An Ontario based story of successful collaboration
Mark Willer
Product Manager
Bombardier Transportation
(416)434-3558
mark.willer@ca.transport.bombardier.com
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TrackSafe
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Railway Industry - conservative, risk averse, very expensive & slow to innovate
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TrackSafe - Railway track worker safety system, designed and developed in Ontario in an
agile, affordable and relatively quick manner
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Result of a successful collaboration between Bombardier and McMaster University
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Collaboration enabled in large part by the Ontario Centres of Excellence
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TrackSafe - Introduction
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Bombardier engaged McMaster RFID Applications Lab (MRAL) to validate and develop a
real-time track worker system, based on a patented concept (July 2009)
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Through initial discussions the team realized that the initial concept was not going to be
commercially feasible (too expensive to deploy and maintain) (July 2009)
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OCE was approached to fund a Collaborative Research & Development project (Winter
2009)
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Team has not worked with each other before
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Bombardier team was based in a sales organization with limited background in Research &
Development
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Academic team had to commit to working on commercial timelines from the get go
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Wanted to move forward with getting the project underway quickly (OCE was very responsive)
OCE was critical in enabling this collaboration. The CRD program really helped Bombardier
undertake this project as it enabled Bombardier to leverage funding for an initiative that
carried too many risks (new type of project, new collaborators, taking a chance on students)
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How did the collaboration get started?
How has the collaboration worked?
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McMaster setup a team of Ontario based graduate and undergraduate students
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Able to access multi disciplinary skills as required (User Experience Design, Hardware Design
and Development, Software Design and Development, Product Placement Strategy, Risk
Management)
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Principal Investigator (Dr. Rafik Loutfy) approached the project in a very flexible and industry
friendly manner. Recruited students that were capable of working with Bombardier, on commercial
timelines and provided them with the support needed to focus on project activities
Bombardier engaged the academic team on all aspects of the project
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Academic team worked with Bombardier on all aspects of the project (Concept Development and
Validation, Technology Development, Managing Production, Piloting TrackSafe, Sales and
Marketing Efforts with Transit Agencies)
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Academic team considered to be an extension of the Bombardier team; included in all strategic
and tactical discussions by Bombardier
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TrackSafe designed and developed in under 3 years
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TrackSafe currently being tested at MARTA (Atlanta) through support from the US DOT
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IP developed for TrackSafe is being used to develop 2 additional products – PlatformSafe
(team is working on piloting this with GO Transit in the next few weeks), YardSafe (will be
piloted next quarter)
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Team has supported Ontario based SMEs through outsourcing production of technology (over
$500,000 has been spent with Ontario based SMEs so far)
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TrackSafe recognized through several awards, including the global award for embedded safety
system by IET for 2012
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1 patent applied for and 4 additional patents being discussed
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Great training opportunity for Ontario based students. Key was to provide students with an
opportunity to develop soft skills to compliment their technical skills
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Results
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OCE has been critical in enabling and supporting this collaboration.
Without the OCE CRD program this collaboration would not have
been possible as Bombardier would not have taken the initial risk to
engage with a new academic partner
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Bombardier has been critical in continuing to foster the collaboration.
Flexible approach towards team and willingness to engage students
in all aspects of the project so they are invested in the success of
the project. Care for development of students and their critical skills
and as such work proactively to develop experiences that are
beneficial for the students as well as Bombardier
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Academic team led by Dr. Loutfy focuses on solving industry
problems, in a commercially viable manner, while honoring
commercial timelines. Problem solving for end users a key focus as
opposed to publishing papers. Team setup in a flexible manner to
allow bringing in key skills as required by project needs
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Critical Factors for Success
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