Canada’s 20 top new innovators face off

The Second China (Shenzhen) Innovation & Entrepreneurship International Competition, Toronto Division (2018 Sci Innovation Competition) have announced the finalists and expert judges participating in the Toronto Divison of this year’s competition on March 24th at the MaRS Discovery District. The Canada Confederation of Shenzhen Associations (CCSA) and the Sino-Canada International Innovation Centre (Sci Innovation Centre) have narrowed the 208 submissions to 20 of Canada’s brightest new innovative projects that will compete for prize awards.

Artificial Intelligence

Established by the Municipality of Shenzhen and the People’s Republic of China in association with the City of Toronto, the 2018 Sci Innovation Competition, known as the ‘Global Olympics of Innovation’, will feature projects from industries including IT technology, Biotechnology and Life Science, Electronic Science and Technology, Advanced Manufacturing, and Material and Energy.

The 20 finalists for the 2018 Toronto Division of the competition are highlighted by revolutionary Canadian innovative projects including:

• GoFind AI– Instant fashion discovery driven by a deep learning-trained machine that recognizes textures, colors, shapes, showcasing products to consumers who are under the spark of inspiration in real time.
• Qsun Sun Safety Solution– Sun safety wearable device and companion app that tracks sun exposure to protect the user’s skin from sun-induced skin damage while maintaining a healthy level of Vitamin D.
• HiNT Wearable Device for Stroke Detection– First wearable point of care medical device that can detect and alert high-risk patients and their caregivers when a stroke occurs. The device is a comfortable wearable headband, based on Electroencephalography (EEG).
• AXIS Gear– Aggregates automotive maintenance data from OEMs, Tier1 Suppliers, Connected Vehicles and Dealerships to predict vehicle failures before they happen.
• Pitstop Predictive Maintenance– Intelligent robot systems that automates the process of charging, uncharging, monitoring of vehicles.
• AI-based Mobile Body Modeling & Measuring Solution– Measure and access accurate body shape and anthropometric data by taking two photos with the mobile app
• Intelligent Electric Vehicle Charging Robot System– Automate and motorize existing window shades in minutes with the control of the device itself, through the mobile app, or via voice control.
• MillimeterWave Radar Sensor– High-performance MMWRS based on ‘metasurface beamforming’ without the complexity and cost that we have seen in military-grade operations.
• A.L.L. (Advance Logic Library) Controller– The world’s most advanced USB gamepad. Unlike competing gamepads, the A.L.L. controller can play any game on any computer.
• QuantWave Technologies– Formed to pursue the growing food and drinking water safety market through the application of microfluidic technology integrated with microwave sensing system for the pressing needs of rapid detection device and services
• Nowing – Combining state of the art technology in computer vision, AI and robotics and applying them to traditional small businesses, NWR can dramatically increase production volume and efficiency while improving quality, making business ownership affordable and rewarding.
• Advanced Imaging for Minimally Invasive Procedures– Conavi Medical Inc. is a commercial-stage medical device company founded by Dr. Brian Courtney as well as a team of cardiologists, physicians and scientists to commercialize research in image guidance for minimally invasive procedures.
• Addon Labs– Use machines you already own (laptops, cell phones, tablets etc.) and smart materials to make Printed Circuit Boards (PCB) instantly.
• Sapling Robotics Beach Cleaning Rover– Autonomous, zero- emission, electric beach cleaning rover robotic system.
• Municipal Sludge Treatment in Small-Mid-Sized City– Project screened three sludge resource recovery technologies and improved them according to practice: vermicomposting, aerobic composting (organic fertilizer production), dry anaerobic digestion (biogas generation).
• Gas Hydrates Technology– Project uses gas hydrates technology to capture and recover carbon dioxide in the smoke produced in industrial production with low energy consumption and high efficiency and store it in a safe and long-term manner.
• Exoshield– A thin transparent film that augments the exterior surface of the windshield to increase its impact resistance by 6X.
• ForceFilm– Provides a virtual sense of touch in minimally invasive surgery to improve surgical precision and reduce medical error.
• Commercialization of DNA Ministrings Platform– a scalable approach to develop a novel DNA delivery vehicle, known as DNA ministrings. Patented DNA ministrings are the safest and most efficacious DNA vectors for nonviral gene delivery.
• Medella Health Biosensors– Biomarkers detectable sensors with a focus on metabolites, proteins, and toxins.
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On the day of the competition, the 20 Canadian finalists will pitch ideas to a panel of high profile judges and First, Second, and Third place prizes will be awarded. 10 of them will be qualified for the ‘Industrial Finals’ and ‘Grande Finals’ of the Second China (Shenzhen) Innovation & Entrepreneurship International Competition in Shenzhen, China in April 2018.

The panel of 27 expert judges have also been confirmed for the 2018 competition. The impressive roster of judges represents a diverse group of business leaders, scientists, academics, and renowned experts in technology and innovation in the five core industries of Advanced Manufacturing, Biotech, Electronic Technology, Internet and Mobile Internet, and Material Energy. The group is highlighted by representatives from key organizations including Dr. Zhou Songnian, Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and former Chairman and CEO of Platform Computing Corp., Don Wright, President at The Winnington Capital Group, Director of MaRS Innovation Inc. with over 39 years in the investment industry, Professor En-Hui Yang, University of Waterloo, Fellow of IEEE, FCAE, FRSC, and Yuri Navarro, CEO and Executive Director at National Angel Capital Organization, and Chief of Staff for the Minister of Economic Development and Trade in Ontario.

The Remaining Notable Expert Judges for the 2018 Sci Innovation Competition Include:

• Professor Hani Naguib, Director of Toronto Institute of Advanced Manufacturing, Fellow of American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Fellow of Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineers.
• Professor Jun Yang, University of Western Ontario.
• Dr. Jun Pang, Chairman and CEO, Northernchem Inc.
• Dr. Leo Jingyu Lee, Senior Research Associate, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Probabilistic and Statistical Inference (PSI) Group, University of Toronto.
• C.J. Gavsie, CEO, Gavcap Properties Inc.
• Dr. Kevin Ming, Manager, Venture Development & Innovation, Haltech.
• Peter Zhang, CEO, East Triumph Capital.
• Andre Tilban-Rios, President and CEO, ATR X Capital.
• Dr. Li Jianzhao, Ontario Centres of Excellence.
• Bruno Maruzzo, CEO, Digital Medical Experts.
• Weiru Shi, Managing Director, China Electronics Silicon Valley Inc.
• Ashek Mahmood, Associate Partner Digital Practice Lead, IBM.
• Ron Dizy, Managing Director, MaRS Discovery District.
• Benton Leong, CEO, Radical Flow and Prolexion.
• Ling Loerchner, Chief Commercialization Officer, Asia Managing Director, University of Waterloo.
• Lorne Gross, Managing Lawyer, Lorne Gross & Associates.
• Michael Hirsh, Chairman & CEO, Wow! Unlimited Media Inc.
• Richard Blundell, Executive-in-residence & Adjunct Professor, University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management.
• Tyler Hamilton, Managing Director, MaRS Discovery District.
• Professor Xianquo Li, Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada, Fellow of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering, University of Waterloo.
• Wayne Maddever, Principal, BBP Consulting Inc.
• Lally Rementilla, President and CFO, Quantius.
• Bruce W. Young, Managing General Partner, Collective Agreement.

The competition is sponsored globally by local governments inToronto, Silicon Valley, Sydney, Tokyo, Boston, Tel Aviv, London, Stockholm and Berlin. The Sci Innovation Competition will offer increased prize awards totaling 2.09 million CDN (RMB 10.91 million). A venture capital pool of RMB 20.9 billion (4 billion CND) has also been set up by 34 investment institutions for all the nine divisions, which helps support outstanding projects.

This year the Sci Innovation Competition (Canada) is partnering with Toronto-based MaRS Discovery District, one of the world’s largest urban innovation hubs supporting innovators and entrepreneurs. The partnership will see MaRS host the competition at their downtown Toronto facility and promote the competition to their network of stakeholders, startups, and communication channels. MaRS also played a part in recommending the judges who will be tasked to assess and award the competitors.

Driving the engagement with some of the Canadian ‘Tech Hubs’ and building new relationships for the compeitition is the Pacific Innovation & Executive Club Toronto (PIEC), which also has been instrumental in bolstering this year’s registration for the competition. PIEC Toronto is a membership-based non-for-profit organization with a mission to service and facilitate China-Canada cross border interactions and collaborations across industries.

There are several highlights for the 2018 Sci Innovation Competition. The competition has involved more professional partners that include prominent Canadian universities, such as University of Toronto, University of Waterloo and Western University. Other famous Canadian innovation institutions like OCE (Ontario Centre for Excellence), and Chinese VC institutions such as Cowin, Green Pine Capital, Midday Capital are onboard. Secondly, there will be a larger VC pool of around 4 billion CAD for the global competition, which is about 30 times than the previous competition.