Tech Roundup
Sept. 22, 2026

Headlines

• Wyvern co-founders Callie Lissinna and Chris Robson spoke to Global News about preparing their next generation of telescopes after being featured at the Canada Investment Summit. The space-data startup is seeking $230 million in equity, strategic partnerships, and government co-investment to develop its optical satellites for hyperspectral Earth observations.
• Zylotex founder Lelia Lawson reflected on the Alberta Capital Connect pilot launch at the ASTech Awards opening ceremony. "It was a rapid-fire, exhausting, lose-your-voice-by-the-end kind of event," she wrote. "We all left buzzing about the innovation happening across Alberta." Other innovators accepted into the program include Alexandre Gosselin of 4TheLoveOf.Tech, Ali Khajehoddin of Enerbund, Patricia Nadworny of FeynMed Solutions, Harpuneet Kaur of Humble Insurance Brokers, Catalina Vasquez of Nanostics, Soji Abraham of Prime Trucking Compliance, Nina Karpoff of RNARevive, Adil Muhammad of SenseHuman.AI, Mohamed Sabek of VisioConTech, Piyush Kumar of WWiKY BioSciences Inc., Dave Talbert of Wyzer Learning Inc., Aman Ullah of ZAFA Biorefinery, Dan Sameoto of ZiprPrint, Aaron Purchase of MagnetaMR, and Saman Tahvili of Aqtiva Inc.. The next stage of the program, which is meant to connect investors with innovators, will see a smaller cohort advancing to a second session tied to the Nov. 6 ASTech Awards gala in Edmonton.
• Prismecha Robotics has spun out of a University of Alberta research lab to make robotic prosthetics work better for people with limb differences. The company was incorporated earlier this year by Michael (Rory) Dawson, a protégé of Patrick Pilarski, co-lead of the BLINC Lab and a fellow at the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute.
• The Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute's Approximately Correct podcast explored social robotics with Angelica Lim, a Canada CIFAR AI Chair who directs the ROSIE Lab at Simon Fraser University. The conversation covered the challenges of giving AI empathy and why turning robots into artificial friends may not be the ideal goal.
• Onlea CEO Adriana Lopez Forero spoke to the Powered by AWE podcast about leadership identity, imposter syndrome, and how AI is reshaping education.
• Coun. Ashley Salvador plans to introduce a motion asking for a report on regulating and restricting large-scale data centres, including an analysis of land-use and environmental impacts of the facilities. The report would include information about jurisdictional authority, regulatory framework, and governance, as well as options to remove data centres from standard industrial zones. She said during the Sept. 8 Edmonton city council meeting that she will also ask for information about how data centres in the wider region could impact the City of Edmonton. The motion could be debated as early as the Oct. 6 city council meeting.
• University of Alberta graduate Karia Samaroo spoke to Postmedia about selling his cryptocurrency platform Wonderfi to Robinhood for $250 million. Samaroo has now launched an AI company in the Grand Cayman Islands.
• The University of Alberta and the Government of the Northwest Territories have signed a research agreement running through March 2035. The partnership focuses on northern priorities including AI, climate change, public health, and agriculture, and commits to Indigenous-led or co-developed research and Indigenous data sovereignty.
• Janice Baskin of the Edmonton Regional Innovation Network is looking for mentors with backgrounds in areas such as electrical engineering, chemical or materials engineering, embedded systems, electronics, or controls to connect with University of Alberta students.
• The Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute posted a recap of All In, an AI summit in Montreal. Highlights included a talk by Amii's Greg Burlet and Daniel Zikovitz of the AI Centre of Excellence in Cancer Care on "how Amii's AI + X approach is driving real-world impact across industries."
• Shalon McFarlane reflected on her new role as a technology development advisor with Alberta Innovates, after nearly five years at Edmonton Unlimited.

Jobs and opportunities

• The Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute is hiring a manager for its national AI literacy programs.
• The University of Alberta is hiring a business development specialist who will split their time between two industry-first compute initiatives and the Fast-Paced Innovation Program.

Happenings

Here are some events coming up soon:

• Sept. 22: The Alberta Launchpad: Scaling Canada's Regenerative Medicine Ecosystem Through Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration starting at 9am at Edmonton Unlimited
• Sept. 22: The Blueprint: An Innovator's Guide to Planning and Building Life Sciences Infrastructure starting at 10:15am at Edmonton Unlimited
• Sept. 22: Startups: Unlock non-dilutive funding through SR&ED starting at 11am at Enterprise Square
• Sept. 23-25: Lab2Market Summit at University of Alberta
• Sept. 23: Tech Wednesdays starting at 5:30pm at The Pint Public House
• Sept. 24: Sustain Labs 2026 - Beyond the Bench starting at 6pm at Alberta School of Business
• Sept. 24-25: BSides Cybersecurity Conference at BSides Cybersecurity Conference
• Sept. 25: Edmonton Business Association Talks 2026 starting at 9am at Evario Events Centre

And here are more to keep in mind:

• Oct. 5-9: Edmonton Startup Week at various locations in downtown Edmonton
• Oct. 15: ERINnovation Meetup at CAMS: Where Health Innovation Meets Simulation at NAIT (Feltham Centre)
• Oct. 22: Fundraising 101: A Founder's Guide to Raising Capital online

Visit the Taproot Edmonton Calendar for many more events in the Edmonton region.