MistyWest

The 4th annual HardTech Awards is welcoming its biggest panel of new judges since year one! Meet three more experts helping our mission of becoming the largest recognition platform of hardware innovation. Shaun Abrahamson 🎗️ is Managing Partner at early-stage climate investment platform Third Sphere, backing founders transforming global systems through investments in companies like Revivn, Kelvin, and Near Space Labs. He was a subject in the 2001 documentary Startup Dot Com. Benjamin Chia is the founder of Hardware FYI, an independent platform launched in April 2024 that provides hardware resources aimed at supporting engineers, founders, and investors in the hardware industry. Andrew Côté is the founder of Hyperstition Incorporated, organizer of Deep Tech Week, and an engineering physicist with experience spanning bioengineering, RF communications, fusion tech, and venture scouting. Round 1 of judging the #HardTechAwards is complete—look out for the shortlist announcement this week!

The Vancouver #HardTechForum on May 15 tackles “Making BC Tech Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” — and we’re excited to welcome Keith Ippel, founder and co-CEO of Spring Collective, to the panel. Spring Collective is Canada's national impact angel investing network driving meaningful social and environmental change. Keith has helped raise over $80M in funding as an angel investor, and trained 400+ impact entrepreneurs on investment readiness and raising capital. 🎟️ Join us May 15 at Manning Elliott LLP for a discussion of how to scale and support hardware innovations in our province. Early bird tickets are available until April 22! https://lu.ma/7rgvmxp7

MistyWest is incredibly grateful to have the support of our #HardTechAwards judges—industry leaders who bring deep expertise and a shared passion for celebrating innovation in hardware. Meet 3 more judges who are joining their first HardTech Awards in 2025: Thyaga Nandagopal leads Emerging Tech R&D at Samsung Research America (SRA), drawing on his experience spearheading hardtech initiatives at the NSF across quantum, AI, wireless, and semiconductors. Paulina Szyzdek is an Investment Principal at E12 Ventures who is focused on deep tech and industrial markets, with a global background in finance. She writes about longevity, biotech and humanoid robotics in her newsletter HardTech Reads. Thibault Lerailler is the founder and CEO of the award-winning Punctuate Design Studio in Montreal, helping global brands and startups develop products with a focus on eco-design. Since 2012, he has designed for companies like Philips, Braun, and OXO. More than just an award platform, the HardTech Awards are an ecosystem for recognition, collaboration, and long-term industry impact. Check out our full judging docket: https://lnkd.in/eJyy3VGC

BC’s got the brains, the talent, and the startups—but scaling hardware in this province still feels like an uphill climb. To become a global technology hub, BC needs to go harder, better, faster, stronger—from public funding to local manufacturing and strategic partnerships. The next #HardTechForum Vancouver on May 15 will explore how to keep BC-born innovations scaling at home—NOT just south of the border. Early bird tickets are available until April 22. https://lu.ma/7rgvmxp7

The latest edition of the MistyWest monthly newsletter is going HARD on all things HardTech—from HardTech Awards to HardTech Forums to the hard part of innovation (hardware). All in a hard day's work!

Machine learning for object detection has come a long way in recent years, and ensuring an AI model is representative and reliable is a key concern for developers. Want a smarter, more accurate model? In this blog post, Electronics Designer Kevin McGrath shares how MistyWest boosted vehicle detection on our MistySOM edge AI device thanks to implementing transfer learning with Edge Impulse 🚀 https://lnkd.in/eHttUbYX

Welcome to the team Tony Flynn, MistyWest's newest Senior Firmware Developer! Tony is an embedded systems engineer with over 15 years of optimizing firmware and hardware for cutting-edge technology. His expertise spans automotive, RF, robotics, and IoT applications, with contributions to projects ranging from Qualcomm’s Flight Pro drone controller to Google’s Soli radar-based HMI. When he’s not wrangling low-level code, you’ll find Tony off-grid on his motorcycle exploring the beautiful British Columbia backcountry 🏕️ 🏍️

As you may already know, Vancouver Hardware Meetup now identifies as HardTech Forum—but we are still the OG Vancouver meetup with a mission of building a strong, connected hardware community. We invite you to join our new HardTech Forum Discord Server, where members can vote on future meetup topics, suggest speakers, and join the conversations that keep our community thriving. Let's stay connected! https://lnkd.in/eKs-3aWv

The nominations are in, and our judging panel is hard at work scoring the 2025 #HardTechAwards submissions 📝 Meet a few of the experts who are joining us for their first year behind the curtain 👇 Amish P. is the Founder and Managing Director at Conduit Venture Labs and a Canadian in Seattle focused on early-stage hard tech as a VC and venture builder. He brings a background spanning Microsoft innovation projects and leadership roles at startups like Katlayst, VICIS, and Proprio. Vitaly Golomb is a Managing Partner at Mavka Capital, with 20+ years of experience as a tech entrepreneur, investor, and advisor in mobility, climate tech, and industrial innovation. He is the author of “Accelerated Startup” and a frequent keynote speaker at global tech conferences. Sonia Estevez is the Sr. Director of Hardware Innovation at Avery Dennison, with over two decades of experience leading global product teams at companies like Amazon and Samsung. She’s launched connected devices and platforms across mobile, IoT, wearables, and voice AI, scaling product lines to billions in revenue. Their time, thoughtful evaluation, and commitment to spotlighting the next generation of hardware visionaries are what make this initiative truly meaningful 💫 Check out our full judging panel on the HardTech Awards page: https://lnkd.in/eJyy3VGC

Only 3 days left to submit your HardTech Awards nominations ⏰ https://lnkd.in/euYRy6kz These awards are NOT for the Elon Musks of the world, but the Tom Muellers—the technically excellent, behind-the-scenes brains who don’t get enough of the accolades they deserve. The Top 20 will be announced May 29 during Web Summit Vancouver—and we're offering flight stipends so each winner can accept their award in person. Don't miss this chance to recognize someone—or yourself—for their contributions to commercialized hardware.