Together with project partners, Canada’s Ocean Supercluster today announced its 15th ocean project. Led from St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, the newest $3.1 million project called the Rutter Internet of Things (IoT) Project will transform and migrate Rutter systems into an IoT enabled solution, offering remote monitoring as a managed service with specialty radar system data acquisition, and cloud-based storage and analytics, while also creating 12 new jobs, including four at project implementation and eight at project completion.
The Honourable Andrew Parsons, Minister of Industry, Energy and Technology announced a non-repayable provincial contribution of $743,822 through the Innovation and Business Investment Corporation. Canada’s Ocean Supercluster is providing $721,561 in funding to this project, matching the industry investment of $721,561 from Rutter. This multi-million dollar project is also receiving a non-repayable contribution of $500,000 from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP), and $480,000 of in-kind support from Husky Energy. Led by Rutter, this IoT Project is in collaboration with its partner, Husky Energy, who will provide access to vessels for data collection, and research and development efforts including the installation and testing of concepts and for the demonstration of outcomes.
The new Ocean Supercluster project will increase operational efficiencies, foster collaboration between ocean sectors, and enable marine-related research delivered with greater accuracy, efficiency, and access to customers. For the research community, this project will provide the ability to receive real-time data from offshore operations that can be used to support their research and validation work in ice drift modelling, oceanographic forecasting, oil spill drift modelling, and other areas.
For customers, the Rutter IoT Project is a turn-key solution that gives clients the ability to centralize critical radar information into operation centers and to share relevant data on-demand with outside entities such as the Coast Guard and others. This is a new and exciting service that provides previously unavailable data to those who can take advantage of temporary access to information to help focus their activity. Customers also have the option of sharing defined data on an ongoing basis with adjacent industries, offshore oil and gas and the fishery for example, while protecting commercially-sensitive data.
Based in St. John’s, Rutter is a developer of sophisticated radar signal processing technologies for the marine safety, security, and environmental protection industries. Since 2008, Rutter has directly invested over $12 million into its R&D program, which has resulted in Sigma S6 STS, Oil Detection Wavevision and Current Monitoring systems.
Rutter’s sigma S6 Suite of radar processing equipment are used in a wide range of industries including offshore renewable energy, environmental monitoring, cruise, governmental, and oil and gas. Rutter products are used extensively in the Canadian offshore and have been delivered into more than 40 countries.
Canada’s Ocean Supercluster is an industry-led transformative cluster focused on tackling the shared challenges across ocean sectors through a collaborative program designed to accelerate the development and commercialization of globally-relevant solutions, while also building a highly-capable, inclusive workforce.
The Provincial Government is committed to supporting innovative and entrepreneurial companies that create new jobs and opportunities, while fostering innovation in our provincial economy.
Quotes
“Rutter has a strong history of cutting edge technological development and commercialization. Support from the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador will enhance the company’s already broad innovative capabilities, while increasing efficiency and safety for companies in the marine technology sector.”
Honourable Andrew Parsons
Minister of Industry, Energy and Technology
“By investing in areas where Canada has a competitive edge, like offshore technologies, the Ocean Supercluster is driving innovation in the ocean economy. This project will not only improve remote ocean operations, but also strengthen Canada’s position as a leader in specialty radar system data acquisition as well as, and cloud-based storage and analytics. This kind of cross-sector collaboration is exactly how Superclusters are helping Canada build a strong, national brand in the industry and give Canadian businesses more opportunities to reach new markets.”
Honourable Navdeep Bains
Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry
“The availability and access to data will become increasingly important as we grow what is becoming an increasingly digital ocean economy. This collaboration between Rutter and Husky Energy will generate new activity in ocean, create new jobs, and provide radar ocean data that is important for decision making and operations across ocean sectors. The Ocean Supercluster is incredibly proud to announce our 15th project today with more announcements coming in the weeks and months ahead.”
Kendra MacDonald
CEO, Canada’s Ocean Supercluster
“Since 1998, Rutter has been on the leading edge of ocean technology – developing innovative, best-in-class marine radar augmentation and imaging tools for navigating in ice, detecting oil spills, monitoring wave and currents and for security, safety, and sovereignty applications. Today, we are thrilled to embark on the “next wave” of Radar-as-a-Service (RaaS) — leveraging the power of cloud technology to develop new applications for mariners, scientists, offshore renewable energy and oil & gas operators worldwide.”
Fraser Edison
President and Chairman of the Board, Rutter Inc
“We have used a number of Rutter’s technologies over the years, so this opportunity was a natural fit with our goal of continuous improvement in ice management operations and monitoring. By providing access to environmental data from vessel transits, we will help Rutter to prove up their technology and create better decision-making tools for all ocean users.”
Jonathan Brown
Senior Vice-President, Husky Energy Atlantic Region
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Media contacts
Eric Humber
Industry, Energy and Technology
709-729-2691; 725-9655
erichumber@gov.nl.ca
Colleen McConnell
Husky Energy
709-724-3504
colleen.mcconnell@huskyenergy.com
Nancy Andrews
Ocean Supercluster
709-725-7070
Nancy.andrews@oceansupercluster.ca
Stephen Hale
Rutter Inc.
709-697-0439
shale@rutter.ca