Now Innovating

Dr. Scott Kraft and Nicola Quiggin join the podcast to share details of the current application process for the third SPARK Calgary cohort. The SPARK program is based at the W21C Research and Innovation Centre. SPARK Calgary supports academic digital health innovators move their projects forward into clinical practice, with the primary aim of benefitting patients. It is a one year program with a 5 hours/month time commitment. Participants receive expert advice, education, and connections to resources.

The application information session is being held online on February 4 from noon to 1:00pm. Register for the session here: w21c.org/spark

In episode 12, we speak with Carlene Donnelly who is the executive director of CUPS. Founded in 1989, CUPS works to help Calgarians escape poverty and overcome trauma. The charity's mission is to build resiliency in people through integrated healthcare, education, and housing support. Carlene's team believes in partnerships with government, research organizations, local businesses, places of worship and other charities to strengthen the broader community. One such partner is UCalgary's Social Innovation Initiative led by Karen Benzies. Carlene talks about the importance of making decisions based on this research partnership.

UCalgary researchers Dr. Taylor Chomiak, PhD, and Dr. Tamas Füzesi, PhD, share details of the tool they have created to help their team identify patterns embedded in digital data. Local Topological Recurrence Analysis (LoTRA) is a simple machine learning model capable of outperforming deep-learning models in detecting Parkinson's disease from digitized handwriting samples. The researchers also foresee broader applications for the tool in the future.

We begin season 2 by speaking with John Wilson, President and CEO of Innovate Calgary. Innovate Calgary is the innovation transfer and business incubator at the University of Calgary. Its mission is to help individuals and teams form companies and gain licensing. John shares details of how Innovate Calgary provides intellectual property management, commercialization guidance, technology and innovation marketing, and connections with industry partnership. He also provides insight into two major programs offered through Innovate Calgary; UCEED and Evolve to Innovate (e2i).

The UCalgary ecosystem is poised to lead the energy transition with an investment announced this week from the Government of Canada. Prairies Economic Development Canada (PrairiesCan) is investing $2,140,205 to support the Energy Transition Centre (ETC) in downtown Calgary. The ETC is a collaboration between the University of Calgary, Innovate Calgary, Avatar Innovations, and the energy industry. This episode features that announcement from the Minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada, Daniel Vandal and acknowledgement of the investment by UCalgary President Ed McCauley, Avatar Innovations CEO Kevin Krausert and Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek.

Dr. Morteza Chehel Amirani, PhD, shares details of his UCalgary chemistry team's work with Katal Energy. Morteza joined the company as Research Lead in 2017, with the goal of developing a cleaner burning diesel fuel (Katal Green Fuel - KGF). That goal is now being realized. Recent testing in a diesel-burning ocean vessel is allowing Katal energy to tout KGF as being able to immediately reduce carbon and NOx emissions from diesel-fueled equipment.

Dr. Ranita Manocha, MD, is increasing knowledge and awareness of the proper fitting and use of walking aids through an innovative mobile app she designed. Launched in November, the ICanWALK© app is an interactive platform designed for patients, caregivers, and clinicians. It incorporates videos and short questions to teach and evaluate fitting walking aids and how to use them, depending on the type of injury or impairment and where a patient is in their recovery journey. Dr. Manocha's goal is to increase the accessibility and sustainability of the app for all Canadians. Her hope is that in the future, when someone receives crutches, they are seamlessly provided with information and assistance on fitting and use directly through their smartphone.

UCalgary alumnus Dr. Rowan Cockett, PhD, tells us about his text editor platform Curvenote, developed for modern science. Curvenote is a tool to help scientists, researchers and engineers accelerate the speed of scientific discovery by easing the methods by which sharing, thinking and writing is linked to data and computation. Curvenote allows users to create living documents for collaboration amongst teams. Rowan has recently brought the project to CDL-Rockies for assistance in scaling up.

https://curvenote.com

Dr. Jim Dewald, Dean of the Haskayne School of Business, discusses how meaningful this week's funding announcement for the Creative Destructive Lab (CDL-Rockies) is for entrepreneurs at the University of Calgary. CDL-Rockies brings together experienced entrepreneurs, investors, and subject matter experts to expedite the growth of early-stage science and tech-focused companies. CDL-Rockies charges no fees for participation and takes no equity from participating companies.

Dr. Bruce Barton, PhD, is the Director of the University of Calgary's School of Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA). Bruce shares his insights into the innovative ways in which the performing arts community has reimagined its relationship with the audience through the COVID-19 pandemic. The SCPA recently re-opened its doors to live audiences for the 2021-2022 performing season, with students and faculty adapting in innovative ways.