Friday, October 26

• D-Wave

  D-Wave was founded in 1999 with the goal of making practical quantum computing a reality. For 5 years the company worked to gather IP and ideas on all different aspects of this area. In 2004 the focus changed - it became apparent that simply creating good ideas about quantum computing and looking externally for a research team who would use this knowledge to build such a machine wouldn't work. No-one was willing to build the machine, so D-Wave decided to do it themselves. They assembled a team of scientists and built their own fabrication facility - a superconducting electronics foundry - to produce the processors required to use quantum effects to compute. In 2011, they created a dedicated applications team to put the quantum computers to work solving industry-scale classification, learning and optimization problems along with customers and collaborators. In May 2011, D-Wave sold its first Quantum Computing System to global security conglomerate Lockheed Martin.

• The Large Zenith Telescope

  The Large Zenith Telescope (LZT) is the world's largest rotating liquid mirror telescope. The LZT project began in 1994 as a collaboration began between scientists at UBC, Université Laval and the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris. The aim was to develop a zenith-pointing telescope employing a rotating liquid-metal primary mirror of at least 5-meters diameter, with which to conduct astronomical surveys. Since then, the project has grown to include astronomers at SUNY-Stony Brook and Columbia University. The principal scientific goals of the project are to measure spectral energy distributions and redshifts of over 100,000 galaxies and quasars, and to detect distant supernovae. These observations will allow us to study cosmology, the large-scale structure of the universe, and the evolution of galaxies.

• Boreal Genomics

  Boreal Genomics delivers innovative technologies that enable genetic analysis of the most challenging samples in life science research and clinical diagnostics. Their methods revolutionize approaches to total nucleic acid extraction and sequence-based allele enrichment with single nucleotide resolution. Their commercially-available Aurora system enables recovery of low abundance nucleic acids, even from heavily inhibited samples including challenging environmental matrices like oil sands, soil, sediments and contaminated water, stool, plant tissues and seeds, and difficult forensic casework specimens. Their unique SCODA technology also enables recovery of very high molecular weight DNA from 50 kb to over 1 Mb for cloning, library generation, and integration with other nucleic acid analysis technologies. Their OnTarget allele enrichment system revolutionizes detection and sequencing of rare somatic mutations from frozen tissue, FFPE or plasma samples; it enables reliable detection of both known and previously unknown rare variants below 0.01% abundance.

Saturday, October 27

• TRIUMF

  TRIUMF houses the largest cyclotron in the world and is one of the world's leading subatomic physics laboratories. With research groups in nuclear medicine, particle and nuclear physics, materials science, accelerator physics, and theory, it brings together dedicated physicists and interdisciplinary talent, sophisticated technical resources, and commercial partners in a way that has established the laboratory as a global model of success. Its large user community is composed of international teams of scientists, post-doctoral fellows, and graduate and undergraduate students. The advances ensuing from TRIUMF's research will enhance the health and quality of life of millions of Canadians, launch new high-tech companies, create new high specificity drugs, help us to understand the environment, enable the development of new materials, and spur the imaginations of our children who want to know their place in the universe.

• AMPEL

  Over 160 people work in AMPEL, from diverse disciplines including Chemistry, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Materials Engineering, Physics and Astronomy, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Dentistry and Biomedical Science. The main goal of AMPEL is to bring together top level basic and applied research groups working in a synergistic manner on leading edge research of materials, devices and processing sciences in a collaborative environment sharing both their expertise and the most advanced research facilities. Research areas include advanced fibrous materials, nanocomposites, biomedical microdevices, biophotonics, quantum materials, scanning probe microscopy, molecular mechatronics, electrochemistry, interface analysis, nanophotonics, electro-optics and photonics. AMPEL is also debuting a new graduate program - QuEST (Quantum Electronic Science and Technology). The aim of the QuEst program is to give students a broad technical basis and a well-rounded perspective of how their research in quantum materials can impact society through technology transfer to existing companies and to high-technology startups.

• MOST: Canada's First Space Telescope

• UBC Madison Group at the Quantum Degenerate Gases Laboratory

  The Quantum Degenerate Gas Laboratory is a part of the Center for Research on Ultra Cold Systems (CRUCS) at UBC. The focus of our research is on the production of laser cooled gases and their use in the study of quantum gases, the study of ultra-cold chemistry, and the realization of new sensor technologies based on cold atoms.

• UBC Quantum Devices Group

• UBC Seismic Laboratory for Imaging and Modelling