THIS WEEK IN TECTORIA

A community blog celebrating Victoria's booming tech sector

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Got a cool story about technology and creativity in Victoria? Email stories, tips, pictures, links and anything of interest to Tessa Bousfield at: tectoria@viatec.ca

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Tectorian of the Week – Young Jin Chung (June 6, 2014)

June 4, 2014 by Nevin Thompson

youngjin

The Tectorian of the Week for June 6th is Young Jin Chung, a software developer at Unit4.

“Young Jin is a shining example of what every coder wants to aspire to in their career,” says Linda du Toit, a senior software designer at Unit4. “He’s also one of the best bowlers I have ever seen.”

“He has a razor-sharp mind that can see through problems and find innovative solutions that he’ll then implement without missing beat,” says e-Deliberation’s Jean-Daniel Cusin, who worked closely with Young Jin Chung when Young Jin first arrived in Victoria.

“Developers come in many styles,” says Cusin. “There are the regular ones who plod along day to day. Then there are the really good ones, who get the job done well, quickly, cleanly. And then further along that spectrum, you have Young Jin.”

But what makes Young Jin the ideal Tectorian?

Like many people who work in Victoria’s tech sector, Young Jin fell in love with Victoria, and decided to figure out a way to build a life here.

In 2007 he parted ways his successful software business in Korea, and moved with his family to Victoria.

Shortly after arriving here he (once again, like so many tech transplants) found a job in our growing technology sector.

And as so many people will tell you, Young Jin’s smarts, quiet drive, and sense of humour have helped make work more enjoyable and rewarding for his teammates.

“He’s a real team player and adds value at every step of the development process,” says Du Toit.

Young Jin has also embraced life as a Tectorian, taking up sports like curling (exotic anywhere else on the planet, but perfectly normal in Canada).

And like many tech workers in Victoria, Young Jin is a bit of a bike geek. What’s more, in spite of this fanaticism Young Jin deserves special credit for from avoiding becoming (so far) a MAMIL.

Curling

On top of Young Jin’s success, his wife Danielle is also a fledgling Tectorian.

A homemaker since her arrival in Canada (the couple have two children enrolled in local high schools), Nanyoung has spent the past two years studying with Camosun College’s Computer Systems Technology program as a mature student.

Danielle is doing a co-op workterm at JEA, another Tectoria software company.

And we’ve heard nothing but rave reviews from Danielle’s coworkers there.

So we’re glad that Young Jin and Danielle decided to make the leap, and that they chose to create a life in Victoria.

Who knows? Maybe their kids will one day (soon!) find jobs in Victoria’s growing tech sector, and become Tectorians too.

Filed Under: Tectorian of the Week

Tectorian of the Week – Trina Mousseau

May 29, 2014 by Nevin Thompson

Our Tectorian of the Week for May 30 is Tourism Victoria’s Trina Mousseau.

First, some congratulations are in order.

Thanks to the efforts of Trina and her team, Tourism Victoria has been named as a finalist for the “marketer of the year award” by BCAMA, the BC chapter of the American Marketing Association. BCAMA will announce the winner in September.

In fact, Trina and Tourism Victoria regularly win a ton of awards. Campaigns like Victoria Calling regularly receive praise and recognition… and achieve results.

It’s large part because Trina and her team are obsessive when it comes to creativity.

For example, Tourism Victoria went to Calgary and installed multiple large-scale sculptures of sea-dwelling mascots named “Sol the Seal,” “Simon the Salmon,” and “Orland the Orca.” The sculptures were then dropped in strategic downtown Calgary locations last summer.

The Calgary campaign was so popular that someone actually stole Sol the Seal. His whereabouts are still unknown.

How else can we sing the praises of Trina?

  • She always wears great shoes.
  • Ever since arriving from Vancouver, it’s been apparent Trina loves this town, a love affair that has powered Trina’s mission to put us on the map.
  • Trina’s also a strong supporter of the local tech sector.

She gets that technology plays a strong role in powering our economy.

So Trina and Tourism Victoria play a key role introducing Tectoria to talented people all over world – people needed to fill the tons of high-paying jobs being created by the tech sector.

If you know someone someplace else who you think should visit Victoria, get them to try out Victoria Calling here.

 

Filed Under: Tectorian of the Week

Tectorian of the Week: Marlee Wilson

May 22, 2014 by Nevin Thompson

marlee

The Tectorian of the Week for May 23rd is Paretologic’s Marlee Wilson.

We’ve heard that Marlee is so beloved by the team at Pareto’s office on Fort Street that each May everyone in the office makes sure to wish her a happy Mother’s Day.

Says our inside source at Paretologic:

Imagine your mom was a super geek who loved to organize lunch for you and 79 of your friends, devoured everything tech, knows everything about Victoria and was revered as a true oracle of  information.

If Victoria tech companies have long known that fostering positive company culture is the key to making employees happy and creating innovative technologies, then Marlee must be Paretologic’s secret weapon for global domination.

The real reason Marlee is our Tectorian of the week is her commitment to making Victoria a better place.

Marlee has an unofficial job title as Paretologic’s de facto co-ordinator of charities.

Why?

She is a true go-getter when it comes to fundraising. Marlee loves to support a good cause – especially when it helps children and families – and likes to have a good time doing it.

With her contagious enthusiasm, Marlee has tirelessly raised funds for every charitable cause imaginable, from Our Place breakfasts, to sponsoring children through WorldVision, and more… including coordinating Paretologic’s kick-butt competitiveness during the annual Food Bank Challenge.

Although it’s like discussing Christmas in July, you’ll recall the Food Bank Challenge helps the Mustard Seed collect non-perishable foodstuffs for families each fall, and feeds over 7000 people a month in the Victoria area.

The Mustard Seed needs help throughout the year, though, so it’s never too early to to help.

Marlee has also played a strong role getting Paretologic involved in Cops for Cancer, encouraging more than a dozen members of her team to shave their heads, all in support of Camp Goodtimes.

Marlee Wilson plays a key role connecting employees in Victoria’s tech sector with the community and community causes, and we think she deserves some recognition!

 Special thanks to Alycia Mitchell, Elton Pereira, and others at Paretologic.

Filed Under: Tectorian of the Week

Innovation Elsewhere – Urthecast

May 22, 2014 by Nevin Thompson

Urthecast’s claim to fame? The Vancouver-based company offers the world’s first Ultra HD video feed of Earth, streamed from the International Space Station.

Russian astronauts installed two HD cameras on the ISS this past January. Urthecast’s cameras will broadcast images and video of Earth to viewers on the ground. So far, their images have been featured on Space.com and many other places around the web.

Urthecast updates new images here.

The still camera has a resolution of five metres, while the Ultra HD video camera has a resolution of one metre, meaning that each pixel in the imagery represents one square metre of the earth’s surface.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSvSDja1OuM?list=UUKW4yDaYCtfWkUjRAeRAMiQ]

The still camera has a resolution of five metres, while the Ultra HD video camera has a resolution of one metre, meaning that each pixel in the imagery represents one square metre of the earth’s surface.

Images from the two HD video cameras will be made available just a few hours after they’re captured, providing what the company calls the “world’s first near-live HD video feed of Earth.”

UrtheCast customers are able to hire one of the two cameras to look at a particular spot on Earth for a fee. Companies like Google Earth would be possible customers, as well as governments wanting to track forestry, animal migration, environmental borders.

Urthecast is also working with universities, researchers, technology startups, and more.
If you have a proposal about how you would use Urthecast, request an invitation here.

Urthecast is also a finalist for a BCTIA Technology Impact Award… Wish them luck!

 

Filed Under: Innovation Elsewhere

Tectorian of the Week – Harry Weiler

May 14, 2014 by Nevin Thompson

photo (1)

The Tectorian of the Week for May 16 is Harry Weiler.

Harry recently successfully exited AXYS Technologies after leading the stable, high-growth North Saanich technology employer for more than a decade.

Harry and his team have helped AXYS capture about 40 percent of the global market (so far!) for ocean measurement devices, building and commissioning more than 400 meteorological and oceanographic stations of various types around the world, in over 30 countries.

axys

As a result, AXYS’s distinctive bright yellow wave monitoring buoys bob among the waves all over the world, putting Victoria and the Saanich Peninsula on the map as a hotspot for ocean monitoring and clean energy.

Click here for this amazingly cool infographic that explains different AXYS products made right here in Tectoria.

Known for his wicked sense of humour, curiosity, personal integrity, and gregarious sense of fun, Harry has always been there for the tech community.

Besides volunteering on the board of VIATeC and playing a strong role as a cheerleader for the cluster of ocean technology companies that provide so many high-paying jobs on the Saanich Peninsula, Harry has always been willing to pitch in at a moment’s notice to help promote Tectoria.

If you’re organizing a bus tour of investors from Silicon Valley and need a place to showcase Victoria’s tech capabilities, but have no idea when you’ll show up, you can count on Harry to provide a spectacular space to crack open a few cold beers.

And Harry’s can-do attitude is not limited just to work.

“Whether it be troubleshooting a dragging anchor situation on a boat at 3AM or cooking up breakfast at the campsite, you can place your faith in him to make sure you are, respectively, saved from capsizing onto a reef, and that your bacon will be crispy enough,” says a long-time friend.

This same friend tells us that, following his tenure at AXYS, Harry will be mostly kiteboarding and travelling with his wife Laurie. Time in town will be spent on his fishing boat with his faithful dog Brodie.

“He won’t have to unicycle to work any more.”

With special thanks to Greg Caws and Laurie Clarke.

Filed Under: Tectorian of the Week

Tectorian of the Week: Graham Baradoy

May 7, 2014 by Nevin Thompson

graham baradoy

“There is something in the air in Victoria that makes you want to climb a mountain.”

So says Kiind‘s Graham Baradoy. Baradoy, a developer by trade, is a relatively recent transplant to Victoria. After working remotely with Kiind and cousin Leif Baradoy, Graham moved from Alberta to Victoria about a year ago.

And the move to Victoria seems has changed Graham’s life.

The biggest change?

Graham has shed 70 pounds, with more to go. He credits this achievement to the magnetic attraction of summiting nearby Mount Finlayson, plus all the other outdoor things you can do in Victoria year-round to keep active.

“When I thought about life in Victoria, I knew I would be getting healthier and happier,” Graham writes on his excellent blog.

But the real reason Graham Baradoy is Tectorian of the Week is because, since arriving in Victoria barely a year ago, he has jumped right in as a leader.

A true Tectorian, Graham reaches out to help others connect the dots to help build community via Whiskey Oriented Development.

whisky

Whisky Oriented Development bills itself as comfortable place to meet other programmers from around town, learn what else is being worked on in Victoria, and pick up on some cool new technologies.

And the group drinks and discusses whisky along the way. Here’s what they got up to in April.

And there is still more to Tectorian Graham Baradoy.

Software developer by day, Graham recently received his Masters of Science in Kinesiology.

The topic of his thesis? “A Physiological Feedback Controlled Exercise Video Game.”

“I used a simple feedback loop in conjunction with a heart rate monitor and an active video game to control people’s heart rates,” Graham says on his blog.

“To a computer scientist, this is nothing overly special, but in fields like kinesiology which do not have the strongest relationship with computers, or the nerds who wield them, a few lines of code can change everything.”

So, Graham is well on his way to expanding Tectoria beyond the boundaries of coders and technologists. He is what community is all about.

So, if you’re thinking about a hike up Mount Finlayson, Graham is up for it.

Biking the Galloping Goose? Graham can do that too. If you like whisky and coding, Graham will introduce you to new friends.

He may inspire you to climb a mountain of your own.

Filed Under: Tectoria

Tectorian of the Week – Christina Seargeant, MediaCore

April 30, 2014 by Nevin Thompson

Christina Seargeant

The Tectorian of the Week for May 2 is MediaCore’s Christina Seargeant.

Like that old Molson commercial, Christina Seargeant IS Tectoria. We see her everywhere, and we mean anywhere there is a tech-related event in Victoria, or a Victoria-related event somewhere else.

Other tech companies in Victoria have an open house, Christina is there. Rifflandia? Christina hung out at the Tectoria tent a while. It was the same with Rock the Shores, VIATeC networking events… she’s there.

But what really blew us away: VIATeC rents a house in Austin, Texas for our fellow Tectorians to enjoy SXSW:

Christina is there, representing Tectoria!

In short, Christina is an engaged, friendly member of the evolving Tectorian community.

And she also demonstrates some of the awesome, latent creativity that is turning Victoria into a cultural hub.

After she punches out each evening as operations manager at MediaCore, Christina turns her attention to her other project, csnaps photography, specializing in portraits and events. Her Instagram feed is really fun, especially if you like dogs.

Christina also works hard to organize the annual TC10K road race in Victoria, BC, and she has managed Guitar Hero championship for the extremely cool Video Games Live.

So Christina IS Tectoria.

If you see her around town, make sure to say hi, and then join in whatever fun thing she is doing to help grow our community.

Filed Under: Tectorian of the Week Tagged With: featured

Innovation Elsewhere: Car Paint That Cleans Itself

April 30, 2014 by Nevin Thompson

zimg_007_3

Through a very creative use of nanotechnology, engineers at Nissan have created a paint that itself creates a thin air shield above the surface of the car that makes rain, road spray, frost, sleet and standing water roll off the car without touching the paint surface at all – kind of like a force field.

The ‘super-hydrophobic’ and ‘oleophobic’ paint finish called is called, quite pragmatically, “Ultra-Ever Dry.” Nissan says it gets some of its ideas for paint from bird dropppings.

According to the engineers, ‘by creating a protective layer of air between the paint and environment, it effectively stops standing water and road spray from creating dirty marks on the car’s surface.’

Nissan says it has no plans of making the special paint job a standard on factory models but it will consider offering the self-cleaning paint as an aftermarket option.

Nissan is now attempting to determine if the material is durable for long-term use on vehicles – and if it will hold up in different weather conditions around the world.

Filed Under: Innovation Elsewhere

Broke Your Smartphone Screen? Just Swap It Out!

April 23, 2014 by Nevin Thompson

araaaaa1

Google’s Advanced Technologies and Products Group (ATAP) is on a mission: build a modular smartphone.

Google and design company New Deal have floated a concept for a modular Android phone ecosystem called Project Ara that lets smartphone users swap modules (batteries, radios, cameras, screens, etc) around between “exoskeletons.”

The most obvious and immediate practical application of a modular phone is that if you drop the phone and shatter the screen, you can quickly and easily (and, hopefully, cheaply) swap in a new one. Or if your battery runs out and you’re away from a charger, just switch to a new one.

The two breakthroughs that make this design possible are a piece of hardware dubbed the endoskeleton and a concept New Deal refers to as “parceling.”

google modular phone

For ATAP and Google, the goal is to build a device that will make the smartphone accessible to the billions of people who can’t afford iPhones and Galaxy S5s.

They plan to release the first phone in less than a year, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, besides some great Project Ara eye candy, the Verge has a good breakdown of all the crazy phones you can make with Google’s Project Ara.

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Electronics

Tectorian of the Week – Warren Brown

April 23, 2014 by Nevin Thompson

Our Tectorian of the Week for April 25 is Warren Brown, chairman of Procura.

Why Warren, and why now?

warren-brown-630-500Warren Brown and the team at Procura together represent all of the potential of Victoria’s tech community, and show where we’ve been and where we’re going.

Founded in Victoria twenty years ago (that’s basically before email and internet were a thing, and before there was much in the way of a tech industry here), Procura now provides software to 12,600 users and 600 agencies throughout Canada, the US and Australia.

This company (conveniently headquartered near the future home of Fort Tectoria) also has offices in Chicago, Florida, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Like the majority of Victoria’s tech companies, Procura sells internationally, meaning the company often gets little recognition here in its own backyard.

So Warren knows a thing or two about launching a successful startup and building a sustainable business.

He’s been through just about every trial and tribulation a technology company can experience – Warren has not only survived but has thrived.

And here’s the real reason why Warren Brown is the Tectorian of the Week: he gives back to the community by providing his knowledge and hard-earned insights to help his peers build their own tech businesses, right here in Victoria.

9100052018_87ce366bb3_c

And let’s not forget that Procura sponsors the excellent live band that makes the annual VIATeC Technology Awards such a fun time.

So Warren Brown and the team at Procura are part of Tectoria’s DNA. They’re part of our success, past and future.

Filed Under: Tectorian of the Week

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