With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1222419
W I N N E R JULIE ANGUS C E O , O P E N O C E A N R O B O T I C S JULIE ANGUS HAS LONG been interested in the ocean and how small boats perform in it. That makes sense, given that the Victoria resident says she has spent more than 10,000 hours in such vessels, becom- ing the first woman to row across the Atlantic Ocean from mainland to mainland, when she and her husband, Colin Angus, made the trek in the mid-'00s. All that experience has come in handy with her latest venture, Open Ocean Robotics. Founded with Colin in 2018, the company develops autonomous un-crewed boats equipped with sensors, cameras and communi- cation devices to collect data and instantly relay it. "Over 80 percent of our oceans are unmapped and unexplored," says Angus, who holds an MSc in molecular biol- ogy from UVic. "That poses a lot of challenges, but with autono- mous, renewable technology like ours, our boat can go offshore at all times, in all conditions, and collect that data," adds the CEO, whose nine staff work out of the Vancouver Island Technology Park, a UVic-sponsored venture that houses some 50 companies. "It's greatly increasing our ability to understand the environment and help industries operate more sustainably, and also offers an alternative to be able to collect this information without greenhouse gas emis- sions and risk of oil spills." Currently, Open Ocean is moving into the pilot stage and toward prototyping some vessels. This spring, it will also do mapping with the coast guard, using acoustics and multi-beam sonar to capture the sea floor so ships can avoid running aground. "Canada has the longest coastline in the world, and to be an innovator in this space is really important for the country," Angus says. "Autonomous technology can overcome a lot of the challenges that we currently have protecting and monitoring our coastline." —N.C. F I N A L I S T CARLYN LONCARIC F O U N D E R + C E O , V O D A S A F E THE IDEA FIRST POPPED into Carlyn Loncaric's head when she was lifeguarding to support herself through an engineering degree at SFU. The biggest fear for her and colleagues: "If you were guarding a camp and you see a child go under, the chance of finding them felt hopeless. I thought we could do better." • So in 2014, after earning a master's in microelectromechanical systems, Loncaric founded Vancouver-based VodaSafe, whose handheld AquaEye lets rescuers assess a scene and identify potential victims within seconds of entering the water. Since the full product launched last year, Coquitlam-raised Loncaric has been working with the Vancouver Police Department and Central Fraser Valley Search and Rescue, among others, to perfect it. She also hopes to bring the AquaEye to the consumer market. • "I feared business because I thought it was ruthless and everybody was out to get you," Loncaric admits. "But it's so supportive. You make a phone call and ask for help, and people are offering their time just to give you a hand." —N.C. APRIL 2020 BCBUSINESS 37