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ITAC Industry Insider - December
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The Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) recently recognized six Canadian organizations at the 2015 Ingenious Awards for their use of information and communication technology (ICT) in products or services that have the power to significantly change lives across the whole spectrum of the Canadian economy.
The accomplishments of the 2015 winners provided a glimpse into the power of ICT to solve health care problems, help move ideas from campus to commerce, keep our roads safer and moving efficiently with smart technology, connect students in northern communities to educational advantages of students in southern Canada to the use technology to improve top athletic performance.
In addition, ITAC along with its partners CanadianCIO Magazine and the CIO Association of Canada presented the ITAC CanadianCIO of the Year Award to two deserving individuals.
Karna Gupta
President & CEO
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Virtual classrooms connect, inspire northern students
 The statistics starkly illustrate the educational challenges in Canada’s North: 30 per cent of students in the Northwest Territories drop out; three-quarters of all Inuit children do not graduate from high school.
Academic under performance both arises from and worsens the economic and social problems in so many northern communities. And when opportunities do develop in the region, Inuit and Aboriginal youth find themselves disadvantaged in terms of seizing new employment possibilities.
Like other educators in the North, John Fanjoy recognizes the need for innovative approaches not only to keep young people in school, but to inspire them to get the most from their classroom experiences. That’s why in 2011, Mr. Fanjoy, vice-principal of Aqsarniit Middle School in Iqaluit, embraced the opportunity to conduct a pilot for the Connected North program...Read More
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Computing power moves ideas from campus to commerce
 Imagine a smartphone app that helps you find a vacant tennis court in your local park and a free lane at the public swimming pool. Or a wired t-shirt that allows first-responder organizations to monitor the heart rates and other vital information of emergency crews fighting a fire.
These are among the ideas dreamed up over the last two years by university spinoff companies, many of them on Alberta campuses. But bringing such concepts through the critical first stage, particularly where computing power is involved, can be technically demanding, time-consuming and costly.
Enter Cybera, a made-in-Canada, not-for-profit technology advisory group financed by the Government of Alberta to oversee and develop the province’s cyberinfrastructure. Read More
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Public health officials get a better shot at tracking immunizations
 When the news came late one afternoon in February 2015 that a 14-year-old Niagara Region girl had tested positive for measles, the local public health unit was ready.
Staff in Niagara quickly reviewed the immunization records of almost 1,400 students in seven schools at risk of exposure to the disease, identifying those whose records were incomplete, who were partially immunized or unimmunized. They followed up with phone calls to the parents, saying their children needed to get their vaccinations up-to-date or be excluded from school.
The Panorama Immunization System, implemented by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care as of July 2014, has so far allowed public health units to collect, manage and store more than 83 million immunization records in Ontario. Read More
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Technology started by accident puts safer, smarter, greener cars on road
 A serious collision in 1999 that nearly totalled the family car got Otman Basir thinking. His wife had been cut off by a careless driver but ended up blamed for the accident, because she crashed into the other car from behind. It was her word against his; there was no way to prove what happened.
Dr. Basir, a professor of computer engineering at the University of Waterloo specializing in intelligent systems design, set about developing new technology that could show which driver was at fault – and help prevent such accidents altogether.
“It transforms the vehicle into a wireless appliance and maximizes its utility,” Dr. Basir, CEO and founder of Intelligent Mechatronic Systems (IMS) in Waterloo, says of his DriveSync connected car platform, which delivers a safer, smarter and greener driving experience. Read More
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Software refines science of bringing athletes to the winner’s circle
 With championships on the line, sports teams have always reached for every advantage – highly skilled and well-trained athletes, fervent fans and those intangible attributes we often call “heart” or “grit” or “chemistry.”
Today’s teams, however, have access to information and technologies that can create a “science of winning.” Refining that science fuels the innovations of Halifax-based Kinduct Technologies Inc., whose performance measurement and enhancement software is used by more than 50 professional sporting organizations in the NBA, NHL, MLB and NFL. Clients include three world champions and the Toronto Blue Jays. Read More
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System drives efficiencies for contractors, curbs gridlock agony
 Traffic congestion is one of the most ubiquitous and vexing problems of urban life, causing untold frustration and lost productivity. Construction necessary to maintain and improve the road network exacerbates the problem, especially when several projects happen simultaneously. Indeed, given Canada’s cold climate, such work is condensed into just a few months, often referred to as “construction season.”
Managing and co-ordinating roadway lane restrictions and closures – as well as communicating about them to drivers – helps limit the inconvenience they cause. A new Roadwork Scheduling System (RSS) developed by Parsons Corporation for the Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) demonstrates the power of technology to improve efficiency, starting with the morning commute. Read More
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The ITAC CanadianCIO of the Year Award was presented to two outstanding CIOs demonstrating the qualities of business and technological vision, entrepreneurship, a capacity to drive enterprise transformation and a measurable operational strength that delivers shareholder or stakeholder value in the public and private sectors.
Lydia Lee, Chief Information Officer and Senior Vice President at University Health Network
Eugene Roman, Chief Technology Officer, Canadian Tire Corporation
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ITAC Alberta, a group of Alberta members of ITAC recently met with Justin Riemer, the Assistant Deputy Minister Science and Innovation Division, Economic Development and Trade for the province of Alberta. Among the topics discussed was the Alberta Government’s commitment to diversify the economy and strengthen its ICT sector. Mr. Riemer specifically sought ITAC Alberta’s engagement in creating a robust innovation ecosystem tailored to the needs of Alberta, creating a roundtable to review Alberta’s ICT sector strategy ant to help establish measurable digital goals in domains like e-health and IoT.
