Aerospace Innovation Showcase
The roads may have been covered in snow, but the skies were clear for the first Accelerator Aerospace Showcase on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. A packed room of attendees and partners were on hand for a morning of conversation and an opportunity to meet with the founders of the first cohort of the Aerospace Accelerator Program.
Accelerator Centre CEO Ruth Casselman opened the showcase by sharing the vision behind the program. It’s a first-of-its-kind accelerator program designed to expand Waterloo Region’s growing aerospace ecosystem and is supported by the Region of Waterloo and NAVBLUE.
“The Aerospace Accelerator Program is one of the big ideas that came to life because of the partnership and community that we have here in this room today. A year ago, we partnered with NAVBLUE and the Region of Waterloo to ask, ‘What if we brought together cutting-edge startups and gave them tools, mentorship, and connections they needed to shape the future of aerospace?’ Here we are today, celebrating the success of our very first cohort of companies, and we couldn't be more proud,” Casselman told the crowd.
The Aerospace Accelerator Program is built on the strengths of Waterloo Region, including North America’s number one ranked small tech talent market, over 100 aviation and aerospace companies, and the full-service Region of Waterloo International Airport (YKF). Casselman said the program is already generating real results that drive economic growth and innovation in the region.
“Startups in the program have created new high-quality jobs in the aerospace industry, bringing new talent and opportunities to our local economy. These companies have also attracted significant investment and generated revenue, further fueling their growth and demonstrating the strength of our region as a destination for innovation in aerospace,” Casselman added.
Collaborating on the ground and in the air
The Aerospace Accelerator Program is an example of what is possible with the strong support of partners like NAVBLUE and the Region of Waterloo. Region of Waterloo Chair Karen Redman said the local aviation and aerospace ecosystem is built on a globally recognized reputation of top talent, exceptional research capacity, and a legacy of manufacturing tech innovation.
“We are thrilled to be a founding partner in this innovative program. This unique partnership with the Accelerator Center and NAVBLUE creates an environment that fosters growth and development. We know that collaboration between government, academia, and the private sector continues to foster vibrant partnerships that fuel innovation and cutting-edge technologies,” Redman said.
Partnering with the Accelerator Centre and NAVBLUE is part of AeroWR, the Region of Waterloo’s focused effort to promote and support the aerospace and aviation ecosystem, bringing together Waterloo Region’s rich heritage of innovation and technology together with its unique asset—the Region of Waterloo International Airport.
Flying on sunshine
Dr. Suzanne Kearns, an Associate Professor of Aviation at the University of Waterloo and the Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Aeronautics (WISA) founding director, gave the showcase keynote presentation. Kearns shared insights from her journey in aviation and how her career has evolved to focus on sustainable aviation.
From an early age, Dr. Kearns fell in love with aviation after seeing small planes fly over her home in Wiarton, Ontario. She started her pilot training at 15 and completed her first solo at 16. By the time she turned 17, Kearns was licensed for helicopters and airplanes.
Dr. Kearns began her educational career at Western University as an aviation professor. After 12 years at Western, she moved to the University of Waterloo. While the University is known for its engineering and computer science programs, it is also home to Canada's largest pilot training program, with over 120 students entering the program each year. It was at the University of Waterloo where Dr. Kearns first started to think about the intersection of aviation and sustainability.
“Over the last few years, we started to see the rise of the flight shaming movement. We started to see billboards popping up that directly attacked the aviation industry’s environmental impacts. It was clever marketing, but when you're an aviation person and you see billboards like this, you start to realize that the industry that you love does have significant impacts on the environment around,” Dr. Kearns said.
After one lecture, she noticed many students did not seem as excited about the industry as they once were. When she spoke with them, she learned that other students on campus had been questioning why anyone would pursue a career in an industry contributing to climate change.
“They asked, ‘Can you love aviation and the planet at the same time?’ That question and the concept of sustainability opened my eyes because nobody had ever asked me that before. I started to ask myself what sustainability means. People tend to think of sustainability in terms of the environmental impacts alone. But the reality is, it's not really what sustainability means.” Dr. Kearns said.
Sustainability means meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs by balancing environmental, social, and economic considerations. Using that definition, Dr. Kearns said there are three threats facing the long-term viability of aviation: a shortage of trained aviation professionals, environmental impacts, and technology.
“There are three pillars of sustainability—social sustainability, environmental sustainability and economic sustainability. What's interesting is that these three pillars align with those three big threats,” Dr. Kearns said.
Building on this, Dr. Kearns founded the WISA with a mission to reach across every faculty at the University to find ideas and researchers to solve these challenges. She said many professors and researchers had never considered how their work could be applied to aviation—and the results were inspiring.
“We put an open call for proposals across campus, and we asked researchers across the to give us their research proposals for how their work could relate to aviation sustainability. We ended up selecting 38 of those projects, and they are having real substantial impact,” Dr. Kearns added.
Partnerships like the one with NAVBLUE and the Region of Waterloo are only part of the work towards making sustainable aviation a reality. Dr. Kearns said it will take a significant cultural shift in the industry.
“Nobody in aviation thinks safety is someone else’s job. The only way we can achieve safety in aviation is if it's everyone's job every single day. I think that moving the culture of aviation is sort of embracing sustainability in a similar way,” Dr. Kearns added.
Shaping the future of aerospace
Erin Appleby, VP of Transformation, Quality, and Performance at NAVBLUE, said innovation is at the heart of the company's mission. The company is part of Toulouse-based Airbus and has offices above the Accelerator Centre’s Waterloo Headquarters in the David Johnston R+T Park.
“To be part of a program that wants to drive sustainability in the aviation industry was near and dear to everything that we do. The journey that we had with the founders wasn't just upstairs in our office. We were able to connect them with teams in Toulouse, the folks in Mirabel, and Fort Erie. Airbus has a wide network, and everyone wanted to be part of how to help,” Appleby said.
Alex D’Alton, CEO of Daltonomous Inc., said the Aerospace Accelerator Showcase was an amazing way to show the talent and diversity of startups in the aerospace ecosystem.
“It is critical for startups to get exposure, and today was our cohort’s time in the spotlight. From next-generation hybrid powertrains for drones and cutting-edge neurological sensors to our own artificial-intelligence GPS resiliency software, this array of high-tech innovation is something you’ll only see in Waterloo,” D’Alton said.
Shearwater Aerospace CEO Chad Armstrong was also on hand at the showcase. He agreed with D’Alton and added that Shearwater Aerospace's involvement in the Aerospace Accelerator Program has been pivotal to the startup’s growth.
“Their support in business development and marketing helped us strengthen our value proposition and effectively articulate the unique advantages of our technology. This experience has been instrumental in enhancing our market positioning and accelerating our journey toward industry leadership,” Armstrong said.
The Aerospace Accelerator Program is an example of what can be accomplished when innovators, industry leaders, and community partners come together to make change. Casselman closed the morning’s presentation by thanking the participating founders for being part of the beginning of a new journey.
“This is more than just a one-off success. It's the beginning of something bigger, and together, we're creating an aerospace ecosystem right here in Waterloo that competes on the global stage,” Casselman said.