Five early-stage, AI-enabled startups have graduated from the artificial intelligence stream of Platform Calgary’s Summer Incubator Program. The program is a student-focused initiative that received a $30,000 investment from the federal government in May.
“We hope the success of this program inspires the future growth of more early-stage AI startups here in Calgary.”
The AI incubator, which was delivered virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was aimed to educate founders on best practices, design patterns, and methodologies for AI solutions. The program took place over five workshop sessions and was targeted toward startups that currently are, or plan on, implementing AI within their core business model.
“The Summer AI Incubator, in collaboration with AltoSante, was key in introducing AI concepts to student companies early on in their journey,” said Mike MacDonald, advisor at Platform Calgary. “We hope the success of this program inspires the future growth of more early-stage AI startups here in Calgary.”
The AI incubator program provided the teams with lectures that introduced AI concepts, design thinking, best practises, discussion to apply concepts to their own ventures, one-on-one feedback.
“All the startups made significant progress in their understanding of AI development since the start of the program,” said Tim Cruz, data scientist at AltoSante, which is a partner on the AI incubator program. “We look forward to seeing the progress each of the graduates make as they begin to adopt AI within their companies. AltoSante and Platform Calgary are excited to continue working together to expand AI programming to further develop Calgary’s AI capacity.”
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The five graduating companies from the AI stream are:
Ivy Systems: A campus-specific mobile platform aimed to help students get the most out of their post-secondary experience.
JAMH: An AI toolkit to help users solve various problems. The startup is currently working on a summarization algorithm to help users save time and boost productivity.
Dodge Queue: A service aimed at mitigating bullying and harassment in online gaming.
Paintabotics: A robotic painting solution that looks to redefine how the collision industry paints products.
Chaos Solutions: Provides data analysis and software development designed to help investors identify and invest in ecologically and socially sustainable products.
The broader four-month Summer Incubator Program will see students, which have already been selected, receiving support, a virtual workspace with startup community peers, and experienced advisors, as well as formal programming throughout the summer. The program officially began on May 11.