Tag: accelerator centre client

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Pervasive Dynamics Aims to Improve Stroke Rehabilitation

AC Client partners with UW Research to create wearable technology to aid stroke recovery

Pervasive Dynamics - Press Release ShotThe University of Waterloo and Pervasive Dynamics will develop and test wearable health technologies that can improve stroke rehabilitation as part of a new partnership aimed at transforming the health of older adults.

The joint research initiative, the first partnership between Waterloo and the Canadian developer of medical devices, will be part of the new Advanced Aging ResearCH Centre (ARCH) at Waterloo.

“Advanced wearable sensors are the next generation of personalized health care,” said Professor Bill McIlroy, of the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences at Waterloo and head of ARCH. “They enable us to gain insights that are just not available through off-the-shelf products.”

The new devices will allow researchers to extract sophisticated data related to a stroke victim’s cardiovascular and nervous systems, balance and gait, and generate tailored diagnostic reports to improve physical and mental rehabilitation.

The new partnership will also explore the development of other wearable health technologies for older adults.

“From the management of chronic disease, to fall prevention and mobility strategies, health wearables have the potential to make a huge difference for the elderly,” said Muhammad Khan, founder and CEO of Pervasive Dynamics, and an alumnus of the Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology program at Waterloo. “If we can get technologies like these in the hands of the public and practitioners we can significantly reduce the impact and burden of an aging population on the Canadian health-care system by providing clinicians with more data on which to base health-care decisions.”

By 2030, one-quarter of the Canadian population — close to 8 million people — will be over the age of 65. Stroke is the third major cause of death in Canada, with approximately 50,000 Canadians suffering a stroke each year. More than 20 per cent of older adults will take serious falls, costing the health-care system $2 billion in related costs annually.

“ARCH is focused on facilitating advances in therapies to slow down the trajectory of aging and reduce the risk of age-related injury and disease,” said McIlroy. “If we hope to reduce the impact of an aging population, we need to start now.”

In May, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research awarded ARCH $1.3 million for a variety of diagnostic and measurement tools. The first of its kind in Canada, the facility will house the most comprehensive collection of equipment focused on aging in the country.

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The Accelerator Centre, Clients and Graduates Fill the Pages of the New 2014 Waterloo Region Record Technology Spotlight

techThe latest Technology Spotlight hit the streets this week in Waterloo Region, and the Accelerator Centre along with its Clients and Graduates fill the issue’s pages with stories of startup life and business success.

This year’s edition features interviews with AC CEO Paul Salvini and Board Chair/Angel Investor Michael Stork. It also includes stories on companies who have benefited from the AC’s incubation services including AntVibes, Universal Quantum Devices (UQD) (a startup out of the Institute of Quantum Computing), MyLocal, Tyromer and RENOMii, along with features on AC Graduates Axonify, Clearpath Robotics, CrossChasm, DeepTrekker, Primal Fusion, InfiniDy, LoyaltyMatch, Kik, and Trustpoint Innovation Technologies.

“With an estimated 1000 startups in the Region, it is quite an accomplishment to have 14 of the 22 featured companies in this Tech Spotlight connected to the Accelerator Centre,” says AC CEO Paul Salvini. “We often talk about the impact our Client companies and Graduates are having on the Waterloo Region economy, creating thousands of jobs and generating hundreds of millions in revenue and investment. But to see the stories behind those numbers come to life on the pages of the Technology Spotlight has our team brimming with pride.

“Our staff and world-class mentors work hard to develop and deliver the highest quality programming for our Clients. The ultimate measure of our success as an accelerator is the economic impact of its clients. This year’s Technology Spotlight clearly shows that we’re on the right track.”

A hard copy of the 2014 Tech Spotlight was distributed to the Waterloo Region Record’s readership along with the paper this week. If you missed it, a digital version of the Tech Spotlight can be accessed online.

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PC Magazine review of AC Client Eyedro's electricity monitor

The Eyedro Monitor is a relatively easy-to-install digital home device, and a free Web app offers a wealth of reporting options including hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly electricity usage and estimated costs. You only get three sensors with the Eyedro Business kit and two with the Home kit ($199), so if you want to monitor multiple circuits, you’ll have to cough up another $99, $139, or $189 for the 1-sensor, 2-sensor, or 3-sensor expansion models (respectively). However, the sensors’ bulky size may limit how many you can fit inside your electrical panel. That aside, the Eyedro is a great system for monitoring just how much electricity your various devices are using.

Design and Installation
The folks at Eyedro sent me a Business kit (EBWEM1), which includes a wireless gateway module, a wireless sensor module, an Ethernet cable, a Quick Start guide, two power adapters, and three 200A sensors (400A-5,000A sensors are available for businesses that require more capacity). They also sent along an expansion kit that included 3 sensors, a power adapter, and a wireless sensor module.

Smaller than a deck of cards, the gateway module measures 0.8 by 2.7 by 2.7 inches (HWD) and has a LAN port and a jack for the power adapter. The sensor module is the same size as the gateway module and has three sensor inputs and a jack for the power adapter. The wireless modules are not Wi-Fi enabled; they communicate with each other via a proprietary mesh network with up to a 1,000-foot range, which means you can install the gateway module close to your router (the sensor module must be installed at the electrical panel, which in my house is located in the basement).

To read the full review by PC Magazine click here.

 

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Accelerator Centre Client Advanced CERT pioneers new farming technology

Advanced CERT CanadaA Novel Solvent-free Approach for Production of Bean Protein Fractions

Bean protein is a cost effective and environmentally conservative protein resource that has economic advantages over more expensive meat and dairy-based proteins which are most commonly used to meet the world’s nutritional demand. Beans are primarily consumed as baked or canned beans but there is a growing interest in its utilization as a protein ingredient. The conventional techniques for bean protein production involve the use of solvents, concentrated acids and alkali which results in protein denaturation and solubility loss. The drawbacks here are many, the most important question is that while the protein compositions might be there but has the protein remained ‘vital’ – that is, functional and fully bioavailable – under harsh processing conditions? What is the life-cycle cost of recovering and recycling the solvents?

Advanced CERT Canada Inc. (AdCERT) is a start-up research and development company specializing in Engineering, Consulting and R&D Services primarily in chemical engineering and biotechnology. AdCERT has begun exploring and developing a novel cost effective dry separation technology to produce protein-rich flour from pulses and grains without consuming solvents and chemicals. The patent-pending technology pioneered by Advanced CERT Canada preserves the bio-functionality of the ingredients and averts toxic microbial contamination which is common in wet processes. Advanced CERT Canada has designed and fabricated a prototype, separating the proteins from the flours of proteinaceous grain crops. The results from the prototype testing have been very encouraging, raising the protein content of White Bean Flour from ~24% to as high as 52% in the protein-rich fraction. AdCERT is exploring multi-stage separation to achieve improved separation efficiency and product recovery. With one quarter of this current project done, AdCERT has assessed the functionality of bean protein powders produced by different methods (wet & dry) via several physico-chemical methods. Preliminary indications are that the dry separation technology invented by AdCERT preserves the vital nature, structure, and functionality of protein. Various refinements on the process are planned and being executed. This project was funded in part through GF2, a federal-provincial-territorial initiative. The Agricultural Adaptation Council assists in the delivery of GF2 in Ontario.

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Accelerator Centre Client Eyedro keeps eye on hydro usage

Written by: Terry Pender
Source: The Record

eyedro.comKITCHENER — Auston Gough figures he saved about $50 a month on electricity bills this past winter after he installed devices that measure his hydro usage by the second and relay the information to his tablet.   Gough lives in a two-bedroom apartment above King Street in downtown Kitchener and was spending about $400 for electricity every two months this past winter. His place is heated with electric baseboards and has a dishwasher.

Gough spent $129 for a kit from Eyedro Green Solutions Inc., a new company in the Communitech Hub. He clamped sensors on the main line feeding the electrical panel, and then hooked up a small box that sends detailed information on electricity consumption to his tablet.

Gough used to keep one baseboard heater cranked up high and the other three almost turned off. He quickly learned that doing that was hugely inefficient. He changed the settings so that all the heaters run intermittently.

Gough learned that the four light bulbs in the bathroom used as much hydro as his dishwasher. So he switched to high-efficiency bulbs. He only runs his dishwasher when electricity rates are lower.

“I just made some fairly minor changes and I was using less power, which is great,” Gough said.

The downtown bartender is an early adopter of the technology developed by Eyedro. The company already has customers — residential, institutional and industrial — in 10 countries.

The more electricity a building uses, the higher the potential savings. Brick Brewing says using Eyedro sensors and software helped the company reduce the power it uses in its 50,000-square-foot bottling and distribution facility in Kitchener by 117,000 kilowatt hours a year.

“That works out to more than $14,000 a year in savings,” said John Cowles, the brewery’s maintenance manager. “Total installation time was probably about two-to-four hours.”

Read the full article at therecord.com

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Accelerator Centre Client Plasticity: "Why don't more Canadians attend South by Southwest?"

By: Jennifer Moss
Source: Globe and Mail

Plasticity

“Where are all my fellow Canadians?” It’s a question I asked myself as I wandered the trade show floor; as I collided with entrepreneurs from around the world, as I listened to a keynote by Edward Snowden, and attended a session comparing UX design to fly-fishing.

I couldn’t understand why more Canadians didn’t attend or speak at South by Southwest, (SXSW) arguably one of the world’s most important interactive festivals.

When my partner Jim Moss, co-founder and CEO of Plasticity, announced that we would be speaking at SXSW for the third time, we received an onslaught of responses on Facebook. Many people wondered how we managed to land such an opportunity. When I asked startups why they weren’t attending, the two biggest reasons were the cost of attending and the difficulty of being accepted.

I agree. SX is expensive. Flights cost a ridiculous amount and the gouging doesn’t end there: festival passes and accommodations are also pricey, especially in the city core. However, booking months ahead can reduce costs, and this year, an extended shuttle service made it cheaper to get in and out of the conference. As a budget-conscious startup, we took advantage of this new mode of transport and opted to stay on the outskirts of the city.

It also isn’t easy to get accepted as a speaker. In fact, it’s actually incredibly difficult. You have to apply a year out and be ready to deliver a story that is impactful, innovative, thought-provoking and valuable. Oh, and you also compete against 3,600 others, with the understanding that fewer than 10 per cent of applicants will make the cut.

Read the rest of Jennifer’s post – including her guiding principles for the application process – on the globeandmail.com.

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Accelerator Centre Client TitanFile offers advice to those tackling the '48 Hours in the Valley' application

TitanFile.comIf you are part of the tech startup community in Canada you’ve definitely heard about 48 Hours in the Valley, powered the C100 group. If you are not familiar, you should get acquainted.

In a nutshell? Twice a year, every year, hundreds of hungry companies vie to be one of the chosen twenty to go to Silicon Valley for two intense days of networking, investor meetings, workshops, and mentorship.

When TitanFile was accepted to go to 48 Hours this past winter, they were somewhat surprised that they made it through considering how much they struggled with the application.

“We are certainly not alone in that sentiment; it’s very difficult to anticipate, with full accuracy, what is going to work, what won’t, and which key points are going to be outstanding on paper,” explains the startup. “Poor feedback mechanisms are an unfortunate reality of applying to a lot of these types of programs. Often times, companies have to wait up to 12 months to try again only to take another stab in the dark.”

“We wanted to accelerate that process and give startups a chance to learn from other people’s mistakes so that they could write a better 48 Hours application in the future,” TitanFile added.

Read the full post written by Olga Lioudvinevitch on techvibes.com.

 

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Accelerator Centre Client Mozzaz improves patients’ lives through custom treatment management

By: Trish Crompton
Source: www.communitech.ca

Entrepreneurs lose a lot of sleep worrying about making payroll and paying bills. Sammy Wahab is no exception.

But the co-founder and CEO of Mozzaz has something to jump-start his day: An app that could improve the lives of people who suffer memory loss or can’t communicate with the people around them.

“There’s a total sense of satisfaction and not because it’s your own company, but it’s actually about the fact that you’re doing something that makes a difference in a person’s life,” Wahab says.

Mozzaz enables patients and their care providers to customize management of their treatment, leading to better health results. It does this by collecting and securely storing patient information in the cloud, and integrating it with clinical management and electronic health record systems to help clinicians make better treatment decisions.

Read the full story here.

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Accelerator Centre Client TeTechS launches its first Terahertz Spectrometer system

Revolutionary terahertz technology enables imaging and sensing applications never achieved with other imaging technologies.

Waterloo (Ontario) CANADA, January 18, 2014 – TeTechS Inc., a terahertz technology solution company, announced today that the company released its first terahertz spectrometer system.

The TeTechS Rigel 1550 terahertz spectrometer is portable, modular, compact, fast, and reconfigurable for analysis of solids, liquids, powders, and gases. With its revolutionary fiber coupled terahertz sensor technology, Rigel 1550  provides higher performance and flexibility than the state of the art in terahertz systems, allowing better discrimination, less complex signal analysis, and enabling applications which cannot be robustly achieved with previous spectrometry technology.

The fiber coupled movable transmitter and receiver heads can be mounted around the sample under test, for the cases where bringing the object/sample/process under test inside the spectrometer head is not feasible. The distance between the transmitter and receiver heads can be adjusted to create working space needed for different measurement settings.

TeTechS Rigel 1550 is an innovative and reliable turnkey system with a built‐in 1550 nm femto‐second fiber laser, a fiber laser beam distribution chassis with fast and slow scan modules, and built‐in lock‐in and low‐noise amplifiers, with a controlling and operation software. The system is permanently aligned to provide a collimated terahertz beam between the transmitter and the receiver heads. The user has access to the collimated terahertz beam inside the spectrometer head where the interchangeable and easy to use transmission, reflection, and attenuated total reflection (ATR) measurement modules can be placed.

“Rigel 1550 can be used for a wide range of applications including material characterization, material sensing, non‐destructive test, hidden object detection, product inspection, manufacturing quality control, thickness measurement and uniformity analysis, coating and thin film analysis, additives analysis, and electronic chip fault analysis” says Dr. Daryoosh Saeedkia, founder and CEO of TeTechS Inc. “It can also be used for material verification and identification, such as: plastics, pulp and paper, gels, organic powders, and adhesives, to name a few” said Saeedkia.

About TeTechS Inc.

TeTechS Inc. is a leading innovator of advanced terahertz technology solutions committed to developing terahertz sensor and imaging systems for industrial and scientific applications. TeTechS Inc. draws on the distinctive characteristics of leading‐edge terahertz technology to develop unique non‐destructive and non‐invasive sensing and imaging solutions. The systems can see features of interest behind enclosures or inside packages, which are invisible to other imaging modalities. The Customers’ problems can be solved in ways that cannot be addressed by other imaging modalities such as X‐Ray and infrared imaging. The company’s vision is to become a major terahertz technology solutions provider to the industries worldwide through developing innovative terahertz imaging and sensing system solutions.

For further details please contact:

Daryoosh Saeedkia, PhD
President & CEO
TeTechS Inc.TeTechS Inc.
Tel: +1 (519) 584‐0791
Toll Free: +1 (855) 574‐1764
Fax: +1 (519) 513‐2421
Email: info@tetechs.com
Web: www.tetechs.com
Twitter: @TeTechS
LinkedIn: TeTechS