The Pulse: July 7, 2022

A video game that got its start at the first iteration of the Game Discovery Exhibition (GDX) will be part of the esports tournament at the resurrected version of the indie games expo at this year's K-Days.

The opportunity to showcase Little Hellions, a "passive-aggressive fighter where you can't fight" by Schadenfreude Studios, is one of the many things that has Derek Kwan of Interactive Arts Alberta excited about GDX's return to Edmonton after a six-year hiatus.

"The story behind Little Hellions is that they first showed it at GDX 2015, our first show," said Kwan. "And now it's getting released this year. They've had this journey alongside us."

GDX will be part of the Maker Faire from July 22 to 24 on the K-Days fairgrounds. "It's our pleasure to bring expanded games and esports presence to K-Days through GDX; not only can we show off the homegrown talent at the Maker Faire to our attendees, but we also get to support the local interactive digital media sector," Explore Edmonton CEO Traci Bednard said in a news release.

Now is the time to show that support, said Kwan, as Alberta's game industry keeps growing.

"Alberta is home to a lot of innovation and creativity, and I am excited for audiences to see that," he said. "If ever there was an argument to get behind the industry and maybe put the gas pedal down for supporting the industry — we're about to rocket to success."

• Jibril Ibrahim, president of the Somali Canadian Cultural Society of Edmonton, criticized police inaction after his organization reported a hateful and racist voicemail in advance of its Canada Day event. In a June 30 statement, police said they failed to respond "for reasons yet to be determined." The event drew around 100 people instead of 300 as planned, which Ibrahim suggests is due to fear. University of Alberta criminology professor Temitope Oriola believes the inaction was caused by police not seeing the voicemail as a serious threat. He urged Edmontonians to consider the context around such messages, such as the recent spate of attacks against Muslim and Somali women, Global News reports.
• The Edmonton Police Service revealed that Const. Scott Bailey, a six-year member of the force, has been charged with assault causing bodily harm following an investigation by the EPS's domestic crime unit into an off-duty incident that occurred on Feb. 20. "The EPS recognizes there was a significant delay in releasing this information," a police spokesperson said. "We do our best to release information as soon as we are able, and that did not occur in this case." Bailey's duty status is under review, and he has been on leave since the incident, Postmedia reports.
• The Edmonton Elks announced that children aged 12 and under can attend games for free for the rest of the season thanks to an initiative sponsored by Save-On-Foods.
• The first 16,000 free tickets to Pope Francis' mass at Commonwealth Stadium on July 26 were booked within 15 minutes. Another round of tickets will be available later this month as organizers roll out a phased booking process, which is intended to prioritize Indigenous attendees. "Today was a very, very positive start to the day," said Neil McCarthy, a spokesperson for the pope's visit. "People really want to be with him."
• Edmonton has experienced 14 more shootings in the first half of 2022 than the first half of 2021, most recently a July 4 drive-by shooting in northeast Edmonton and a July 1 shooting in Hazeldean that sent stray bullets into a family home. According to police, 12 shootings occurred in May alone, 11 of which were targeted and nine of which had the potential to injure bystanders. Doug King, a justice studies professor at Mount Royal University, said firearm use in criminal activity is being exacerbated by the pandemic's effects on substance use, isolation, and mental health.
• The city has set up water taps at 13 fire hydrants to help vulnerable Edmontonians stay hydrated this summer. A pilot project last year had taps at five locations.
• Alberta's electricity rebate program, first announced in June, has been extended to the end of 2022. Eligible Albertans will now see $50 rebates automatically applied to their bills through to December for a total of $300. The government said a natural gas rebate is also forthcoming.
• Alberta courts have again ordered the province to disclose key documents related to its decision to lift school mask mandates and block school boards from implementing their own. Justice Grant Dunlop of the Court of Queen's Bench rejected Justice Minister Tyler Shandro's claim that publicizing Dr. Deena Hinshaw's Feb. 8 PowerPoint along with cabinet minutes from before the decision would violate cabinet immunity. The province was given until July 12 to release the material but said it may appeal the decision.

When G2V Optics was born in 2015, it seemed like its destiny lay with indoor farming — after all, what better use of "engineered sunlight" than to grow things?

As it turned out, the better use case for the company's technology was in areas such as photovoltaic research and aerospace. That's how it landed over $1 million in business from NASA, including a contract to provide solar simulators for spacecraft testing. And that's what has fuelled the company's fast and ongoing growth, increasing its workforce by about 50% in the past year.

"The beautiful thing ... is that when you hit that traction point, your customers start being your primary funding source. So that's been a real dramatic change for us in the last 18 months," CEO Ryan Tucker told Episode 21 of Bloom, Taproot's podcast about innovation in Edmonton. "We're actually in a really awesome position right now ... where we don't have to go and raise capital right away."

That's not to say the company won't seek investment to help it take advantage of the opportunities coming its way now that it has found the right market. "That becomes the more exciting reason to go and raise more capital," Tucker said.

Tucker is proud to be growing this company in Edmonton and has no intentions of leaving. But G2V Optics is very much an international company.

"For us, we have almost no customers in Edmonton," he said. "And so it's been really an exercise in how do we reach the world from here?"

Learn more about what G2V Optics is selling to the world and helping to send out of this world on the July 7 episode.

In our sponsor spot, you'll hear Darrell Petras, director of business and community development with Innovate Edmonton, in conversation with Taproot co-founder Mack Male.

Bloom is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and everywhere else you get your podcasts.

Photo: This light array from G2V Optics will allow researchers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center to test a spacecraft under the light conditions it will face in orbit. (Supplied)