Vancouver Island Technology Park

GenoLogics, the leading provider of informatics solutions for translational research, today announced it has completed $5 million in financing, which will be applied towards ongoing expansion plans.

The latest round of financing was led by OVP Venture Partners of Seattle with support from Growth Works and Yaletown Venture Partners of Vancouver. The funds will be used to accelerate development and global deployment of an end-to-end informatics solution for organizations pursuing translational research initiatives.

GenoLogics, the leading provider of informatics solutions for translational research, today announced it has completed $5 million in financing, which will be […]

On February 17, 2009 a dear friend of VITP paid a visit to the Vancouver Island Technology Park in Dr. Don Rix.

Dr. Donald Rix is a widely recognized member of the medical profession, as evidenced by his fellowships in four medical colleges and societies. Dr. Rix is also a successful businessman, a generous philanthropist and a dedicated volunteer. He is active in provincial and national medical associations, is a member of several B.C. research foundations, and is a director of the B.C. Children’s Hospital Foundation.

In today’s Budget, the Government of British Columbia announced a $14 billion investment in infrastructure projects. “I applaud the Government on its commitment to investing in infrastructure projects such as technology parks that create jobs and will contribute to the economic recovery of British Columbia,” said Dale Gann, President of the Canadian Association of University Research Parks (AURP Canada).

“AURP Canada will work in collaboration with the federal and provincial government to ensure that infrastructure investments are directed to projects that can be key drivers of the economy,” Gann said following the Budget speech. “Many of these projects are already up and running and ready to take the next step. These projects have proven records of return, which means that any new investment will start to show immediate and continuing impact to our economy.”

Of the twenty-three “shovel-ready” projects that exist across Canada, AURP Canada has identified five LEED-certified projects from three technology parks in British Columbia: Vancouver Island Technology Park, Discovery Parks, and Great Northern Way Campus.

Budget 2009 supports infrastructure projects to create thousands of jobs and build opportunities in every region of the province while providing stability and confidence for British Columbians by investing in health, education and social services, announced Finance Minister Colin Hansen today.

“Budget 2009 builds on B.C.’s Economic Plan to help families, communities and business alleviate the effects of the economic slowdown,” said Hansen. “Despite unprecedented global economic turmoil, we are improving public services and making critical investments to create tens of thousands of jobs and position British Columbia as a leader in the coming economic recovery.”

Budget 2009 invests almost $14 billion in infrastructure projects in every region of British Columbia. The Province will move forward on its capital plan and partner with the federal government and municipalities to build and upgrade housing, hospitals, schools and roads. These new and accelerated investments will generate as many as 88,000 jobs across B.C.

In today’s Budget, the Government of British Columbia announced a $14 billion investment in infrastructure projects. “I applaud the Government on its […]

Solar technology provider Carmanah Technologies Corporation (TSX: CMH) has partnered with Shine Micro Inc. to add an automatic identification system (AIS) capability to its line of stand-alone solar-powered LED (light emitting diode) marine lanterns.

Widely used by ships and vessel traffic services (VTS) to identify and locate vessels, AIS technology enables ships to automatically exchange a range of navigational data including position, course, speed and proximity to other nearby ships, VTS stations, and AIS-equipped navigational buoys. According to Ted Lattimore, CEO, Carmanah Technologies, this partnership presents a valuable opportunity for both businesses and their customers.

For many engineering graduates, the most memorable part of their degree is the time spent applying their skills through co-op work term placements. For mechanical engineering student Georg Tuchlinski who travelled to Munich, Germany to work for BMW this past fall, the memories will last a lifetime.

Working for the coveted car company was a long time dream of German born Tuchlinski, who is fluent in the language. But getting the job meant getting over the low salary.

“You don’t work in Europe for the money,” says Tuchlinski, “you go for the experience.”

In Germany, apprenticing an engineer is considered a great privilege, and many students there do it for little or no money. But there are many other incentives.

“They let students drive the cars, because they know we love that,” he explains. “I was in a 275 horsepower 1 Series BMW on the second week on the job.”

When BC Transit’s first hydrogen-fueled bus hits the streets of Victoria this summer, Jeremy Wise will know it’s an environmentally sustainable choice for the province. Last fall the UVic mechanical engineering student spent a four-month co-op term performing a lifecycle analysis of BC Transit’s current fleet of diesel, bio-diesel and hybrid buses, to compare their lifecycles to the projected lifecycle data for the new zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell buses that will begin joining the BC Transit fleet this summer. Lifecycle analysis considers the environmental impact of a product from cradle to grave, including production, operation and disposal.

In Cambria Hanson’s first-year mechanical engineering class, a professor drew an inverted triangle on the board to represent everything students would learn and highlighted its tip to show what proportion they would actually use in the workplace. But while working on a project for NASA last fall, Hanson used everything in the triangle and more.

Hanson spent her final co-op work term as a research and development intern at the California Institute of Technology’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)—the lab where NASA develops their Mars rovers. She tested a rock-sampling component called CHIMRA (Collection and Handling for In-Situ Martian Rock Analysis), which will be one of many new parts on the next rover to be shot up to the red planet.