MRK 625 MS prepared by: gsisovit

Mississauga ICT Cluster

Mississauga is an integral part of GTA ICT community

• Mississauga's ICT sector is the fourth largest in Canada • The sector is comprised of more than 3,900 companies and employs over 37,000 people

Between 1996 to 2004:- The ICT sector added an average of 2,600 jobs per annum- Employment within the sector grew by 128% to more than 37,000 people- The ICT sector grew by 118%

Mississauga ICT Cluster

• Compelling R&D Incentives• Thriving Business and EducationalPartnerships• Choice of Locations• Competitive Costs• Highly-Skilled Labour Force• Strategic Location with Ready Accessto Consumer and Industrial Markets• Convergence of Ideas and Resources within an Innovative Environment

Clustering benefits in Mississauga

Mississauga ICT Cluster

Mississauga Technology Association

“The MTA was formed in 1990 to provide a networking forum for business, government and academic sectors, to enhance economic and technological growth in the area. Member firms represent a broad range of both users and suppliers of technology from several industry, government, professional, and academic sectors.”

The Association has more than 100 member companies, and: -sponsor a regular series of events -luncheon speakers-seminars and member exhibit opportunities -networking opportunities

Mayor Hazel McCallion serves as the Honorary Chair of the MTA.

The ICT Professional Development fund is provided to clusters of schools so that their teachers make better use of ICT resources for teaching and learning in the classroom. Applications are currently closed. Information regarding the next round of applications will be posted in April/May 2008 for selection in July.

Ministry of Education – New Zealand

ICT in Schools

Waterloo University

Waterloo University has partnered with Research In Motion (RIM), makers of the Blackberry, to form a collaborative relationship which fuels innovation. Both organizations are closely intertwined.

A Glimpse into the Future…DVD

ICT in Schools

“DVD 21st Century Learner: A glimpse of the future has been distributed to schools and provides an opportunity for the school community to take a journey into the future, showing the likely impact of information communication technologies (ICT) on classrooms over the next few years. The DVD outlines the ways in which schools can use and are using ICT in innovative ways to improve teaching and learning.”

Check it Out! http://www.breezeserver.co.nz/p47101114/

Exciting Developments in ICT

clustering in ICT sectors have led to the following innovations:

ThruVision camera. It will be able to “see” through people’s clothing and can view drugs, explosives, and weapons from up to 25 meters away.

Stretchable microchip circuits could be used to build advanced brain implants, health monitors or smart clothing. The silicon chips can be bent, stretched and folded whilst maintaining the electronic capabilities of traditional microchips.

Exciting Developments in ICT

Computers are to merge with humans. By 2020 humans will increasingly interrogate machines. In turn computers will be able to anticipate what we want from them, which will require new rules about our relationship with machines. This is the era of so-called hyper-connectivity and predicts it will mean a growth in “techno-dependency”.  

Smart tags are being combined with personal identifiers in order to keep an eye on people working on construction sites using heavy machine tools. Focusing on health and safety, the Smart Tags create personalized health and safety records for every worker.

GTA ICT Support System

MARS is at the heart of the “Discovery District”, two square kilometers in downtown Toronto and the city’s centre of innovation.  

MARS Discovery District

Brings science and technology researchers together under one roof with business and investment capital firms.

MaRS Discovery District is a not-for-profit corporation founded by a group of business and community leaders to help foster research and innovation and take discoveries from the lab to the marketplace.

Goal is to support the research and development of the best ideas, and help turn those ideas into products and services — because that will create jobs and prosperity for Ontarians.

Dealing with ICT as a Mature Cluster

“ICT is a mature sector dominated by a small number of large global companies surrounded by an array of smaller niche players and component suppliers. In Canada, the large companies are increasingly foreign multinational enterprises and they are dominant players in all of the clusters studied except Vancouver. The multinational enterprises need to be encouraged to develop stronger local roots, particularly in the R&D and commercialization/production areas to ensure that they remain in the cluster. The multinational enterprises are also in a position to assist local companies by developing supplier relationships, something that is generally not evident at present.”

- Graytek Management, on ICT in Canada

GTA ICT Facilities

Only the most innovative and creative members in mature ICT clusters have their future presence guaranteed in the cluster. The image dictates the distribution of GTA ICT facilities by sector in 2003, and can provide a hint on where the sector is heading in this increasingly competitive marketplace.  

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