As Executive Director of SmartICE Carolann Harding says, “We are a social enterprise first and foremost, and we take that very seriously. To us, maximizing a positive social impact with our community partners is our top priority.”
The Start of SmartICE
As climate change began causing ice conditions to become less predictable and more dangerous, Professor Trevor Bell of Memorial University started working with the Nunatsiavut government in Labrador in 2009 on the issue of safe ice travel and transportation. As ice becomes thinner and snowfall becomes greater, the likelihood of ice flooding with seawater increases, making the ice dangerous to traverse. As Professor Bell recalls, people were falling through the ice, and the incidences of search-and-rescue missions in the Nunatsiavut area increased. The need to create technology to allow for safe ice travel without replacing Inuit knowledge became clear.
It was this partnership, along with an Arctic Inspiration Prize grant in 2016, that allowed for SmartICE to transition from a university project to a social enterprise. SmartICE is the world’s first climate-change adaption tool, and it combines traditional knowledge of sea ice with remote monitoring technology and data acquisition. Combining these two approaches gives northern communities intel on sea-ice thickness and local ice conditions, showing them real-time measurements of sea-ice thickness on a phone application. This ultimately allows community members to see which routes are safe to travel across, and which routes should be avoided.
Mitacs initially partnered with SmartICE, which won a Governor General Innovation Award last year, by connecting recent engineering graduate Tyler Spurrell to the company, and Spurrell has since gone on to become employed full time as the Manager of Technical Operations at SmartICE.
SmartICE-Mitacs partnership continues
Mitacs and SmartICE have recently partnered on a new project that aims to advance SmartICE’s research and development initiatives. Postdoctoral fellow Anne Irvin, under the supervision of Professor Bell and through a Mitacs fellowship, is helping SmartICE expand its services for the benefit of Inuit communities by testing an instrument to map slush on ice. Another issue that affects people travelling across snow is dropping into slush, which overlies very thin ice. Anne is testing how slush develops along community trails, and how thick it is. As Professor Bell says, “Anne is using her sciences degrees to benefit society, and really mobilizing her knowledge to support action.”
Innovative technology and programs lead to local employment
Not only does SmartICE’s innovative technology positively impact northern communities’ safety, the technology offers local employment opportunities to build the resources necessary for the SmartICE sensors and buoys. SmartICE offers a unique pre-employment training program to the local youth that they employ in partner communities.
Shawna Dicker, Northern Logistics Coordinator for SmartICE and full-time student at Memorial University, shared that the inaugural eight-week program was “absolutely amazing. The youth were given the opportunity to see different and innovative ways to work with and within nature and the environment, and it was wonderful to see their leadership skills and confidence blossom.”
This unique pre-employment training program currently hosts its second cohort of students. All participants from the first cohort progressed to full-time employment or returned to school with goals of seeking higher education.
Future partnering
SmartICE hopes that as their organization grows, so does its positive partnerships with the communities that deploy their technology.
As Shawna Dicker, who is Inuit from Nunatsiavut, says, “Everything is built on trust. We spread the word with the town council, the local RCMP, local businesses in the area that we are here to have a positive impact. We hire from within the community and we give back to the community, and we ensure that we are always staying true to that.”
Professor Bell echoes Shawna’s sentiments, emphasizing that “a crucial principle of SmartICE is self-determination by the Inuit community. This is not an instance of people from the south coming in to a community, deploying new technology, and leaving again. We hire and train community members to use SmartICE technology themselves, and to use it in combination with their knowledge. This is a shining example of how technology and traditional living knowledge can operate together.”
Mitacs is funded by the Government of Canada, the Government of Alberta, The Government of British Colombia, Research Manitoba, the Government of New Brunswick, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Government of Nova Scotia, the Government of Ontario, Innovation PEI, the Government of Quebec, the Government of Saskatchewan.
Do you have a business challenge that could benefit from a research solution? If so, contact Mitacs today to discuss partnership opportunities: BD@mitacs.ca
Mitacs
Mitacs empowers Canadian innovation through effective partnerships that deliver solutions to our most pressing problems. By driving economic growth and productivity, we create meaningful change to improve quality of life for all Canadians.
