Media Releases

U of T unveils new TechnoLABS to support and train aspiring technopreneurs

November 12, 2012

TORONTO, ON — The Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to launched its Tech­no­LABS space today, part of a grow­ing ecosys­tem at the U of T that offers sup­port and train­ing for stu­dent and recent alum­ni who are lead­ing and build­ing com­pa­nies based on tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tions.

“Tech­no­LABS is a space ded­i­cat­ed to a new gen­er­a­tion of stu­dent entre­pre­neurs with strong sci­ence and engi­neer­ing back­grounds who are turn­ing their dis­cov­er­ies in the lab into prod­ucts and solu­tions that can ben­e­fit all Cana­di­ans”, says Cyn­thia Goh, Direc­tor of the Insti­tute for Opti­cal Sci­ences at the U of T.

Guest speak­ers at the inau­gur­al event includ­ed U of T alum­ni who have suc­cess­ful­ly run or launched tech­nol­o­gy com­pa­nies such as Graeme Fer­gu­son (co-founder of IMAX); Neil Reid (co-founder of Sci­ex); Vaugn Betz (founder of Right Track CAD); Tony Red­path (MaRS advi­sor and for­mer CEO of EcoPlas­tics); and Dar­ren Ander­son (co-founder and CTO of Vive Crop Pro­tec­tion).

“Tech­no­LABS essen­tial­ly accel­er­ates the process by which out­stand­ing fun­da­men­tal sci­ence car­ried out at the uni­ver­si­ty is trans­lat­ed into tan­gi­ble eco­nom­ic ben­e­fits,” says Goh.

Tech­no­LABS is housed in the U of T’s Bant­i­ng & Best Cen­tre for Inno­va­tion and Entre­pre­neur­ship, which fos­ters and encour­ages the devel­op­ment of stu­dent and alum­ni-led research.

“Knowl­edge is the University’s most valu­able asset. But before soci­ety can reap the rewards, knowl­edge has to be com­mer­cial­ized and brought to mar­ket through entre­pre­neur­ship,” says Goh.

-30-

For more infor­ma­tion con­tact:

Scott McAuley
Insti­tute for Opti­cal Sci­ences
Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
Tel: (416) 819‑4194
smcauley@optics.utoronto.ca

Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Media Rela­tions
Tel: (416) 978‑0100
media.relations@utoronto.ca