Game Changer: The IDEaS Team, Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security, National Defence
IDEaS (Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security) is an access-to-innovation program conceived to augment the current defence R&D programs by a) increasing awareness of DND challenges in the innovation ecosystem to build capability, b) incentivizing innovators to steer their collective efforts toward the most difficult problems, and c) providing innovators the opportunity to demonstrate how their ideas might enhance defence...
Game Changer: Geneviève Allard, Project Manager, OpDAQ Systems
Geneviève Allard started working in the marine sector as a commercial diver and later pursued geographic studies that led to her work in academia. “As I worked on the development of research collaborations between academics and the industry, I found a need for a better understanding of how businesses use research to grow,” she said. Due to this desire,...
Game Changer: Ken Peterman, President, Government Systems, Viasat Inc.
Meet Ken Peterman, President of Government Systems at Viasat. He was selected as a Game Changer for the April/May 2018 issue of Vanguard. After graduating from college, Peterman decided to enter the defence electronics industry because of the exciting technology sector at that time. “The Department of Defense (DoD) and their contractors were inventing new capabilities, like satellite communications...
Game Changer: Farhoud Shirzadi, CEO, VSETA
As the Chief Executive Officer of VSETA, Farhoud Shirzadi is responsible for the development and validation of innovative business models by utilizing artificial intelligence and sensors to offer new services for smart buildings. “Since we spend the majority of our time indoors, the task of managing security and comfort of thousands of building occupants in large facilities is merely...
Game Changer: Jordan Kyriakidis, President and CEO, QRA Corp
About five years ago, Jordan Kyriakidis started out in the defence and security industry by working on a research project with Lockheed Martin on algorithm development. This development was about the verification of complex systems for both software and hardware. Due to the prevalence of software today, “verifying them is much more difficult,” Kyriakidis said. “Our initial core algorithm...
Game Changer: Dr. Ben Cecil, CEO, The Canadian Centre for Product Validation
As the Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Centre for Product Validation (CCPV) at Fanshawe College, Dr. Ben Cecil is responsible for virtually everything in his organization. “I jokingly tell folks that CEO stands for ‘chief everything officer.’ As a lean organization, that means we all wear a dozen hats,” Dr. Cecil said. He went on to add that...
