Mackenzie and McGillvray knew the market for server space at data centres was set to skyrocket as remote or “cloud” computing became big business. Data centres allow companies to have access to a safe and fully serviced location for all of their computer equipment. They brought in Van Gaal, a talented designer of data centres who has worked with Telus and others. The three went to work designing the Ottawa facility and raising the $15 million in capital it would take to build it.

McGillvray credits Van Gaal’s foresight in planning the centre. The location in Kanata gives it access to more than 144 strands of fibre optic cable, allowing for nearly unlimited bandwidth. Two separate electrical grids feed into the building, ensuring continuity of services during a power failure. As well, the building will have a number of security features to safeguard its clients’ data.

In July 2013, Granite Networks received an investment from local IT services firm Grade A.

“Grade A saw an opportunity with our organization to better serve their client base and become involved with a rapidly growing organization, (in) a parallel industry to what they’re presently in,” said van Gaal.

With files from Ottawa Citizen and Ottawa Business Journal.

A co-founding partner in Fernando Hale & Chang LLP, Ron translated his engineering background into a thriving practice focused on patent procurement, technology licensing, IP due diligence studies, and strategic IP portfolio management. His clientele are engaged in a variety of technologies including consumer electronics, medical devices, software, mobile communication systems, alternative energy, e-commerce, imaging and quantum computing.

While at Carleton, Fernando received a Senate Medal for Electrical Engineering and a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council scholarship for graduate research.

Faculty of Engineering and Design graduates Dipak Roy, MEng/74, PhD/77, of D-TA Systems Inc. and Vinod Rajasekaran, BEng/05, of HUB Ottawa won in the categories of innovation-oriented enterprises and social enterprises, respectively. Carleton Science grad Obaid Ahmed, BMat/07 took the youth business entrepreneur award for his company OAK Computing.

“TIM provided us with the business knowledge that we as engineers need in order to create and grow early stage technology companies,” says Majic. “The program also provided connections, mentors and helped get early customers for my startup.”

He adds: “Being in Canada, it is a heck of a lot more difficult than being an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley in the United States. The TIM program really helps level the playing field.”

Majic’s company Ottercall.com is developing mobile language learning software and has already created some beta apps. “They are simple apps but they allowed me to validate my market and figure out what people want,” says Majic. “The next version is going to be awesome.”

Majic says the language software assesses and scores your pronunciation. The demo on the company website is an early version of the software that gives feedback on single words. Majic is now working on a version that has full sentences. “You really have a conversation with the app instead of just saying a word and it will give much more succinct feedback,” he explains.

The idea is that the user picks a theme which then shows related words and pictures. Users then listen to the pronunciation and tape themselves speaking the word. The speech recognition software then evaluates their pronunciation.

Majic says the TIM program also helped him to communicate more effectively about the value of his business proposition. “Pre-TIM I would say the value of our new mobile learning software is to improve language skills. Post-TIM I would say the value lies in helping people get jobs, travel, integrate into a new society.”

Majic recently participanted in the Carleton Entrepreneurs program. More details about that initiative are available at: http://ventures.carleton.ca/.

This kind of communication skillset is just one of the many ways the TIM program helps budding entrepreneurs get ahead of the competition.

Now he has graduated, Majic says that he will be focussing on his company full-time. But this time, with the knowledge that he has gleaned from the TIM program, he is feeling confident about pursuing his business goals and products.

Chi was recently at Carleton to meet with a small group of entrepreneurial students who pitched him ideas about growing new companies.

Read more in Carleton Now.

Hear the pitches:

Havelin Manju Anand, whose last two roles before retirement were as a director general at Status of Women and at Indian and Northern Affairs, was an award winner.

So was dentist Nalin Bhargava, whose charity work includes creating The Maharaja’s Ball. It returns to the gala scene in 2011 with a new partner: the Sens Foundation. Niraj Bhargava was honoured as co-founder, chairman and CEO of Energate, a company specializing in home energy-management solutions.

Praveen Jain, Canada Research chair in Power Electronics and director of the Centre for Energy and Power Electronics Research at Queen’s University, landed an award, as did Jag Humar, distinguished research professor and professor emeritus of engineering at Carleton University. He’s worked as a special consultant on such projects as the Rogers Centre and Aviation Museum.

Some 335 guests attended the dinner, including India’s deputy high commissioner, Narinder Chauhan; Senator Consiglio Di Nino; and parliamentary secretaries Deepak Obhrai and Pierre Poilievre.

Interest in the gala is growing due to strong relations between India and Canada’s governments, said ICOBC’s chairman, Dr. Pradeep Merchant, head of neonatology at The Ottawa Hospital’s Civic campus.

Carleton alumnus Matt Bamsey is one of 16 candidates selected by the Canadian Space Agency for its National Astronaut Recruitment Campaign.

Bamsey completed an undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering at Carleton in 2004. He is now pursuing a PhD in environmental biology at the University of Guelph and working at the CSA’s space science-planetary exploration division. He is researching life-support systems that will enable future space travellers to grow plants for food in extreme environments.

“The motivated learning environment at Carleton University really provided that solid engineering foundation and, more specifically, aerospace base that has allowed me to pursue exciting projects in the space domain and truly follow my dreams,” says Bamsey.

He was chosen from a recruitment pool of 5,300 people. Over the last several months, the CSA interviewed Bamsey and other candidates, putting them through a series of medical exams as well as physical and skills tests in sometimes extreme conditions to meet the demands of astronaut training and space flight.

Bamsey will find out in May if he will join Canada’s astronaut corps. If so, he will join the ranks of Carleton’s former chancellor, Marc Garneau, who was Canada’s first astronaut in space.
“We congratulate Matt on this great accomplishment,” says Rafik Goubran, dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Design at Carleton. “I guess you could say that his engineering training at Carleton is out of this world.”

CBC is running a contest asking people to vote for their favourite future astronaut. To vote for Matt, you can go to: http://www.cbc.ca/photogallery/canada/2062/