Most of us don’t understand the nuances, let alone the languages, of tech software programming, but we certainly can’t live without the end results. Last week, we looked at two new made-in-Vancouver businesses that are enjoying great success. This week, we look at two tech houses that are really taking off.
Atimi
You check it regularly, but perhaps did not know that the official Vancouver Canucks mobile app was developed by a local company. (Atimi has also developed apps for a roster of other NHL teams, including the just-launched Winnipeg Jets app, but don’t hold it against them.) Atimi’s apps allow sports fans to access live updates of scores and stats, news, schedules and video. For now, Vancouver fans are the only ones who get the goods, including locker room interviews, flowing to their iPads. In December, Atimi launched the Canucks HD iPad app. In February, they signed their first NBA team, the New York Knicks. The company’s applications are often featured on Apple’s App Store under categories such as What’s Hot and Top Free Sports.
What Makes It Viable?
Sports fans are one of the most passionate consumer groups. They want to know everything about their team the second it happens — if not sooner. Atimi’s innovative mobile sports framework makes that possible.
D–Wave
In 1999, Geordie Rose, founded D-Wave with the intention of discovering how powerful computers could be. Rose, who holds a PhD in theoretical physics from the University of B.C., wanted to make practical quantum computing a reality. After about five years of research, the company realized no one was going to build a quantum computer unless they did it themselves. So, D-Wave built a superconducting electronics foundry to produce the processors required to use quantum effects to compute. A team of scientists designed, fabricated and tested the processors. Last year, the company announced the commercial sale of its first quantum computer, to the global security and aerospace company Lockheed Martin.
What Makes It Viable?
Organizations will continue to demand stronger and faster computers, and D-Wave delivers. The company’s systems leverage the physics of quantum mechanics to address problems that are hard for traditional methods to solve in a cost-effective amount of time. Examples include software verification and validation, financial risk analysis, object recognition in images and medical imaging classification. Now that D-Wave has built the systems, they are finding more and more ways to use them — and will continue to do so.
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Image courtesy of Dano.
