Newsletter
British Columbia Innovation Council Announces New CEO
Dean Rockwell's appointment and return, part of B.C.'s "brain gain"
Hector MacKay-Dunn, Q.C., Chair, British Columbia Innovation Council (BCIC), is pleased to announce the appointment of R. Dean Rockwell as Chief Executive Officer.
2008 BCIC Awards Dinner Highlights
Above (L-R): Mr Gordon Gore, Dr. Marco Marra, Dr. Karl Otto, the Honourable Murray Coell, the Honourable Iain Black, the Honourable Ida Chong, Mr. Jack Kobelt, BCIC Board Chair Mr. Hector MacKay-Dunn, Q.C., Drs. Mark Martinez, Robert Gooding, Carl Ollivier-Gooch and James Olson.
The 2008 BCIC Awards Dinner on September 29, 2008 recognized vital innovations happening in B.C. View highlights from the event in a feature spread in today's Vancouver Sun and Province.
B.C.’s Top Young Scientists Explore Innovation
Above: 2008 Innovation Exploration students and delegates, 2008 BCIC award winners, the Honourable Ida Chong, the Honourable Murray Coell, Hector MacKay-Dunn, Q.C., Dean Rockwell, Patti Leigh, Robert Carveth, Soren Harbel and special guests.
Science fair winners who represented B.C. at the Canada-Wide Science Fair in May 2008 gathered in Vancouver for Innovation Exploration, a program produced by BCIC in cooperation with the Science Fair Foundation of British Columbia. From September 27 to 29, the three-day event allowed students to meet and network with leaders from B.C.'s science and technology community. The agenda focused on ideas, education, and career development, followed by student attendance at the 2008 British Columbia Innovation Council Awards.
Congratulations to the New Ventures BC Award Winners
Above (L-R): New Ventures BC 's Bob deWit, BCIC's Soren Harbel, Saltworks Technologies' Ben Sparrow and Joshua Zoshi, and BC Hydro's Bev Van Ruyven.
BCIC congratulates the ten finalists and the winning "green" technology ideas of the New Ventures BC competition.
With a contribution of $200,000 in Proof of Concept Awards, BCIC's title sponsorship of the competition in April 2008 brought the grand prize winnings to a total of $335,000-making this technology business idea competition the largest in North America.
Science, Technology and B.C.’s Creative Industries
Above: The first annual SPARK Animation Festival in full swing in Vancouver.
In September 2008, BCIC supported the Vancouver Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group for Computer Graphics (ACM SIGGRAPH) with $50,000. ACM SIGGRAPH is the world's first and largest society serving computer graphics researchers, professionals, and artists worldwide. The Vancouver chapter is the most active in the world and is celebrating its successful launch of the first annual SPARK Animation Festival held September 10 to 14 in Vancouver.
The World’s Energy Future and B.C.’s Coast
Above: A Clean Current Power Systems prototype installation at Race Rocks in Victoria, B.C. is a scaled version of the large generator being designed for "Fundy Testing" in Nova Scotia. (Photo credit: Clean Current Power Systems)
BCIC is taking an active role in ensuring B.C. is keeping a strong focus on the energy, environmental and economic benefits that come from being a leader in the ocean energy sector. Instrumental in creating B.C.'s Ocean Renewable Energy Group (OREG), BCIC supports the group's work in positioning B.C. researchers and ocean sector companies at the forefront of the world market.
Paul and Helen Trussell Science & Technology Scholarship – Winner Announced
BCIC is pleased to announce Gwen Bailey of Cranbrook, B.C. as the 2008 recipient of the Paul and Helen Trussell Science & Technology Scholarship. She is currently an undergraduate student in the Faculty of Science at the University of British Columbia with a strong enthusiasm for science and a career in environmental chemistry.
