Innovation + Job News

The power of social media has made it ever easier for students to connect with one another (Facebook, remember, was launched as a Harvard University social tool). The internet is a powerful driver of social interaction. But when it comes to serving students' academic needs, according to Ryan McDougall, the range of services and how they interact has been pretty poor.

McDougall is the Communications Director of uBuddy.org, a brand-new academic-oriented social networking site created by and for University of Toronto students. After launching in mid-February for beta testing, McDougall says the site has already attracted 1,200 users. "It is designed to be an efficient and powerful tool for--among other things--note sharing, meeting classmates and starting course discussions," McDougall says.

The site was the brainchild of U of T grad Charles Qu, who recognized a hole in the market when he himself was a university student, and developed the platform and startup company with help from MaRS.

McDougall says that during the pilot phase, the service is available exclusively to U of T students. But he says there are plans for expansion to other universities in the fall of this year.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Ryan McDougall, Communications Director, uBuddy.org

Yorkville-based cleantech startup MMB Research recently closed a deal to secure $1 million in angel financing, which will be used to expand its sales and development staff to build its business in North America, Europe and Asia. According to MMB Director of Business Development Kevin Downing, the financing will mean adding six new technical and sales employees over the next six months.

The company, founded in January 2008, specializes in smart-grid products. It has developed a software and hardware platform called RapidSE that allows manufacturers of home appliances and electronics devices to communicate better in a smart-grid energy saving network. Downing says that the platform is already being used by "several multinational organizations" to build smart appliances and devices.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Kevin Downing, Director of Business Development, MMB Research

When we last wrote about the Fit Chicks fitness empire one year ago, the workout training company had expanded to reach 15 locations in the GTA since its launch in 2008. Co-founder Laura Jackson told us then that she expected the company to keep on growing, and the activity in the twelve months since has borne out her prediction.

Last week, the company announced the launch of four new locations -- one in Vancouver, one in Calgary, one in Ottawa and one in the GTA, in Mississauga -- bringing the total number of locations now to 28. In almost doubling in size over the past year, the company has gone national, opening gyms in Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver for the first time.

The business was founded by Jackson and Amanda Quinn, who say they've "been besties since grade nine" in 2008 to fill a hole they saw in the fitness market. The concept is a series of "bootcamps" run by fitness instructors focused on a challenging but achievable workout that also gave women (or "chicks," according to company lingo) education about how to live healthy. As part of a plan to expand into merchandising and larger scale wellness, the company recently introduced a "High Intensity Hottie" workout video that is now included with bootcamp registrations.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Laura Jackson, Head Chick, Fit Chicks

When the Ritz-Carlton empire opened its first Toronto hotel and condominium a few weeks ago, it didn't just become the latest addition to the city's growing luxury hotel/condominium hybrid scene.

The $500 million, 53-storey tower in the financial district also became a significant employer in Toronto. In addition to the hundreds of construction jobs created in the four-plus years the building was being erected, human resources director Danielle Saint-Louis says the enterprise also created 450 new jobs for hotel employees, ranging from service staff to management. 350 of those jobs have already been filled, and recruitment is ongoing. Saint-Louis notes that the jobs were in high demand, as almost 16,000 applicants have submitted their resumes for positions so far. Saint-Louis says that the number of applicants and the company's fine-tuned recruitment process has resulted in an elite brigade of startup employees. "Even the trainer was amazed by the calibre of our ladies and gentlemen."

In addition to its direct hiring, the hotel also made a point of supporting the local arts and culture scene with the purchase of 450 pieces of original art by "up-and-coming" Canadian artists, paintings and sculptures that Saint-Louis says are now "all over the hotel." "It's really quite amazing," she says. "It's not what you see in most hotels, which have the same old reproductions everywhere. It's quite unique and beautiful. But then it's the Ritz-Carlton, so you would expect something unique." She notes that each piece of art contains a plaque promoting the Canadian artist who created it.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Danielle Saint-Louis, Director of Human Resources, Ritz-Carlton Toronto

When Ontario Minister of Innovation Glen Murray announced a new data initiative at MaRS last month, he was long on hype with the announcement (he said he expected it to be "one of the most important things I'll ever be involved in in my life") and short on details (though he said the initiative would be fully-funded, he also explained it would be "rolled out" over the next several months).

But he did name check a specific inspiration: Toronto's 1DegreeBio, which has already launched a world-leading data sharing initiative for the biological sciences sector. The company was founded in July 2009 and launched online in June 2010 as the world's first online independent resource listing all academic and commercially available antibodies.

"I used to work in a large research lab in Toronto," says founder Alex Hodgson, "and what I noticed is that researchers were buying multiple versions of antibdies because they were never sure which ones were crap. There was no central resource, no quality control�you can't do great research with crap antibodies."

After finishing her MBA, she created 1DegreeBio with an open source spirit and social media techniques inspired by online retailers such as TripAdvisor and Amazon.com. 1DegreeBio offers a method of sharing information to eliminate costly overlapping in the research community, it connects various companies and scientists with the results of their peers and through user reviews. Less than a year after launching, the site now offers "just under 500,000 antibody products," and has grown from two employees working from Hodgson's home office to six employees in a new office.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Alex Hodgson, Managing Director, 1DegreeBio

The National Film Board of Canada has recently shown itself to be on the innovative edge of interactive film, producing such web-accessible projects as Out My Window that allow viewers to virtually "roam around" inside a film.

The public organization recently announced that it would cement that commitment to innovation with a physical renovation to its Mediateque at Richmond and John Streets in the Entertainment District. The eastern half of the space will be converted into an "interactive cinema and storytelling space," featuring units that allow access to its interactive portal and 1,800 streaming films.

The space will also be a state-of-the-art exhibition venue, equipped with ceiling mounted cameras and a high-tech sound system capable of hosting interactive programming and multimedia art installations. Visitors will also be able to provide suggestions via a high-tech touchscreen feedback system. The renovations are expected to be completed and open to the public next month.

In addition to the new elements, a spokesperson says, visitors will continue to have access at the mediateque to the NFB's archive of more than 5,000 films at free viewing stations.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Jennifer Mair, NFB publicist

Oakville's Javelin Technologies has built a sturdy business out of selling and supporting SolidWorks 3D manufacturing software. The software allows manufacturing designers to model their products in three dimensions, run simulations and manage data. For Javelin, it's been a boon supporting the local automotive manufacturing industry. In the words of Managing Director John Carlin, "3D design makes our auto parts industry, especially tool, die and mould makers, more competitive in the global market. The production of digital models and 3D prototypes is the future of manufacturing."

And because of that prognosis, the future of Javelin also looks bright. Founded in 1997, the company has steadily built its reputation -- they are recognized as the number one SolidWorks reseller in Canada -- and has continued to grow steadily. In the past year and a half, they have added 10 new employees to their staff, bringing their total number of employees to 50. In April, the company moves into a new technology centre in Oakville, and will add five more new employees.

Carlan says that the team is "very excited" about the move -- which is perhaps overdue since they've been in the same location since 1998. At 12,000 square feet, the new office will offer roughly double the space of the old one. And Carlan takes the opportunity to use the news as a plug for his product. "As the leading 3D design software company in Canada we needed to have our building design as a usable 3D solid model. Our team has used SolidWorks as well as BuiltWorks to model up the building and the structure."

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: John Carlan, Managing Director, Javelin Technologies

Late last month, TVO -- Ontario's public broadcasting network -- launched a digital public archive of its four decades of popular news and educational programming. The online portal offers searchable access to such popular favourites as Polka Dot Door, Today's Special, Imprint, Studio 2 and Saturday Night at the Movies.

According to archive producer Craig Desson, the new initiative offers more than simply a nostalgia trip for people to smile at favourite programming from their childhood. "The nostalgia is fun -- people get a big kick out of it -- but to me so much of the value is the educational material within it. It's a kind of 'ideas archive' where you can access the smartest thinking from people who were involved in Ontario's history through the decades."

Desson points out that this "cultural history archive" includes news interviews that allow people to take the long view on particular issues, tracing an outline of how our public discussion and thinking has evolved. To that end, he'll be curating a podcast series called Think Again, which will compile thematic material from the archive to shed light on current debates -- a fitting task, since Desson says so much of the material feels surprisingly contemporary.

According to Desson -- the only full-time employee working on the project, although many others were involved in stages to set it up -- the project took just under six months to complete. The real labour behind it, he says, was converting all of the archival material into a digital format. That conversion work has been underway for years, as part of a larger mandate, which allowed the online access portion to be brought to market quickly.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Craig Desson, Producer, TVO Public Archive

Toronto's ViXS Systems has long been a leader in developing and supplying semiconductors and multimedia processors for the growing industry of manufacturers of TVs, DVD players and computers.

Now, with the help of a $6.15 million grant from the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, ViXS is in the midst of developing a next-generation video chip for the industry. The research and development project represents a $40.97 million investment for the company in total (including the provincial grant), and is seeing the company's existing staff of 96 grow by 44 new employees.

ViXS CEO Sally Daub says the government grant is allowing the company to "hire world class talent" while building on its position as a leader in video engine technology. She says the investment is also allowing the company to expand its global reach to new customers.

The company has been exploding, consistently ranking for the past three or four years high on both the Profit 100 and the Deloitte Fast 50 lists of fastest growing companies in Canada (it's shown roughly 300% revenue growth in the past three years). According to Profit magazine, the company is also the 15th fastest growing female-led company in the country.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Sources: Janet Craig, ViXS; Leigh Ann Popek, office of the Minister of Economic Development and Trade

Late last month, the Ontario government approved five new solar installations for SunEdison across the province that total 31 new megawatts of projects. Two of the projects are located in the GTA -- 500 kW rooftop projects in Mississauga and Whitby.

Jason Gray, SunEdison's Canadian manager, says the recent approvals increase the company's total solar production (either completed or in the pipeline) in Ontario by a little more than one-third. Since arriving in Toronto in 2007, the company has quickly taken advantage of the province's Feed-in-Tariff program to grow.

Gray says that since each installation employs roughly 125 people at its peak of construction, the two GTA projects will create 250 construction jobs locally. But he points out that the job benefits in the GTA are greater than that. "This really reinforces our relationships with suppliers that we've set up," he says, "and sustains the manufacturing jobs we've set up here." He points specifically to the arrangements SunEdison signed last year with auto parts manufacturer Samco to provide racking equipment (creating 60 jobs) and with Newmarket's Flextronics to supply the panels (creating 100 jobs).

Gray says, "this points to the continued success of the FIT program to create a solar industry here in Ontario, in that it reinforces the manufacturing investments we've made in the province."

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Jason Gray, Canada Country Manager, SunEdison

When we reported on Mississauga's Amorfix Life Sciences and their quest to cure cancer, ALS and Alzheimer's in July 2010, the company had just made a financing breakthrough that would allow them to more aggressively pursue their research. Early this year, the company saw a breakthrough in their research [PDF] into diagnosing Alzheimer's that has the potential to change the industry.

The diagnostic test is able to show the presence of protein fragments that could allow easier diagnosis of the disease. Currently conclusive diagnosis is only available after death through examination of brain tissue. Amorfix's new test uses spinal fluid, and eventually President and CEO Robert Gundel says they would like to be able to conduct the test using blood samples.

"Our hope is to one day be able to use this test on patients showing early signs of dementia in order to predict which patients may progress rapidly into the disease and which may not," Gundel says. He says that initially the test will be applied to clinical research groups, since the current method of diagnosis by checking symptoms creates a very high rate of false diagnoses (as much as 30% or more). The findings of the test could also help advance the research of those creating treatments for the disease.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Dr. Robert Gundal, President and CEO, Amorfix Life Sciences

As we reported in June 2010, BuzzBuzzHome was launched in 2009 with the aim of revolutionizing the new homes business by providing an online resource that shows all new developments in the GTA. Since then, the company has continued to grow by leaps and bounds.

BuzzBuzzHome is adding two more staff -- one just starting now and one joining the team in April--bringing their total number of employees to 14, which founder Matt Slutsky points out is 700 per cent growth in the past 18 months.

Slutsky says that among the most successful initiatives on the site was the recent addition of forums where users can post conversations. "We realized that we'd grown into more than just a listings resource, that we'd become more of a social network. So we added a spot for people to have discussions." Topics posted often draw dozens of comments from real estate agents and other industry watchers in a matter of hours, which tends to underscore Slutsky's point about the desire for information about real estate in the city.


Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Matthew Slutsky, President, BuzzBuzzHome

Normative Design is a interactive company that provides a full suite of web and mobile consulting services to clients -- as company COO Jon Tirmandi says, that's "how we pay our bills." But as a sideline that is of growing interest and importance to the company's bottom future, Tirmandi says, they have been conducting research into location-based mobile services.

This began last year when the company partnered with OCAD University's Mobile Innovation Experience Centre on the Red Rover project, which used a developmental location-based gamin platform to facilitate city-wide games such as Red Rover, tag and capture the flag. Users are able to map their interactions and movements within the game using their mobile phones.

In a new project announced last month [PDF], also in conjunction with OCAD's MEIC and with support from a grant from FedDev Ontario, Normative Design is working on the Sousveiller Project, which will use crowd sourcing techniques to map the presence of security surveillance cameras throughout the city. Tirmandi says that at some point the map, which will show both the locations of cameras and the areas they are able to see, it would be possible to plot games in which participants move through the city without appearing on camera, for instance.

In the long-run, Tirmandi says, these experiments have a variety of practical, marketable applications, ranging from enabling physical gaming to innovative hyper-local news media delivery options.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Jon Tirmandi, COO, Normative Design

GestureTek got its start in 1987, when Vincent John Vincent and his University of Waterloo classmate Francis MacDougall came up with a technology that would allow people to move their bodies to interact with a video display -- a system similar to the Wii, but requiring no controllers or wires.

Since then, the company has grown into a global giant in the gesture-recognition field, with applications ranging from interactive advertising displays, to theme-park rides to retail gimicks to healthcare uses.

Now, a grant from FedDev Ontario, the federal government's economic development agency, will see GestureTek partner with OCAD University to conduct research into an application that could be used to treat children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The project will use a "smart carpet and chairs" to enhance a musical therapy program that allows ASD-diagnosed children to interact with their peers. In early testing, the project has reportedly shown encouraging results.

The grant will help fund exploration of marketability and healthcare and manufacturing partnerships.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Sources: Vincent John Vincent, GestureTek; Sarah Mullholland, OCAD University

We reported last year after the inaugural Green Innovation Awards, co-sponsored by the City of Toronto and the Toronto Community Foundation, that Robert Kori Golding was the big winner -- his My Green City concept took home $25,000. His plan was to create a social game (similar to FaceBook giant Farmville) that encouraged people to take real-world steps to help the environment in order to earn points in the game.

A little less than a year later, his idea seems absolutely prescient, as "gamification" -- using games and game-design theories to encourage better behaviour and performance in the real world -- has become a hot subject, as demonstrated most emphatically last month with the publication of Jane McGonical's book Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World.

During a recent check-in, Golding reports that he is progressing well towards creating the game -- he and his company Albedo Informatics have now partnered with OCAD University's Mobile Experience Innovation Centre to begin the serious development of the game for multiple platforms and devices.

In fact, last month the federal government announced a commercialization grant to OCAD to fund several projects, including My Green City. This is planned as the first of several projects for Albedo Interactive, which Golding says will be focused on creating games that are not designed simply to addict people and generate revenue, but to inform and connect people.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Robert Kori Golding, Albedo Informatics