Electrum Charging Solutions is a Canadian startup that provides end-to-end electrical infrastructure solutions to corporations, governments, utilities, developers, and OEM manufacturers first as an infrastructure installer and now by being a system integrator. It is participating in the 2035 E-Mobility Taiwan exhibition in Taipei. The company's CEO Broderick (Brodie) Gunning talked to DIGITIMES about the company's vision as a total solution provider to the EV ecosystem in North America and Asia.

Improving medical technology and better quality of life have led to longer average life expectancies around the world. According to a UN estimate, the average life expectancy of the global population in 2019 was 72.3 years, but may soon grow to 74.3 years in 2030. This positive trend however is an increasing strain to the healthcare systems of many countries. To maximize the utilization of progressively limited medical resources, development towards smart and precision medicine is inevitable, subsequently driving up demands for surgical navigation systems. Furthermore, even though minimally invasive surgeries are safer, require smaller incisions, and allow patients to recover in shorter period of time, its usage is limited to just some cases in neurosurgery, craniofacial surgery or ENT surgery, because the areas to operate are not accessible to the naked eye. In these cases, doctors still have to rely on traditional surgeries which require larger incisions. With the latest technology, nonetheless, it is now possible to perform minimally invasive surgeries using surgical navigation systems, which allow the surgeons to see 3D radiology images in real-time while their surgical instruments are guided by the system into the surgical site.

To explore the vast unknown of outer space has always been a dream for humans everywhere. And we have never been as close to fulfilling that dream as when the Inspiration 4 rocket was launched on September 15, 2021, as a part of SpaceX's space tourism project. The mission marks the first time in history that an all-civilian crew has managed to reach orbit and serves as a hallmark for humanity's space exploration efforts. Another space exploration milestone was set just a few months back on April 20, 2021, when NASA's unmanned mars helicopter completed its virgin flight and subsequent landing on Mars.

Geopolitical tension and the net-zero carbon emission policy deadlines of governments worldwide are driving up demands for rare earth metals. However, trying to secure local supplies only by investing huge capital to build domestic production in the US or the EU alone is mission impossible. To achieve their carbon neutrality plan, innovation for rare earth demand reduction is also needed.

BlackBerry and AWS formed a partnership in 2020 to launch BlackBerry IVY, a new intelligent vehicle data platform that provides automakers a consistent and secure way to analyze the in-vehicle information, and further use the information to create services for drivers to enhance the driving experience. Sarah Tatsis, BlackBerry SVP talked to DIGITIMES to comment on this collaboration and BlackBerry IVY's future development.

With the prolonged US-China trade war causing Taiwan's position in the tech supply chain to become more and more prevalent, many hidden titans of the nation are starting to surface. Besides being home to the internationally renowned Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Taiwan is also the world leader in the field of power supplies, among which ranks Delta Electronics, the company with the world's largest market share in power supplies and whose products are used in fields including automotive, industrial, networking, servers, and personal computers. Not one to rest on its laurels, Delta Electronics is still constantly striving to strengthen its lead. In addition to investing considerable funds into R&D, the company also announced the establishment of an Academia-Industry Research Center (AIR Center) with the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (hereafter referred to as Taiwan Tech) in 2020, committing to the investment of at least NT$30 million over the next three years. Research in the initial stages will focus on topics such as green server rooms and energy storage, with the overall focus targeting the three major areas of 5G, cloud, and artificial intelligence.

After 12 years as an engineer and salesperson in the semiconductor industry, Andy Lin founded Yo-Kai Express, a food technology startup. Lin has integrated Internet-of-Things (IoT) technology, modular supply chain management, artificial intelligence (AI), and material science to develop a new platform that breaks through the confines of space and time.

Innovative new business models by SpaceX and Blue Origin have reduced the costs of space tourism and satellite launches, creating a gradual paradigm shift in the new space industry supply chain.

Industry 4.0 is no longer a new concept, but there are always some parts of the manufacturing process that are so difficult to automate, including quality management or quality assurance (QA). Relimetrics is a startup that offers full-stack computer vision and machine learning software for quality audit, process control and predictive maintenance in Industry 4.0 applications, according to company founder and CEO Kemal Levi. In a recent interview, Levi shared with DIGITIMES about his vision of Relimetrics' role to play in the Industry 5.0 era and their solutions for high-precision QA automation.

In times of illness that necessitate physical exams at the hospital, most people have the experience of having to wait long periods of time for computer tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) results. Although spinal fluid extraction and biopsy of organic tissue are mature technologies, patients are daunted by the invasive nature of these procedures. The fiberoptic particle plasmon resonance (FOPPR) technology developed by Instant NanoBiosensors not only has sensitivity far exceeding other mainstream instruments on the market, but is able to, using just a small amount of peripheral blood (serum, less than 20uL) and three simple steps-- sample injection, analysis and report generation, produce testing results in just a few minutes.

Mike Noonen has witnessed the vicissitudes of the semiconductor industry over the past 20 years. With a vision to lower the threshold of innovation for semiconductor startups, he co-founded the world's first semiconductor startup accelerator, Silicon Catalyst. Now he serves as CEO of MixComm, a startup that manufactures beamforming ICs used in mmWave components and 5G infrastructure.

Scale AI is Canada's artificial intelligence (AI) platform dedicated to building the next-generation supply chain and boosting industry performance by leveraging AI technologies.

Selected as one of the 46 must-see startups by the Garage+ program of Epoch Foundation at the Computex Taipei 2021 Virtual Exhibition, Netherlands-based InPhocal develops laser technology, which it demonstrated during the event.

Canada is the fourth largest vehicle exporting country in the world, making 2.1 million cars a year. And the country is keen to take its car industry to a new level. Last year, Canada's Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association (APMA) launched Project Arrow - an initiative for developing electric vehicles (EV).

Some public cloud platform operators have recently launched QaaS (Quantum as a Service) business, seeking synergies between software and hardware suppliers and enterprise users - a move which will help explore potential applications and accelerate the integration of new and old computing technologies, according to Digitimes Research.