointment booking for walk‐in clinics technologies
and pharmacies. This will complement our 2 year old website and mobile app platform, which already helps Ontarians find the nearest healthcare providers who speak their preferred language. iamsick.ca’s growing set of features will remove barriers that currently exist in the healthcare system – from language barriers to long wait‐times.
SmartStart Seed Fund Merq Inc.
Laboratory Waste Processor
Food Microbiology is a fast growing industry with little innovation, especially in the areas of workflow and productivity. Merq’s new waste processor allows microbiology labs to sterilize samples quicker, at larger capacity and separates out liquids from solids minimizing operator contact, improving process workflow and elimina ng messy and expensive sample disposal.
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
3/9/2015
Francis Nim Wah Kung
$30,000
$72,675
$102,675
Toronto
1/8/2015
Nicholas Andreae
$29,998
$60,000
$89,998
Burlington
Microbiology labs are in the business of growing (and identifying) harmful bacteria, which constitutes biohazard waste. As such, test samples must be sterilized prior to disposal. Current industry practice is to sterilize samples (pathogenic and other) by either chemical or temperature/pressure means. Once the sterilization process is complete, lab staff either drain the samples (approximately 90% liquid, weighing up to 4kg) manually or dump them in special bins for costly third party handling. The work is costly and cumbersome often requiring the use of breathing apparatus and is a constant H&S concern. The new proposed waste processor sterilizes and dewaters samples reducing overall weight by up to 82% with little‐to‐no operator contact. It is an integral process requiring only one machine whereby creating an affordable and compact solution.
SmartStart Seed Fund IPPINKA
IPPINKA ‐ Smart Start
IPPINKA is developing a wholesale platform to connect Small Medium Business (SMB) makers to retailers. Currently, SMB makers of home and lifestyle products are not well represented in retail stores across North America due to discovery and technological challenges. IPPINKA's solution would address these discovery and technological integration gaps, allowing SMB makers to work more efficiently with retailers. Both SMB makers and retailers will experience more market opportuni es, as well as reduced opera ng costs.
10/15/2014
Jerry Chang
$34,825
$31,000
$65,825
Toronto
SmartStart Seed Fund Etapa Window Fashions Inc.
AXIS BLINDS
AXIS Blinds, developed by Etapa Window Fashion Inc., is a portable window blind system that extends telescopically to fit multiple window sizes and can be installed without screws or nails in seconds. Our goal is to create products for a new and un‐served market of apartment renters and those who frequently re‐decorate. We have two primary goals in which the OCE SmartStart Seed Fund will aid us:
12/10/2014
Trung Pham
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
Brampton
10/15/2014
Iliya Sigal
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
Toronto
4/30/2014
Kim Matheson
$2,000,000
$4,097,000
$6,097,000
Ottawa
1) To fully develop and commercialize the AXIS Blind, which includes investment into R&D, engineers, prototyping, tes ng, and safety cer ficates. 2) To develop a brand from scratch and control the message to the end‐users, it is imperative that we control the entire customer experience, from discovery, to purchase. This requires us to develop an online presence through social media to direct customers to our e‐commerce website, and continually optimize our digital footprint. SmartStart Seed Fund Enceladus Medical Inc. (dba Enceladus University of Toronto
Imaging Inc.)
High Dynamic Range robotic welding camera
Enceladus Imaging Inc. designs and makes camera systems to visualize the welding process in real‐time, allowing operators to adjust welding parameters and produce Advanced manufacturing
higher quality welds more consistently. Enceladus’ functional prototype has been praised by welding experts to possess higher image quality than current leading cameras in the market. The focus of the proposed SmartStart Seed Fund project is to further cultivate the relationship we have developed so far with leaders in the robotic welding industry in Ontario and the US in order to tailor both our product and marketing message to our customers, better understand their detailed needs, and to answer those needs in an agile fashion. We anticipate we will be able to convert at least one of our first customers and deploy our product at the end of this funding period.
Campus‐Linked Accelerator (CLA)
CLA ‐ Carleton University
The Ottawa region has a strong history of entrepreneurship. For over forty years, since the creation on the first generation of technology companies established around the telecommunications industry, Ottawa has been home to a strong entrepreneurial culture. Over the past twenty years this eco‐system developed and expanded around several technology areas (in particular, telecommunications, photonics, life sciences and clean technology). Most recently the next generation of fast paced companies, such as Shopify, highlight the strength and future of entrepreneurship in O awa.
Not applicable
Carleton University
Not Applicable
The post‐secondary institutions in Ottawa have been a strong part of the entrepreneurial history but are now actively promoting and investing in enhanced entrepreneurial support to promote start‐up success in Ottawa. Building on activities at their own institutions, Carleton, uOttawa and Algonquin have been working with OCE and lnvest Ottawa for many years to deliver outreach, training, education, mentorship, acceleration and incubation to institution based, student driven and community based start‐ups in Ottawa. However, with adequate resources, we can do more. How we
will do that is through this new Capital Entrepreneurs program.
The goal of Capital Entrepreneurs is to make Ottawa the very best place to start and grow a business in Canada. Carleton, u Ottawa and Algonquin join lnvest Ottawa in this initiative and operate programs on each of their campuses and within the region to encourage and cultivate entrepreneurship amongst youth. The purpose of this proposal is to create a common brand, educational norms, enhanced outreach, and continued acceleration of youth led companies. Our collective history of delivering award winning programs such as Lead to Win, Carleton Entrepreneurs, Global Start and Startup Garage provide a launching pad to drive new programs
and services for youth. By combining institutional programs and strengths with the regional innovation centre and small business support, we will provide broader and better access and outreach for our students and to youth in our community. Capital Entrepreneurs can drive the creation of both knowledge based companies, enable young entrepreneurs to advance and accelerate new ventures into our local, regional and provincial ecosystem, and increase the exposure of intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship to youth and students in the region. ln the Ottawa region, Capital Entrepreneurs will build upon the strengths of our institutions, our alumni, our experienced entrepreneurs and our community. O awa is uniquely posi oned to promote entrepreneurship to youth as O awa:
Has the 3rd youngest popula on in Canada
Was rated #1 out of 61 global ci es as the "Rise of the Crea ve Class"
Has over 85,000 post‐secondary students (Fall, 2013)
Has a startup community based culture of hack‐a‐thons, maker spaces and networking events
Has a track record of ins tu ons working very well together
Has over L,900 knowledge‐based companies; and
Has over 1,500 companies with fewer than 50 employees
By supporting the Capital Entrepreneurs program, Ontario will accelerate the creation of youth driven firms to create more products and services and more jobs for youth and for the community. ln short, with the right amount of capital, successful entrepreneurs will follow.
7/10/2015
Section 3 ‐ 15
Entrepreneurship
Program
Company / Partners
Not applicable
McMaster University
Project Title
CLA ‐ McMaster University
Project Summary
Sector
The Foundry at McMaster Innovation Park will bring together student and other youth led start‐up companies and provide access to directed facilities, support Not Applicable
mechanisms and industry partners in a common space that will focus on collaboration, interaction and start‐up acceleration. Aligned with McMaster’s Forward With Integrity vision, the Foundry will be available to all students from McMaster University, Mohawk College and other youth from the community. It will provide a dedicated interaction space, external to the institutions, with multiple opportunities to interact with other interested participants and the local business community. Students, through the McMaster Student Union (MSU) and the McMaster Entrepreneurship Association (MEA) will be an integral voice in the design, programming and development of the Foundry which will be guided by a committee comprising McMaster university, Mohawk College, the Innovation Factory, the Industry‐
Education Council of Hamilton, the Hamilton Small Business Enterprise Centre, AngelOne, student organizations, the Ontario Centres of Excellence and successful entrepreneurs.
Date
Applicant Name
4/30/2014
Mo Elbestawi
4/30/2014
4/30/2014
OCE Commitment
City
$1,042,500
$2,147,120
$3,189,620
Hamilton
Trish Dryden
$867,775
$1,782,769
$2,650,544
Toronto
Amit Chakma
$1,450,000
$3,065,500
$4,515,500
London
Close examination of the current innovation ecosystem at McMaster University has shown that although the university has many parts of the infrastructure necessary for a strong student innovation and entrepreneurship, some areas are not clearly defined. One key feature that is not available is a central space, designed to accelerate student and youth collaboration and interaction with the local innovation and business community. A similar exploration of the Hamilton innovation system, external to the university, shows growing opportunities for young start‐up companies through a number of local groups including the innovation factory, Hamilton Economic Development, the Hamilton Small Business Enterprise Centre, the Hamilton Hive, and So ware Hamilton.
The primary goal of the Foundry is to provide youth with skills and capabilities that enable them to work on real business opportunities in a supported accelerator environment that encourages new venture creation. This will be achieved through three key processes i) the development of entrepreneurial programming and services; ii) developing an inventory and facilitating access to unique resources in the community such as the prototyping lab at McMaster University, the G‐Scale facility at McMaster Innovation Park and the Agency at Mohawk College; and iii) ensuring a sustainable number of business opportunities are available to the Foundry participants. Novel programing will be developed through a collaborative process with interested stakeholders and each program will be focused on specific youth groups. This local programming will be supplemented by the excellent programming already provided by the innovation factory and the MaRS Business Acceleration Program offerings. Local mentors will be associated with the Foundry to advise young innovators Access to unique facilities and resources will be coordinated through the Foundry, facilita ng the ease by which youth can iden fy needs and contact the appropriate facility representa ve.
Business opportunities will emerge from a number of identified sources and include new ideas by the participants, opportunities created from IP currently held by McMaster and self‐identified SME business challenges. These opportunities will be explored through the process of interaction, ideation, education, and collaboration among participant groups. The continual interaction of Foundry participants with the local business environment and access to new research developments will provide them with sustainable number of business opportunities around which youth can seed and grow their start‐up company from the ground up, in a risk‐free environment.
The co‐location of the Foundry with more traditional incubation space at MIP will enable expansion and growth possibilities for graduating companies and will ensure the continued presence of local youth created companies and employment opportunities in the Hamilton innovation ecosystem in the future.
Not applicable
Centennial College
CLA ‐ Centennial College
Having helped more than 3,500 entrepreneurs succeed over the lasl27 years, Centennial College is going to the next level of entrepreneurship education and venture Not Applicable
support with a new ini a ve to build the youth entrepreneurship ecosystem in the eastern Greater Toronto Area (GTA) Region. Scarborough and the eastern GTA have a large and growing population with increasing demands for employment options and social development, but the Region lacks an identifiable hub to advance innova on and entrepreneurship. Centennial touches eight of L3 Toronto priority neighborhoods and supports a global, diverse student community. We are
accessible, socially responsible and have a global outlook. With four campuses in this Region, we are the ideal host to sustain broad‐based youth entrepreneurship.
Our vision and mission for youth entrepreneurship are:
o Vision: lnnova on and entrepreneurship are everyone's possibility.
o Mission: Educating and investing in youth innovation and entrepreneurship for meaningful work and meaningful lives. Our ecosystem is designed to attract and support youth who are most in need and hardest to reach. We know we can have transformational relationships with youth from diverse backgrounds, with multiple barriers or from marginalized communities ‐ students and non‐students alike. We also know we can help to make Ontario an innovator in extending the incubation model to youth facing mul ple barriers where the need is so great. Create system synergy ‐ We will make the greatest possible use of existing networks, resources, tools, expertise and infrastructure in our Region and across the GTA, leveraging Ontario's ONE investments wherever we can. We will select our partners
carefully to ensure they complement our program and know our audiences. Accelerate the person, not just the ídea ‐ Every entrepreneur has their own skills and growth potential and we must evolve in their own way. Our program will wrap supports around individuals and teams, not just business ideas. Support the everyday entrepreneur and smart, small ideas with big potential ‐ We must close the gap of support for the everyday entrepreneur ‐ the small businessperson who needs the basics of business management and the confidence to pursue their ideas. While we welcome the big‐idea innovators, we want to serve the micro innovator, the bold thinker and the internal intra‐preneur.
Focus where it matters ‐ There are times when young entrepreneurs can manage on their own, times when they need their peers around them for support and times when they need expert intervention to solve a problem, make a connection or get through an emotional barrier. Our program is designed around an understanding of the importance of these moments and the most agile and efficient approach to addressing them.
Not applicable
CLA ‐ Western University
Not Applicable
E3: Entrepreneurship, Engagement, Economic Development is a collaborative effort between Western University and Fanshawe College to build, strengthen and enhance entrepreneurship within the Southwestern Ontario region. By acting as a hub for educational, community and private‐sector partners the two institutions will build a Campus Linked Accelerator (CLA) that will empower students and youth as champions of innovation. Our success in Southwestern Ontario will be the foundation for nurturing a vibrant eco‐system of entrepreneurism that extends to a national and international stage that will invigorate our regional and national economy.
The vision and mission of E3 supports ten SMART objec ves:
Build and strengthen a world class CLA
Build and enhance student and youth exposure to an entrepreneurial culture
Foster and develop a culture of youth entrepreneurship
Leverage and enhance our global network of contacts to support student and youth
entrepreneurs
Create jobs for youth
Create entrepreneurial opportuni es for youth with barriers
Enculturate entrepreneurship in ins tu onal curriculum
Enhance entrepreneurship reach through social media and communica on
Develop a financially self‐sustaining CLA
Support entrepreneurial youth strong mentorship
7/10/2015
Section 3 ‐ 16
Entrepreneurship
Program
Company / Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
Collaborating with the community to support and enhance the entrepreneurial skills of students and youth will enable us to stimulate economic growth and create jobs in local, regional, and global markets. In response to the economic challenges and youth unemployment in our region, the CLA will play a dynamic role in reversing the trends of the past four years. That is our commitment. By fostering a culture of innovation and creativity, we will give students and youth within London, St. Thomas, Woodstock and Simcoe the tools and confidence to think beyond the status quo and traditional career paths, and challenge them to bring their ideas to life in a spirit of entrepreneurship that will invigorate our regional and na onal economy.
By virtue of our unique institutional partnership, we are committed to building a sustainable regional entrepreneurial ecosystem that has global impact. We believe we have an important leadership role to play in our communities that can reach an international scale through our alumni and mentorship programs. Our proposal focuses on both the immediate and long‐term sustainability of the infrastructure needed to support the entrepreneurial spirit of future leaders. We are also cognizant of the importance of combining experiential learning with community linkages found in businesses, industries, not‐for‐profits and other organizations. These efforts come together in E3 in a manner that is unparalleled in our region. We appreciate the opportunity the Province has afforded us with this program and look forward to
playing a partnership role in strengthening Ontario’s position as a global innovation leader.
Not applicable
CLA ‐ OCAD University
OCAD University’s hub for youth entrepreneurship and commercialization, the Imagination Catalyst, is specialized in the creative and innovation industries and will drive youth economic participation and impact. Niche industries include designed consumer goods, light advanced manufacturing, digital and cultural enterprises. Startups and services will focus on maker‐based (i.e. mass customization) products, design or cultural/curatorial services firms, the internet of things (M2M), digital media, inclusive design, expanded mobile, entertainment products design and games and strategic foresight and innovation.
Not Applicable
4/30/2014
Sara Diamond
$950,000
$848,425
$1,798,425
Toronto
Not applicable
Queen's University
CLA ‐ Queens University
The Greater Kingston region's level of entrepreneurship activity is one of the lowest among urban areas in Ontario (Pennington 2009). Kingston, Belleville, Cornwall Not Applicable
and Brockville are all in the bottom quadrant of entrepreneurial cities in Canada (Mallett and Gaudreault 2013). At the same time, Kingston hosts one of Canada's top‐
ranked universities with a burgeoning studententrepreneurship office, a $1.4‐billion track record of tech‐transfer startup activity, a full‐occupancy research & innovation park, partnerships with two regional community colleges and a suite of small‐business centres, regional innovation centres and other business‐facilitation assets. This
business plan pairs Queen's multi‐faculty student‐entrepreneurship office and its campus‐linked ccelerator in partnership with the regional innovation centre to increase regional youth entrepreneurship ac vity.
4/30/2014
Elspeth Murray
$900,000
$1,907,400
$2,807,400
Kingston
4/30/2014
Wendy Cukier
$2,000,000
$4,204,214
$6,204,214
Toronto
The two‐year business plan for Ministry of Research and lnnovation support for Queen's Summer lnnovation lnitiative (OSll)‐ and its coordinating office, Queen's lnnovation Connector‐ proposes he following objectives: . lt will use MRI funds to support "feeder" and "matriculation" activities of the entrepreneurship ecosystem according to established best prac ces (Schreiber and Pinelli 2013). . lt will improve the efficient provision of entrepreneurship services available to youths in the
local ecosystem by referring the right client to the right service provider at the right time. . lt will use MRI funds to increase the number of young entrepreneurs in campus‐linked startupacceleration. . lt will use MRI funds to strengthen post‐acceleration support for student ventures in incubation at lnnovation Park, including Launch Lab coordinated professional services required by post‐acceleration ventures. . lt will use MRI funds to support modest equipment, fit‐up and administrative costs that will enhance the above ac vi es.
The above objectives, delivered across 36 separate program & service offerings, will: . Advance Queen's as an entrepreneurial university, differentiated by its active role in firm formation and regional development as part of the academic mission (above and beyond technology transfer) (Etzkowitz 2013; Mars, Slaughter, and Rhoades 2008; Zacca 2011) . lmprove the regional startup ecosystem, defined as: "a self‐shaping system of intricately interrelating agents who respond to each other and to local condi ons in a way that is ynamic." (Torrance 2013). The first outcome will build on this plan's early ins tu on‐wide steps required to con nuously
improve Queen's innovation potential as benchmarked against internationally leading entrepreneurship universities (Todorovic, McNaughton, and Guild 2005; Torrance 2013). The second outcome will be realized through improved coordination of regional assets to matriculate young entrepreneurs to increasingly more sophisticated venture activity. Part A of this proposal contains information about the applicants and their partners. Part B of this proposal addresses institution‐wide ac vi es aligned with Goal 1 and provides a set of strategic ac ons meant to help entrepreneurship mandates expand across the width and breadth of the full
institution. Part C of this proposal provides essential details of how the campus‐linked accelerator will partner with organizations on and off campus to improve the quantity and quality of youth‐led ventures. Appendices A, B and C provide target metrics, budgets and timelines for CLA activities.
Not applicable
Ryerson University
CLA ‐ Ryerson University
The special mission of Ryerson University is the advancement of applied knowledge and research to address societal need, and the provision of programs of study that Not Applicable
provide a balance between theory and application and that prepare students for careers in professional and quasi‐professional fields. As a leading centre for applied education, Ryerson is recognized for the excellence of its teaching, the relevance of its curriculum, the success of its students in achieving their academic and career objectives, the quality of its scholarship, research and creative activity and its commitment to accessibility, lifelong learning, and involvement in the broader community.”
Ryerson’s history as a polytechnic, our professional programs combining theory with practice, and our focus on experiential learning positions Ryerson faculty and students to work in collaboration with community and private sector partners to find innovative solutions to real world problems. Under the leadership of Sheldon Levy, recently honored with the Toronto Board of Trade’s “Region Builder Award”, Ryerson’s Entrepreneurship activities have expanded dramatically over recent years. Branded as Canada’s Comprehensive Innovation University, Ryerson is committed to “mainstreaming” innovation and entrepreneurship across the university to extend the innovation pipeline. Ryerson students graduate with a diploma in one hand and a company in the other. The Ryerson Board of Governors and Executive Group have commi ed to actualizing this vision and Ryerson’s new Academic Plan highlights Innova on and Entrepreneurship as a central theme.
Ryerson's target is to have 10% of its graduating students be involved in the development of a company, product or service. That means more than 600 potential new entrepreneurs each year. We have the largest entrepreneurship program in the country, more than 305 courses addressing entrepreneurship across faculties and hundreds of applied, cross‐disciplinary innovation projects and initiatives working with partners. A range of student‐led organizations help raise students’ awareness of business and social entrepreneurship ventures, including Alternative Spring Break, Advancing Canadian Entrepreneurship (ACE), Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship (SAGE), and Enactus ‐ formerly Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE). In addition to these campus‐based organizations, student competitions also support social entrepreneurs at Ryerson. Our Digital Media Zone has been shown to work Ryerson's Digital Media Zone (DMZ), launched in 2010, is the flagship of Ryerson's distinctive approach to entrepreneurial education and forms the nexus of our Innovation Zone model that is being expanded across the entire campus. In the crea on of its Innova on Zones, Ryerson recognized early on the benefits of crea ng an extremely rich, layered environment of diverse exper se within the
clients themselves. To seed the benefits of this co‐learning Ryerson made a policy decision to ensure that the Zones are open to a deliberate mix of
applicants from the community. Membership is not restricted by age, education or Ryerson affiliation, rather the selection process is based on the merit, potential and validity of the business presented. A er three short years they are demonstra ng results:
7/10/2015
Section 3 ‐ 17
Entrepreneurship
Program
Company / Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
• 112 startups incubated and accelerated
• More than 889 jobs fostered and created through newly formed start‐ups and market‐driven
research.
• Currently home to approximately 371 innovators in 68 start‐ups
• Leveraging Ontario's interna onal connec ons by a rac ng innovators and students from
leading ins tu ons in China, Israel and India.
In addition to directly supporting the Innovation Zones, Ryerson has recognized the crucial role early stage capital plays in the successes of new ventures. To that end, Ryerson established Ryerson Futures Inc. (RFI) in 2013 with a $750,000 operations budget to set up and manage a seed financing investment fund. RFI identifies, invests in, and retains promising early stage start‐ups and leverages the university’s industry partners to help start‐ups establish an initial customer base and provide market valida on and extends the con nuum of support available to new entrepreneurs. ‘Youth entrepreneurs’ are not a homogenous group.
Their motivations, interests, skills, experiences, cultural influences, and access to resources greatly differ. Women are half as likely as men to create a start‐up. Immigrant entrepreneurs often face language and unfamiliarity with customs and social norms that serve as barriers to success. Youth from high‐needs communities do not have access to the same resources and personal support networks as those from more affluent communities. To address these challenges and to ensure an inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem that encourages business creation from disadvantaged and under‐represented communities, Ryerson has recognized that entrepreneurial training must be delivered in a variety of mechanisms, at a variety of levels and in a variety of disciplines. It has and will continue to develop specific targeted programming that encourages participation from under‐represented groups. One of the significant challenges to individuals seeking to navigate the Entrepreneurship services that are available in the Toronto region is the breadth, depth and sheer number of supports available. To help counter this, Ryerson is committed to working with UofT, OCAD, MaRS Discovery District and the Ontario Centres of Excellence to develop a centralized voice for the region by representing the interests of the themselves and the larger Toronto region through coordinated advocacy, education, and promotion of the resources locally, nationally and internationally, with the aim of promoting Toronto as an innovation and entrepreneurship catalyst and leader for North America. We want to leverage the expertise, experience and networks to ensure that our impact is more than the sum of the parts. We want to help shape the thinking about innovation and entrepreneurship in Canada and interna onally. We want to be recognized for our leadership in doing rather than talking and sharing best prac ces.
As an academic research institution with the largest Entrepreneurship program in Canada, Ryerson boasts an impressive cohort of faculty whose research interests include the study and analysis success factors related to entrepreneurial training programs. Ryerson goes beyond simply providing entrepreneurial training. Part of the University’s research mandate is to understand what training works and why. By understanding the entrepreneur and innovation in Canada Ryerson can greatly increase the effec veness of its programs and inpact. As Jim Balsillie, co‐founder of Blackberry says, “you cannot learn surfing from a textbook”
We are committed to providing meaningful experiential opportunities and supports to help students grow their for‐profit and social ventures. Executing the skills and knowledge to take business ideas to the next level requires careful incuba on. Experien al learning environments such as Ryerson’s Digital
Media Zone (DMZ) erode barriers between disciplines, institutions, and stakeholders, enabling entrepreneurs with established ideas to build their innovation or organization. The Innovation Zones offers infrastructure, just‐in‐time training, coaching, and unparalleled networking and media exposure to budding entrepreneurs with business and social objec ves. Ryerson’s entrepreneurial support capacity has been greatly increased but it cannot keep pace with Demand.
To help with this and to increase its capacity even further over the two years of the CLA Program Ryerson will utilize the requested funding to Broaden reach of entrepreneurial thinking within the university,
• crea ng 3 new Zones and expanding capacity for exposure for entrepreneurial training for an addi onal 3000 youth
• Encourage and provide shared, entrepreneurial thinking (lean start‐up/design thinking mentality)
and opportunity with the local community (including high school students, recent immigrants and at‐risk youth) through partnerships with existing organizations, summer programs and/or targeted workshops.
• Encourage and increase participation in entrepreneurial activities for under‐represented groups (I.e. women, non‐Science, Engineering Technology and Math) through targeted programming.
• Increase interest and awareness in entrepreneurial skills within the University with the goal of having at least 10% of the student body exposed to entrepreneurial training
Not applicable
CLA ‐ University Of Toronto
Fostering entrepreneurship is a central institutional priority at the University of Toronto. U of T considers students to be the primary vector for knowledge transfer. Through its educational mission, the University not only prepares its students for life‐long careers, it also equips them to become job creators themselves by giving them the opportunity to gain the tools to start their own businesses. The University of Toronto has a long track‐record of leadership in the area of entrepreneurship.
Programs and courses have arisen across the University's three campuses to address student demand and societal need. As a result, an entire entrepreneurship ecosystem has emerged at the University of Toronto.
Not Applicable
4/30/2014
Scott Mabury
$3,056,000
$6,125,712
$9,181,712
Toronto
Through the Campus‐Linked Accelerator program, the University will strengthen the impact of its oncampus entrepreneurship activities and improve its ties with the regional innova on ecosystem. U of T's three strategic priori es are:
Better coordination and integration of on‐campus entrepreneurial activities through the establishment of a central Office of Entrepreneurship in the Banting and Best Centre for Innova on and Entrepreneurship (BBCIE).
Expanding the base of students exposed to entrepreneurship by increasing the capacity of programs to accommodate increased demand for on‐campus accelerators, and by expanding outreach ac vi es to youth both within U of T and in the community.
Enhancing the quality of student entrepreneurship training by increasing the range of mentorship opportunities for youth entrepreneurs, as well as access to professional services and prototyping facili es.
The University has many unique advantages which have the potential to create unparalleled benefit to Ontario in this area. This includes its unique size, its status as Canada's leading research university, and its vast network of alumni and strategic partners.
By expanding the base and improving the quality of training received by budding entrepreneurs at all stages in the innovation pipeline, the quality and success rate of emerging ventures at later stages will be much improved, leading to better job and wealth creation outcomes for the region, the Province, and the country.
7/10/2015
Section 3 ‐ 18
Entrepreneurship
Program
Company / Partners
Not applicable
Project Title
CLA ‐ University of Waterloo
Project Summary
The University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University and Communitech are key elements in what has become a comprehensive regional innovation ecosystem. Our shared history in the development and delivery of programs and the establishment of networks and communi es has been well documented‐ and the region
is poised to take the next steps in our evolution. We appreciate the challenge set by the CLA Program ‐ to create, improve and sustain a culture of entrepreneurship among students and youth and to be er integrate entrepreneurial ac vi es amongst insitu ons, with investors, industry and other stakeholders.
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
Not Applicable
4/30/2014
Rob Esselment
$3,300,000
$9,437,674
$12,737,674
Waterloo
Not Applicable
4/30/2014
K.W. Michael Siu
$1,100,000
$3,012,330
$4,112,330
Windsor
12/10/2014
Zakir Hemraj
$33,401
$30,000
$63,401
Toronto
This is a bold $4 million plan to amplify the partners' leadership in the areas of support for tech start‐ups by engaging new disciplines, new communities and creating a broader impact upon the economic development of the region and province. We have outlined Strategic Objectives and Key Deliverables that include a mix of building/scaling exis ng, proven programs and new ini a ves that include the following:
An expansion of the University of Waterloo's Velocity program including the creation of the Velocity Foundry leading to new hardware based businesses, jobs and investment.
To create Laurier Launchpad Bran ord with a focus on aboriginal youth and youth facing mul ple barriers.
To scale and expand Laurier Launchpad Waterloo and Toronto to double the capacity of youth par cipa ng.
To increase the number of participants participating in the existing suite of entrepreneurship programs both on campus and off, and to surround more youth with opportuni es for experien al learning throughout all disciplines, programs and campuses.
To break down some of the barriers to participation in entrepreneurial activities in the region through greater collaboration, reaching out to a broader target audience of youth in the community, and the explora on of social entrepreneurship.
Program Integration with Communitech is well established with both universities and has the potential to be strengthened through this plan. Already recognized as a na onal leader in entrepreneurship and innova on, Waterloo Region ecosystem partners are undertaking, a process to assess the effec veness of the Waterloo
Startup Ecosystem with an eye to making it even more effective. A schematic from that process is included with this plan. We want to be certain that there is a clear path for young entrepreneurs through each of the stages of commercializa on with well documented "hand‐offs" through the process, to minimize duplica on
of services. The University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University and our local partners will continue to develop programming which meets the needs of this unique entrepreneurial ecosystem and create the next genera on of successful entrepreneurial leaders. The Campus Linked Accelerator becomes a crucial tool for this effort.
Not applicable
CLA ‐ University of Windsor
University of Windsor’s EPICentre represents the full engagement of the University’s commitment to maximize the personal success of our graduates and the economic and social well‐being of the youth in our region through educa on, innova on, knowledge transfer, and the support of entrepreneurs.
Led by the President of the University of Windsor, EPICentre has been developed as a complete and coordinated system of clustered maker spaces (“EPICentre Courtyards”) with mentoring and consulting support (“EPIC Odette”), that provide interdisciplinary programs and office/incubator space (“EPIC Innovation”) (see Exhibit 1 EPICentre Ecosystem, and the Letter of Support provided by Dr. Wildeman). Using a lean start‐up methodology, we established EPICentre’s value proposition to students based on networking/collaboration, cross‐fertilization, student team creation, cross‐border and international relationships, career advantages, mentoring, consulting and leadership training, physical space, interdisciplinary experiential learning, funding, and exposure to social entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship opportuni es. From a business perspec ve the prime value rests in increased access to a student/faculty talent pool. From a Government perspec ve, EPICentre
will create a strong economic impact in the Windsor Essex region by helping to retain highly trained youth and graduates and creating spin‐off jobs (see Exhibit 2: Business Model Canvas).
The EPICentre business model is sustainable, dynamic and growing as outlined below:
a) It was built from the ‘bo om‐up’ through several years of established entrepreneurial ini a ves
in Business, Law, Engineering, Arts and Sciences that have been coordinated into mul ple
interdisciplinary and mul disciplinary ini a ves by faculty and staff dedicated to crea ng new
employment opportuni es for youth entrepreneurs;
b) Senior administra on at the University has supported these entrepreneurial efforts with
concrete financial and human resources and by encouraging collabora ve efforts involving many
internal stakeholders that has enabled us to surmount the tradi onal compe ve silos found in
other universi es;
c) Strong community stakeholders such as WETech and the Windsor Essex Economic Development
Corpora on, in addi on to local entrepreneurs and professionals have been deeply involved in the
development of our entrepreneurial ac vi es over the past several years; and
d) The Province of Ontario has been a strong supporter, helping to steer our efforts through program funding of youth entrepreneurship, specifically providing close to $750,000 in financial support to date.
The following business plan requests $1,000,000 funding from the 2014 Campus Linked Accelerator (CLA) initiative. Our business plan for EPICentre includes funding that will develop youth entrepreneurial attitude and culture by filling a funnel of exposure, activities, business development, competitions and mentored venture internships across all disciplines at the University (see Exhibit 3: Venture Ac vity Funnel).
This funding will support a broad yet achievable and coordinated array of programs, activities and venture experiences across campus. In particular we have set the following targets:
a) Further promote and develop entrepreneurial educa on advoca ng innova on,
entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship across the University of Windsor campus;
b) Facilitate the transfer of academic knowledge and technological research to business and social
communi es through local stakeholder engagement in the various ‘Courtyards’ within EPICentre.
This engagement includes, for example, connector events, incubator tours, research showcases,
innova on open‐houses, and workshops;
c) Enhance cross‐border entrepreneurial ac vi es and informa on flows between Ontario and the
United States to promote the Windsor‐Detroit region as a ‘Borderless Innova on region” in
par cular, with the University of Michigan and Wayne State University and strategic partnerships
with other U.S. and interna onal organiza ons.
Our local Regional Innovation Centre, WETech Alliance, will also be supported with the CLA funding that will enable our collaborations and delivery of programs involving innovative youth entrepreneurs in the Windsor‐Essex region (see Exhibit 4: Value Chain). The active involvement with both WETech Alliance and our local SBEC are cri cal components to the entrepreneurial ecosystem that support our youth ventures in the Windsor‐Essex Region.
The EPICentre activities outlined in this CLA application \will drive local entrepreneurship to an exciting new level that will benefit our community’s youth, and engage a wide variety of government stakeholders and industry. This is a critical initiative that will serve to further strengthen the economic recovery of the Windsor‐Essex region.
SmartStart Seed Fund Loopio Inc.
Loopio Inc. SmartStart Seed Fund Application
Everybody is in Sales. But how do most enterprises leverage the intellectual horsepower of their ENTIRE organiza on to win more deals? They don't.
With this vision in mind, Loopio is currently laser focused on the process of responding to Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and Information (RFIs)... a daunting task for most companies, especially when information is sitting in old proposals, emails, wikis, and more importantly, the minds of many Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). By allowing Sales Operations teams to manage content intelligently and collaborate with SMEs easily, Loopio saves companies an extraordinary amount of time and helps them produce effec ve and consistent proposals.
7/10/2015
Section 3 ‐ 19
Entrepreneurship
Program
Company / Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
SmartStart Seed Fund Geneyouin Inc
McMaster University
PillCheck as personalized drug reference tool‐OBI‐
OCE Partnership
GeneYouIn is a Canadian genetic testing company that puts consumers first — we believe that people should have control over their genetic data and we simply assist Advanced health with the understanding of their health conditions and medications. Our primary focus is aiding consumers and healthcare providers with the selection of the most technologies
effective drug therapies. 6/26/2014
Boyko Kabakchiev
$30,000
$41,000
$71,000
Maple
SmartStart Seed Fund Ansik
Ansik ‐ Smart Start
ShockLock (www.shocklock.ca) is an easy‐to‐use, fail‐safe tool for automotive mechanics designed to reduce workplace injuries and increase efficiency within service Advanced manufacturing
shops. It is a mechanical reinforcement for worn‐out gas charged struts (GCSs), which are commonly found attached to vehicle hatches such as hoods & trunks. ShockLock works by clamping itself around a factory or aftermarket GCS. Easily installed, ShockLock can automatically lock and release a vehicle’s hatch while prolonging the life of GCSs. Universally designed to fit all GCSs and made from 100% non‐damaging aluminum, ShockLock securely locks vehicle struts at varying heights supporting loads up to 120lbs while providing a peace of mind for mechanics.
2/2/2015
Yashin Shah
$31,850
$30,621
$62,471
Waterloo
SmartStart Seed Fund DNAStack Corporation
DNAstack‐OBI‐OCE
Advancements in DNA sequencing technologies have economized the reading of individual genomes, creating potential to improve diagnostics and treatment for patients affected by genetic diseases. A significant challenge in realizing this potential, though, is in the translation of enormous genomic datasets into medically actionable information. DNAstack develops technologies that allow researchers to easily explore these datasets, facilitating discoveries in genetics and informing clinical integration of personal genomics. Advanced health technologies
6/26/2014
Marc Fiume
$30,000
$81,750
$111,750
Toronto
SmartStart Seed Fund Blurbi Inc.
Ryerson University
Blurbi Inc.
Blurbi offers social media content 'as a service' by sourcing custom content from its network of freelance marketing professionals to create high quality social media ‘blurbs’ for businesses. Blurbi's web platform and proprietary analytics tools ('FameRate' and 'SocialLift') enable businesses to measure and track the performance of social content right down to the author's choice of words, topics and images. This helps businesses and freelancers refine their blurbs to achieve higher audience engagement.
1/8/2015
Tyler Handley
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
Toronto
12/10/2014
Bjorn Dawson
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
Kitchener
2/2/2015
Adam Eldaba
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
Burlington
12/10/2014
Phil Sham
$35,000
$65,400
$100,400
Toronto
Unlike other platforms for sourcing content, Blurbi focuses on highly customized 'short form' content (or "blurbs") for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest. Businesses can subscribe to receive regular 'pitches' from marketers on potential blurbs, tailored to their social media goals. Blurbi impacts a businesses' bo om line by reducing the me and money spent by marke ng staff on social media campaigns and by improving the efficiency of social media efforts. SmartStart Seed Fund Grobo Inc
Grobo Automated Gardening System
Grobo is a personalized, app‐controlled, in‐home gardening system that lets anyone grow a successful garden at any time of the year, regardless of their experience level. Furthermore, the garden's modular design allows users to easily and economically expand their garden as their needs change. Not only does Grobo allow consumers to eat more fresh and nutrient‐filled produce, but this system also eliminates the emissions currently associated with shipping food thousands of miles.
The SmartStart Seed Funding will allow Grobo to continue moving through the customer validation stage and help identify opportunities to improve upon the product. The funding will play a major role in taking the product from the testing and validation phase to the product launch phase through the crowdfunding campaign scheduled for April 2015.
SmartStart Seed Fund AdvanTag
McMaster University
Softmills Technology International Inc.
Softmills is a startup founded in 2010 by Adam El Daba & Mo. Shahin to design and develop innovative applications. We have evolved into an incubation like firm that is committed to harvest innovation by investing and mentoring start‐ups that are focused in the Retail, Restaurant, Athletic, and Entertainment industries. Instead of investing cash, Softmills invests with in‐kind services, in particular R&D, Product Development and any other technical skills required, while allowing the Founders/team focus solely on the operation and execution of the core business. We are proud to launch our first core product called AdvanTag; an innovative customer engagement platform, which allows Retail and Restaurant owners, for the first time, to communicate with their customers directly, build their own loyalty programs, create their own deals and market their brand with a competitive and relevant reach. AdvanTag is the first lastmeter marketing, focused solely on helping (Restaurant/spa/retail) owners and managers to:
Know their customer
Build a stronger e (Customer Reten on which is cri cal)
and leverage customer’s social network to market your business.
For that last year, both co‐founders have been investing money and working full time in this new venture and planning to spin off AdvanTag into its own entity within Canada. We have gained enough experience through out working in the market and knowing what works and what doesn't work and we have pivoted the product mul ple mes and we believe that we have a viable business and strong product.
SmartStart Seed Fund Application for Toque Business Toque is a bitcoin payment processor for web merchants. We provide a simple and secure platform for merchants to accept bitcoin as a form of payment without exposure to the vola lity of the currency.
Solutions Inc.
Our platform is an alternative low cost payment option for merchants, in contrast to traditional payment solutions (credit cards, paypal, et al).
SmartStart Seed Fund Toque Business Solutions Inc.
SmartStart Seed Fund IMERCIV Inc.
The iMerciv Buzz Clip
iMerciv Inc. strives to provide more independence and an overall enhanced living experience to the global visually impaired community through interactive assistive Advanced health technologies
devices.
Using commercially viable and off‐the‐shelf sensory technology, iMerciv has created a wearable device that provides the end user with an intuitive haptic response system that allows them to detect obstacles within their immediate surroundings. iMerciv Inc is dedicated to improving the self‐confidence, the independence and the overall quality of life for the global visually impaired community.
1/8/2015
Arjun Mali
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
Toronto
SmartStart Seed Fund Crio Water Inc.
Crio Water Inc. ‐ Development
Our company, Crio Water Inc., is a new technology startup company that will develop, manufacture and market a unique water treatment system for rural single Bio‐economy and clean residences who have problems with their water quality and safety. Our product is a patented, reverse osmosis based system in a unique configuration that can treat technologies
all the water that enters the home. The system produces water that is free of biological matter and free of chemicals, making it high quality for home use and safe to drink. We have a license for the patent. Crio Water is currently in the development phase. The new technology has been pilot tested. We have received commitments from customers who will test our prototypes. While we are testing these prototypes, we will be developing a scalable, repeatable sales channel so that we can sell our product. The feedback from our prototype testing will enable us to develop a market ready product, which we will sell through our sales channel. By selling our product through these channels, we will validate our sales model. The product will ini ally be manufactured by a local company.
3/9/2015
Danielle Graham
$35,000
$189,790
$224,790
Port Elgin
7/10/2015
Section 3 ‐ 20
Entrepreneurship
Program
Company / Partners
SmartStart Seed Fund Karibu Solar Power Inc.
Project Title
Solar business‐in‐a‐box
Project Summary
Sector
Today, 1+ billion consumers around the world do not have adequate access to the energy required to light their homes and connect them to world‐changing Bio‐economy and clean technology. Kerosene lamps and candles are a major alternative. They produce toxic fumes that poison homes, increase the risk of house fires and personal injury, and technologies
emit millions of tons of CO2 annually. Some see this as an unsolvable problem; we see this as a profitable opportunity. Date
12/10/2014
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
Sameer Gulamani
$34,935
$30,232
$65,167
Bowmanville
1/8/2015
Tom Hummel
$34,900
$53,400
$88,300
Guelph
12/10/2014
Marie Chevrier
$32,460
$32,400
$64,860
Toronto
Karibu Solar Power Inc. is an Ontario‐registered corporation and we see an opportunity to profitably solve energy poverty ‐ both in Canada and abroad. We also see our solar lights and phone chargers on shelves in stores across Canada. They can be used for camping, power outages, phone‐charging on‐the‐go, etc. We started out by selling 2,000 solar lanterns in Tanzania, Africa. Unfortunately, we saw that at $20‐30 per lamp it is unaffordable to the average consumer who needs solar. That led us to develop technology that understands and engages the habits of local communities. We split up the components of the solar lamp, thus making it affordable at the price of kerosene.
We have received a lot of traction including placing in the Top 5 at Harvard University's Social Enterprise Conference, winning the Principality of Monaco's The EDGE Compe on and we recently won a United Na ons SEED Award. We have also been featured on CNN, the CBC and in Forbes Africa. CNN: h p://edi on.cnn.com/2014/01/14/business/14‐african‐startups‐to‐watch‐in‐2014/ CBC: h p://www.cbc.ca/news/world/new‐solar‐lamp‐offers‐villagers‐alterna ve‐to‐toxic‐kerosene‐1.2450157 UN: h p://www.seedinit.org/news/ar cle/884‐un‐awards‐innova ve‐green‐enterprises‐at‐green‐economy‐symposium.html Monaco: h p://www.edgemonaco.org/#!photo‐gallery‐2013/c49b We have developed a solar “business in a box” kit for small‐scale entrepreneurs. Each kit contains 2 "hockey puck" lights (that also charge mobile phones) and 1 solar panel ‐ along with instructions, marketing material and expertise that helps the entrepreneur. The entrepreneur sells one hockey puck light/phone charger to an end‐
user (let's call her Alice) for $3. Alice takes the hockey puck home, she can light her house, her children can study and she can charge her mobile phone. When it's empty, she brings it back to the entrepreneur and swaps it out for the charged hockey puck (that the entrepreneur charged with the solar panel) and she pays $0.30, which is what she would otherwise spend on kerosene to light her home. Alice saves money, her children no longer breathe in toxic kerosene, it cuts CO2 emissions and the entrepreneur earns an income. This modular design also lends itself well to the outdoors, where users can keep energy in the "hockey puck" lamps until they need the light or energy. The hockey puck lamp can also be used as a power bank for mobile phones when ba eries are low without any plugs nearby.
The modular pay‐as‐you‐go solar "business in a box" kit is already working on a small‐scale. Here is a link for the HIV/AIDS organization, Good Hope in Tanzania, where it is working right now: h p://www.youtube.com/watch?v=‐L_Ln96e0iY .
SmartStart Seed Fund Redtree Robotics Inc.
Hydra Mobile Robotics Platform
The potential of mobile robotics to change the way we live our lives is enabled by the very latest in sensor technology and robust control, signal processing, and artifical intelligence algorithms. However, just like any new and emerging technology, the tools and platforms to build these technologies are very much in the realm of researchers and hobbyists. Redtree robotics is creating the first integration platform, designed for enterprise mobile robotics, suitable for both prototyping and mass production. This is the first hardware, software and communications platform for enterprise mobile robotics.
SmartStart Seed Fund The Sampler App Inc.
Ryerson University
Sampler: Moving from Service to SaaS
Sampler's Software as a Service (SaaS) platform will make it possible for brand managers to manage and customize their online sampling and coupon distribution campaigns. Sampler has proven its concept across 6 different CPG industries including Baby, Cosmetic, Health & Wellness, Female Hygiene, Food & Household Products. Sampler was recently selected as the winner of Google for Entrepreneur's Startup Weekend NEXT here in Toronto and since their win they have been able to secure mentorship from the global brand management team at Coca‐Cola. Coca‐Cola has agreed to continue meeting with Sampler weekly about how Sampler can help the beverage industry solve industry wide concerns surrounding how CPG brands manage and measure the distribution of promotional offers. The main challenge that Sampler currently is facing is in the transition from a service based business to a Software as a Service. Our clients have expressed that they would like to manage and monitor their own Sampler campaigns internally and/or with their agencies. Sampler is requesting Smart Start Seed Fund support to help us engage directly with our exis ng customers to be er understand their needs and apply these learnings to Sampler's SaaS product roadmap.
This proposal is for OCE to help Sampler:
Fund a customer feedback program that will help align product team in moving from a service based business to a So ware as a Service
Support contracting an experienced product manager to define and begin execution of a product roadmap that will bring Sampler to a Software as a Service platform as fast as possible.
Close $320,000 in funding fully reliant on a total raise of $350,000. This additional funding will help us execute the plan elaborated with the customer feedback program funded by OCE & Sampler (See Term Sheet attached. Note: An extension will be granted to allow OCE funds to enable this round. For questions contact: Michelle McBane at [email protected]).
Fund Sampler and Coca‐Cola's educa onal partnership opportunity (See le er of intent a ached from Global Brand Manager).
SmartStart Seed Fund Chipsetter Inc.
Chipsetter: An affordable pick‐and‐place machine for Chipsetter Inc. is developing an affordable pick‐and‐place machine for printed circuit board assembly, and is seeking funds to engage in customer testing. The Advanced manufacturing
printed circuit board assembly.
Chipsetter machine has been designed from the ground up for innovative groups with limited capital. Small businesses, community workshops and individuals will all benefit from an in‐house printed circuit board assembly solution, taking their solutions to market faster and improving overall productivity. Chipsetter Inc. is excited to be the first to offer an affordable, reliable, and full‐featured assembly solution to the innovators of tomorrow.
3/9/2015
Alan Sawula
$35,000
$60,000
$95,000
Hamilton
SmartStart Seed Fund True Phantom Solutions Inc.
Phantoms for neurosurgical treatment planning‐OBI‐ True Phantom Solutions designs and creates biomedical phantoms. These phantoms are critically important for the development of innovative diagnostic imaging OCE Partnership
techniques, neurosurgery treatment planning, and training of medical students. There is an unmet market demand for ultrasound and MRI‐compatible phantoms.
6/26/2014
Adrian Wydra
$30,000
$30,000
$60,000
Windsor
6/26/2014
Asim Siddiqi
$30,000
$30,000
$60,000
Toronto
Research and development of medical ulltrasound and MRI devices, require phantoms to be made out of specific materials to match the respective physical characteristics of the human tissue they have to mimic.
The phantoms can be designed to mimic the acoustical, physical and mechanical properties of real biological tissues. Moreover, through the use of a novel 3D printing technology, the phantoms can be made to resemble real anatomical structures as closely as never before.
Based on the user's/researcher's requirements, the phantoms' properties can be modified to suit any biomedical project.
Our phantoms can provide an important hands on experience to nursing and phlebotomy students before starting practice on real patients.
SmartStart Seed Fund DYMAXIA Inc.
McMaster University
Anxiety Meter‐OBI‐OCE Partnership
DYMAXIA Inc. is focused on the development of an easy‐to‐use meter to help enable children with autism recognize and manage their anxiety. We would love to hear from you on how anxiety affects individual with autism that you interact with to help us develop this technology for the people who need it most.
7/10/2015
Section 3 ‐ 21
Entrepreneurship
Program
Company / Partners
SmartStart Seed Fund Videogami
Not Applicable
Project Title
Videogami Media Center
Project Summary
Sector
We know that if a live event is interesting enough, people will be having heated conversations about it online. They will live‐tweet the event as it happens, create a Digital media and back‐channel conversations through peer to peer messaging apps, post videos that they record off their own TV screens and will do rudimentary video editing to information & create mashups of media to post across their favourite social networks. Rarely do the producers and sponsors of these events engage as part of these conversations, communication loosing a great touchpoint with their customers. At best a few clips will be made available online at a later time when the event is no longer part of the online technologies
conversa on.
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
11/7/2014
Juan Gonzales
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
Toronto
The Videogami Media Center enables live events producers to leverage their live‐video to create collections of clips in real‐time that can be used to promote the event through social media or dispatch the most relevant highlights directly to news desks while the event is still going. The Videogami Media Center also allows producers to connect with mobile audiences and let them participate in the process of curating the "best moments" of the event. Our platform is capable of capturing the best moments as they happen and create engaging media at the time it is most relevant, helping increase the quality of the conversation around the event, using the audience and other power users to reach out for new interested people to jump in at the event.
SmartStart Seed Fund WIRL
WIRL ‐ Smart Start
This proposal is for funding to assist in product development, product validation and customer development for WIRL, a radically simple employee feedback software Digital media and that empowers technology companies and their employees through continuous feedback. information & communication technologies
1/8/2015
Arian Rahimian‐
Motlagh
$29,300
$30,300
$59,600
Toronto
SmartStart Seed Fund MaxMixology
MaxMixology Business Development
MaxMixology’s flagship product, Max, is a countertop personal mixologist. Like a "Tassimo for Cocktails", Max eliminates the need to stock multiple ingredients and Advanced manufacturing
learn recipes, ultimately enabling users to mix their favorite cocktails at the push of a button. Through a system of reservoirs for simple spirits, and proprietary flavor discs, users simply insert the disc for their drink into the Max machine, chose their strength, and enjoy. 2/2/2015
Bryan Fedorak
$35,000
$188,750
$223,750
Kitchener
SmartStart Seed Fund Wolna Technology Inc.
Wolna ‐ SmartStart ‐ Enhanced Low Gain Antenna ‐ Final Product Development
Wolna Technology Inc. is an innovative company with the world top engineering talent that has designed and developed groundbreaking aeronautical communication Advanced manufacturing
antenna to allow passengers and crew on board of aircrafts to have seamless communication during flight, ultimately improving aircraft safety, navigation, air traffic control, airline operations and maintenance efficiencies, as well as voice and Internet connection for business or leisure entertainment. The current project concentrates on the development of the final Enhanced Low Gain Antenna product, its demonstra on and commercializa on.
2/2/2015
Kostyantyn Khomutov
$35,000
$44,764
$79,764
Ottawa
SmartStart Seed Fund ConferenceCloud Inc.
Not Applicable
ConferenceCloud Inc.
ConferenceCloud is the first real‐time and interactive online attendance platform for conferences. The system is an easy to use platform for live conference to create Digital media and a hybrid environment, for both online and onsite participants. This integrates completely to extend conferences online for digital content consumption in real‐time. An information & all‐in‐one software solution for content delivery and engagement for online audiences, allowing conferences to expand attendances globally and significantly increase communication their revenues.
technologies
2/2/2015
Olivia Simmons
$25,000
$20,000
$45,000
Toronto
SmartStart Seed Fund EatSleepRIDE
Not Applicable
EatSleepRIDE
Motorcycle and alterna ve vehicle ridership (e‐bikes, scooters, ATVs and snowmobiles) is growing exponen ally driven by economic factors, tourism and government Digital media and support for reducing congestion in urban centres, globally. EatSleepRIDE (ESR) Mobile inc. provides a vehicle telematics and safety solution specifically designed for information & the needs of this community. Our solution, the EatSleepRIDE and CrashLight in‐app purchase are is currently available on iOS and supplemented with a web portals. communication Riders benefit from our geo‐aware crash detection and notification system, check‐in features and the ability to discover routes and motorcycle‐friendly resources such technologies
as hotels, tourist attractions and more. The EatSleepRIDE Motorcycle App takes the fear out of motorcycling for not only the rider but the loved ones of the rider, providing increased safety and security for this growing mode of commuter and leisure transportation. SmartStart funding will support our development for the Android market and, in so doing, double our traction and sales while opening potential new revenue channels. 3/5/2015
Clint Deygoo
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
Toronto
2/2/2015
Ronen Benin
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
Toronto
Motorcycle and alternative vehicle ridership (e‐bikes, scooters, ATVs and snowmobiles) is growing exponentially driven by economic factors, tourism and government support for reducing congestion in urban centres, globally. EatSleepRIDE (ESR) Mobile inc. provides a vehicle telematics and safety solution specifically designed for the needs of this community. Our solution, the EatSleepRIDE and CrashLight in‐app purchase are is currently available on iOS and supplemented with a web portals. Riders benefit from our geo‐aware crash detection and notification system, check‐in features and the ability to discover routes and motorcycle‐friendly resources such as hotels, tourist attractions and more. The EatSleepRIDE Motorcycle App takes the fear out of motorcycling for not only the rider but the loved ones of the rider, providing increased safety and security for this growing mode of commuter and leisure transportation. SmartStart funding will support our development for the Android market and, in so doing, double our trac on and sales while opening poten al new revenue channels. For more informa on, please visit EatSleepRIDE.com
SmartStart Seed Fund RightBlue Labs
Ryerson University
Right Blue Labs Inc. ‐ Smart Start
Logit is an app that helps performance sport coaches iden fy and steer their athletes clear of issues that cause illness, injury, and burnout. Each year 1 in 3 high performance athletes in North America fail to reach their potential due to injury, illness, or burnout. In the U.S., each National Team invests on average $2m per annum in athletes that ultimately underperform. In fact, underperformance is an estimated $890m cost for North American National Sports Teams every year. To date, the most common way coaches have been able to identify these issues has been through reading a book‐like training journal that the athlete is asked to fill in daily. However, athletes seldom remember to fill in their logs and generally dislike having to lug around a bulky journal (a log and a journal are synonymous). Furthermore, coaches don't have the time to review their athlete's journals regularly and typically end up doing this only after an issue has occured. In essence, currently the 'athlete journraling' experience is very broken. Logit serves as a daily digital log that has been proven by more than 1100 national level athletes and over 100 national level coaches to identify potential root causes of problems before they occur. Logit uses proprietary algorithms to monitor deviations in athlete logs from their baseline reported scores and alerts coaches as soon as worrying patterns begin to form. SmartStart Seed Fund Modastic Groupe Inc.
Social e‐commerce marketplace
Modastic, founded in May 2013, offers an exclusive and inspirational mobile shopping experience for fashion‐forward consumers. Modastic's mobile apps enable users to browse, share, and purchase products on a single platform. The Modastic marketplace partners with high quality retailers and brands to offer the latest and greatest products to Modastic's members. Digital media and information & communication technologies
3/9/2015
Betty Xi
$35,000
$32,020
$67,020
Toronto
SmartStart Seed Fund Mirens Inc.
Not Applicable
Mirens ‐ Smart Start
Mirens is a crowdsourcing platform for furniture design with a focus on urban living. Co‐founders Mike and Karen harness the power of the crowd in curating furniture Digital media and designs. By working with designers around the world, they look to solve the problem of living in small urban spaces with unique furniture designs for small spaces. information & Mirens has built extensive network of manufacturers both locally and abroad to produce their designs. The platform was developed as a solution for designers to communication submit designs to and display their work to a broad audience. The SmartStart funding will support the rebuilding of the Mirens architecture and front end, which is technologies
necessary for extending its existing functionality to satisfy the growing demands of Mirens' customers.
3/5/2015
Karen Lau
$35,000
$110,000
$145,000
Toronto
SmartStart Seed Fund Limelight Platforms Inc.
Not Applicable
Limelight Platform SmartStart
Every year over 640,000 experiential marketing campaigns are run that are designed to engage consumers, inviting them to be actively involved in the production and co‐creation of marketing programs and develop a relationship with a brand. Annually, such campaigns represent a marketing spend of over $16.3 billion. Unfortunately, though many of these campaigns are effective in engaging consumers initially, the digital technologies on which these campaigns are run leads to underperformance, poor engagement, and a lack of analy cs by which to measure the true ROI of such a campaign. 3/5/2015
Kaitlin Buckley
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
Toronto
Limelight Platform is a disruptive experiential marketing platform, built out of one of Canada's most innovative Experiential Advertising Agencies. By providing an integrating end‐to‐end experiential marketing platform, our solution empowers companies to turn their live engagements and experiential marketing programs into actionable data and qualified leads, using mobile, data analytics, and live marketing automation. 7/10/2015
Section 3 ‐ 22
Entrepreneurship
Program
Company / Partners
Project Title
Project Summary
Sector
Date
Applicant Name
OCE Commitment
City
SmartStart Seed Fund Paid
Not Applicable
Paid ‐ InCubes SmartStart application
#paid is a product placement platform for social media. Our platform allows brands and startups to gain customers through organic celebrity recommendations while Digital media and getting celebrities paid to do what they love: share awesome content with millions of their engaged followers. We're creating a culture—a way of life—and exploring information & a world that puts integrity at the core of social media sponsorship.
3/5/2015
Bryan Gold (1)
$35,000
$30,000
$65,000
Richmond Hill
SmartStart Seed Fund Payso Inc
Not Applicable
Payso – HIGHLINE Cohort
Payso is the easiest way to make and share payments with friends. We’re Whatsapp for money. Fast, secure, totally free. Using Payso is easy; when you sign up you link a credit card securely to the platform. Payments can be made from that credit card to any phone number in Canada. When you receive a payment simply provide your bank details and we deposit the money to your account. Payso aims to become the default payment method for the Millennial Generation, replacing cash, coins and cheques. replace cash anywhere you would normally use cash or cheques. This could be splitting a dinner bill, sharing a cab ride, collecting fees for your basketball team, paying you babysitter or splitting rent with your housemates.
3/3/2015
Cameron Semple
$30,000
$30,000
$60,000
Toronto
SmartStart Seed Fund Moodi
Not Applicable
Highline ‐ Moodi Inc.
Moodi is a a mood‐sharing platform designed to help teenagers and young adults share, track and get feedback about their emotions safely and anonymously while gaining access to community and clinical support.
Digital media and information & communication Along with the development of its rich mobile application, Moodi will provide a web‐based platform for health care professionals, therapists and educators to better technologies
moderate, improve and track the emo onal well‐being of their pa ents over me using group‐based emo onal analy cs, alerts and engagement features.
3/11/2015
Johnny Chauvet
$30,000
$30,000
$60,000
Toronto
Founder, Sharon Zohar, a technology entrepreneur with over 15 years experience in selling technology solutions to Fortune 500 companies and the creator of Accidental Storytelling, an emotion‐based game development company, is driven to bring about deeper connections with people by combining technology with emotional learning as a way to spark positive change in the world. “We need to relearn how we feel about what we think. By identifying our emotions we’re better able to gain greater insight and self‐awareness. This is especially cri cal for young people who have lost the ability to manage their own emo ons.”, Zohar says.
With the support and financial investment from Highline and its proven track record in taking early stage companies to the next level, as well as the recent addition of Michael Apollo as Chief Product Officer, one of the leading innovators of Interaxon's mood sensing technology MUSE, Moodi is positioned to accelerate in global markets and tackle one of today’s most challenging problem. SmartStart Seed Fund Discover Media House
Not Applicable
Discover Media House ‐ HIGHLINE Cohort
Discover Media House (“DMH”) is the world's first online marketplace for the entire advertising industry. By automating the buying and planning of not only online media but also traditional/offline media, DMH is the one‐stop‐shop for advertisers who are looking for time and money savings as well as a crystal clear view of every media option available. The worldwide media industry is in the process of becoming drastically more efficient. Programmatic ad buying has been growing at rates of 100% year‐over‐year in the online market and it is inevitable that the efficiencies offered by technology will be sought by large and small buyers of traditional media as well. DMH is currently conducting the R&D necessary to complete a platform that services clients across a wide range of online and traditional media buyers. This project will see DMH through launch of a highly evolved media buying system. Please contact DMH at www.discovermedia.house with any questions.
3/11/2015
Sylvester Kankam
$30,000
$30,000
$60,000
Toronto
SmartStart Seed Fund Evercondo (o/a Everapps Inc.)
Not Applicable
Highline ‐ Evercondo (o/a Everapps Inc.)
Evercondo is a web/mobile platform that enables communication between condo residents and property managers. Digital media and information & communication technologies
3/11/2015
Suyoun Jessica Jo
$30,000
$30,000
$60,000
Toronto
SmartStart Seed Fund Hockeystick.co Inc.
Not Applicable
Highline ‐ Hockeystick.co
Hockeystick.co is a secure, cloud‐based system for investment funds and lenders to collect business data from their portfolios of companies. We specialize in providing Digital media and automated, high‐quality data over long time periods while minimizing the time required for both the data collector and the company providing the information. information & Hockeys ck is used by venture capital firms, banks and government organiza ons to improve the quality of their metrics and therefore their decision making.
3/24/2015
Oskar Niburski
$30,000
$30,000
$60,000
Toronto
SmartStart Seed Fund MyCityMuse Inc, known as ArtLocal
Not Applicable
HIGHLINE ‐ ARTLOCAL
ARTLOCAL is requesting the Smart Start Seed Fund support to help us engage directly with our existing and future customers to better understand their needs and apply these learnings to ARTLOCAL's Saas product.
3/11/2015
Ray Nguyen
$30,000
$43,500
$73,500
Toronto
Koho is redefining banking in Canada. Offering a card, web app and mobile app, Koho replaces the bank account with a simple, transparent, affordable and functional Digital media and alternative.
Control is a management platform for payments. Control's iOS, Android, and web apps help online business manage payments better. Control easily connects to Digital media and payment platforms in a couple of clicks. Payment metrics can be monitored‐ in real time, from any device. Configurable and real time alerts allow the merchant to information & keep tabs on their payments. Payment specific metrics allow businesses to predict problems and trends, and respond to threats and opportuni es.
Control was founded by CEO Kathryn Loewen in 2014.
3/11/2015
Daniel Eberhart
$30,000
$30,000
$60,000
Toronto
3/11/2015
Norman Sue
$30,000
$30,000
$60,000
Toronto
This proposal is for OCE to help ARTLOCAL:
Fund our customer development which will enable us to build out a fairly robust Exhibition Management Tool within a Dashboard and simple yet sophisticated CRM (customer relationship management tool). We will be able to expedite the delivery of our SaaS (software as a Service) product which we will be co‐creating with our clients (galleries) and fulfilling their requirements.
Support contracting a UI/UX designer to provide expertise and help research design methods that will enable ARTLOCAL to fill the design void we currently have on our team. They will work with our head of product. The art world is driven by aesthe c‐conscious minds and we must appeal to our target clients.
Close the balance of funding which is a part of a $500k raise. Securing this funding will assist us in fulfilling our customer development which will direct our product roadmap and what we will execute on going forward funded by OCE & ARTLOCAL.
The Exhibition Management Tool in tandem with our mobile app will be the go to platform for the galleries to promote their exhibitions, manage their content and rela onships and understand via data who their target market is and the effect of their efforts.
SmartStart Seed Fund Koho
Not Applicable
Highline ‐ Koho
SmartStart Seed Fund Control
Not Applicable
Control ‐ HIGHLINE Cohort
7/10/2015
Section 3 ‐ 23
Entrepreneurship
Program
Entrepreneurship Fellowships
7/10/2015
Company / Partners
NewCo
Project Title
Multi‐Parameter Fiber Optic Sensor for Gas and Oil Well Monitoring
Project Summary
Sector
This project aims at the commercialization of an all‐in‐one optical fibre sensor technology for the simultaneous monitoring of gas/liquid concentration, pressure, and Advanced manufacturing
temperature in oil and gas wells and pipelines. Global energy demand is estimated to double by 2050. According to the Annual Energy Outlook 2012 released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), oil and gas wells produced 5634 million metric tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) in 2010. In Canada, thousands of oil wells are leaking unwanted greenhouse gases into the environment due a number of technical and geological problems. Additionally, with the advent of new production technology that has enabled the recent explosive growth in shale gas extraction, the GHG emission and productivity and cost efficiency problems will multiply. In addition to wells, the oil/gas pipelines are exposed to Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC) and Wall Thinning which result in harmful gas and liquid leakage. As a result, the oil and gas industry need to rely on downhole and pipeline monitoring systems to reduce these risks.
The state‐of‐the‐art fibre optic sensor technology in oil and gas industry relies on the measurement of each parameter using a separate optical fibre cable. For the measurement of mul ple parameters the separate cables need to be bundled. This results in complex systems with higher cost of opera on and maintenance. Using our innovative all‐in‐one sensing system for pressure, temperature and concentration sensing will result in higher production efficiency and higher yield at lower energy cost, and allows for quick repairs and less lost produc on me. This OCE fellowship will be spent on R&D activities for the optimization of the sensor design and improvement of lab‐scale prototype toward the development of market‐ready prototype, development of product test plans and certification, intellectual property protection (e.g., patent filing) and development of a business plan to pitch to early adopters and poten al investors.
Date
12/12/2013
Applicant Name
Richard Liang
OCE Commitment
$50,000
$321,000
$371,000
City
Waterloo
Section 3 ‐ 24

2014-15 OCE Project List - Ontario Centres of Excellence

Transcription

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