Orly Yadid-Pecht

Dr. Yadid-Pecht’s work focusses on the development and transfer of CMOS (active pixel sensor) based imaging technologies into the academic and business communities. Building on over 20 years of experience in this area, Dr. Yadid-Pecht is committed to creating and protecting technology intellectual property, licensing and commercializing it, and actively identifying new applications for the technology in diverse industries. Her efforts were most recently recognized by the ASTech Foundation through their 2018 Outstanding Achievement in Technology Award. Her group holds 40 patents (including patents pending) for a diverse array of technologies with imaging applications.

In addition to her training and supervision of students, postdocs, and lab staff, Dr. Yadid-Pecht is currently involved in two companies in Calgary which she co-founded. In addition, Dr. Yadid-Pecht consults to industry in areas of technology and entrepreneurship and serves as an expert witness regarding technology disputes.

Dr. Yadid-Pecht’s I2Sense Lab develops and transfers sensor based technologies with applications in the biomedical, security, energy and environmental sectors. Since this requires an active and continuing commitment to developing and protecting IP, pursuing funding, initiating and strengthening industry collaborations, Dr. Yadid-Pecht prepares students and others to also be able to undertake innovation in the broader community. She has started offering From Lab to Fulfillment Workshop, which she developed, to support entrepreneurship among women faculty in science and engineering, and plans to expand the program and extend its reach.

Dr. Yadid-Pecht is actively pursuing industry collaborations, which are fundamental to her lab’s success. These collaborations include initiatives such as an NSERC Idea to Innovation (I2I) grants and the Strategic Project Grant (SPG) with different companies, recently with a machine vision company in Ontario. The Lab’s work on a gluten allergen detector technology (patent pending) has also attracted substantial interest from a food company in Calgary, and has strong potential to lead to better allergen detection device. A medical data machine learning algorithm is also being considered for commercialization.