Tech Roundup Review: July 2018

Every Tuesday morning we publish the Tech Roundup, a newsletter full of the latest headlines & upcoming events in Edmonton’s technology community. In addition to the curated, easy-to-scan lists of news and events, each edition includes one or two featured items which are the updates highlighted below. Sign up here to get the Tech Roundup by email each week.

Edmonton’s hot summer festival season doesn’t appear to have stifled activity in the local tech community! Welcome to our look back at the busy month of July 2018 as captured by our Tech Roundups.

July 3

We started with a look at Transport Canada’s commitment of $500,000 for automated vehicle research at the University of Alberta. The funding is part of Transport Canada’s new $2.9 million ‘Program to Advance Connectivity and Automation in the Transportation System’. We also highlighted a Borealis AI video shot here in Edmonton on why games like Atari “are a crucial way to learn how to solve much bigger, more complex problems.”

July 10

We noted the expansion of Rainforest Alberta‘s Lunch without Lunch Edmonton to two events per month. We also included a brief overview of the Challenger City event that brought business, government, and community leaders together to explore how to make Edmonton a top 5 global city for artificial intelligence. We’ll have much more on the initiative in the months ahead.

July 17

We covered Showbie’s acquisition of Socrative, its first since launching in 2012. Showbie, which makes digital tools for learners and educators, revealed that it now has “over 3 million users in over 140 countries and is available in 14 languages.”

July 24

We highlighted two startup announcements: Visio Media, which makes a digital elevator advertising solution, is expanding to Toronto and Calgary; and SAM, which uses artificial intelligence to help news organizations make sense of real-time social media updates, is among the first to use Snap’s new API.

July 31

We closed the month with the news that LoginRadius raised $17 million, and we highlighted their previous praise for and criticism of Edmonton’s startup ecosystem. We also looked at the Edmonton International Airport’s new digital strategy that carries the tagline “Reimagined by AI”. At the Smart Airports conference they showcased new autonomous all-terrain vehicles that will patrol the perimeter security fence of the airport.

Popular Clicks

These were the top 5 most clicked on items from the month:

• LoginRadius co-founder Rakesh Soni’s list of 5 things that are hurting Edmonton’s tech startup ecosystem.
• A sponsored article by EEDC’s Cheryll Watson on the cutting edge innovation found in Edmonton.
• Warren Johnston’s announcement that he was leaving Startup Edmonton to join Amii.
• A tweet about the ATB X Accelerator program that was piloted in Edmonton in June.
• A story about the University of Alberta’s new MOOC on Problem Solving, Programming and Video Games.

That’s a wrap on July! Sign up here to get the Tech Roundup by email every Tuesday morning.