Government of Canada Supports Innovation in The Greater Toronto Area

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Aug. 19, 2011) - Ten businesses will work with Centennial College to develop new technologies, help conduct research and bring ideas to market, thanks to an investment from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario. Today, the Honourable Maxime Bernier, Minister of State (Small Business and Tourism), announced new partnerships between Centennial College and small- and medium-sized businesses.

"These agreements allow local businesses to work with researchers at Centennial College on developing new ideas and bringing those new products to Canadians, which will be good for the economy in this region," said Minister Bernier. "Our government is committed to supporting the people, communities and businesses of southern Ontario."

Last year, under FedDev Ontario's Applied Research and Commercialization (ARC) Initiative, Centennial College was approved for a contribution of up to $525,000 to partner with small- and medium-sized enterprises on activities such as applied research, engineering design, technology development, product testing, and certification. The support provided will create new economic opportunities and help to grow Canada's businesses to be more innovative and competitive.

"Centennial College welcomes the opportunity to work closely with the federal government on programs that keep Canada's economy moving forward," said Trish Dryden, Associate Vice-President of Research and Corporate Planning, Centennial College. "The rapidly growing role for colleges in industry-driven innovation stimulates employment, productivity, and an improved ability for our small and medium enterprises to compete globally, while providing students with the innovation and entrepreneurial skills they need."

FedDev Ontario was created as part of Canada's Economic Action Plan to support businesses and communities in southern Ontario. Now in its second year of operation, the Agency has launched a number of initiatives to create a Southern Ontario Advantage and place the region in a strong position to compete in the global economy. These initiatives are designed to support businesses and other organizations through partnerships and investments in skills and training; innovation; research and development; and increased productivity. To learn more, please visit www.feddevontario.gc.ca or call 1-866-593-5505.

For more information on the Applied Research and Commercialization Initiative and Centennial College partners, please refer to the backgrounder.

Backgrounder

Applied Research and Commercialization Initiative – Centennial College

The Applied Research and Commercialization Initiative is designed to bridge the gap between research and commercialization in southern Ontario by encouraging post-secondary academic institutions to collaborate with small- and medium-sized enterprises. FedDev Ontario approved Centennial College for a contribution of up to $525,000 to partner with the following small- and medium-sized enterprises on activities in the areas of energy and sustainable development, gaming and animation, education and software design.

Story Planet Media Inc. (Toronto)

Story Planet Media Inc. is a project that aspires to bring literacy and creativity to kids, helping them develop the skills and confidence to become fearless, creative communicators, and inspiring them to develop their unique voice through writing, art and digital media. This project will allow Centennial faculty and students to help design and develop an innovative, interactive website for kids aged 6-9, where they can build personalized characters to travel around and visit different planets, creating stories that are uniquely their own.

Spongelab Interactive (Toronto)

Spongelab Interactive is a group of scientists, teachers, animators, artists, and programmers who are passionate about science education and want to help foster learning through gaming. The group has created a platform of educational video games focused on various areas of biology for elementary and high school students around the world. The newest initiative involves creating a digital biology trivia game, drawing on the knowledge of Centennial's biotechnology students to engage today's digitally driven youth to learn about biology through fun, interactive study.

NIM Energy (Toronto)

NIM Energy, a start-up company that was formed in 2009, is financing and developing the NIM fuel cell and electrical energy buffering system. This system, which has been in development for over a decade, generates electricity and hydrogen energy using a specialized anode, cathode and electrolyte that can be used in many applications. For this project, faculty and students at Centennial will build a test chamber that can measure both electricity and hydrogen, develop the corresponding test plan, test the Fuel Cell and evaluate its performance.

Hungry Eyes Film & Television (Toronto)

Hungry Eyes Film & Television is an award-winning media production company that delivers compelling and powerful stories in film, television and digital media. Inspired by the highly successful JUMP math teaching method developed by Dr. John Mighton, Hungry Eye's most recent venture in mobile applications is designed for North American youth and addresses inadequacy of math education. This project intends to create and market a fully functional mobile application designed to teach math education and math fundamentals to children in a fun and engaging way.

EfstonScience (Toronto)

EfstonScience is Canada's largest retailer of scientific products, including green energy products such as vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT). This project builds on two previous projects carried out by Centennial College, which determined that wind turbines are proving to be a major barrier in commercializing off-grid hybrid streetlights. This project will compare three different types of VAWTs that can be installed on top of off-grid hybrid streetlights to identify the best wind turbine rotor for maximizing power output while minimizing the cost of generating energy.

Environmental Bio-detection Products Inc. (Mississauga)

Environmental Bio-detection Products Inc. (EBPI) is a biotechnology company specializing in the manufacture and custom application of simple, rapid, and cost-effective methods for detecting and monitoring toxic, mutagenic and genotoxic materials. These kits are currently used for both commercial and educational purposes on a small scale, although the company intends to grow their reach. Through this project, EBPI and Centennial will develop and validate turn-key simulation and biological teaching kits in toxicity testing, along with corresponding curriculum, for high school, college and university classrooms.

DMTI Spatial (Markham)

DMTI Spatial provides companies with location content and software solutions to help them benefit from location intelligence. This project is collaboration with Centennial College to build a national Canadian infrastructure database, using geographic information system technology to identify buildings with multiple units, which can be used by various industries to determine the type of structure associated with a particular address.

Bitstrips.com (Toronto)

With over 20,000 logins each day, Bitstrips.com is the world's largest comic-making website that is currently primarily used by elementary schools (Bitstrips for Schools). This project will strive to create a new, groundbreaking application that will re-purpose Bitstrips' technology for Facebook, creating a database of comic templates on the population social networking site. This technology, combined with the collection of artwork created by Centennial students, will enable millions of users worldwide to make, share and collaborate on comics with their friends and loved ones.

3Di-Solutions (Toronto)

3Di-Solutions has pioneered the development and application of real-time graphics technology in the field of product visualization, to create the highest-quality interactive 3D content on all platforms, including touch and mobile devices. For this project, 3-Di Solutions will work with Centennial College to focus on the creation of a platform and software solution that will be designed to drive 3D graphics, menu overlays, interactive elements, narrative elements and animation on a real-time platform, leading to the next generation of interactive content.

Blue Heron Systems (Toronto)

Blue Heron Systems is a leading Toronto-based power electronics engineering firm, delivering engineering services and products that involve intelligent power conversion systems for small to medium-sized autonomous power applications. Following two earlier projects with Centennial College to create a simulation of an off-grid hybrid streetlight, the current project looks to create a validated and optimized design of an off-grid hybrid streetlight, which will be installed at Centennial College.