Research and Innovation : Innovation + Job News

On the same day that President Barack Obama hosted the White House's first ever startup demo day, the world's most powerful political leader also announced the start of new initiative aimed at increasing diversity within the field of engineering. 

Over 90 North American universities, including two Canadian schools—the University of Toronto and the University of Waterloo—have agreed to work toward recruiting more women and underrepresented minorities into their engineering programs. 

Each of the 92 schools taking part in the initiative has agreed to a four part action plan that, among other things, calls for the participants to work closer with schools that work with underrepresented populations. 

"Engineers are working hard to find solutions to some of the most critical challenges of our time, including environmental degradation, urban issues, health care and more. We know that including diverse perspectives in the field increases creativity, which in turns drives better, more innovative ideas and approaches for the future," says Michelle Beaton, the associate director of the University of Toronto's Engineering Student Recruitment and Retention Office. 

"U of T is a trailblazer in fostering diversity within the engineering field, and under the leadership of our dean Cristina Amon, we continually seek opportunities nationally and internationally to ensure women and underrepresented minorities are attracted to and thrive in the profession."

According to Beaton, the University of Toronto is well on its way to answering President Obama's call for greater gender diversity. In 2014, 30.6 per cent of the students starting first year classes at the university's Faculty of Engineering were women. Beaton says this the best ratio among engineering schools in Canada.  

460 King Street West will not be the address for Toronto's newest condo complex. 

Once home to Global Village Backpackers, the building stood empty for several months after the hostel's closure in 2014. That is until two weeks ago when the Konrad Group, a Toronto-based digital consultancy firm, announced that it had acquired the building and unveiled a plan to turn the historic corner into Canada's newest innovation hub. 

According to co-CEO Geordie Konrad, the company has a multifaceted plan for the space. First and foremost, 460 King Street West will be the new home of BrainStation, the coding academy Konrad Group purchased last winter. 

Secondly, part of the building will also serve as a new co-working and event space called BrainStation Spaces. 

Lastly, a new coffee shop called Quantum Coffee will call the building home once renovations are completed. Like everything else associated with this project, Quantum Coffee will have a technology bent. For instance, instead of waiting on a barista to serve their coffee, customers will be able to use their smartphone to take advantage of Canada's first app-enabled pour over machine. 

Konrad says it was important for him and his colleagues that the whole building have a unique identity. 

"I think had we put a different, more corporate coffee chain there, the impact of the building would be completely different," he says. "By operating our own coffee shop, we're able to create a product that people in the King West technology sector are interested in." 

"For us, we want this building to be an asset to the community," says Konrad. "We want this to be a place where people can come to take part in events, workshops and get connected with one another. We're a part of this community too, so we want to make sure that what ends up on the corner of King and Spadina is something that we're all proud of."

"My first experience with creating technologies was when I was 13," says Jevin Sidhu, the 15 year old co-founder of Project Cipher, a recently-launched coding school in Peel Region. "I coded my first website using HTML and CSS and it was incredibly [rudimentary], but it was my piece of the Internet and it was breathtaking to conceptualize that anyone with Internet could access my amateur creation."

Project Cipher started as a way for Sidhu to help his friends learn how to code. His co-founders wanted to learn how to code, but found that coding bootcamps and online courses weren't practical for high school students. 

"We thought about what these resources didn’t execute correctly and realized they didn’t provide an engaging environment, which was something school did really well," says Sidhu.

"Students are constantly helping each other out, whether that means studying for tests, completing projects and finishing off homework. We found in-person, working alongside others towards a similar goal is the most effective way of learning."

The initiative has a couple of features that distinguish it from other coding programs, says Sidhu. The main one is that the goal of the group's initial workshop is not provide high school students with an exhaustive coding education; instead, it's to give them a taste of what it's like to create something with a couple lines of code. 

To that end, the group is hosting a conference on August 20th that will give students an opportunity to see what the program is all about.  

Set to be held at Brampton City Hall, the one day conference will feature speakers from various startups and established companies, as well as freelancers. According to Sidhu, more than 500 students have expressed 

He goes on to say that the goal of the conference is to "promote and provide exposure for computer science through engaging talks and activities." On the same day, he and his co-founders plan to launch their Circles program. 

In the meantime, Project Cipher is attempting to find funding partners and more student leaders. 

High school students and parents can find out more about Project Cipher and the at its website. 

Over the next three years, the provincial government will invest $55-million into supporting at-risk youth through its recently announced Enhanced Youth Action Plan. 

The centrepiece of the recently released plan is the newly revamped Youth Opportunities Fund. Over the past couple of years, the Ontario Trillium Foundation has used $5-million a year to fund various youth focused programs in and around the Greater Toronto Area. Starting in 2016, it will be provided with an additional $1.45-million a year to allocate to initiatives in the city. 

According to Anne Machowski-Smith, a spokesperson for the province's Ministry of Children and Youth Services, the fund will start supporting communities throughout the province through a $6.495 investment. 

Machowski says that initiatives like the Enhanced Youth Action Plan and its predecessor, which was released in 2012, have had a significant impact on both the city and province. 

According to its statistics, the provincial government estimates that incidents of violent youth crime in Ontario declined by 30 per cent between 2003 and 2013. In that same time frame, the city saw a 44 per cent drop.

That said, both Machowski and her colleagues believe that there's a lot more work that can be done. 

"We cannot do it alone. We need to work through partnerships with our federal and municipal partners, businesses, youth leaders and service agencies. They are key players and can provide valuable insight and support," she says. "Only by working together will we be able to strengthen our communities and create safe neighbourhoods where our children have a better future."

On Tuesday, the Government of Ontario announced a new round of research funding. 

All told, the province is investing $209-million into more than 200 research projects across the province. 

Of those 200 projects, 105 are being conducted right here in the city. In monetary terms, about $89-million is being invested in the city. 

The researchers the province is funding come from a wide variety of fields, including the health sciences and the clean tech spaces. 

For instance, a group of researchers the University of Toronto received funding to continue work on a more efficient and environmentally friendly airplane gas turbine. According to Belinda Bein, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Research and Innovation, the turbine these scientists are developing is far more efficient than current models, and is significantly easier to maintain.

Another project, this time from Sick Kids Hospital, is studying how chemotherapy affects the brains of children that receive treatment for acute lymphocytic leukemia, the most common childhood cancer. 

"Investment in research and development (R&D) by business and government is essential for a successful knowledge-based economy," says Bein. "Investments in education and training, and creating the right environment for new industries are key drivers of long-term competitiveness."

She adds that since 2003 the province's funding programs have helped give $2.9-billion to Ontario's researchers, creating 86,000 training opportunities in the process.  Additionally, since 2005, 822 Early Researcher Awards have been given out, which she says have been vitally important to attracting top talent to the province. 

"We also see the benefits of investing in research with the breakthrough discoveries, game-changing technologies, and scientific progress in cancer research, genomics, genetics and regenerative medicine, renewable energies and more, that are happening right here in Ontario." 

In the same week that the New Democratic Party won Alberta’s provincial election, signaling a future where the province might move towards something of a post-oil economy, MaRS and Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) announced a new partnership that will see the two organizations work towards supporting the growth of Canada’s growing cleantech industry.  

The goal of the partnership, according to Jon Dogterom, venture services lead with MaRS’s Cleantech and Physical Science team, is help launch high impact cleantech companies that can compete on the global stage. "This partnership is about formalizing our plans to collaborate to help grow high impact globally competitive cleantech companies," he said in a phone interview.

The two organizations will work together to deliver funding, support and programming to select companies.

Dogterom says the two organizations hope to help create a $50-billion Canadian cleantech industry within the next five to ten years. A large percentage of Canada’s existing cleantech industry calls Ontario, and, in particular, Toronto home. Thus, a prosperous cleantech industry likely means an even more prosperous Toronto.    

“The future in job creation goes with where the opportunities are, and cleantech to me is the biggest opportunity,” said Dogterom.

Clean skies and more jobs, not a bad combination by any stretch of the imagination.  

On March 8th, International Women's Day, the Ryerson Digital Media Zone (DMZ), in partnership with MasterCard's YES: Youth in Entrepreneurial Success initiative, started accepting applications to its new Women in Entrepreneurship program. The program will see six female-led startups admitted into the DMZ where they will be able to work on their company. 

Each startup will also receive $5,000 in cash, as well as $5,000 to go toward their stay at the DMZ. According to Valerie Fox, the Digital Media Zone's executive director, the six startups that enter the DMZ through the program will receive all of the services the accelerator has to offer, including the ability to take part in the events and workshops that are held there, as well as access to its network of mentors and investors. 

As for the criteria the DMZ will use to select the startups, Fox says its the same one the accelerator already has in place for other companies. “We’re looking for people that are highly innovative, passionate and that are going to push the envelope," she says. "But we’re also looking for people that are collaborative and that are going to give back to the community as much as they receive from it.” 

Additionally, according to the press release the DMZ sent out to announce the program, the accelerator is particularly interested in startups that specialize in the areas of electronic payments, e-commerce, loyalty points, cyber security or financial security.

The initiative is, of course, aimed at helping address tech longstanding gender issue. "We live in a diverse world. You need women, as well as men," says Fox. "Does it have to be 50/50? I don’t believe so, but I do believe that getting more women involved is important; giving women the opportunity to be entrepreneurial is beneficial to everyone." 

Startups that are interested in the program—and meet its requirements—can apply on the Digital Media Zone's website. The deadline to apply is April 6. 

Source: Digital Media Zone
Photo: Mark Blinch

One of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world decided to mark World Cancer Day, February 4, with a significant monetary contribution towards finding new ways to combat the deadly disease.

On Wednesday, Merck Canada announced that is donating $7.5-million to the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC).

The SGC, which is based in the MaRS Discovery District, is a not-for-profit public-private partnership led by the University of Toronto and Oxford University. Its main goal is to promote medical breakthroughs by creating a database of open sourced research that can be accessed by almost any organization or company.

Not to be outdone, the Government of Ontario also announced a significant investment on the same day. The provincial government said it will give the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) a four-year, $6.4-million grant to research new ways in which to increase screening rates for colon cancer and to decrease the harm chemotherapy inflicts upon patients, among other things.

To date the provincial government has invested $756.9-million toward cancer research.

“Ontario is proud to support the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, which is working with key partners on ground-breaking research that is leading to very real benefits for Ontarians fighting cancer,” said Reza Moridi, Ontario's minister of research and innovation, in the press release that followed the announcement. “This investment will help the OICR get their discoveries out of the lab faster, improving both prevention and treatment and making a difference in people’s lives.”

Not a bad day in the fight against cancer.

Source: MaRS and University of Toronto. 
Photo: Courtesy of CNW Group/Merck

Imagine you have an old bike you want to get rid of and, instead of selling it for $50, you have the opportunity to trade it for some rare albums you want for your record collection,” says Sascha Darius Mojtahedi.

“Wouldn't it be great if someone really wanted that bike and you could get something for it in return?”

What Mojtahedi is purposing is that I take money out of the equation and barter away my beloved fixie for something else. As an idea, bartering is one of the oldest in the book. It's also the concept that Mojtahedi and his co-workers at Shufl, a Toronto-based startup, are building their company around.

“A lot of companies innovate on new ideas, but we wanted to innovate on a really old one,” he says.

Once Shufl becomes available later this year, users will find a local online marketplace where they can trade their unwanted items for things they want. In fact, according Mojahedi, Shufl is first and foremost built and designed to help users find a compelling reason to complete transactions without the use of money—though, of course, they'll still be able to use cash if they so desire.

In creating Shufl, Mojahedi says his team's goal was to help people discover new found liquidity in the items they already own.

“There’s a large underground community that is already bartering,” he says. “They’re very active, but because what they're doing is viewed as being less sexy, it's never been allocated the same respect from a platform perspective as more traditional tractions.”

It's his hope that Shufl is able to change that.

The service is set to become available to the public in May. In the meantime, those that are keen on checking out the platform can sign up to take part in the company's beta.

Source: Shufl 

It's not often that a knight visits Toronto, but on Friday of last week that's exactly what happened as Sir Richard Branson came to town to co-announce a new partnership between his charity, Virgin Unite, and MaRS.

The partnership will see Branson and company seed $1-million towards a new social impact investment fund that will be overseen by MaRS. An additional $500,000 is in the process of being added to fund by various individuals, companies and organizations. Once MaRS closes the fund sometime in the new year, Tim Jackson, lead executive at the Centre for Impact Investing at MaRS, says he expects it grow to somewhere between $3-million and $5-million.

According to Jackson, MaRS will use the fund to invest in early stage startups—that is, startups that are seeking seed or Series A funding—that are for-profit but have a component of social good as a part of their mandate. He listed companies like SunFarmer and Lucky Iron Fish as examples of the type of startups the fund will target. The latter, for instance, is a company that is attempting to solve iron deficiency in Cambodia.

“We’re trying to get rid of this mess that you have to decide between social good and return,” says Jackson, explaining the rationale behind the fund. “We believe that you can accomplish both, and we also view this as a demonstration fund.”
“Every entrepreneur that needs capital will tell you that there’s not enough capital, so while $3 to $5-million is not a lot of money, we think this fund will open up the wallets of other investors who will say I want to get into the impact investing space.”

For his part, Sir Richard Branson said in a press release after the event, “I strongly believe that entrepreneurs have a key role in tackling environmental and social issues with solutions that will last for the long run and help create jobs. Our partnership with MaRS will support inspiring entrepreneurs with the mentoring, training and investments they need to succeed.”

Source: MaRS

Mainstream regenerative tissue therapy may be available sooner than previously thought and may be more affordable once it arrives thanks to a major local breakthrough.

A group of international scientists led by Dr Andras Nagy, a researcher at Mount Sinai hospital, announced last week that they had discovered the process by which a specialized cell can be reprogrammed into a stem cell.

A byproduct of this discovery is that the group also discovered a new stem cell type. According to Dr Nagy, this new so-called F-type has slightly different properties compared to the types he and his colleagues were previously familiar with. He says these new F-type cells are faster, easier and less expensive to grow in a lab compared to regular embryonic-like stem cells. Once a process for growing these F-type cells is perfected, it could take days or hours to grow them compared the several weeks it takes to grow stem cells currently.

Taken together, these two discoveries may soon enable doctors to create “designer” cells that do no exist in the body, but that are safe and efficient when used to cure a disease.

Eric Hoskins, Ontario's Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, said, in a press release following the announcement, “Stem cell research was pioneered here in the province, and I am proud that we continue to make world-class breakthroughs in this life-saving area of research."

Indeed, those following Yonge Street over the the last couple of weeks will know that the Government of Ontario recently announced $3-million toward the creation of the Ontario Institute for Regenerative Medicine. To date, the provincial government has invested $150-million into stem cell research, no doubt hoping for exactly this kind of breakthrough.


Source: Mount Sinai

It used to be that it was only feasible to harness portable solar power on a scientific calculator. However, thanks to a major breakthrough by a group of researchers from the University of Toronto, almost any surface, including ones that aren't so smooth and symmetrically shaped, could soon be used to exploit the power of the sun.

It’s all possible thanks to a new manufacturing process called sprayLD. The system allows a light sensitive substance called colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) to be sprayed upon a flexible film that can then be applied to almost any surface. According to the press release that accompanied the announcement, a car roof coated with a film of CQDs could produce enough energy to power three 100-watt lightbulbs.

Illan Kramer, the researcher that led the team that developed the technology, said in a press release, “My dream is that one day you’ll have two technicians with Ghostbusters backpacks come to your house and spray your roof.”

If such a future does come to pass, it will be because of the manufacturing technology Professor Kramer and his colleagues have developed. In contrast to films created by its predecessor, atomic layer deposition (ALD), films created with sprayLD are fast, easy and inexpensive to produce. In fact, Professor Kramer and his team built their prototype using parts already available and relatively inexpensive. The manufacturing system Kramer and company have developed is so effective that films produced with sprayLD show little to no loss in solar-cell efficiency over their ALD counterparts.

Now this technology just needs to make its way to mobile devices. I can't be the only one who has had enough of their smartphone lasting less than a day.

Source: University of Toronto

Photo courtesy of Marit Mitchell.

In the 1960s, a pair of researchers from the University of Toronto discovered the existence of stem cells.

In a way, Ontario has been a hotbed for this type of research since then; various provincial governments have invested more than $150-million towards helping unlock the powerful medicinal qualities of stem cells. Diabetes, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Crohn's and cancer are just some of the diseases where regenerative cell therapy may present treatments that are far more effective than what we have access to today.

Last week, the provincial government announced that it was reaffirming its commitment to stem cell research by investing $3-million in the creation of the so-called Ontario Institute for Regenerative Medicine, a joint partnership between the Ontario Stem Cell Initiative (OSCI) and the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM). The two organizations will towards developing new treatments and finding ways to monetize the treatments they create.

According to the province, the commercialization of regenerative medicine represents a major potential source of revenue for Ontario. In 2011, the global market for regenerative tissue therapy reached $10-billion. By the end of 2015, that figure is expected to reach $19.4-billion.

In a press release that accompanied the announcement, Reza Moridi, Ontario's then-minister of research and innovation, said, “Ontario is thrilled to support this collaborative initiative, which holds the promise to help treat, manage and cure some of the world's most devastating diseases while offering significant economic benefits.”




 

Since its resurgence at the end of last year, ebola has claimed the lives of nearly 5,000 people in West Africa. Its return has sparked panic throughout the world and left researchers and officials scrambling to find a cure. 

Enter a Toronto-based startup called Chematria. The company may hold the key to stopping the disease before it spreads any further. 

Chematria has developed software that allows a supercomputer to analyze how thousands of different drugs might affect a disease like ebola. What’s game changing about the software is that allows researchers to skip the time consuming step of physically synthesizing and testing drugs. 

“We are going to explore the possible effectiveness of millions of drugs, something that used to take decades of physical research and tens of millions of dollars, in mere days with our technology,” says Dr Abraham Heifets, one of Chematria’s co-founders and its CEO. 

The company’s research is possible because it has access to IBM’s Blue Gene/Q, one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers. Chematria, which is based at the University of Toronto’s Impact Centre, has access to the supercomputer through the Ontario Smart Computing Innovation Partnership (SOSCIP), an agreement that grants 11 Ontario universities and their host of researchers access to IBM’s suite of supercomputers.

Although clinical trials will likely remain an important part of drug testing, Chematria’s research has the ability to dramatically reduce the time it takes to hone in on the drugs that have the best chance at treating a disease or illness. If the company is successful, the face of medicine could be changed forever. 

Source: Chematria

California has long been seen the centre of the tech world. With companies like Apple, Facebook and Google all calling the relatively small confines of Silicon Valley home, many aspiring to helm their own tech juggernauts move to the Golden State to launch a startup.  

For decades, this has meant that a wealth of talent and capital has flowed to the state at expense of other North American territories. 

Now, that flow is set to become a bit more reciprocal. 

On November 6, the Province of Ontario and State of California announced a new co-investing and collaboration partnership.
The agreement will see the two jurisdictions work together to foster job creation, increase access to capital and attempt to create positive social and environmental change. It will also see Ontario’s Social Venture Connexion, a platform that connects investors with high impact social ventures, expand into California, marking the first time a Canadian platform of this like has scaled to a place outside of the country. 

Toronto will see wealth of benefits from the partnership, says Adam Spence, the associate director at MaRS’s Centre for Impact Investing.  

“If we’re looking at the impact, one is an better access to markets outside of Canada for Toronto-based entrepreneurs,” says Spence,
"An additional impact is a strong demonstration of leadership. We’re showing that we can build and share a platform that’s made in Ontario. We’ve successfully deployed the SVX platform south of the border, and that’s an indication that we have a strong, vibrant and leading impact investing space.” 

Source: MaRS