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           By  Brian Orlotti Three researchers, two of them Canadian, have won the 2019  Turing Award , generally considered to to be the world's top computer science award, for their work in developing machine learning and neural networks. From left, Yann LeCun, Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio. Photo c/o Facebook, via Associated Press; Aaron Vincent Elkaim for The New York Times; Chad Buchanan/Getty Image s. Université de Montréal professor Yoshua Bengio, University of Toronto professor emeritus Geoffrey Hinton and  New York University professor Yann LeCun will each share the 2019 award. The three have close ties and are perhaps best known for their work outside of academia. Bengio also acts as and scientific director of Mila , Quebec's artificial intelligence institute  Hinton is a vice-president and engineer fellow at Menlo Park CA based Google , and the chief scientific advisor at the Toronto ON based Vector Institute ...

           By  Chuck Black Almost a month after the March 6th, 2019 formal release of " Exploration, Imagination, Innovation - A New Space Strategy for Canada " by the governing Justin Trudeau Liberals , it's becoming increasingly obvious that the new Canadian space strategy is simply not the comprehensive " whole of government review " of activities, policies and legislation expected. According to the February 23rd, 2015 Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat website on the Whole of Government Framework , since 2005 the Treasury Board has " supported the development of a common, government-wide approach to the collection, management, and reporting of financial and non-financial information on program objectives, performance, and results. " The whole-of-government framework maps " the financial and non-financial contributions of departments, agencies, and Crown corporations receiving appropriations to a set of 16 high-level Government of Canada outc...

           By  Brian Orlotti Propulsion engineer Adam Trumpour has unveiled the Launch Canada Rocket Innovation Challenge , Canada’s first major rocket competition. The contest will offer Canadians the opportunity to build a home grown space launch capability, in turn fostering a vibrant private launch industry. The announcement was made on October 18th, 2018 at the Montreal Space Symposium . Launch Canada seeks to enable Canada's growing student rocketry community to take their activities to the next level by embracing the idea of ‘ grassroots rocketry. ’ Referring to the success of firms like Hawthorne CA based SpaceX , Kent Washington based Blue Origin and Huntington Beach CA based Rocket Lab , Trumpour made the point that groups initially made up of amateurs have achieved success and are now building sophisticated spacecraft and pushing the envelope of a host of technologies. It is this success that he wishes to replicate in Canada. Trumpour’...

           By Henry Stewart Industry Minister Navdeep Bains  dropped by the Toronto ON based Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) on Tuesday, where he announced that the Federal Liberal government has provided $25Mln CDN in new funding for the organization. Minister Bains on Periscope (a live video streaming app for Android and iOS) on October 9th, making the announcement that the CDL would be receiving new funding. To see the complete presentation, simply click on this link . Image c/o Periscope .  As outlined in the October 9th, 2018 Government of Canada press release, " Government of Canada invests in artificial intelligence and start-up innovation across Canada ," the new funding will allow CDL to: ...create and maintain 125 jobs, attract more investments in Canadian businesses, and see more intellectual property developed and retained in Canada.   CDL's project will also involve more than 1,300 science-based ventures in a wider network across...

           By  Brian Orlotti The million dollar Base 11 Space Challenge , announced with much fanfare in June 2018, continues to move forward. Adam Trumpour in an earlier incarnation, as a member of the University of Toronto Aerospace team (UTAT) in 2015. Trumpour was first profiled in the October 13th, 2014 post, " Canadian Entrepreneur Returning Rocketry to its Roots ." Photo c/o Facebook .   As part of a recent interview with the author, Base 11 Challenge safety expert Adam Trumpour discussed the final selection of the Canadian teams that will compete in the contest. Trumpour is a Canadian propulsion engineer who spends his days working at Mississauga ON based Pratt and Whitney Canada. The Challenge promises a $1Mln USD ($1.3Mln CDN) prize for the first student-led university team to design, build and launch a liquid-fuelled, single-stage rocket to an altitude of 100 km (aka the Karman Line, the boundary between Earth and space) by ...

Although the private sector contributes the majority of domestic research and development funding for Canada's aerospace sector, government funding in this area is often tied to academia through research grants. From " The Relationship Diremption ," the twentieth episode of the seventh season of the American sitcom " The Big Bang Theory ," which often makes interesting observations on the motivations of scientists and academics. This episode originally aired on Thursday, April 10th, 2014. Graphic c/o Big Bang Theory Wiki . It's worth noting that, while overall academic R&D funding was boosted substancially in the 2018 Federal budget, funding for the hard sciences may be drying-up over the next few years, due to increased political concerns over its usefulness to the domestic economy.   After all, with up to half of all graduating space scientists and aerospace engineers needing to leave the country to find their first job after graduation,  there is some...

Image c/o IISC .          By Henry Stewart The Isle of Man based  International Institute of Space Commerce  (IISC), established in 2007 as a cooperative venture between the  International Space University  (ISU) and the  Government of the Isle of Man , has released a listing of the " IISC Top 35 Under 35 Class of 2018 " space industry movers and shakers. As outlined in the July 25th, 2018 IISC press release, " State of the Industry Special Edition; IISC 35 Under 35 Class of 2018 ," the good news is that three Canadian's are included with the list. The bad news is that only one of those Canadians still lists Canada as the place where they live and/or work. The IISC list of top 35 under 35 included the following Canadian's: Beth Downer , the founder of Reaching Space Science , a Netherlands based space communications company who also works as a space science communicator at Leiden University , the oldest university in the Netherlands. Acc...