Waterloo welcomed industry professionals, academics, and students working in the field of nanotechnology to the campus on October 11th and 12th, to network and present on their recent research and projects. Being chosen as the host for this year’s conference was convenient, considering the recent opening of Waterloo’s Quantum-Nano Centre, which served as the event’s venue.
Among the headlining keynote speakers at the event was Waterloo professor Linda Nazar, who presented on the challenges of lithium battery research, and Toronto professor Ted Sargent, who founded InVisage, a fabless semiconductor company which works on creating effective image sensors. In between the keynotes were 15 minute presentations from researchers across Ontario who were selected for oral presentations. Recognizable from Waterloo were professors Juewen Liu and Kyle Daun, who presented on DNA-functionalized gold nanoparticles, and sizing of metallic nanoparticles respectively, and recent grad student Ryan Denomme, who presented on his master’s research which let him to found his company, Nicoya Lifesciences, earlier this year. Between the keynotes and smaller oral presentations, attendees were able to listen to summaries of research from multiple areas of the nanotechnology industry, and ask questions about the methods used and results found by the presenters.
To ensure others got a chance to present their research, the main hall and classrooms held over 100 posters from post-doctoral, PhD, graduate, and undergraduate students exhibiting either research in progress or completed research. Attendees were able to nominate up to three posters for a final award, based on which ones they thought were the most interesting or had the best visual presentation. The top prize went to a Waterloo graduate student in Mechanical Engineering, Tim Sipkens, whose work with professors Kyle Daun and Mikko Karttunen on nanoparticle sizing captured the most interest among attendees through a very eye-catching and informative poster.
To answer questions from attendees later during the day were four members of the nanotechnology industry. They provided insight into how researchers can move into the industrial field, which is a common question among those in the field of nanotechnology, as they try to figure out how their research can be commercialized in a nascent field. Savvas Chamberlain, a former professor at Waterloo who has founded his own business, noted that “[the Waterloo Institute of Nanotechnology] is providing a lot of opportunities for graduate students which is focusing on originality, [that] will lead to a lot of innovations with some of them being commercialized, and it will benefit not only the inventor, but society as well.” His sentiments on original ideas making it to the market were echoed by other members of the panel. However MaRS Innovation Commercialization Manager Fazila Seker made sure to comment that “not every good invention is a good product,” noting that often ideas that are researched are not very marketable, but may prove useful in other ideas that can be sold.
To round out the event, there were tours of the Quantum-Nano Centre and networking mixers to allow people to meet with others in the industry or academics. As an undergraduate sharing a poster, it was interesting to see what big researchers are working on, meet people in the nanotechnology field, and of course, seeing the home of the nanotechnology program. Next year’s event location is yet to be determined, but it should prove to be just as informative and eye-opening as this year’s event.
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