TEC VenturePrize Fast Growth Semi-Finalists

Biolithic has developed a revolutionary rapid diagnostic device that enables consumers and health care professionals to rapidly confirm an infection, offering the opportunity to globally save millions of lives, hundreds of billions in healthcare costs, and prevent the spread of disease. Contact: Andrew Reif

D&R Optimization Services focuses on improving oil upgrading and refining performance and profitability. D&R has developed a turn-key solution that allows operators to meet or exceed hydro-processing (optimally adding hydrogen to bitumen/oil) production and profit goals, by improving throughput by over 13% translating to increased revenue of $15-25MM/yr for a 15,000 BPD hydro-processing unit or reducing the number of $20MM shutdowns required in a 10 year period. Contact: Darius Remesat

Darkhorse Emergency Services is an emergency services software developer and consultancy. Darkhorse brings the latest academic research to the emergency services planning process, to create tools that are so simple for managers to use – they don’t can require a dedicated analyst. The company was spun out of the Centre for Excellence in Operations at the University of Alberta, one of the premier emergency services research centres in the world. Contact: Dan Haight

Firenest Innovations Inc. is a software startup that provides powerful online tools for the underserved market of small to medium nonprofits in Canada and the U.S. Founded by engineering graduates from the University of Alberta with tech backgrounds from Boston, Waterloo, and Silicon Valley, Firenest connects nonprofits with their directors, volunteers, and staff through a simple, secure, online portal. Contact: Eugene Chen

Innovequity Inc. is addressing a $20 billion Factory-Built Housing Industry in North America. Innovequity’s Geometric Construction Unit (GCU) is an emerging leader in the next generation of construction automation. The GCU automates the manufacturing of both closed walls and floors with integrated wiring, plumbing, insulation, and HVAC installed. A significant amount of manual labour will be eliminated through the utilization of the GCU thus significantly decreasing the cost and time required to manufacture structures—the GCU will save the FBHI $20 per square feet. Innovequity estimates the annual cost savings for implementing the GCU to be at $350 million in Canada and $4.9 billion in the USA, annually. Contact: Louis Hui

Mesh Canada provides free end-to-end wireless hotspot solutions for mobile devices in businesses and public spaces. Mesh works with advertisers to provide a service that is always on and always free. Contact: Eric Warnke

TEC VenturePrize Student Semi-Finalists

Alberta Carbon - Petroleum coke is an abundant by-product of oil sands upgrading and is currently being stockpiled in Northern Alberta since it has almost no commercial value. Alberta Carbon’s business will be to process petroleum coke using microwave technology and turn it into activated carbon. Our product, activated carbon, is a high demand resource that is used in water treatment, air purification and many other diverse industries. Contact: Tristan Willson (University of Alberta)

E² Technologies - For several decades the micro and nano technology industry has grown at an accelerated rate; however, the high cost of equipment associated with this industry has limited its potential growth. More specifically, the photolithography process, which is frequently used to construct micro and nano technology, requires a cleanroom to house four pieces of equipments that can easily cost over a million to a few million dollars. E² Technologies reduces the cost of these cleanrooms to under a million dollars. By combining the four pieces of equipments required into one system, not only will this reduce the equipment cost it will also reduce the cost of space required within the cleanrooms. Furthermore, E² Technologies’ solution will automate the photolithography process. Contact: Tom Tran (University of Alberta)

Molecular Tetris Inc. goal is to become one of the first players on the nascent market, helping Canada take a step forward in productivity gains through innovation. The emerging niche in the field of interdisciplinary modeling and simulation services for Research and Development has application in such industries as Nanotechnology, Biotechnology and Materials Design. Molecular Tetris key driver is to provide rational experiments for our customers and thus help them to reduce significantly production / process development costs. The unique feature of Molecular Tetris, Inc. is the application of innovative multiple scales (from nanoscales and up) to the problems of industrial importance and practical interest. The methods used in multiscale modeling and simulation are versatile, inexpensive, accurate, informative, fast and repeatable, without special equipment needs. Contact: Svetlana Sapelnikova (University of Alberta)

NeuroLogics Medical Solutions focuses on bringing new and innovative medical technologies from idea to implementation. NeuroLogics devices treat conditions in the field of neurosurgery, and aim to increase patients’ quality of life. The current business plan focuses on a new device to facilitate the diagnosis of ventriculoperitoneal shunt malfunction in patients with hydrocephalus by using a non-invasive direct measurement of shunt flow detection. For patients with shunts implanted, the commercialization of this device would reduce or eliminate unwanted radiation exposure, avoid unnecessary surgical procedures, and save millions of dollars of healthcare spending on suspected diagnosis of shunt failures each year. Contact: Justin Waghray (University of Calgary)

Orthopedic Nanocoating – Unlike the unique tissues the body has evolved to handle the physical demands of walking, running and jumping, synthetic materials fail catastrophically when implanted in the body. Even the most advanced hip implants today using combinations of polyethylene, metal, and ceramics still need replacing after 10 years on average, forcing patients to undergo multiple surgeries throughout their lifetime. The Orthopedic Nanocoating solution is a thin film coating that may dramatically reduce the need for revision surgeries. It has more slip than any commercially available orthopedic material, and is more wear-resistant than diamond coatings - one of the hardest known materials. In the United States and Europe alone, hip implants generate over $3.5 billion in revenue annually. Furthermore, this coating can applied to knee, shoulder, and jaw implants and may also be investigated for other markets including stent coatings, an emerging market where its unmatched physical properties might produce a major competitive advantage. Contact: Tyler Cossetto (University of Calgary)

ProblemsStore.com is a platform for intelligence exchange, where people in need of help and people who can help are connected together on a paid basis leveraging the power of crowdsourcing. By managing the power of crowdsourcing under our specifically designed framework, the website is pushing the traditional Q&A (Questions & Answers) market to another level in terms of professionalism, efficiency and profitability. In addition to the technologies that are well used today in the Q&A websites, several new techniques have been developed (some of them to be patented) and included in our website development. Our initial targeting market is the students in schools and universities. Contact: Alexandr Kuzmin (University of Calgary)