Your Canadian Geospatial Briefing for December 11th: Canadian AI; GeoNorth; Acadian archeology; DDC; CubeWerx

Canada is losing its edge in AI

Canadian companies risk becoming irrelevant or absorbed if they don’t hasten to adopt to new technology. According to Accenture’s 10-country survey of 305 business leaders, Canada lags behind the United States, China and the United Kingdom when it comes to adopting AI, despite the fact that half of all early-stage deals in the third quarter of 2018 were with AI companies. AI has the power to make businesses more efficient and create durable economic advantages, and failure to keep in step with other countries use of the resource will result in losing supply. Machine and deep learning technology can fit into a wide range of businesses by processing data, picking up on patterns, and making predictions, and Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft Corp are just a few of the major companies that have adopted them. AI tools like Logojoy and Omnia AI practice are available to help drive value for businesses, and Canada needs to get on board in order to attract and keep tech giants here at home.

GeoNorth receives $15 million from NGA

The U.S. has awarded GeoNorth Information Systems a five-year contract for surveillance services in the Arctic region. GeoNorth will leverage Lockheed Martin’s Rosetta technology, which includes processing tools that scale and adapt to deliver geospatial intelligence products to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. As the Arctic has significant implications for environmental, security, and economic factors for both Canada and the United States, it requires the best technologies for surveillance purposes; GeoNorth will perform project management, conduct day-to-day operations, and provide access to commercial remote-sensing platforms through its receiving station. Jon Heinsius, general manager of GeoNorth says “The Cooperative’s combined academic and commercial approach provides the NGA with tremendous flexibility to meet their current and future needs.”

Mapping the Acadians

Mapannapolis, the NSCC’s Applied Geomatics Research Group, Boreas Heritage Consulting, and Parks Canada have come together to locate the gravesites of up to 2000 Acadians who are buried at Fort Anne National Historic Site in Annapolis Royal. The Halifax archeological consulting firm Boreas applied their ground-penetrating radar unit to study what lay beneath the ground while the Applied Geomatics Research group operated drones to create 3-D imaging of the cemetery above ground and Mapannapolis brought its cartography background to explore one of the most significant graveyards in Canada. The three-dimensional mapping will penetrate to one millimeter of precision, and provide information on the people buried at Fort Anne. By mid-December, most of the essential data will be completed and the three companies will have to decide what to do with the data from the site.

Moose Cree First Nation signs agreement with DDC

The drone company Drone Delivery Canada (DDC) has sealed a $2.5 million commercial agreement with the Moose Cree First Nation to deploy DDC’s drone delivery technology platform with the community. DDC will use the Sparrow aircraft to transport letters, parcels, medical supplies and other necessities between the communities. Tony Di Benedetto, CEO of Drone Delivery Canada, said: “This agreement is representative of the large ‘Remote Communities’ market that we see penetrating over the next 3 to 5 years. The Remote Communities market is only one segment of the overall total addressable market in Canada.” Canada’s remote communities face infrastructure and logistics challenges that contribute to prohibitively high living costs, and DDC aims to provide a cost-effective and efficient solution, improving lives and creating jobs in Canada’s north.

CubeWerx named a Standard Tier Technology Partner

Worldwide leader in geospatial web services CubeWerx, Inc has announced its achievement of Standard Tier Technology Partner status in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner Network (APN). The APN is focused on helping APN Partners build successful AWS-based solutions; the designation of “AWS Consulting Partner” requires a proven track record of client satisfaction in addition to other technical and business certifications. CubeWerx’s platform gives organizations the ability to manage and protect their data while also making it available to their clients through open web services or direct download. This new status gives CubeWerx more options for developing products and services on the cloud platform, and greater access to cloud-first organizations using AWS.