As a Mitacs intern and PhD candidate, Helge Seetzen and his team developed a new way to control the brightness of visual screens; they sold their research technology to audio and cinema giant Dolby Laboratories. Drawing on his Mitacs experience in R&D, in 2010 Helge formed a new company, TandemLaunch, which helps young scientists and entrepreneurs transform their ideas into profitable businesses. TandemLaunch received the Mitacs Industry Award for Outstanding Leadership.
Following his Mitacs internship experience with CM Labs, McGill University alumnus Kamran Ghaffari launched Touché Technologies. The new company is developing precision robotic devices that assist surgeons in complex tasks with force feedback.
Mitacs is a not-for-profit organization that fosters growth and innovation in Canada by solving business challenges with research solutions from the best academic institutions at home and around the world.
For 20 years Mitacs has built an ecosystem of partners that helps businesses achieve breakthrough results, supports essential talent acquisition for growing companies, and prepares researchers for rewarding industry-focused careers. Not to mention, Mitacs provides a blueprint for entrepreneurial-minded researchers to forge their own paths.
Mind Alive partnered with McGill University researcher Derek Albert through a Mitacs internship to examine an audio-visual training technology for its potential to reduce test-taking anxiety among students.
CCM Hockey partnered with École de téchnologie supérieure researcher Anne- Laure Ménard to develop new, customized ice-skate designs using 3-D scanning technology, supported by a Mitacs fellowship.
The dedicated business development team in Montreal has supported thousands of internships by connecting innumerable partners. Talented graduate students and academic researchers from universities work with companies and organizations of all sizes to advance research and development.
At Desjardins, for instance, Mitacs projects support research focused on talent acquisition in the finance and insurance sectors. Mitacs interns address challenges – they take real-world, industry concerns and provide data-driven, empirically tested solutions to the company. In smaller companies, Mitacs interns address a host of challenges, providing individualized solutions specific to the business client’s needs. For example, Mitacs interns developed robotic drones to support humanitarian efforts, high-tech headphones that prevent hearing loss, customized ice skates, and a mental health treatment that’s like a “GPS for the brain.”
With a focus at the crux of R&D, Mitacs proudly supports innovation in Montreal and across Canada. Together with our ecosystem of researchers and industry partners, we look forward to a prosperous future.
