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Steve Forbes keynote speaker at Surrey Innovation Awards
1-08-2020
Surrey, B.C. – On Wednesday, November 20th at the 6th Annual Surrey Innovation Awards Lunch, the Surrey Board of Trade had a very special guest and keynote speaker Steve Forbes, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Media.
Surrey Innovation Awards are presented to Surrey Board of Trade members or Surrey-based businesses/organizations that have developed a new or improved technology, service, process or product by using creative methods and innovative thinking that has the potential to transform an industry sector or quality of life.
This year’s finalists were:
Small Business Category
1. Neuromotion Physiotherapy + Rehabilitation
Founded in 2008, Neuromotion Physiotherapy + Rehabilitation’s ingenious thinking is inherent in its specialized approach to rehabilitating people with severe neurological injuries and impairments. Neuromotion’s mission is to help adults and children, who have complex neurological conditions (including, but not limited to traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, stroke, Parkinson’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Cerebral Palsy, concussion, dizziness/vestibular dysfunction, developmental disorders, facial palsy, pelvic floor conditions, etc.), to access the most advanced and specialized neurological rehabilitation in British Columbia, and ultimately, exceed rehabilitation expectations. Neuromotion has 21 programs focused on neurological rehabilitative care using both the Lokomat Robotic Gait Training Therapy, and other therapeutic tools. The Lokomat is the world's leading robotic medical device that provides highly repetitive and advanced physiological gait training to individuals with neurological challenges.
2. NovaBio Rubber Green Rubber Technologies
NovaBio Rubber was founded in 2009 primarily as a solution for latex allergies and to satisfy a growing market demand for rubber. After obtaining a US patent for a green rubber recovery process, Nova Bio started growing annual rubber plants called taraxacum kok-saghyz, also known as TKS. This plant contains significant amounts of rubber at 24% and inulin at 40%. Rubber is then extracted as liquid latex. Just recently, the liquid latex from TKS was declared by NRC Canada and Akron Rubber Development Lab as hypoallergenic. NovaBio Rubber has completed the development of a prototype rubber extractor and has manufactured a large-scale rubber extractor and rubber purifier. This innovation is set to make British Columbia a hub for the production of hypoallergenic latex, thus, helping both the manufacturing and agriculture industry in BC. NovaBio Rubber is a recipient of the 2019 Med-Tech Innovation Award from Medilink UK, a health authority in the United Kingdom.
3. Wellin5
Wellin5 is a leader in online counselling that provides a state-of-the-art software-based platform to facilitate secure online counselling sessions between counsellor and client/patient to decrease wait-time and cost. The scope spans audio/video, email, and text chat, all encompassed by secure end-to-end encryption and compliance with all the healthcare regulatory requirements. Continuous research and studies has led the team to achieve these breakthroughs: development of a new asynchronous programming framework based on microservices architecture to segregate work units to run separately, while communicating with primary application thread via proprietary HTTPS-based messaging protocols; validated architecture against high concurrent load to ensure enhanced performance and responsiveness at any scale; developed proprietary audio/video framework under the WebRTC foundation to facilitate/manage encrypted peer-to-peer connectivity between disparate parties; overcame connection stability issues with participants behind firewalls by developing a dual STUN / TURN server model to manage encrypted audio/video connections, handle key exchange and temporal synchronization, monitor connection time, and communicate app-level updates; and overcame prohibitive response time challenges at the FE by abstracting FE into microservices and designing/implementing a react-based load-once, cache-later paradigm. This product line of Wellin5 is set to have significant impact on job creation and mental health care across Canada.
Large Business Category
1. Joseph Richard Group
Joseph Richard Group is a collection of unique hospitality ventures owned by Andre “Joseph” Bourque and Ryan “Richard” Moreno. What sets them apart is their unwavering commitment to continuously improve their guest experience through innovation, and one of them is the Meal Ticket Brands. Meal Ticket Brand was conceived from the idea of utilizing existing culinary teams, operators, product, and brick and mortar locations to open multiple restaurants. The innovation is in the additional brands and menu concepts that are offered through third party delivery apps such as Skip the Dishes, Door Dash and Uber Eats by leveraging the already existing technology and food and beverage convergence. Unlocking the additional revenue streams and providing opportunities to serve a customer-base that otherwise would not be engaging with the brand, the concept is at the forefront of the future of dining.
2. Mosaic BC
Mosaic is a registered charity serving immigrant, refugee, migrant and mainstream communities throughout the province of BC. One of their thrust areas is social innovation. The conviction of CEO Olga Stachova for diversity in leadership was the main driving force behind the innovative project called SCENE, or Social and Civic Engagement for Newcomers and Immigrants. Funded by the Government of Canada and Vancity Credit Union, SCENE is considered the first of its kind in the Lower Mainland. It has been designed using human design thinking, with migrant justice lens, all while ensuring that the people whose lives this will affect, are part in creating the project. Mosaic has partnered with Radius, a Simon Fraser University social innovation hub, by participating in Trampoline: Ideas in Action, a program that used human-centered design methods to ideate Mosaic’s social and civic engagement project.
3. NeuroCatch Inc.
NeuroCatch Inc. is a subsidiary of HealthTech Connex. Considered ground-breaking in the neuroscience community, this peer-reviewed, published research provided a clinically accessible way to evaluate brain function. Combining readily available brainwave technology with accessible software, Dr. Ryan D’Arcy and his team were able to identify a ‘blue ocean’ window of opportunity to develop a platform that would be the world’s first to objectively and physiologically measure brain function: the NeuroCatch™ Platform. The result, after years of R&D efforts, is a fully automated, rapid, and user-friendly neurotechnology with an intuitive and simple output – which they would call “a yardstick for brain function” that “gives you 120/80 for your brain.” In March 2019, the NeuroCatch™ Platform received its Medical Device License from Health Canada, allowing them to market their new technology. The results of the commercialization efforts have been astounding, with the NeuroCatch™ Platform now in use at numerous sites across Canada – including renowned facilities in Surrey, Greater Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, and Ottawa. This innovative brain technology does not only impact families and communities today, but also the way we understand brain health of generations to come.
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