Cochrane firm shatters energy reliance
As the consequences of our resource- weighted economy are felt on a daily basis, calls for an economic diversification strategy at both the provincial and federal levels are mounting.
The suggestions range from the predictable — more value- added activities in the oilpatch and incentives to grow the petrochemical sector, for example — to the opportunity for Alberta to become a centre of excellence for all things energy, renewable and non- renewable.
Others want to see Alberta reduce its resource dependency and apply the underlying science of the energy sector to other areas and industries.
The Alberta government’s announced diversification plan this week is a step in the right direction, but it needs a twopronged approach; one that captures a greater portion of the value of Alberta’s natural resources while leveraging our vast scientific knowledge.
A Cochrane company, 4iiii Innovations, is an excellent example of what that could look like.
Last month, 4iiii signed an agreement to become the official 2016 “supplier of power measurement” to the Etixx — Quick- Step Pro Cycling Team.
This means 4iiii is supplying the cycling team with power sensors that are mounted on the inside of the cranks ( to which the pedals are attached) on its bicycles. The sensors weigh only 11 grams, and because they’re mounted where the power is generated, the data is most accurate since nothing is lost in transmission.
With the agreement, 4iiii joined the ranks of 17 other companies supporting Etixx — QuickStep, which competes in professional road races around the world, including the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France.
Specialized supplies Etixx — Quick- Step with its bicycles, leading to speculation that if the product performs seamlessly, Specialized could one day offer the sensors on its line of bicycles.
Cycling enthusiasts will recognize this is big news for 4iiii since the Etixx — Quick- Step deal validated its power- measuring technology while capturing the attention of Alberta’s burgeoning cycling community, many of whom have been early adopters of fitness technology. But it goes beyond that. As Alberta struggles with its one- trick economy, 4iiii is an excellent example of what’s possible in terms of diversification. Its technology could be applied in many ways — far beyond measuring the wattage a cyclist can generate.
At the heart of the 4iiii technology is a signal processing system, which, as every engineer, physicist and math wizard knows, has its origins in mathematical functions.
The fact it involves both hardware and software means it integrates mechanical and electrical engineering, with the underlying math acting as the glue that makes the device function.
It’s a tad intimidating to walk the halls of 4iiii, in a low- key office space in Cochrane. White boards in offices are filled with equations written by company employees who span the spectrum from geomatics to astrophysics.
Company founders Victoria Brilz and Kip Fyfe are engineering graduates from the University of Waterloo who developed a side business building clone computers during a co- op term at Ottawa’s Mitel in the 1980s. That was their first taste of entrepreneurship.
The second came when the pair — having both logged time at NovAtel where Kip worked on GPS and operating systems for cellphones — founded a company called Dynastream that in 2000 introduced the first accelerometer-based speed and distance monitor for runners.
Running — and cycling — would never be the same.
Dynastream’s mainstream hit was the foot pod, pioneered in Nike running shoes back in 2000 when the company sought a software protocol that would connect with its Triax watch to track time, distance and pace.
From there, it developed ANT+, an ultra low power wireless technology that was able to ‘ talk’ to a number of different devices.
“The foot pod was the world’s first foot pod. Ant+ was the world’s first low- power intraoperable wireless product — a precursor to Bluetooth Smart,” says Brilz.
The vision behind ANT+, she explains, was that consumers should be able to buy whatever fitness monitoring product they desired without being beholden to one line, as the manufacturers wanted. In other words, it was an open source approach.
The result, says Brilz, is the ability for different products to “talk to each other.”
They can be upgraded ‘ over the air,’ which means a product like the company’s heart- rate monitor doesn’t become obsolete, but can also have more features downloaded to it.
“It’s all been designed for simplicity. It’s complicated on our side to make it simple for the user,” said Brilz.
And there is more to 4iiii than only power meters.
It’s about developing products that make a difference.
One of Brilz’ proudest moments came when Dynastream established a relationship with Ossur, a prosthetic manufacturer in Iceland.
Its work with Ossur put Dynastream on the front page of Popular Science magazine for its innovation in the area of smart ankles — the first in 20 years.
The end product was a mechanical ankle with an integrated sensor that enabled users to walk down stairs, put on a pair of pants without having to remove the prosthetic or even change the angle to accommodate wearing heels.
Other than simplicity of use, another of the attractions of the software technology underpinning ANT+ is its accuracy.
“Accuracy is one of our hallmarks ... it has to be 99.5 per cent accurate, ” Brilz says.
“Everybody should be an athlete, connected to their body and their activity. If you don’t get meaningful data, it’s not repeatable, it’s not worth anything,” she said.
In other words, it’s back to the adage of “if you can measure it, you can manage it.”
In 2006, Garmin — the company known for its cycling computers, fitness watches, monitoring devices and yes, a competing product that measured power output from cycling pedals — bought Dynastream for $ 36 million and now employs 100 people in Cochrane.
The irony is that 4iiii today occupies the same space where Dynastream began.
The success of 4iiii goes against the perception that Canadians are not aggressive in marketing their products outside their own country.
Without Fyfe and Brilz connecting with potential customers around the world — including having the chutzpah as a small outfit to submit a pitch to Nike for the business that turned into the foot pod system — it’s questionable if they would have achieved the necessary exposure for their products.
The company is also an excellent example of the brain trust that exists within Alberta, which can and must be unpacked and applied in industries and disciplines outside the energy sector. That’s true today more than ever.
The province risks losing a generation of young, educated and talented people if we can’t think outside the energy silo. What’s needed is a deliberate commitment — to fostering an applied science ecosystem that draws on the deep knowledge base and moves the province away from being dependent on a commodity cycle to one that becomes a hub of innovation.
Meanwhile, all eyes will be on the Etixx — Quick- Step team at the Tour de France and other races this season as they become unlikely ambassadors of Alberta’s diversification potential.