Research and Innovation : Innovation + Job News

Toronto tech company Firan Technology Group has committed to investing $17 million in a research and development project that will create 30 new jobs over the next five years. According to a company announcement, the project will focus on expanding its production of circuit boards for aircraft -- "advanced material, buried passive, high density interconnect, high speed, high reliability and thermal management printed circuit board technologies."

The provincial government's Economic Development ministry has committed to providing up to $5.1 million in loans to the project. A government announcement notes that there is a $1.8 billion market for such circuit boards globally, and says of Firan's technology, "These new boards will provide airplanes with smaller, lighter electronics helping to enable more efficient and safer air travel, and contributing to Ontario's role as a leader in the aerospace industry."

Firan President and CEO Brad Bourne says, "FTG's focus on the aerospace market demands innovative, high technology solutions and the support of the Ontario Government will allow us to continue to invest for the benefit of our customers, our employees, our shareholders and the Ontario economy."

In addition to creating 30 new jobs, the project is expected to support the ongoing employment of 50 other, according to the provincial government.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Sources: Bradley C. Bourne, President and CEO, Firan Technology Group Corporation; Office of the Minister of Economic Development and Trade

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A program at the University Health Network will provide 12 nurses the opportunity to pursue research projects starting this September. The Nurses for Tomorrow Innovation and Research Fellowships will give nurses in the program two paid days per week to attend seminars and pursue their research -- projects are to support the UHN's strategic directions.

"We are one of the few hospitals that make an effort to involve nurses at the bedside in research and innovaion," says Carolyn Plummer, the innovation project manager for UHN. "It takes some real creativity and innovation to do that, and we're committed to doing it."

The University Health Network is made up of Toronto General Hospital, Toronto Western Hospital and the Princess Margaret Hospital. The fellowship program is part of the UHN's commitment to pursuing a research culture among nurses to drive innovation in improving patient outcomes. Along similar lines, a program in place since 2004 called 80-20 allows nurses to devote 20 per cent of their work week to professional development.

Author: Edward Keenan
Source: Carolyn Plummer, Innovation Project Manager, University Health Network

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Richmond Hill-based Intertainment Media has had a busy month announcing rapid growth, including new investment, increased revenue and a series of new product launches.

On July 15, the company announced that it had secured $5 million in equity investment from GEM Global Yield Fund, to be used to enhance existing product lines and create new ones. The announcement of new capital comes alongside a slew of new product announcements this month for its application itiBitti: an app for web personality Toby "TOBUSCUS" Turner, an app the "Hip Hop Bible," and a partnership with major sports and entertainment venue representative Ballena Technologies.

Most recently, they announced just this week the launch of Ortsbo, the world's first "multi-client, multi-conversation real-time translation platform for social media and email," which will allow translation of online conversations instantly in over 50 languages.

All of this comes on the heels of already encouraging growth. In a letter to stakeholders dated July 5, company CEO David Lucatch reported that quarterly revenue in 2010 was up more than 300 per cent over the same quarter of 2009. On the phone, Lucatch says that in the past year, the company has opened new offices in New York, Los Angeles and Silicon Valley, and roughly doubled the size of its staff to just over 40 employees.

"We've been putting our plan in place for three years now, our products are exceptional, and that's given us the foundation to start growing as we execute the plan to commercialize the products we have," he says.


Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: David Lucatch, CEO, Intertainment Media

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When the Village of Downers Grove, near Chicago, sought a cost estimate for 25 lampposts for the new subdivision of Prentiss Creek, they were quoted a price around $3 million. Instead of going ahead with it, they found an innovative, environmentally friendly solution from North York company Efston Science -- self-powering hybrid solar-and-wind-fueled streetlights that did not require digging trenches to bury power lines and would cost nothing to operate once they were installed. As a bonus, they would lower the carbon footprint of the village -- and all for a comparatively low cost of $282,500.

The ePole was developed by Efston Science a year ago, according to company owner Nick Efston, and is manufactured in the GTA in partnership with a pole maker in Burlington and a wind turbine company in Mississauga. The poles use a small wind turbine and a small solar panel in conjunction, and can store electricity for days at a time. According to Efsotn, the ePole business supports roughly a dozen jobs in the area.

Efston says that the Chicago-area project was the first major contract for the company -- and now that there's a precedent, he expects orders to start picking up. "We're now being spec-ed into a lot of projects. People are more responsive now that there's a working example to look at," he says. Among those impressed, reportedly, is the Queen, who viewed a pilot installation ePole at Woodbine racetrack on her recent visit.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Nick Efston, owner, Efston Science

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A licensing deal for a potential treatment for ALS singed last week gives a boost to Amorfix Life Sciences' quest to develop diagnostics and treatments for such diseases as ALS, Alzheimer's and cancer, according to Amorfix CEO Dr. Robert Gundel.

The deal gives global biotech giant Biogen Idec the right to, at its own expense, pursue testing and regulatory approvals for antibodies developed by Amorfix to treat ALS. The Mississauga-based Amorfix gets $1 million up front, as well as potential milestone payments and royalties in the future. "This is excellent news for us because the deal represents the best way forward for developing this treatment," Gundel says. He added that the cash and the commitment by Biogen frees up Amorfix's staff of 16 to pursue other applications of their innovative health sciences technologies.

The company was founded in 2004 by Dr. Neil Cashman, and has an exclusive license on a technology called ProMIS. This innovative computer algorythm maps "misfolded proteins" that are characteristic of such diseases as ALS, Alzheimer's and cancer and identifies specific areas on the misfolded protein which can serve as targets for novel therapeutic intervention. Originally the process was used to develop diagnostic tools, but recently Amorfix has expanded its development into antibodies and vaccines that can attack only misfolded proteins cells (unlike conventional treatments for cancer, for example, which are not specific for tumor cells and have adverse side effects which may threaten the health of patients by attacking all cells in an area). These antibodies hold the potential to cease the progress of and cure the diseases.


Gundel says that licensing agreements with much larger companies such as Biogen Idec are part of the business plan for Amorfix. He says that "realistically" the company's products could bring effective vaccines and cures for such diseases to market within eight to 10 years.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Dr. Robert Gundel, CEO, Amorfix Life Sciences

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On July 8, the TTC introduced a new service on streetcar lines that uses GPS positioning to allow riders to have next-vehicle arrival times sent to their mobile devices by text message.

The technological task of "text-messaging integration" was handled by the new GTA office of Montreal-based LIPSO. The company has, in the past, developed text-messaging innovations for Vancouver's Translink and the boarding-pass bar code scanner for Air Canada. According to LIPSO Director of Business Development Ross Noble, the TTC contract represented a "great opportunity" for the Mississauga office of the company, which was set up last fall.

Noble, currently the only GTA-based employee of the company, says a big part of his job in the immediate future will be to "build out" the Toronto office. He envisions adding at least three to four employees in the coming year, possibly more.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Ross Noble, Director of Business Development, LIPSO

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Starting August 1, Dr. Darin Graham, a global innovation leader who has headed up research and innovation projects across Ontario and in Scotland and New Zealand, will take over as President and CEO of the Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION). He replaces the network's retiring founder, Phil Baker.

Maxim Jean-Louis, chair of ORION's board of directors, notes that they "set out to get the very best and did get the very best" and says the the appointment represents a shift into a higher gear for the organization. "What it means for us is that we're going square into supporting the innovation agenda for the province," he says. "It means we've completed the building phase of our organization's development and we're preparing to get into the implementation phase. We know that based on Darin's experience he will be able to help us leapfrog into the forefront of innovation in Ontario."

ORION is an "ultra high-speed research and education network" that links 1.7 million Ontario researchers, scientists, students, teachers and staff to enable research collaborations and discoveries in physics, cancer research, environmental science and technologies, social sciences and the humanities and other disciplines.

Graham served most recently as head of New Zealand's ICT Innovation Institute and was formerly in charge of the Communications and Information Technology Ontario.

Jean-Louis says that in recruiting a "young man with an international record," the location in the GTA was a pivotal plus. "It was a huge asset," he says. "[Graham] told us that the government of Ontario's commitment to transforming the province into a hub of innovation interested him greatly."

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Maxim Jean-Louis, Chair, Board of Directors, ORION

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In what a company executive calls a "significant milestone" for the evolution of cloud computing, Mississauga-based information systems provider CentriLogic has signed its first customer to its recently-launched US cloud.

That client, Cookie Jar Entertainment, will be familiar to many parents: they are among the world's largest children's television programming companies, creating shows such as The Doodlebops, Arthur and Caillou, and licensing agencies (representing Richard Scarry and Strawberry Shortcake, among others). The company is in the process of moving its consumer websites to CentriLogic's on-demand cloud service.

Launched in 2007, CentriLogic has grown steadily, constructing servers for its cloud, managed hosting and data centre services in Rochester, Buffalo, downtown Toronto and Mississauga. According to CentriLogic VP Jim Latimer, having multiple facilities in both Canada and the US gives the company a competitive edge. Latimer says that with "failover" locations on each side of the border, clients in the US and Canada can be sure their data will stay in its county of origin.

CentriLogic currently has between 30 and 50 employees, Latimer says. As a veteran of the dot-com boom and the industry ups and downs since then, he says he's comfortable with CentriLogic's manageable rate of growth. But he says that the company has the infrastructure to scale up quickly, and the Cookie Jar contract represents a milestone in industry's warming up to cloud computing. "I expect our growth to accelerate rapidly," he says. "A lot of organizations to date haven't been rushing to put their data on the cloud, even with all the hype about cloud computing. It's new and the water still looked pretty chilly. But now the water is warming up and a lot of startups and other businesses are looking to the cloud ... the trepidation is gone, for the most part."

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Jim Latimer, Vice President of Client Solutions, CentriLogic

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QA Consultants, the Toronto-based software quality assurance company that has grown to be the largest of its kind in North America, has opened a new 20,000-square-foot software testing facility in North York that it says will be a cost effective alternative to overseas outsourcing.

"We are responding to market demand," the company's Managing Director Alex Rodov said in a statement announcing the opening. "Many Canadian businesses are looking to use on-shore facilities but in the past have been put off by the price.... the size of this operation means that we are talking about massive economies of scale, allowing us to offer prices that are competitive with off-shore facilities but at the same time can remove the difficulties often associated with off-shore work -- such as language problems and time-zone delays."

The facility, to be located in the building at 1 Sparks Avenue that was the former home of Hummingbird Communications (now Open Text), will employ roughly 250-300 employees, according to QA VP Harvey Dawson, the "vast majority" of which will be newly created positions.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Harvey Dawson, VP Client Services, QA Consultants

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Biosign Technologies, a Vaughan-based company that makes online medical monitoring devices and has created an innovative diabetes monitoring device, has announced distribution agreements for Europe and the Middle East and Africa that are expected to produce more than $100 million in sales by the end of 2011.

The UFIT TEN-20, the company's latest innovation, which will now launch in Europe in September of this year, takes a measurement at the wrist that gives blood glucose and blood pressure reading, which are stored on the company's servers. As the company materials say, the process is "indirect, non-invasive and passive."

The biggest advance in the product's launch is the signing of a deal with Swiss-based DynamiCARE AG to distribute UFIT TEN-20 across Europe -- an area which represents one third of Biosign's expected global market for the product. A DynamiCARE spokesperson said the product represents "the next evolution of testing and diagnostics for personal medicine," and expects it to have "momentous impact." As part of the deal, DunamiCARE will pay an initial fee of $2.5 million to Biosign, and has committed to achieving sales of more than US$100 million by the end of next year.

A further deal announced this month sees distribution for the Middle East and North Africa handled by Dubai-based ALQAEM International. That contract carries a commitment to sell more than US$14 million by the end of 2011.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Radu Leca, President & CEO, Biosign Technologies

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When Xtreme Labs announced this week that it had reached the milestone of 10 million downloads for their BlackBerry apps, it came as no surprise to anyone who's been following the explosive growth of the local mobile-phone application innovation business. Founded in 2007 by Sundeep Madra and Amar Varma as the largest company in the portfolio of their $10 million venture capital fund Extreme Venture Capital, the company has already developed over 100 mobile apps.

In that time too, the company has also gone from the original two to 50 employees, an astonishing 2500 per cent growth in their staff. The company has what it calls a "dynamic work environment" designed to foster innovation, in which developers work in pairs together in a large room with all the company's other developers. It counts Microsoft, NBA Digital, Accuweather and Urban Spoon among its client list.

Company founder Sundeep Madra says that popularity for mobile devices and the apps that go with them is only increasing, and his company sees further growth on the horizon -- especially as it sets its sights on the latest development in mobile computing, the iPad. "We see the iPad as a growth platform not just for Apple, but for us as well," he said in a statement.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Sundeep Madra, Xtreme Labs

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Earlier this year, Zerofootprint introduced a new innovation: the "Talking Plug." It's an outlet that can monitor a building's energy use � down to the level of individual appliances � and show how much power is being drawn and how much it costs. It could also allow a person to shut off individual outlets remotely, and instantly see the savings in energy and dollars.

That product, which drew notice via an outline of the technology in Forbes written by Zerofootprint founder and CEO Ron Dembo, was just among the latest of dozens of initiatives the company has launched. "We're essentially a about measurement," Dembo says, "once you measure energy use you can see how it compares to others and actually reduce it."

The company launched as a non-profit in 2005, but launched a for-profit segment to manage its Velo carbon-footprint-measurement software two years ago. From its start in 2008, Dembo says the company has grown to 25 office staff today (noting, however, that much of the company's work -- design, manufacturing, PR � is outsourced, so employment might not be the best measure of growth). "Eseentially, in the first quarter of this year, we've generated as much revenue as we did in all of last year," he says. "And back then, it was about the same -- over the year before, about a factor of four. Though I can't imagine we'll sustain quite that pace for too long."

Unless, of course, the right customers come to the table. Dembo says widespread sales of the Talking Plug await a large order of a few hundred thousand to make production scalable. He's hoping the Ontario government will see the value of its interface for use with the smart meters currently hooked up to residential hydro accounts. "We could get this out quickly -- with or without the smart plugs -- just by tapping into the smart meters," he says. "The provincial government could create an industry here."

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Ron Dembo, founder and CEO, Zerofootprint

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Samir Al-Battran, President of RentCompass, says his company started when he realized that people looking to move wanted information on the move. "We found that the real estate market in Canada  -- and specifically the rental search industry -- did not have any practical solutions that meet today's demands and advancements in technology," he says. "The recent rapid spread of smartphones made it possible to build mobile solution to find information on the go, and that was the inspiring point for RentCompass."

Last week, the company launched a native application for the iPad, a first for a Canadian real-estate search company. Earlier RentCompass launched the first rental application in the country for the iPhone. Al-Battran says he just sees the market for mobile applications getting bigger. "We believe that mobile applications are the future, especially in our segment. Our vision is that people should be able to find apartments or houses for rent on the go, whether they are driving or walking in a neighbourhood that they liked, or while commuting to work or school."

The start-up of three people offers ads for free, and is free for people to download or visit on the web. Al-Battran says that the business plan calls for selling advertising on the site. In the near future, he says, the company will likely be hiring support staff and, down the road, some developers, to complement their core team.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Samir Al-Battran, President, RentCompass

The Mississauga company Woodland Biofuels has patented a technology it says can produce clean-burning automotive fuel from virtually any type of biomass -- including wood and agricultural waste. The process eliminates the need to burn food products such as corn to create ethanol.

Earlier this month the provincial government gave the company a grant of $4 million to build a demonstration facility, expected to be located at the University of Western Ontario's Sarnia-Lambton Research Park, to prove the efficacy of the groundbreaking innovation in waste disposal and clean energy.

"Thanks to Ontario's support we can build a plant that we anticipate will confirm our ability to successfully produce ethanol from renewable waste with breakthrough efficiency. We expect to be, by a significant margin, the lowest cost producer of automotive fuel in North America," said Greg Nuttall, President and CEO of Woodland, in a statement welcoming the investment. "This will not only put Ontario in the front of the global race to find an alternative to fossil fuels but ultimately will also provide Ontario with significant economic and environmental benefits. We are grateful for the extraordinary level of support provided by the province."

Writer: Edward Keenan
Sources: Greg Nuttal, President & CEO, Woodland Biofuels; Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation

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In February, writer Piali Roy reported for Yonge Street on an innovative solar technology being developed by Morgan Solar, run by brothers John Paul and Nicolas Morgan. Their panels would employ an innovative technology called Light Guide Solar Optic, which they say would make panels cheaper and more durable. "The family-run business sees itself as a game-changer," Roy wrote.

Recently the Ontario government indicated it might see Morgan Solar the same way: last month the Ministry of Research and Innovation announced an investment of $1.86 million in Morgan Solar's research, through its Innovation Demonstration Fund. The money will help the company refine prototypes and demonstrate the technology's efficacy. The new dollars are expected to create 20 new jobs.

Research and Innovation minister John Milloy cited the province's commitment to making the province a North American clean energy sector leader in making the announcement. "By helping Morgan Solar we are delivering on this vision while creating good jobs for Ontario families in a growing industry," Milloy said.

Morgan Solar VP Nicolas Morgan said the dollars would bring his company's product closer to market. "With Ontario's support we can take another step toward achieving our goal of making solar energy one of the most widely used and affordable power sources in the world."

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation

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