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Welcome to this week’s Sunday Briefing. In this issue:

Now on to today’s briefing.

-Emily, [email protected]

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A five-person team from British Columbia took second place at the Ocean Hackathon Grand Finale in Brest, France, last week, beating out teams from around the world as the only entry from North America. The team—Yi (Leon) Zhen, Noel John, Udbhav Kansal, Dom Torres, and Polina Erofeeva—won 3,000 euros for Ocean Drift, their project that uses artificial intelligence to analyze ocean currents in the Strait of Georgia and help optimize search and rescue operations.

The team earned their spot at the international finale by winning B.C.'s first-ever Ocean Hackathon, hosted in Victoria this fall by COAST and Ocean Networks Canada. The 48-hour competition challenges teams to use real ocean data to tackle marine problems. This year's global event brought together finalists from 10 countries, with 57 teams competing in total. A Malaysian team took first place for an AI system that helps fish farm operators reduce waste and boost profits.

"Competitions like these give early-stage teams a platform to experiment and test ideas on their path from concept to commercialization, and it gives new, important purpose to the vast ocean data resources we have here in B.C., and in Canada," said Jason Goldsworthy, COAST's executive director. The Victoria hackathon received backing from Canada's Ocean Supercluster and Syniad Innovations.

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🏆 We are the champions: Team member Udbhav Kansal reflected on the B.C. Ocean Hackathon team's journey to second place in France, crediting COAST, Ocean Networks Canada, mentor Manman Wang, and the B.C. AI community for supporting their search-and-rescue forecasting system that represented all of North America at the global finale.

🌊 I feel the earth move: Ocean Networks Canada's land and seafloor seismic network detected a 3.9 magnitude earthquake 60 kilometres southwest of Kyuquot on December 9, giving Vancouver subscribers 63 seconds of warning before ground shaking arrived through the early alert system.

🎓 Lean on me: Vancouver Island University's Giving Tuesday campaign raised $481,000 for the VIU Access Fund, which supports students facing financial barriers through initiatives including the Career Closet, food pantries, equipment loans, and other programs addressing basic needs.

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December 18 | INSPIRE 2025 Annual Conference and Professional Networking Event

This event brings together industry leaders, hiring managers, founders, and engineers who will share firsthand insights into how emerging technologies, especially AI, are reshaping the skills and mindsets needed to thrive in today’s rapidly evolving landscape. You’ll have the chance to learn directly from local companies, hear how teams are adapting to new engineering and product challenges, and build relationships with professionals who are actively looking for student and co-op talent.

Have something or someone we should know about?

Reply or email [email protected] so we can work together to spotlight the lesser-known stories of Victoria's tech ecosystem.