Meet the Vancouver innovators on the Misties Awards shortlist

Local engineering design consultancy MistyWest has announced the shortlist for its second annual Misties Awards. The celebration highlights outstanding individuals from around the world who have commercialized tech solutions, such as inventors, hackers, and business leaders.

“MistyWest’s vision is a prosperous global community enabled by technology,” said Leigh Christie, cofounder of MistyWest. “One of the ways we can achieve that is by building meaningful connections between the people who are leading technological advancements and setting the standards of excellence.”

Last year, one-fifth of the winners hailed from Vancouver: Michael Burton, director of engineering at Semios; Roman Kozak, co-founder and CTO at Verdi; Mark Rabin, founder and CEO at Portable Electric; and Sampath Satti, hardware lead and product manager at Brave Technology Coop.

MistyWest accepted self- and peer-nominations for individuals who have commercialized intelligent and connected innovations. Thirty one judges narrowed down the nominees to a list of 44 finalists. The winners will be announced virtually on June 15 and will be collectively awarded over $10k in cash and in-kind prizes to develop their solutions, thanks to Nordic Semiconductor, Thistle Technologies, and Duro.

Check out the Vancouver-based finalists below:

• Kevin R Hart, founder of Haven IAQ, heads up an intelligent and connected device that focuses on improving indoor air quality.

• Douglas Schouten, co-founder of Ideon Technologies, drove the commercial application of his company’s subsurface geophysics technique, muon tomography, which leverages cosmic rays from space to see beneath the Earth’s surface.

• Carlyn Loncaric, founder of VodaSafe, has commercialized the AquaEye device to save people from drowning by using AI to detect bodies in water.

• Suzanne Gildert, cofounder and CTO of Sanctuary AI, designed and commercially deployed one of the world’s first humanoid general-purpose robots.

• Vincent Clerc, vice president of engineering at Terramera, created the mass-produced humanoid robots Pepper and Nao, with over 150,000 units deployed in real-world applications.

• Ian Stadler, embedded software technical lead at Semios, is an experienced System-on-a-chip developer building intelligent and connected devices that help sustainably manage pests and water.

Our membership community brings together Vancouver tech’s finest, online and IRL. Become an annual member right here, right now.