THIS WEEK IN TECTORIA

Mary Chiappetta, a District Learning Coach at School District 61 and tireless champion working to help more even more teams across Victoria participate in the VIATeC Food Bank Challenge is our Tectorian of the Week.

This year is the first year the VIATeC Food Bank Challenge has been opened to the wider Greater Victoria community. The 2015 VIATeC Food Bank Challenge ends on February 27th, and it is turning out to be yet another great year thanks to the contributions of dedicated community members like Mary Chiappetta.

Mary Chiappetta is one of our community members responsible for its success this year.

Mary doesn’t work at a tech company. Instead, she works as a learning coach with Greater Victoria School District.

She championed introducing the VIATeC Food Bank Challenge to the community by introducing the event to her Learning Initiatives team at School District 61.

Mary didn’t stop there.

She has continued to rally the other employees who work at School District 61 to contribute to the challenge.  Making inroads into the Victoria comunity was a key objective of this year’s VIATeC Food Bank Challenges.

Champions like Mary are essential to help the Food Bank Challenge to spread further into the Tectoria community from year to year.

Mary is indeed a true Tectorian in other ways, too.

In her role as a District Learning Coach with Learning Initiatives, Mary provides professional development opportunities for teachers all across the Greater Victoria School District #61.  Mary and the other members of the Learning Initiatives Team (let’s give a shout-out to Petra and Jessica!) aim to provide teachers with insights about the latest teaching methods to help students learn.

Effective teaching is the cornerstone of the Tectoria knowledge economy.

If we want to continue to build an economy based on innovation, we need innovative, creative students willing to explore new technology.

Teachers need to be able to understand and effectively wield new technologies, and then use these new tools in the classroom. The Learning Initiatives team helps teachers not only learn about new innovative tools and technology, but they also implement them immediately with their students.

In short, it’s all part of helping Victoria students be better prepared to participate in the global community, and become future Tectorians themselves.

Our Tectorian of the Week is David Fissel, who serves as Chair & Senior Scientist of ASL Environmental Services and has been a longtime tech community supporter, booster  and cheerleader.

ASL Environmental Sciences provides scientific oceanographic services, specializing in physical oceanography. The company develops technologies and processes aimed at measuring currents, waves, sea ice, and sediment. Applications include everything from offshore energy exploration and production to understanding climate change and salmon spawning.

The company currently is currently based at a large facility just off Keating X Road in Saanichton, and has grown to 50 employees. Many of ASL employees are UVic grads who now work as engineers, computer scientists, and physicists to create cutting-edge technologies.

Setting out with a vision and a desire to make things happen

David is our  Tectorian of the Week because he represents the potential of what can be achieved by setting out equipped with a vision and the desire to make things happen.

Over the course of David’s career he has helped play a role building BC’s ocean technology sector, which David estimates generates annual provincial revenues of $1.1 billion while employing nearly 5,500 people. And many of those people work on the Saanich Peninsula at companies like ASL.

After completing an M. Sc. in physical oceanography at the University of British Columbia in 1975, David worked on contract as a research oceanographer at the Institute of Ocean Sciences of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) in Sidney, on the Saanich Peninsula.

Two years later, in 1977, David co-founded ASL Environmental Sciences (originally Arctic Sciences Ltd.), and has held a number of senior positions in the company as it has grown to become Canada’s largest physical oceanographic company and a trusted name internationally.

Cool ocean technologies developed on the Saanich Peninsula

Two recent, incredibly cool technologies developed by ASL include the Ice Profiler Sonar, and the Acoustic Zooplankton and Fish Profiler.

The Ice Profiler Sonar is used for polar science, climate studies,  environmental assessment, and to help design offshore oil and gas platform to operate in challenging environments.

The Acoustic Zooplankton and Fish Profiler is used by research labs to observe the vertical migration of zooplankton.

ASL has been involved with the the VENUS and NEPTUNE projects from the very beginning. Other ASL customers and partners include the world-famous Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and the British Antarctic Survey.

In another interesting project, ASL is working with the University of Georgia to build an instrument that will be installed in 2016 at the Ocean Networks Canada NEPTUNE cabled observatory at the Endeavour hydrothermal vent site, approximately 300 km off the west coast of Vancouver Island, 2200 meters beneath the surface of the ocean.

The instrument will measure the rise velocity of the plume and its turbulent properties in real time.  The goal of the project is to better understand the interaction between hydrothermal vent fluids and the surrounding ocean and how that supports the unique ecosystem found at the vents.

A strong booster for the tech sector

David Fissel also deserves credit for tirelessly supporting Greater Victoria’s advanced technology sector.

Besides helping develop and foster collegial atmosphere among the various ocean technology companies that call the Saanich Peninsula and Greater Victoria home, David also has long supported the Sidney Breakfast Club. The Sidney Breakfast Club has acted as an event where entrepreneurs, inventors and others can come together to make connections, share ideas, and support one another.

This desire to help each other out is part of our collective DNA in Victoria, and David Fissel has helped foster this sense of community.

Our Tectorian of the Week is Thomas Binsl, a recent transplant to Victoria by way of London and, before that, the Netherlands.

Thomas is the quintessential Tectorian: he discovered Victoria, fell in love with the place, and has figured out a way to relocate here to live.

And, like many Tectorians, Thomas has brought with him to Victoria considerable technical skills and insights.

He’s the co-founder of ClinicaGeno and director of ClinicaGeno Analytics, which  support diagnostic companies with data analysis, software development and software validation services during the development of diagnostic tests.

It’s all part of  helping diagnostic companies accelerate the deployment of their medical diagnostic applications.

Thomas holds a Bioinformatics PhD from the VU University Amsterdam and has extensive experience in the development of data-based solutions, the analysis of biological/medical as well as developing validated software for new medical diagnostic products.

Currently, Thomas is in charge of the planning, development and management of the analysis and IT infrastructure for Microbiome’s bacterial diagnostic product. In addition, Thomas is also responsible for the implementation of the Quality Management System at ClinicaGeno.

Thomas is new in town and is looking to make connections, so be sure to connect with him on LinkedIn.

Our Tectorian of the Week is the Mustard Seed Food Bank.

The Mustard Seed is a well-known non-profit organization fighting hunger and restoring faith in Greater Victoria.

Besides running the largest Food Bank on Vancouver Island, the Bay Street organization provides nutritious hampers to neighbours in need throughout the week.

Their skilled staff offer advocacy, counseling, addictions recovery, and many other resources.

From food to friendship, the Mustard Seed aims to meet the physical, relational, and spiritual needs of the whole person.

They have an active weekday drop-in centre that offers all sorts of services such as chapel, hair cutting, nursing, a clothing bank, access to home starter kits, and more.

The Mustard Seed regularly serves weekend meals and offer a host of other weekend activities.

Above all, the Mustard Seed is a place of acceptance and unconditional love. It’s a true fellowship aimed at cultivating a community of compassion where all are welcome.

Not only that, the Mustard Seed is the cornerstone of the Tectoria community, providing a home away from home to many people who need someplace to go.

2015 VIATeC Food Bank Challenge

It’s really easy for you to help out the Mustard Seed right now.

The VIATeC Food Bank Challenge runs right now from February 2nd to February 27th (the Food Bank Challenge is now open to companies outside of the Tech sector too).

A large percentage of our community members are employed families struggling to make ends meet.  Many families need our help.

Have your company sign up now to participate in this week to week points competition that raises food and cash for your local Mustard Seed.  This year, ALL greater Victoria companies are welcome!  Since its inception in 2002, $1,633,354.22 worth of food and cash has been donated from Greater Victoria Technology companies.

Email Devan at dmccannel@viatec.ca to accept the challenge, complete details can be found here.

Leo Spalteholz, engineering manager at CanAssist, is our Tectorian of the Week.

Leo has been involved with CanAssist since 2004, when he started as a volunteer (at the then-University of Victoria Assistive Technology Team writing an on-screen keyboard to be used with an eye tracking system.

Over the past decade, Leo has worked on and managed hundreds of projects for people with disabilities from simple equipment mounts to software apps for people with brain injuries and systems to prevent seniors with dementia from wandering.

 “Leo has taught me a great deal not only about how technology can be created and deployed to truly open doors to the world and provide a person with barriers the ability to do that which they had previously never thought possible.” – Mike Shannon

These days, Leo manages the engineering team at CanAssist, developing assistive technology for people with disabilities.

“Leo has dedicated his engineering career to the assistance of those less fortunate: the disabled,” says Mike Shannon, another noted tireless cheerleader for Tectoria who now serves as Director of Operations and Business Development at CanAssist.

“Leo has taught me a great deal not only about how technology can be created and deployed to truly open doors to the world and provide a person with barriers the ability to do that which they had previously never thought possible,” says Mike. “He has a broad spectrum of interests and always brings a unique point of view to any discussion be it technical or philosophical.”

CanAssist – formerly the University of Victoria Assistive Technology Team (UVATT) – was established in 1999 by long-time Tectorian Dr. Nigel Livingston.

Dr. Livingston was introduced to the disability community after his daughter, Hannah, was diagnosed with Angelman syndrome.

During his interactions with health-care practitioners and those with disabilities, he discovered the great need for assistive technologies that could be customized to meet the sometimes highly specific challenges of individuals. Such devices were not readily available due to factors such as the complex challenges involved in developing them, the cost of production and the limited market for them.

UVATT was formed to address this need by making use of the outstanding resources at the University of Victoria.

UVATT’s first project dates back to 1999, when Dr. Livingston and a volunteer staff member developed a finger-activated switch to control a cassette player.

Their client was a young man who had suffered a near-drowning accident as a child. Then a resident at the Queen Alexandra Centre for Children’s Health, he was blind, unable to talk or walk, and only able to partially move one finger. The device created allowed the young man to turn his tape recorder on and off independently.

By 2003, UVATT was receiving about 75 requests from the community for assistive technologies annually.

By 2014, the organization had engaged almost 6,000 students, through co-op, graduate and work study placements, presentations, course instruction, overseas study programs and volunteer opportunities. Likewise, many members of UVic faculty have engaged in CanAssist activities over the years, in areas such as research, classroom instruction, requests for technology development and the ongoing sharing of ideas and expertise.

CanAssist still regularly responds to requests from individuals in the community, but in recent years has also provided customized technology solutions to a number of organizations.

Reyna Jenkyns, leader of Ocean Networks Canada‘s Data Stewardship & Operations Support team (and a Giant Jenga competitor to be reckoned with) is our Tectorian of the Week.

Ocean Networks Canada is based at UVic and operates the  NEPTUNE and VENUS cabled ocean observatories. These underwater observatories collect data on physical, chemical, biological, and geological aspects of the ocean over long periods of time periods, supporting research on complex Earth processes in ways not previously possible.

Jenkyns is well-regarded by collaborators all over the world for creating and managing tools with other ocean data providers, for participating in cruise expeditions and collaborating with the oceanographic community, and for just generally helping wire the abyss.

Equally importantly we were very impressed with Reyna Jenkyns’ Giant Jenga skills.

After an intense, prolonged battle at the 2015 VIATeC New Year’s Party last week, Jenkyns narrowly missed winning two tickets to a Canucks game in Vancouver. It was all for a good cause, however – by playing in the tournament Jenkyns helped raise a ton of cash for the Mustard Seed Food Bank. That alone makes her and her partner prime candidates for a Tectorian nomination.

Jenkyns also has another common key Tectorian trait: she’s not from here originally, but moved to Victoria to take part in our booming tech scene.

She received her Bachelor of Mathematics in the Applied Mathematics Co-operative Program from the famed University of Waterloo. What to do next? Travel to Canada’s second largest oceans cluster to pursue a Master of Science in Ocean Physics at UVic, of course!

Jenkyns’ research area at UVic was “the transfer of momentum between internal tides and subinertial flow at a dissipating surface reflection.”

As a graduate student, she had the opportunity to collect oceanographic data on research cruises in coastal BC and the East Pacific Ocean. This fascination with water originates from childhood summers at Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Prior work experience spans companies specializing in oceanographic monitoring systems, aerospace engineering, and information technology.

One interesting perk of her job: Jenkyns has gone snorkeling in Iceland’s chilly waters.