Back about seven years ago, Shawn van Drecht and his former partners developed a measurement tool for oil wells,  a patented machine that accurately measured the length of rod heading down into an oil or natural gas well. It was a nice piece of machinery. Count-Rite currently leases the technology out to a 3rd party. But like all technologies, Count-Rite’s tool as it stood could be improved. “I needed to make Count-Rite’s G3 Wear Tool  more versatile,” says Shawn, who bought out his partners in the interim. “Continuous rod is inserted into a well through tubing. The rod is subject to wear and tear within the tubing as it spins. “When rig workers are removing the rod from a well, somebody has to hold a wrench along the rod as it passes. That’s the standard means at this point to measure the thickness of the rod when removed from a well.   If the rod is getting thinner, it reduces the amount of torque the rod can take. Eventually it wil ...

  (TEC Edmonton is passing on a reminder Re: 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. conference in Fort Saskatchewan on Friday, May 24, 2013: Full Circle - Advancing the Bio-Economic Opportunities in Alberta's Industrial Heartland.)   Just a reminder to register if you have not done so as yet.  We have over 100 registered to date.   Please feel free to forward to others that may benefit from this event.   FULL CIRCLE - ADVANCING THE BIO-ECONOMY OPPORTUNITIES in the HEARTLAND - Friday May 24, 2013, 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Down Centennial Centre, Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta.    Registration and Agenda                         Deadline date: May 20th    Join us as we learn: ·        What a bio-cluster is; ·        How to get started ...

Alberta innovates - Technology Futures has announced the Alberta-Finland Innovation and Commercialization Program and is inviting proposals from small to medium sized enterprises in clean technologies, advanced materials, instruments and sensors, health and information and communications technology.  The idea is to accelerate technology development through collaboration with Finnish companies.

See the Edmonton Journal story of April 24, 2013 Alberta and Finland team up to fund, market tech innovations.

  For a researcher to be awarded one I2I (Idea to Innovation) grant from the Natural  Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) is considered quite the feat. To be awarded three I2I NSERC grants within 12 months is nearly unheard of. So it’s a resounding vote of confidence, from the federal NSERC office, in Dr. Walied Moussa’s promising nano-sensor technology, as it moves off the laboratory bench, through field research and now into prototype development. From research emerging out of his team’s MEMS/NEMS Advanced Design Lab, the University of Alberta mechanical engineering professor and researcher has received three Idea to Innovation grants of over $123,000 each. The funds have been used to build prototypes of Dr. Moussa’s unique nano-sized strain sensors, nano-sensor activated touch screens, and, most lately, a prototype nano-sized “energy harvester” from which the nano-sensors can be powered for wireless data transmission. “The NS ...

  Alberta-Germany technology commercialization program announces first round of projects (press release from Alberta – Germany Collaboration Fund for Product Development and Commercialization. April, 2013. The Alberta-Germany Collaboration Fund is a TEC Centre tenant.)     Three Alberta small to medium-sized enterprises will receive support for commercializing innovative products and services through the Alberta – Germany Collaboration Fund for Product Development and Commercialization.   The program is a partnership between Alberta Enterprise and Advanced Education and the German-Canadian Centre for Innovation and Research (GCCIR) aimed at supporting joint research and commercialization activities between companies  in Alberta and Germany in strategic areas of technology. The program enables Alberta companies in certain sectors to access high-tech resources and European markets through a formal relationship with Germany. The program may also lead to new mo ...

TEC Edmonton in the news: Winter 2012/13 "Research to make a difference":  In the lead story in the fall 2012 edition of  Research News, the house magazine of Alberta Innovates Health Solutions,  no fewer than five companies and Alberta researchers that are featured have been assisted in one way or another by TEC Edmonton. Dr. Breanne Everett's Orpyx Medical Technologies, featured on Page 12, won the TEC VenturePrize student business plan competition in 2012.  MTI Metabolomics Technologies Inc, featured on Page 20, is a TEC Edmonton client company. TEC Edmonton Executive-in-Residence Reg Joseph serves as CEO of MTI. On Page 22, Osteometabolix Pharmaceuticals Inc. is a TEC Edmonton client.. Finally, on Page 23, researcher Rui Zhou is featured. Ms. Zhou collaborates with Dr. Vivian Mushahwar, who has worked closely with TEC Edmonton on the setting up of Biomotion, a U of A  spin-off company developing  technologies to assist those with paralysis.   * * * Edm ...

“Do I want to make them small enough to do the job?” Dr. Steve Kuznicki is thinking out loud. The University of Alberta scientist is world-renowned, responsible for 48 American patents, 12 world-wide patents and another 12 patent applications in process.    For the last eight years, Dr. Kuznicki has been in academia, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Alberta, an Alberta Ingenuity Fund Scholar and the holder of several important research chairs.   U of A researchers, if they so wish, have the option to pursue the commercialization of their own inventions with the university as a partner. They are also offered the services of TEC Edmonton’s technology management, business services and entrepreneur training if they so wish.   Since joining the University of Alberta, Dr. Kuznicki has taken advantage of TEC Edmonton’s patenting and technology licensing expertise. Through TEC Edmonton, Dr. Kuznicki recentl ...

  There has  been, for decades, an argument from the province’s financial community that the Government of Alberta has not done enough to provide and encourage venture capital investment in  young, knowledge-based Alberta companies.   It appears, at least from the buzz at the Banff Venture Forum 2012 held last month (Oct. 4 and 5), that the right formula to achieving such an end may finally have been found.   Alberta Enterprise was established as a corporation with its own board of directors, with a single shareholder being the Government of Alberta.     The corporation was given a one-time disbursement of $100 million from Alberta.    Independent of political pressure, Alberta Enterprise was to invest in limited partnerships created by venture capital firms that, in turn, would invest in knowledge-based industries.   The only condition accompanying the investment was that each venture capital firm would establish an office or at least a prese ...

    Here's a couple of events happening in Edmonton this next week that the TEC Edmonton network might find interesting. The fledgling but active Alberta Clean Technology Industry Alliance (ACTIA) holds a Clean Drinks session Thursday, Nov. 1, at the Shaw Conference Centre's Salons 8 and 9, starting at 5 p.m. It's a mixer with three presentations on energy efficiency and green building. One of the speakers is Ken Hanasy, CEO of TEC Edmonton client MagWall. Cost is $20 at the door, or you can register here. Next Wednesday, November 7, is  Health Technology Symposium 2012, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Delta Centre Suite Hotel with a reception and technology showcase from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.. TEC Edmonton Entrepreneur In Residence Jim Armstrong will be a panel participant, and past and present TEC Edmonton clients Cleankeys, Darkhorse Analytics, Orpyx, Qwogo and Technology North will be in the technology showcase.  The Symposium's title is Digital Health ...

  Predicting strength and reliability of any structure – be it an airplane wing, a length of pipeline, a bridge girder – is a complex engineering challenge. It requires expensive, often bulky equipment. Frequently structures can only be tested on a periodic basis, whereas some require continuous testing to ensure full product safety. Enter Nemsor: Mechanical Engineering Professor Walied Moussa and his team have patented an extraordinary new nano-electro-mechanical sensor (actually a cluster of extremely tiny sensors) developed in his MEMS/NEMS Advanced Design Lab. A Nemsor sensor can continuously monitor six different indications of stress and strain,  with low power consumption. TEC Edmonton has been working with Dr. Moussa in facilitating the license agreement for Nemsor sensors with the U of A, protecting his intellectual property and assisting Nemsor in research and commercialization funding. Syncrude Canada, the Alberta oil sands company that in 2011 produced an average 288,300 ...