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Connected to Your Business Miller Thomson has been a trusted partner to the regional business community for over 155 years. Today, we have grown to be part of a national firm with over 500 lawyers in 11 offices across Canada, including one in the heart of the Region’s technology cluster. Our lawyers have the legal expertise necessary to provide practical and cost-effective legal solutions tailored to the needs of the Region’s business community. Miller Thomson’s lawyers benefit from the strength and collaboration of its many practice areas, providing integrated solutions for complex legal issues. We provide a full range of business services, including: • • • • • •
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COOLNESS OVERLOAD There’s a good reason Inc. Magazine, that revered ‘bible’ of the entrepreneurial set, recently called Waterloo Region the Silicon Valley of Canada. Over the last decade our region has become a celebrated technology growth centre, anchored by the world-class University of Waterloo. Within the corridor linking the Greater Toronto Area and Waterloo Region, there are more than 15,000 tech companies, 200,000 tech workers and 5,200 startups. Right here in the David Johnston Research + Technology Park, startups are born and thrive, incubated with care within the worldclass Waterloo Accelerator Centre (AC). In this issue of Watch, we put the focus on just a few of the current cooler than cool startups calling the AC home for now.
We learn from Horizon Engineering Founder Hariharan Krithivasan how his company can help manufacturers slash their monthly electricity costs. We are introduced to Dr. John Lewis’ cool IRUS software, which makes public engagement as fun as playing Minecraft. And, we get a sneak peek at the AC’s plans for a new playground focused on hardware startups in downtown Kitchener. We have such exciting startup stories unfolding here at the R+T Park. It’s a joy to share just a few of them with you.
We meet the “Daniels,” Daniel Mackenzie and Daniel PearsonHirdes, two recent University of Waterloo grads who are on a mission with their company, HealthIM to give police better tools to respond to mental health crises.
www.rtpark.uwaterloo.ca @RTPARKUW
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
DESIGN: BLUEGIRL, WRITER: IGNITION, PHOTOGRAPHY: ONE FOR THE WALL © 2016 Watch Magazine is a publication of the David Johnston Research + Technology Park. All rights reserved. Reproduction without written permission from the David Johnston Research + Technology Park is strictly forbidden.
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Peace of Mind HealthIM
Mindcraft for Grownups Vidya
Bright Ideas For Energy Efficiency Horizon Engineering Solutions
Tenant Directory Research + Technology Park University of Waterloo
Waterloo Accelerator Centre Make it 44 Gaukel
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HealthIM, ACCELERATOR CENTRE
PEACE OF MIND
HealthIM Gives Police Better Tools to Respond to Mental Health Crises
L to R: Angie Thompson - St. Leonard’s mental health specialist, Daniel Pearson Hirdes - CEO, HealthIM, Daniel MacKenzie - CTO, HealthIM,
James Savage - Brantford Police Const.
While societal awareness of mental health and mental illness is slowly improving, persons with mental illness continue to face challenges in finding connections to treatment or community resources. This challenge is particularly evident to police services across North America, who are seeing increased frequency in mental healthrelated calls. As a result, officers are often found on the frontline of care as the first responders to mental health crises. Police services are investing in better mental health training for officers in the field, but there is still more to be done to ensure that officers are fully equipped to deliver the right aid at the right time. Furthermore, when the person in crisis is transferred to a hospital, officers can have difficulty expressing their observations in clinical terms, which creates communication barriers between the officer and emergency room staff. HealthIM seeks to solve this issue by offering police services proactive mental health technology that allows officers to rapidly capture their observations in clinical terms and quickly share those observations with
Accessible from a tablet located within a police cruiser, HealthIM’s software allows police to use on-site risk assessment to determine a person’s risk of harm to self, harm to others, and ability to care for themselves. The system then assists in the officer’s efforts to coordinate care with local health services, providing direct connections to hospitals as well as community based mental health services. The result is a system where more people suffering from mental illness are connected with the appropriate level of support, sooner. the appropriate health care partners. HealthIM has successfully piloted and launched with the Brantford Police Service, who calls it the, “glue that holds its community’s mental health framework together.” Pilot projects have also been deployed by the London Police Service and the Niagara Regional Police Service. Additionally, the company
recently participated in meetings with the Government of Ontario to discuss support for the system at the provincial level. “This is a way to save police resources, while helping persons with mental illness receive the treatment they deserve,” says Pearson-Hirdes. “We’re now able to tie all pieces of the mental health strategy into a cohesive system.”
VIST: http://www.rtparkwatch.com/august2016 for an extended version of this article.
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VIDYA, ACCELERATOR CENTRE
Minecraft for Grownups Vidya Helps Municipalities Make Public Consultation More Dynamic
Having your say as a citizen is an important right for every individual. No where is it more meaningful than in your own community, where members of the public are regularly engaged by municipalities in the decision making process. Public consultation helps planners of cities, towns and neighbourhoods define issues, identify solutions and prioritize actions and resources. John Lewis, CEO of Vidya, is all too familiar the public consultation process. First as a city planner, and later as a grad student at University of British Columbia, Lewis found himself working on a variety of urban and rural land development projects requiring public consultation. He soon became frustrated with the de facto approach. “Over time, it became clear to me there was a disconnect between the technologists (planners, architects and engineers) and non-technical citizens who were participating in the consultation process.” The idea came to John to build a new approach, one that put the average citizen in the driver’s seat, giving them the freedom to change what they didn’t like about a land development project.
We essentially married up survey capability with online crowdsourcing and it was enormously successful. Even seniors were on the system having a great time. One younger user called it ‘Minecraft for adults’. JOHN LEWIS CEO, VIDYA
Vidya’s software, called IRUS (Interactive Real-Time Urban Simulator) uses geodesign technology to model urban space and landscapes in three dimensions and change those spaces in real time. Using game-like design principles, IRUS puts the average citizen in the driver’s seat, allowing people to offer up input, while providing the important checks and balances (e.g. good planning practices and policy). “Transforming the public engagement process into a virtual world is pretty revolutionary thinking for most planners,” admits John, “but there are forward thinking cities who are embracing the IRUS concept.” Recently he and his team worked with an Ontario municipality to create a 3D model of the community, with embedded comments fields and surveys capture community feedback on the municipal planning process. Vidya is now fielding international interest from countries such as Saudi Arabia. “Around the world, countries are recognizing they need to reduce automobile independence, lower their carbon emissions, manage their groundwater better, and generally manage their cities better,” says John. “That’s going to demand a radically different approach to urban design. We believe we have the answer.” VIST: http://www.rtparkwatch.com/august2016 for an extended version of this article.
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HORIZON ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS, ACCELERATOR CENTRE
BRIGHT IDEAS FOR E Horizon Engineering Solutions’ Intelligent Lighting System Helps Manufacturers Save Thousands on their Monthly Energy Bills. Hariharan Krithivasan can’t help himself. The founder and CEO of Horizon Engineering Solutions simply has to turn off the lights when he leaves a room. Raised in Chennai, India, Hari grew up from childhood believing that access to power is a luxury and energy cannot be wasted. Now he’s on a mission to share his energy distribution and lighting management approach with the rest of the world. Hari’s company, Horizon Engineering Solutions, has developed a revolutionary lighting management solution that brings together lighting fixtures, a wireless communication network, security and sensor modules and artificial intelligence (AI) that is helping large manufacturers such as Linamar and other large corporate entities, including McDonald’s and Home Hardware, reduce their facilities energy consumption costs by up to 85%. Most manufacturing facilities today are 10 to 15 years old, with electrical wiring systems of the same vintage -- in other words, not built for energy efficiency. Moving to a new, more energy efficient facility typically would require a manufacturer to rewire their facility - a cost and disruption to operations most manufacturers are reluctant to take on due to the downtime and the productivity hit it would require. Horizon takes a completely different and far more palatable approach. “We don’t require manufacturers to rip and replace their existing lighting systems,” says Hari. “What we do at Horizon is first, replace the existing lighting with more energy efficient options. On top of that, we use sensors, wireless controls and artificial intelligence, which like the brain for the system, learns the behaviors and patterns it is observing within the facility. This means the lighting system can be aligned to the manufacturing process, and can adapt even if that process changes.” “At the end of the day, manufacturers are in the business of making product for market, not saving energy. Yes, cutting energy costs is a clear way to improve the operational bottom line but if the barriers are too high, manufacturers will never do it. With Horizon Engineering everything related to our system/software happens at the fixture level. Replace the fixtures and our solution will do everything else.”
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THE STARTUP NEXT-10 2016 - 2016
HARI KRITHIVASAN FOUNDER AND CEO
RAVEENA LOKUR MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Horizon’s approach is already capturing the attention of some very large manufacturers and is driving some very significant cost reductions for customers.
GARY RANA BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT OFFICER
Our Horizon-ILS(™) solution is realizing 85% greater efficiency for the customers we are serving, just on lighting alone,” says Hari. “For instance, one of our customers was paying $10,000 per month in lighting costs for their facility. We have been able to reduce that expenditure to less than $1,500 per month.
VIST: http://www.rtparkwatch.com/august2016 for an extended version of this article.
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Credit Union Firsts! 1 First financial institutions to lend to a woman in her own name 2 First to offer daily interest savings accounts 3 First to offer full service ATMs 4 First to offer fully functional online banking 5 First to offer debit card services 6 First to offer registered education plans 7 First to offer a branchless bank 8 First to offer cheque imaging services 9 First to offer payroll deduction services for deposits and loan payments 10 First to offer loans based on borrower’s character 11 First to offer open mortgages 12 First to offer home equity lines of credit 13 First social impact bond publicly launched in Canada 14 First to offer surcharge free ATMs 15 First to offer members a voice to have a say in how their financial institution is run 16 First to offer financial safety nets to help teachers during a work action
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STARTUP - 2016
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44 GAUKEL, ACCELERATOR CENTRE
Make it 44 Gaukel
The Accelerator Centre expands its world class programming downtown with a creative new makerspace It might be robots instead of rubber soles and buttons, but the manufacturing industry is alive and well in downtown Kitchener. Helping to foster this renaissance around advanced manufacturing is a new initiative by the Accelerator Centre (AC) offering young hardware based companies new opportunities to grow and scale in the core.
“The 44G facility offers us the perfect urban location with built in lab facilities as well as office suites, meeting rooms and collaboration areas, and it will allow us to provide that “next level” tailored programming to young hardware, IoT and life sciences companies who have outgrown spaces at Velocity and Communitech, who are expanding, and yet are not quite at the stage where signing long term leases in manufacturing facilities makes financial sense,” explains Emily Jackson, Director of Client Experience & Special Projects at the Accelerator Centre.
This fall, with the support of the City of Kitchener and in partnership with ArtsBuild Ontario, the award-winning incubator will officially open the doors of a new 10,000 square foot makerspace located at 44 Gaukel (44G), aiming to bring its unique mentorship and programming to fast-growing startups expanding in the hardware, IoT and life sciences sectors.
L to R: Mike Pereira – Director, Marketing and Community Development, Accelerator Centre,
Lindsay Golds - Executive Director, ArtsBuild Ontario, Emily Robson – Coordinator, Arts & Culture, City of Kitchener, Emily Jackson - Director, Client Experience and Special Projects, Accelerator Centre
The 44G facility is the ideal ‘makerspace,’ says Jackson, with polished concrete floors, sinks in every suite and electricity running the perimeter. With funding from partners, the AC also hopes to kit out the facility with the kind of equipment needed by hardware startups including a 3D printer, desktop CNC machine, desktop fume hood, band saw, drill press, hand tools, workbenches and lockable storage. The University of Waterloo Critical Media Lab, which occupies the first floor of 44G, will add an additional creative flavour, bringing to the table even more opportunities for collaboration through activities such as design thinking hackathons. The partnership with ArtsBuild Ontario adds a very interesting
dimension to the project, says Mike Pereira, Director of Marketing and Community Development for the Accelerator Centre. “Having ArtsBuild Ontario join with us presents an exceptional opportunity to inject the creative skill of Waterloo Region’s vibrant arts community into our startup environment. There is a growing recognition that there’s more to building a successful startup than technology. 44G will bring together the technology and business ingredients that are necessary for building a successful company under one roof.” The 10,000 square foot facility will open its doors to hardware startups mid-summer 2016 with a grand opening planned for later in the fall.
VIST: http://www.rtparkwatch.com/august2016 for an extended version of this article.
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Introducing the latest member of The Cora Group’s industry leading sustainable buildings in the University of Waterloo’s Research and Technology Park. We continue our long tradition of creating unique office environments that provide leading-edge features and unmatched floor plan customization. TECH park IV is another LEED-certification candidate, key features include: • Raised flooring with convenient access to cabling • Unsurpassed control of workspace climates with in-floor ventilation systems • Advanced automated electrical and HVAC systems • Motion-activated indirect lighting to promote energy conservation • Exceptional energy efficient building • Rainwater harvesting systems plus so many other features The Cora Group is Waterloo Region’s leading, multi-tenant “Smart-Green” building developer providing space for today’s technology and office industry.
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TECH Park IV Research and Technology Park, Waterloo
The Cora Building Research and Technology Park, Waterloo
Accelerator Building Research and Technology Park, Waterloo
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SMART•GREEN REVOLUTION Leasing inquiries for the TECH Park IV or for more information on The Cora Group and this building, please contact: Adrian Conrad • Tel: 519-589-6533 • E-mail: adrian@coragroup.com
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