UCalgary community explores bold ideas at Inventures 2024 – the hottest startup event of the year

Late May was an exciting time for trailblazers in Alberta with the unforgettable three-day conference, Inventures 2024. This year, Alberta Innovates once again organized a one-of-a-kind experience that challenged convention and inspired transformational thinking, focusing on entrepreneurism in agriculture, energy, health, quantum and AI.

Inventures 2024 was the opportunity for the best and brightest minds to showcase bold ideas, cultivate relationships and capitalize on Alberta’s innovative future. 

And the University of Calgary was right there with them. 

From May 29 to 31, UCalgary demonstrated that it values the power of research and innovation to tackle society’s biggest challenges. Students, faculty and staff participated in this year’s event by collaborating, sharing and learning about what makes Alberta the future of innovation.

To emphasize this, the university’s booth at Inventures showcased an array of research areas, from transformative medical technologies to creating clean energy through eco-friendly methods. Four companies, Possibilities Neurotechnologies, DME Tech (Dyes Materials Energy), PrintedSUN, and A-MEDICO, as well as UCalgary’s Schulich Maker Space, showcased their technologies and engaged with other changemakers. 

During the conference, Alberta Innovates announced the results of a new program supporting projects to advance artificial intelligence technology to support doctors and improve diagnoses and treatment. This included more than $3.9 million to support five research projects at UCalgary led by Cumming School of Medicine and Faculty of Science researchers including topics related to stroke identification and infection control, digital health innovations and AI-enabled health risk prediction.

At the conference wrap-up, two businesses with UCalgary connections were announced as winners of the Inventures 2024 Startup Pitch Competition, winning a $10,000 prize each. The winners were Kent Swanlund, BSc (Eng)’07, with CO2Brew, and Nathan Nasseri of ResVR, a company that recently graduated from the Prime stream of the Creative Destruction Lab – Rockies program out of the Haskayne School of Business. 

A community at the forefront of innovation

The university is on a mission to discover new knowledge and make a positive impact in our community. Launched in 2018, Inventures was a great opportunity for UCalgary, a first-time sponsor of the conference, and its innovators to showcase their success in cross-disciplinary research and development within the heart of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.  

For an inside look at the Inventures conference, check out the video below.

To learn more about UCalgary’s future in Innovation, check out the Now Innovating podcast season finale featuring Possibilities Neurotechnologies, a company featured at UCalgary’s booth during the conference.