Olga Koppel
A Founder,
EcoSafeSense
PhD Candidate, Conservation Biology,
uOttawa
From concept to startup and beyond, the University of
Ottawa’s research and innovation support transformative projects that are reshaping the world.
Canadian organizations and industries face many complex challenges, such as climate change risks, cybersecurity, AI threats, rising energy costs, and supply chain issues. Solving these challenges requires new ways of thinking and doing through innovation.
Research and innovation play key roles in helping Canadian organizations and industries to solve complex problems. But more than that, they have an impact on creating a better future for communities in Canada and around the world. The catalysts to bringing new discoveries and inventions to society are research institutions like the University of Ottawa.
Driving impact beyond academia
uOttawa ranks among Canada’s top 10 research universities, with 26 core facilities providing cutting-edge technology and expertise to partners in academia, government, and industry. Its 20 research centres and institutes advance knowledge across diverse disciplines to address pressing societal challenges. Its world-class researchers are constantly redefining how to move discovery and innovation beyond academic circles.
One way is through entrepreneurial partnerships via the Entrepreneurship Hub (eHub). The eHub helps researchers and students take their idea from concept to startup and beyond by providing access to a supportive community of people and programs designed to form strategic partnerships and develop entrepreneurial skills.
Through the eHub’s Startup Garage year-round accelerator program, for example, entrepreneurs can benefit from peer-to-peer networks, mentorship, advisory services, capital, space, and resources to help them take their idea from concept to launch to growth. The program’s curriculum supports entrepreneurs at all levels within any context or industry, making it ideal for students, researchers, and recent alumni.
EcoSafeSense: from research to meaningful impact
EcoSafeSense is a recent success story to emerge from the eHub’s Startup Garage. The company is focused on improving air quality monitoring through real-time data collection using cutting-edge hardware and dedicated AI analytics. The idea was borne from the two founders’ mission to contribute to a more sustainable and data-driven Canada after discovering the tangible health and economic benefits of urban green spaces. “Both the peer-reviewed research and internationally displayed data show these can yield real dividends,” says Olga Koppel, one of EcoSafeSense’s founders and a PhD candidate in conservation biology at uOttawa.
Unlike traditional monitoring stations, which provide limited city-wide data, EcoSafeSense’s air sensors can track micro changes in pollutants like ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and CO2 in a specific area and provide localized insights and recommendations to aid with decision-making and urban planning.
Scaling innovation through
research partnerships
As EcoSafeSense expands its sensor
deployments and customer base, it continues to uncover new applications for its technology. One of those is in autonomous vehicles.
The company is currently participating in uOttawa’s partnership with the Kanata North Business Association on an autonomous shuttle program, installing sensors inside and outside the vehicle to report on environmental conditions in real time.
Koppel sees plenty of other potential applications in the future. “It could be used to test optimal temperature and humidity levels for certain species, trees, or insects or in a retirement home to detect the presence of a pathogen and enable the staff to get ahead of it before it spreads,” she says.
It could be used to test optimal temperature and
humidity levels for certain species, trees, or insects or in a retirement home to detect the presence of a pathogen and enable the staff to get ahead of it
before it spreads.
Whether you want to commercialize an idea, scale up your operations, or anything in between, partnering with uOttawa can help turn cutting-edge research into real-world solutions.
Learn more about how uOttawa fosters innovation through industry partnerships and research-driven entrepreneurship by visiting uottawa.ca/research-innovation/entrepreneurship-hub.
