Welcome to this week’s Sunday Briefing. In this issue, read about the State of the Island Economic Summit, a test for Open Ocean Robotics, and a Victoria edtech startup.

Now onto today’s briefing. It’s 659 words: a three-minute read.

-Emily, [email protected]

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MarineLabs releases AI-powered weather tool

After making history a few months ago with the largest seed round of its kind in Canadian history for an ocean tech company, Victoria’s MarineLabs is back with more.

Last week, the company announced its latest offering, Forecast AI. An addition to MarineLabs’ flagship product, CoastAware, Forecast AI provides accurate and hyper-localized coastal weather forecasts delivered using MarineLabs’ new machine learning models and data from their fleet of real-time sensor nodes.

“Forecast AI represents a giant stride forward in our mission to revolutionize marine mobility,” said Scott Beatty, CEO of MarineLabs. “With CoastAware, we set a new standard in real-time weather awareness. Now, by leveraging our unique observations to train thousands of machine learning models, we have the ability to more accurately predict weather in a way that addresses critical gaps in traditional forecasts. This empowers our subscribers and partners with the precise, forward-looking, hyper-local wind and wave forecast information they need to make safe and informed decisions in the face of increasingly volatile weather.”

MarineLabs has done their homework with Forecast AI. To date, in aggregate over 32 locations in MarineLabs’ sensor network with forecasting available, Forecast AI has 50% lower average errors in predicting weather parameters compared to publicly available maritime forecast models.

📰 More Victoria innovation news

📸 Just so you know: Vancouver Island Economic Alliance shared highlights from its ‘State of the Island’ Economic Summit.

💪 Give it a try: Open Ocean Robotics has teamed up with U.S. ocean power company C-Power to test a “data mule” concept using Open Ocean Robotics’ uncrewed surface vessels.

👐 Learning to fly: VIATEC shone a spotlight on one of its members, Edutainment Playbook, a Victoria-based edtech startup founded by Ning Cao.

🕴️ Tech jobs of the week

Find your next career:

• Project Manager - Intermediate at Quester Tangent

• Senior Data Architect at BC Public Service

• Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) at Workday

Hiring in Victoria? Reply to this email and let us know!

📅 Upcoming events

August 23 | VIATEC Summer Tech Together

Picture this: Crowd surfing the CEO of your team to the raddest live band under the sun, and savagely beating your tech rivals in the potato sack race, all while showing off those summer gains in the tug-o-war.

• Chill and connect: Soak up those summer rays with top tech teams in our city.

• Demolish your tech rivals: Prove to the Tectorian community why your company is the best by sprinting to the finish line in the three-legged race and flaunting your superior senses in the blindfolded obstacle course.

• Bring your conductor hat: Take a relaxing cruise through the heritage grounds on the trains with your kiddos.

• Wave your glow sticks: Mosh-pit with your boss and embarrass your kids in front of the main stage.

Have an upcoming event? Reply to let us know.

🙋 I need a…

We at Victoria Tech Journal know you, our community, pretty well. Are you searching for someone in your field to have coffee with, a hiring hookup, a lead on local investors, or suggestion for a great Victoria tech tool? Whatever you’re hunting for, let us know. We’ll post it in this section and make it happen.

Email your requests to [email protected].

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.