Cybersecurity Research Lab and Mavennet awarded OCI’s Voucher for Innovation and Productivity
Ted Rogers School of Management’s Cybersecurity Research Lab (CRL) at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) and industry partner Mavennet Systems Inc. (external link, opens in new window) have been awarded the Voucher for Innovation and Productivity by the Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI) (external link, opens in new window) for their collaborative project on the design and analysis of a blockchain-based digital wallet for energy asset tracking.
The OCI’s Voucher for Innovation and Productivity (VIP) program helps companies develop, implement and commercialize technical innovations by supporting partnerships between Ontario’s industry and publicly funded post-secondary institutions. VIP projects are intended to generate economic benefit for companies in Ontario (including job creation/retention, new revenue generation, investment attraction, cost savings, value chain development), in the short-to-medium term (e.g. within three years of project completion).
This project by the CRL and Mavennet furthers Mavennet’s Neoflow platform (external link, opens in new window) with an additional case – end-to-end environmental impact accounting.
“Collaboration between industry and academia brings to the table novel innovation approaches that are very hard to achieve in either industry or academia in isolation,” says CRL Director Dr. Atefeh Mashatan. “This partnership between Mavennet and Toronto Metropolitan University is our humble contribution to help cement Ontario as a global reference model for technology innovation in the digital assets space.”
The electrical industry is in need of transparent tools that provide more granularity about the energy mix consumed on the day-to-day and its environmental footprint. A blockchain-based digital wallet for electricity enables the digital accounting of the energy types produced and consumed in a very granular way.
Currently, industrial consumers of electrical energy, power utilities, generators and regulators have no robust way to prove the environmental compliance of energy assets, beyond Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs)/Guarantees of Origins (GOs). Being able to measure and record environmental data in a cryptographically secure way is key to effectively support environmental leading players, while helping these organizations differentiate their products downstream in the market. This work represents a contribution towards helping Canada in its 2030 climate commitments and 2050 net-zero greenhouse gas emissions goal.
“Toronto Metropolitan University’s Dr. Atefeh Mashatan and her team at the Cybersecurity Research Lab possess the deep cryptography expertise necessary to push the state of the art of the technology and enable bootstrapping of peer-to-peer relationships between energy organizations and consumers in a secure and trusted manner,” says Mavennet’s CEO Patrick Mandic. “The goal is to make a product that is truly scalable beyond traditional commercial electricity contracts into more dynamic electricity mixes for residential, electric vehicles, etc.”
About Ontario Centre of Innovation
The Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI), formerly the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE), maximizes the commercial impact of research developed in Ontario’s colleges, universities and research hospitals, and accelerates the commercialization of Made-in-Ontario technologies. A pan-provincial collaboration platform, with a broad and deep network across industry, academia and government, OCI initiates unparalleled partnership opportunities, develops and manages successful industry-academic collaborations, supports high-potential SMEs in commercializing ground-breaking research, and provides hands-on training and skills development opportunities for the next generation of highly-skilled talent.
About the Cybersecurity Research Lab
The Cybersecurity Research Lab (CRL) is an academic research lab at Ted Rogers School of Management at Toronto Metropolitan University. The CRL conducts cutting-edge information security research, trains the next generation of cybersecurity experts and is spearheading a crucial and ongoing dialogue with the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry in Canada. The lab is led by Dr. Atefeh (Atty) Mashatan, an Information Security Researcher and Solutions Architect.
The CRL is recognized for its strong partnerships and linkages to industry. Its mission is to help organizations, large and small, to find innovative and cost-effective cyber risk mitigation strategy and solutions. The lab’s research expertise is in Cryptography, Blockchain Technology, Quantum-resistant solutions, Machine Learning and its applications in cybersecurity, Enterprise Security Architecture and Security of Internet of Things (IoT).
About Mavennet
Mavennet Systems Inc., is a technology company with focus in research and innovation in the space of digital assets and novel applications of blockchain and AI to pave the way for a modern, more secure and more efficient economy. In 2020, Mavennet created Nehoflow, a platform for traceability of energy with the initial focus of digitizing oil and gas and currently working with US Homeland Security and US Customs and Border Protection.
Contact Information:
Cassandra Earle
Media and Rich Content Specialist, Ted Rogers School of Management
cassandra.earle@torontomu.ca