Sliding into Winter

Posted on Friday, November 28th, 2014

Wow where did summer and fall go. Lots to update and I never did tell you about those summer projects, so here goes:

Summer Projects: We worked with Privacy Analytics to help virtualize testing and certification for the emerging field of data anonymization which is critical for sharing large clinical data sets . We brought together diverse expertise to help build a STEMI (ST Segment Myocardial infarction) recognition game for planetECG. This game embeds pattern recognition skills for healthcare professionals to identify the emergent need for life saving procedures. We helped advance a wireless medical alert system for iNano. And we developed a pilot mobile EEG (electroencephalogram) monitoring app with Personal Neuro Devices as part of ongoing efforts to establish a development platform for neural monitoring applications. We also further advanced a suite of vision skill development games intended for the consumer market for a company called Vision Skills. This project takes advanced vision training approaches from the realm of professional athletes (baseball, hockey auto racing, etc.) and brings them to the broader market in a easy to use online format (watch for the beta release coming in 2015).

This summer also saw Gymtrack who we have been helping develop their award winning personal training platform for gyms and fitness centres become one of Ottawa’s hottest start-ups. They along with our 2 applied research students embedded in their team took top honours at Start-up Garage.

img_0210-e1413931258251They also got invited into the prestigious 500 Start-ups accelerator in San Francisco where they got selected as favorites at demo day by Tech Crunch and the Next Web. Watch for more about Gymtrack in the coming months, they have also become one of our favorites especially after hiring on full time our students who worked with them this summer.

Be a Donor Already: The Best Gift Ever organ donation registration campaign geared up again for year 2 and hit #1 for new registrations in the province this fall. Run by 4th year nursing students the campaign launched a new video which can be seen here. And a reminder if you have not yet signed up – sign up now or if you signed up previously with your driver license you might need to confirm your data has been transferred . You can do both here.

College Community in Action: Hats off to everyone involved in putting together #ACIceRink. A true collaboration of folks from across the College giving time and resources to build the rink of my dreams. They sometimes say “build it and they will come”, but this was more about “just ask”. Last winter it started for me with a single twitter post “Skating outside … @AlgonquinColleg during winterlude #wouldbeawesome #makeithappen” and earlier this year someone kindly offered to spearhead the project and then many hands and hearts took up the cause. Soon the snow will fall and the ice will harden and it will be an amazing experience for everyone at the College to take a twirl.

ACIceRink

 

Oh yeah did I mention we streamed 3 days live from TedMed and presented the amazing high school documentary “Invisible Threat”. And you know a whole lot else happened, so in many ways it has been an endless summer, but an amazing journey that celebrates what can be accomplished when passion and persistence collide. Who knows what the future may bring, but from where I sit right now it looks incredibly bright.


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