These are the up and comers. The companies that are oozing potential and poised for success. The Most Promising Startup of the Year Award is presented to an Ottawa-based organization that has the greatest potential to demonstrate excellence in innovation and a commitment to the knowledge-based sector while increasing profitability, and embraces sound business fundamentals. This category is reserved for operations that have been established for less than three years.  Past winners include Telepin, Embotics and Menova Energy Inc.

This year,  our finalists (in alpha order) are:

Benbria - Communicating with relevant groups of people when critical incidents arise is a challenge for all organizations. BlazeCast, Benbria’s innovative technology, addresses these challenges by giving organizations power and flexibility to communicate more effectively.  As a result, users are empowered to streamline accountability, actionability, escalation and closure of critical issues – ensuring safety, satisfaction and prompt return to operations. 

CrowdWave  - Commercially launched in 2009, the mass participation platform enables a large gathering of people (think stadiums and arenas filled with screaming fans) to play a video game, answer a poll or make a choice together simply by moving their arms. Ten NHL and NBA teams are currently using the CrowdWave system.  Expansion plans include capturing the NBA and NHL arenas first and then the NFL and MLB stadiums.

Purple Forge - By reducing the barriers to use and deployment of mobile and social networking technologies (cost, delivery, intervals and infrastructure support) Purple Forge allows organizations to focus on creative and dynamic content. Their products open up mobile and social network communication channels to political parties, politicians, conferences and events, publications, governments, marketing organizations and market research firms.

YOU i Labs - 2010 was a big year for this young company – uSwish was launched and a lead European customer was secured; $800K in funding was secured; and, a contract was signed with Nuance.  Their unique software enables iPhone-like features on any type of hardware.  YOU i Labs has joint projects with companies such as Google, Samsung, Garmin an Motorola. With a healthy pipeline, five patents in development and two filed, the company is ready to scale up operations.

The winner will be chosen based on the overall potential for success, financial situation and quality of the management team. All four are worthy contenders!

Who do you think will win on April 7th? Find out at the 2011 OCRI Awards at Hilton Lac-Leamy.

 In an earlier blog we explained the win/win scenario for the companies and students that participate in a co-op program. We also announced the new award that will be presented by the City of Ottawa to the Co-op Student of the Year at the 2011 OCRI Awards on April 7th. 

We are very pleased to announce the three finalists for Co-op Student of the Year. This program is a joint initiative between Algonquin College, Carleton University and the University of Ottawa. Each institution carefully considered the profiles and projects of their most enthusiastic and successful students and have chosen their own winners. These top students are the finalists for the inaugural Co-op Student of the Year Award. 

Algonquin College nominates Dagan Shaw. Dagan completed his final co-op placement with B-Con Engineering in the summer of 2010 and graduated with his Bachelor of Applied Technology – photonics. Dagan balanced a full course load with a part-time job but was still able to eagerly apply his classroom skills in a work environment.  Throughout his studies he maintained a stellar GPA and was often caught working with other students after hours. In recognition of his contribution to B-Con’s Exicon Project, Dagan was a winner of the 2010 Polytechnics Conference Showcase. 

Carleton University nominates Anthony (Tony) Hiratsuka who completed his co-op placement with Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. Cited for his keen eye for detail which led to cost and time savings in the magnitude of approaching millions of dollars and years of unnecessary work, Tony’s placement with DFAIT was so successful that he was hired for four consecutive work terms. His enthusiasm for the co-op program has inspired other students to participate and encouraged his employer to continue their co-op alliance. 

University of Ottawa nominates Hubert (Haoyang) Duan a student in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. Hubert has achieved excellence in academics maintaining an amazing cumulative grade point average of 9.9 after 3.5 years. Hubert went well beyond his role of a summer student and became an integral member of the National Population Health Survey team.  Despite the steep learning curve he had to overcome, he was able to excel quickly, contribute to the success of the program, prioritize multiple activities, meet tight deadlines and perform quality control.  Clearly, his future employers will be lucky to have him. 

All three candidates are sure to leverage their unique learning opportunities into a successful and rewarding career. Judging criteria includes: job achievement, contribution to cooperative education, personal experience, contribution to extra-curricular activities at school or the community at large, academic achievement and resume. 

We look forward to the announcement and celebration on April 7th. 

CHEERS!

The Health Innovation Award recognizes individuals or teams in the Ottawa and Eastern Ontario region that are approaching health care in an innovative manner. Nominees are health care individuals (physicians, nurses, or other health care professionals) or teams whose ideas, improvements, invention or actions have resulted in a significant improvement in health care or in the health care system. Last year’s recipient was  Dr. Pierre Cardinal for his work with CRI Critical Care Education.

Our finalists (in alpha order) are:

ILI-Watch for Health - This nomination was submitted by the National Research Council (NRC) on behalf of numerous partners who worked together to develop and implement the Influenza-Like-Illness tracking system. ILI-Watch helps public health epidemiologists detect and manage disease outbreaks like H1N1. By processing health care information in Emergency Room records and creating “smart reports”  epidemiologists get information in real time along to help them detect and manage an outbreak.

Ottawa Hospital EMR iPad Application – Mobile software makes everyone’s life easier. And now, thanks to Select Start Studios, stacks of patient charts on clipboards can be replaced with a mobile device. Doctors at the Ottawa Hospital are now equipped with a custom iPad -based “clinical viewer”  that gives them access to millions of patient records stored in the hospital’s electronic medical records system (EMR). The system is now being tested throughout the hospital but once completed, the iPad rollout will be the 6th largest iPad deployment in the world.

The winner will be chosen after careful consideration of the overall impact on patient care or on the health care system as well as the quality of the team, innovative nature of the work and future plans.

Who do you think will win? Find out on April 7th at the 2011 OCRI Awards.

Collaboration, teamwork, common goals, mutual respect and timing. These are key elements of a successful strategic partnership. This award recognizes a collaborative and strategic initiative between two or more partners working to achieve success. Criteria is fairly straight forward as it must be apparent that the resulting success would not have been possible without aligning as partners. And of course, one member of the partnership must be an Ottawa-based knowledge based industry company. Now in its second year, past winners include QNX and Alcatel-Lucent for their work on the smart, technology enabled car.

This year, we have three finalists. They are, in alpha order:

Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT) and Cisco Systems, Cisco Foundation, IBM - DOT is a leader in the social enterprise, technology and youth development space. Everything DOT does is achieved through strategic partnerships. Principal international partnerships include Cisco Systems (Canada, USA and global) and IBM. Cisco and DOT work together in the U.S. (post Hurricane Katrina), in Sichuan (post 2008 earthquake), in Mexico (to aid reform of the Mexican school system) and in Lebanon (bringing technology and business training). DOT is one of three global partners of IBM in the management of its leadership development programs bringing strategic change, including Smarter City innovation, to China, Turkey, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania and Abu Dhabi.

Mitel and VMware - These two companies joined forces to integrate Mitel voice and communications applications onto VMware’s virtualization platform and address the latency problem and related voice quality and management issues head on.  Two years later, they have overcome these challenges and launched a breakthrough solution that allows the worlds of the virtual data centre and unified communications to become one. This solution is now being sold and deployed in the market allowing CIOs to treat voice like any other business application in the data centre.

Wesley Clover Affiliate Program – This program was established in 2007 to harness the skills of recent graduates from univerisities in Ottawa, across Canada and around the globe, to create startup companies that address an opportunity identified by larger companies in which Wesley Clover has an investment. The partnerships established between the startup and existing company significantly grants access to lead customers and channels, mitigates risk, facilitates go-to-market strategies, and provides line of sight revenues within 12 months of incorporation. To date, the program has started 10 new companies including Benbria (a double nominee this year.)

The winner will be selected based on their go-to-market strategy, viable target markets, quantifiable success, and the quality of the team.

Who wins? Find out at the 2011 OCRI Awards on April 7th at the Hilton Lac-Leamy.

This year, we have four finalists for the Product of the Year category.  This award recognizes an organization that has achieved success in the commercialization of an innovative technology product.

The fantastic four (in alpha order) are:

Best Cyclotron System Ltd’s Cyclotron: The uncertainty surrounding the availability of particular radioisotopes that support current nuclear medicine practices highlights the need for an alternative radioisotope supply strategy. The BCSL systems are a viable alternative that help ensure medical isotopes are readily available for medical diagnostics and therapy. The Cyclotron development program at Best Theratronics enables the entire spectrum of radioisotope production for nuclear diagnostics and therapy applications.

Protecode System 4 -  Software is the foundation of any current technology product and is built with code. Through open source licensing, code is made publicly available.  Protecode System 4 provides a fast, efficient and cost effective way for companies to ensure that the code they are using complies with related licensing terms. The automated, real-time preventive code scanning solution is highly scalable and can fit the needs of a small five person company as cost effectively as a company with 200,000 developers worldwide.

Benbria Blazecast - In times that require immediate and urgent communication, organizations struggle with ineffective and time consuming manual processes to reach specific groups of people, employees and stakeholders. Safety, compliance, customer satisfaction, revenue and business operations are at stake when an organization can’t respond to or resolve critical issues. Benbria Blazecast addresses these issues and enables organizations to communicate effectively and streamline accountability, actionability, escalation and closure of incidents. 

BTI Systems’ Widecast - WideCast allows service providers to deliver video content effectively and efficiently by caching content at the edge of a network, closer to subscriber, ensuring a dramatic improvement in content delivery. The plug and go deployment model makes the startup experience simple. The architecture represents an evolution in metro networking and enables network unification at the Middle Mile by drawing in disparate voice, video and data networks into one infrastructure.

The winner will be chosen based on the innovative nature of the product, revenue thus far, sales and forecasts but above all the industry impact.

Who gets your vote? Find out who the judges picked at the 2011 OCRI Awards on April 7 at the Hilton Lac-Leamy!

The Student Researcher Award recognizes the accomplishments of students from the region’s post-secondary institutions.  Ottawa has an excellent education infrastructure which is very successful developing future generations of skilled talent that is necessary for the future of Ottawa’s knowledge-based community. Past recipients include Razib Iqbal, University of Ottawa; Dewan Tanvir Ahmed, University of Ottawa; Atif Shamim and Muhammad Arsalan, Carleton University and David Nadeau, University of Ottawa.

We are in an interesting situation this year, as all three finalists are from the University of Ottawa. Our three finalists (in alpha order) are:

Israel de Leon, University of Ottawa - Low-noise optical amplification is important in optical telecommunications, quantum information and bio-sensing applications. With an aim to provide deeper insights into the physics of amplification and noise in surface optical waves through theoretical and experimental vehicles, Israel’s research could lead to optical amplifiers that offer lower noise performance than the best commercial systems. A patent is currently being developed to protect this invention and next steps include securing industrial engineering partnerships and successful technology transfer.

Dr. Jilin Zhou, University of Ottawa – The sense of touch (haptics)  has been brought into many virtual reality applications (surgical procedure simulations, remote controlled robotics, education and more). Haptic devices allow for natural manipulations of objects inside virtual environments. For the past two years, Dr. Zhou has studied two critical issues with haptic interfaces: 1) velocity and acceleration and 2) uniform stiffness in virtual environments.  He also designed a haptic-enabled desktop immersive VR system called DeLIVR which provides a vivid display volume in which to interact with virtual environments and objects in a user’s local space.

Dr. Rouhollah Alizadeh, University of Ottawa – Some key issues in cement and concrete science such as the layered nature of calcium-silicate-hydrate(C-S-H) and the mechanical role of water have been resolved as a result of Dr. Alizadeh’s research. His work should impact the future of the construction industry and the resolution of sustainability issues in concrete infrastructure. The advantages associated with novel cement-based materials including accelerated setting and hardening, increased degree of hydration and the ability to tailor the nanostructure of cement are very attractive to concrete producers and infrastructure owners. Gaining attention around the world, Rouhollah has been invited to speak on this topic at conferences and lectures in the U.S. and Europe. 

The winner will be chosen after careful consideration of the significance and potential impact of the research, as well as the potential for commercial success and degree of support  from peers and professionals

Who do you feel can change the world with their world-class research? Find out who takes home the award for Student Researcher of the Year on April 7th at the 2011 OCRI Awards.

Just like Best Picture at the Oscars, this is the big one at the OCRI Awards.  We always save it for the LAST presentation of the night.  This award recognizes an organization that has demonstrated excellence in innovation and a commitment to the knowledge-based sector in Ottawa while increasing profitability, community involvement and embracing sound business fundamentals.  Past winners include DragonWave, SiGe and Bridgewater. We all know those companies.

The finalists this year (in alpha order) are:

BTI Systems - Founded in 2000 and with over 200 employees at its Ottawa headquarters, BTI had a fantastic year in 2010.  Despite the uncertain global economic conditions, the company delivered stellar results increasing worldwide revenues by more than 80 per cent and growing its customer base with international clients and partnerships. Now with over 250 customers across 24 countries BTI continues to add distribution, sales, marketing and technical engineering resources to support its successful operations in EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions.

Halogen - More than 1,600 companies around the world rely on Halogen’s talent management solutions to support high performance and better business results. With over 200 employees here in Ottawa, the market leading company boasts one of the highest client retention rates in the industry and is endorsed by HR professionals worldwide. The company has achieved record success over the past several years in revenue growth, market share capture and industry accolades.

Kinaxis - Founded and headquartered in Ottawa where most of its 145 employees work, the company also has offices in Japan and Hong Kong with a sales office in Chicago.  The Kinaxis solution, RapidResponse, lies at the heart of supply chain planning and decision making for large manufacturing companies. With over 30,000 users across 1,800 sites worldwide the company is a growing provider in the industry seeing robust growth signing market leading companies up for their easy to use and fast on-demand software as a service (SaaS).

Titus - Titus is a leading provider of security and compliance solutions for email and documents. With more than 250 customers and over 1.5 million users around the world, the company’s software is deployed by military, government and large enterprises to classify, protect and share sensitive information. Headquartered in Ottawa with just over 60 employees, the company is growing internationally with clients worldwide and market representation in Latin America and EMEA. This small Ottawa company is truly a global player.

The winner be selected based on the company’s proven track record, human resource policies, community involvement and longterm viability.

Who do you think should take home the final trophy from the 2011 OCRI Awards? Find out on April 7th at Hilton Lac Leamy.

CHEERS!

This award will be presented to a young, strategic innovator whose compelling approach to an entrepreneurial endeavour has drawn support from the business, financial, and/or research community enabling the project to be successfully launched. As a current student or graduate from one of Ottawa’s post-secondary institutions within 12 months of submitting the nomination, these finalists are poised to contribute to the economic development of the region with their successful business ventures. Past winners include Muhammad Arsalan and Atif Shamim, who, coincidentally, were Student Researcher Award recipients the year prior!

This year our finalists (in alpha order) are:

Dr. Pouria Ghods, Giatec Scientific Inc. – Giatec Scientific, a spinoff from Carleton University, provides integrated numerical and sensory tools to help evaluate the condition of concrete formations (bridges, foundations, support walls etc.) and helps engineers manage civil infrastructure by scheduling maintenance, repairs and replacement efficiently to protect their assets. The company simplifies complex problems through knowledge-based solutions that drive science and engineering concepts. The primary commercial application is the inspection of reinforced concrete bridges that may be damaged by corrosive or aggressive agents.

Siavosh Noruziaan, Empire Deck and Fence - Siavosh is an Ottawa-based Summer Company success story. His company was started only last summer to take advantage of Ottawa’s residential construction boom. By hiring experienced contractors, Empire is able to focus on its core capability which is sales and marketing. In the first four months of operation, the small startup company brought in $125,000. With a successful subcontractor business model now in place, the company plans on becoming a million dollar company in three to four years. 

Paulina Masson, Contest Mob Inc. - Contest Mob is a community for professional contesters, people who enter online contests on a daily or weekly basis.  Paulina is a highly creative, self-motivated and tenacious entrepreneur with an eye for detail and a history of entering up to 100 contests per day!   This large sweepstakes database created by Paulina, provides significant details about each contest, offers extensive search and sort options, saves the user hours of time keeping track of activity and most importantly features a contest entries organizer.

The winner will be chosen based on the entrepreneurial skills of the student, the visionary approach taken, financial success and the long term viability of the business.

All the candidates have amazing leadership qualities. Who do you think deserves this award? Find out who wins on April 7th at the 2011 OCRI Awards.

We know we got it right when we introduce a new award and get a huge number of entries.  It’s a good indication that OCRI is “in tune” with what’s going on in town.  And the quality of the entries is really impressive. It makes sense that Ottawa is developing a reputation as the go to city for problem solving and business solutions. Solution of the Year is open to all sectors within Ottawa’s knowledge-based industry and acknowledges an organization that has provided a service, application or solution that significantly enhances and/or improves the functionality, productivity, business process, operations, sales, marketing, supply chain management, customer service, communications, competitiveness or business relationship for its customers/clients. Solution providers are encouraged to co-apply with a client/customer who can demonstrate substantial improvements in any of the areas outlined above which can be attributed to the solution provided by the nominee organization.

Our stellar finalists (in alpha order) are:

Belair Networks – Belair is focused on enabling mobile carriers to deliver a better user experience and providing cable operators with ways to leverage their existing infrastructure to deliver mobile broadband services. The award winning Belair 100SP Strand Picocell addresses key issues (exponential growth, customer demands and expectations) for service providers by delivering mobile broadband services to customers of mobile carriers and cable operators via both licensed and unlicensed spectrums.

Design 1st – This physical product design and engineering team includes industrial designers and mechanical engineers.  Design 1st is an ideal partner for corporations and startups looking to go fast with a skilled, technically knowledgeable, creative and experienced design team.   These product architects provide specific knowledge and creativity to their customers resulting in a better product and accelerating their time to market.  Thanks to the professional image of the products,  manufacturable design features and patentable new product features, Design 1st customers are ahead of their competition.

Embotics - Operational within fifteen minutes and without the need for complex projects or high learning curves, Embotics V-Commander 3.7 addresses the need for more effective information, management, automation and control capabilities and delivers all the necessary components to ensure that virtual environments are optimized for growth. Embotics has been listening and reacting to customer for more than five years and recently introduced new pricing models that lower the cost of entry making the solution available to even more customers.

The winner will be selected based on impact of the solution, demonstrated benefits associated with the solution and overall client support.

Who do you think will win? Find out on April 7th at the Hilton Lac-Leamy. Winners will be announced at the 2011 OCRI Awards!

This is always the most fun category at the OCRI Awards. It’s inspiring to see how passionate the teachers are and how enthusiatic the students become. The best outcome of any teacher/student experience is watching the student develop a zest for learning.  This award is presented to an Ottawa-area High School (grades 9-12) in recognition of the school’s efforts to engage students in learning in an innovative and unique way.  The initiative must fall within one of the following five categories: Technology – innovative use of technology to support student learning; Entrepreneurship – initiative to encourage development of entrepreneurial skills; Science and Math – initiative to instill interest in math and/or science; Community Outreach – a unique partnership with a post-secondary institution, business, or other organization; or Education Delivery – non-traditional and innovative approaches to teaching and learning in one or more of the following areas: information and communications technology, business, environment, health and wellness, manufacturing, arts and culture, or skilled trades.

We have three finalists this year.

Mother Teresa High School – “Entrepreneurship” is the name of the submission.  The high school instils entrepreneurship through a variety of different initiativies without actually offering a “course” in entrepreneurship. The School Tuck Shop has been running for four years selling batteries, snacks and school SWAG teaching students about serving customers.  Selling products on E-bay teaches students about e-commerce. The Learning Partnership  sends students on a business adventure sparking curiousity, creativity and passion. EJE pairs the school with one in Spain providing experiences in exporting and importing.

De la Salle – The Film and Television Program is currently offered to students in grade 11 and 12 but will be extended to the lower grades next year.  The specialized course provides a chance to develop the skills required for a career in video production including recording, sound, editing, staging and special effects. In addition, students will develop other important characteristics including sensitivity to their environment, receptiveness, originality, adaptability, a positive attitude , interpersonal skills and creativity which will certainly serve them well throughout their entire lives.

Longfields Davidson High School - E-Readers in the Classroom engages students that struggle with reading by using technology to increase the experience and appreciation of reading.  A partnership with the local book store enabled the purchase of Kobos (eReaders) which will ultimately expand comprehension and vocabulary.  The teachers were so excited to bring this extra resource to their students and the students literally ran to the back of the classroom wanting to start reading right away! 

The winner will be selected based on the final evaluation which considers the unique approach, degree of student engagement and ultimate success of the initiative.

Who get’s your vote? Find out who wins at the 2011 OCRI Awards on April 7th at the Hilton Lac-Leamy.

CHEERS!