Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watnot!watdcsu!brewster From: brewster@watdcsu.UUCP Newsgroups: can.politics Subject: Re: Status of R&D in Canada (long [er than usual]) Message-ID: <3128@watdcsu.UUCP> Date: Sat, 14-Mar-87 18:55:10 EST Article-I.D.: watdcsu.3128 Posted: Sat Mar 14 18:55:10 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 15-Mar-87 03:41:41 EST References: <3655@utai.UUCP> <756@looking.UUCP> Distribution: can Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario Lines: 181 >From: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) >Here's something I am sure some of you will find counter-intuitive. >One of the major blocks to Canadian R&D is excessive government funding of >R&D! Not necessarily excessive government funding, but excessive INCOMPETENCE in government funding, and at the risk of offending some people I'll provide two examples that I know of that may shed some light on this subject. Excuse the rambling nature of the following story, but it seems important enough to tell in some detail. First : I entered the Ontario Engineering Design Competition along with two other people a couple of years back. We had a complete design for an IBM PC-XT plug-in card that had a TMS32010 coupled to shared memory, a plan for software to run on this combination, and a good portion of the system was already implemented and running. This was before any other company had yet announced the same or similar product. We were among the first people who started working with the then just announced TMS32010 series, and this product was such an obvious one we were sure it would sell. The judges of the competition were from different corporations, with representation by all the biggies (IBM, DEC, GM, etc.). The judges were relatively gung-ho about our design, and about the market for the product in general. There was another project at this competition which was even more impressive. This project analyzed the soundness of large metal castings based on echo recordings produced by controlled impacts on the surface. The range of application was broad, and a functional demonstration unit using engine blocks was demonstrated. This project was obviously going to win the competition, and so we thought we were going to settle for second place. Now, the head judge of the competition was from a KW public institution associated with IDEA Corp, an institution charged with finding funds for "innovative" Canadian ideas as proposed by Canadian start-ups. Actual name deleted to protect the guilty. It turned out that the head judge had veto powers over the other judges, and in the final analysis, we ended up with an honourable mention, (first,second, and third place were announced), and the group with the engine block received nothing. Of all the winners not one was microprocessor related. The winner turned out to be a group that designed a metal brake, ie a device for bending metal. (No, the competition was not held in 1900, and yes you heard correctly, the winners designed a device for bending metal.) To this point the story sounds like sour grapes, we lost and were a little bit annoyed. The clincher of the whole story was at the awards dinner, where the head judge indicated why the groups who had won did so, and why some apparently reasonable projects were not held in high esteem by him. "The important thing for students and the researchers that lead these students to realize, is that as Canadians we must work on developing the technologies appropriate to the Canadian experience." Direct quote - "APPROPRIATE TO THE CANADIAN EXPERIENCE" This from a man charged with funding new Canadian start-ups. If someone wants to reinvent the wheel, this Canadian company can be funded by public money, if someone wants to work on "exotic high tech stuff" :*), like microprocessor development, then they are not reacting appropriately to the Canadian experience. As a side note, the TMS32010 IBM plug-in from Sky is virtually identical to our design (no personal communication, presumably we both just followed the same design rules). This product was announced about two months after the competition, and despite the fact that Sky is the leading company in the area of add-on array processors, several other smaller companies from the states were also able to enter the market. Now to the second part of the story. Approximately one year after this episode, I went to work for a small start-up in Waterloo who were developing a "high-tech device", which for the purposes of this discussion and in an attempt to keep within the framework of the "Canadian experience" includes anything that uses microprocessor technology back to the Intel 8080 or microcontroller technology back to the Intel 8048. The company was having trouble obtaining start-up funds from the previously mentioned institution in KW, presumably because of the high-tech angle. Given a severe shortage of funds the high-tech KW company then approached IDEA Corp in Toronto directly. It was then learned that there was a huge surplus of money in the IDEA coffers, as the institutions around Ontario who were supposed to be investing in new start-ups had not been following their mandate (presumably because the damnable researchers and entrepeneurs refused to adhere to the "Canadian experience"). The government of the day realized that this would be a bad political spot to be caught in and had just ordered IDEA to spend the entire pool of investment money PDQ. Given this opportune timing, the high-tech company I worked for got approx $100,000 for development purposes. The owner of the company now drives a brand new Mazda RX-7, and the company will never sell a single unit. The background of the company IDEA invested in : headed up by a person who flunked out of 2B elec eng, who had worked at BNR for two work-terms and saw an interesting development; but BNR had had several dedicated researchers working on the project for several years and barely managed to develop a working model, only to have BNR brass declare that there was no significant market for the device (which as a researcher at BNR certainly isn't the end of the world), but did indicate the lack of money-making potential of the device. Despite inadequate funding, inadequate equipment and materials to study the problem, and an inadequate theoretical background to understand all the issues involved, this person thought he could make a go of it. When BNR found out about this, they filed several patents on the device, and sent a letter saying that if this KW company ever tried to market anything resembling BNR's device, BNR would throw the entire weight of its legal staff behind a lawsuit to stop this KW company from entering production. And for the really bad news (:*), I checked out the market for this device while working at the KW company, and found out that there was no market to speak of in Canada and while there was a limited market in the States, no American distributor was even willing to discuss sales as a similar competing device, (functionally similar but based on a completely different technology) was just then entering the market in the US and they were priced way cheaper then just the production costs alone of the KW product. The pitch to IDEA was based on sales of over approx 3000 units/year within two years of funding. How was this carried out ??? The owner lied through his teeth, and IDEA did minimal background checking given the mandate of getting rid of this backlog of cash within a short timeframe. It took me three weeks to be firmly convinced of what was going on at this place, and then I quit. Canada has some distinct advantages over the US, one chief advantage is that I can walk home on the Sunnydale path without any fear whatsoever of being knifed or shot, (although if this your biggest fear you should move to Britain where the crime rate for these activities is much lower than in Canada). The other big difference being the safety net provided, but unless you plan with 50% certainty to use this net to its full extent, you are probably better off to essentially self-insure. Despite these potential advantages, I think that Dr. Polyani of UofT (Canada's most recent Nobel laureate) should be commended for his honesty in answering the paraphrased question "What would you tell the young researchers in Canada ?" by saying "Go south". In all due respect to some of the established and highly qualified people who have chosen to stay in Canada, it is my honest feeling that if you are young, have ambition, motivation and any talent whatsoever, the only rational alternative is to go to the States. Personally, the "Canadian experience", is not something that I plan to stake my career on. Disclaimer : points presented above concern real companies and are to the best knowledge of the author accurate in every detail. It remains possible that my limited knowledge may have led me to misunderstand some key points, and so anyone wishing to do business with any company resembling those mentioned above is advised to seek their own independent analysis of the company in question. I assume sole responsibility for this article, and wish to absolve U of Waterloo and all associated persons and enterprises from any litigation that might result. Try not to become a man UUCP : {decvax|ihnp4}!watmath!watdcsu!brewster of success but rather try Else : Dave Brewer, (519) 886-6657 to become a man of value. Albert Einstein