Dr. Michelle Fattouche, Electrical and Computer Engineering
U of C Wealth Creation: $35 million
The U of C has celebrated a number of high-flying spin offs with dizzying market capitalization numbers, particularly during the technology bubble of 2000.
In 1993, Dr. Michel Fattouche, a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, developed and patented a technology known as Wide-band Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (W-OFDM). This innovation breaks high-speed signals into thousands of signals to be sent concurrently on different frequencies. This technology provides a competitive advantage over traditional methods that send one signal at a time, and mitigates inherent problems created from associated noise and varying multipathes and bandwidth. The W-OFDM patent has been cited 7,000 times to date and adopted in several standards around the world including WiMAX and the new standard for WiFi.
Extreme endorsement
W-OFDM was the technology that drove the creation of Wi-LAN Inc., a global provider of broadband wireless communications products. In its initial public offering in 1998 the company raised twice what they anticipated. In 1998, Wi-LAN traded at $1.40 on the Alberta Exchange with a market cap of below $20million. By 2000, the company was valued at $2billion and had accumulated gains of 5,757 per cent. A $10,000 investment in Wi-LAN in 1998 would have been worth $642,000 by 2000. On March 31, 2000, Wi-LAN’s shares traded at $87.50. As of Nov 2005 the market capitalization of Wi-LAN sits around $35 million (WIN: TSX), and the company employs 110 people in Calgary.
Wireless location technologies
Research in Action: U of C Wealth Creation: $19.8million
Locating wireless devices… and success
Following the incorporation of Wi-LAN Inc. in 1995, Fattouche and his co-founder, U of C researcher Dr. Hatim Zaghloul, together established Cell-Loc Inc. (which later became Cell-Loc Location Technologies Inc.) to commercialize their patents on Super-Resolution.
Cell-Loc Location Technologies Inc. has been on a roller coaster stock market ride. Cell-Loc’s focus has always been to locate wireless devices; the company was a leader in the emerging wireless location industry and the developer of Cellocate™, a family of network-based wireless location products that enable location-sensitive services.
Traded on the venture exchange (LTI: TSXV) the company, in Nov 2005, has a market capitalization of $19.8 million.
Fattouche holds 16 patents and in 2000 was named Ernst & Young’s Prairies Entrepreneur of the Year.