Centech
Dedicated to high-tech (deeptech) companies with high growth potential, Centech is a world-class business incubator based in Montreal.
Centech is a non-profit organization open to everyone and offers two support programs for startups: the Acceleration program (12 weeks), then the strongest potentials are selected to get into the Propulsion program (24 months).
Since 2018, Centech has its own open innovation hub, Collision Lab, where large corporations are supported to integrate technology projects thanks to the agility of startups and the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Centech performs particularly well in the fields of medical technology, manufacturing, telecoms and microelectronics and other intelligent objects.
In 2019, Centech was recognized by UBI Global as one of the most successful university incubators in the world.
Centech & AI
In 2020, Centech has greatly strengthened its position as a major player in applied artificial intelligence (AI).
First, Centech was accredited by Scale AI, Canada’s AI supercluster, to support up to 30 startups developing supply chain AI solutions until March 2023. These startups will receive specialized AI expertise as early as possible during their product development to maximize their chances of commercial success.
Also, through its own open innovation hub, Collision Lab, Centech is supporting large companies that are willing to innovate in AI and collaborate with startups.
We can mention the Thales group, which has been operating the [email protected] program since 2019. This program aims to accompany AI startups for a period of 6 months in order to support them in their product development and also to offer them privileged access to Thales’ digital and international business ecosystem.
More recently, in December 2020, the pharmaceutical group Servier has opened an AI hub within the Collision Lab. The creation of this hub aims at financing partnership and co-development agreements with AI startups.
Finally, in order to meet the growing needs of large companies and SMEs for the realization of the first concrete use cases in AI, Centech is adding the HubIA initiative to its Collision Lab service offering.
This initiative, which is open to all, enables established companies to acquire methodological tools and rare expertise in order to develop customized AI solutions applied to generate value quickly and at reduced cost. The key steps of the turnkey support are as follows:
• Training, brainstorming and call for ideas to demystify AI and help the members of the organization to identify opportunities for value creation in their activities;
• Structuring ideas into projects to reduce risks and to better prioritize them according to their impact and technical feasibility
• Verifying the quality, quantity and accessibility of the data required before investing more in the project to reduce risk
• Testing the feasibility of the potential AI solution through a proof of concept to limit risks and demonstrate impact and potential ROI
HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF COMPANIES USING AI AND PROPELLED BY CENTECH.
At HAXIO, our main mission is to help manufacturing companies reduce the costs of non-quality production by empowering them with the easiest-to-deploy deep learning based vision solution for quality control processes. By deploying our solution typically composed of an imaging system (camera, light and lens), an edge computing device and FactorySight, our proprietary vision software, SME manufacturers are able to monitor their lines of production and ensure defective-free products.
Unlike currently available software building on more traditional deep learning technology, Haxio has developed a novel approach in continuous learning that allows a manufacturing company to continuously improve a model on a daily/weekly basis by only using new images coming from production. With continuous learning, HAXIO empowers manufacturers to remove the support burden of vision systems by retraining their model incrementally, directly on the edge, with less than 100 images.
Perceiv AI is a Montreal-based firm transforming clinical research by turning data from diverse patients with complex diseases into actionable insights. Patient heterogeneity can lead to drugs being given to the wrong patients, whether in healthcare settings or in clinical trials. Perceiv AI achieves better patient outcomes through our AI-driven digital biomarker platform that characterizes and forecasts patient prognoses and responses to treatment by leveraging multiple readily available modalities. With unparalleled access to longitudinal imaging and genetic data, we can better predict patient outcomes, while being highly modular and adaptable to different applications and diseases. Our core team’s expertise is in artificial intelligence, pharmacology, and clinical research.
Sollum Technologies was founded in 2015 and found inspiration in nature to offer greenhouse producers the only smart LED lighting solution which dynamically recreates, augments and modulates the full spectrum of the Sun’s natural light. It is based in Montréal (Québec, Canada), where it conducts design, development and manufacturing activities.
Sollum’s solution
• A smart LED light fixture which recreates the full spectrum of the Sun’s natural light cycle with unparalleled precision.
• A cloud-based platform – SUN as a Service® – based on smart algorithms which control the fixtures. It enables the creation of an infinite number of light recipes adapted to each plant in order to cultivate produce in greenhouses, regardless of their native climate.
• An advanced spectral compensator that completes the programmable spectrum feature with artificial intelligence. The module receives data from different sensors and other sources, integrates the grower’s objectives and produces a light spectrum that meets production objectives and optimizes energy savings in real time.
Canscan is a Canadian artificial intelligence software company that uses machine vision, artificial intelligence and existing infrastructure to automate visual inspection processes in ports, container depots and intermodal yards.
With the help of Canscan’s technology, clients can automatically identify, track and assess the condition of shipping containers and vehicles in real time.
Canscan operates for the maritime shipping industry and logistics industries.
