Event registration details
Date: September 2026
Please note that this is a private event. If you would like registration details, please reach out to us at ResearchMatters@sait.ca.
Event overview
Delivered in collaboration between the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology’s (SAIT) Applied Research and Innovation Services (ARIS), Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) and Red Deer Polytechnic (RDP), the symposium showcases applied research projects from faculty, researchers and students, in conjunction with industry partners. Through a series of presentations and discussions, the event highlights innovation, cross-sector partnerships and the impact of applied research across the province and beyond. Essential to Alberta’s innovation ecosystem, the symposium creates a platform to share knowledge, spark collaboration and strengthen connections between academia and industry, increasing the visibility of polytechnic-led applied research. Hosting rotates annually between the three partner institutions, with SAIT hosting the 2026 symposium.
We gratefully acknowledge the ongoing support of
Alberta Innovates in helping make the Alberta Corridor
Technical Symposium possible.
Student-led poster showcase
As part of the symposium, the student-led poster showcase provides students with the opportunity to present their applied research, capstone projects and industry collaborations. Attendees engage directly with student innovators and an award is presented at the end of the event based on participant voting.
What to expect
The symposium offers a unique opportunity to see the breadth and impact of applied research happening across Alberta’s polytechnic institutions.
Event agenda
- Bridging Research and Innovation in Youth Sports Nutrition
- Evaluation of Membrane and Thermal Desalination Technologies for Water Reuse and Salt Recovery
- Sensing, Automation, and AI-Driven Technologies for Underground Potash Mining
- Targeted Raman Spectroscope Scanning Guided Through Image Processing Based Algorithm for Detection and Characterization of Low Concentration Microplastics
- Field Deployable Modular System for Remediation of Contaminated Soil from Oil and Gas exploration
- Taste of Home: Building Belonging Through Food, Culture, and Community
- Measurement and Distribution of Microplastics in the North Saskatchewan River
- Intelligent Air: Transforming HVAC Performance through Autonomous AI
- Empowering Home Care Community Stroke
- Improving Accessibility to Specialized Parasport Equipment Across Canada Through Advanced Design and Manufacturing
- Productive Pandemonium and Prototypes: Navigating Interdisciplinary Innovation
- Concept to Clinic: Optimizing Material Selection for Low-Volume Medical Device Manufacturing
- Bitumen Beyond Combustion – 3D Printed Carbon Fibre Composites
- 360° Urban Wind Modeling
- Engineering of an Automated Industrial Concrete Mixer: An Interdisciplinary Design Approach
- Prefabricated Wall Panels vs. Stick-Framed Construction: Feasibility in Alberta’s Single-Family Housing Sector
- Enhancing Wildfire Management and Response Using Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) and Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Enhancing Smart Industrial Operations Through Digital Twin Technology: An Applied Industry 4.0 Case Study of Twinzo
- Integrated Adsorption and Biodigestion for Hydrocarbons Removal from Stormwater Runoff in Jasper National Park
- Feature Extraction from Crude Oil EEM Data for PCA-Based Classification
- Quantifying High-Performance Retrofits: A Data-Driven Analysis of 100 Canadian Homes
- Durability Assessment of Low Carbon Concrete Mixtures for Extended Service Life
- A DOE-Based Framework for Optimization of 3D Printable Concrete Mixtures
- Development of Hollow Fiber Membrane Modules: From Spinning to Metallic Tube-Sheet Characterization
Joel Semeniuk, President and CEO, Primal
Joel Semeniuk has spent three decades helping organizations transform their businesses through technology. His career has tracked every major wave, the early web, mobile, cloud, and now AI, always centred on the same discipline: how organizations adopt new technology and turn it into durable value.
He built that expertise as an operator. In 1997 he founded Imaginet, a Microsoft consulting and training firm that grew to serve customers in more than 22 countries and earned the first-ever Global Microsoft Partner of the Year award in Application Lifecycle Management. He went on to build Imaginet Ventures, a studio that co-created and commercialized companies with enterprises in healthcare, manufacturing, and technology, several since acquired. Among them was Telerik, where Joel served as EVP of Innovation; Progress Software later acquired the company.
He knows the ecosystem side of innovation as well as the company side. During his time at Communitech, Canada's national tech network, most recently as Chief Strategy Officer, Joel led programs connecting researchers, startups, industry, and government, including Future of Health, Future of Cities with more than 20 municipalities, and NATO DIANA innovation programming. He co-chairs the Dean's External Advisory Board for the University of Manitoba's Faculty of Science, working where education and industry meet to turn research into real-world results.
For more than 20 years Joel has been a Microsoft Regional Director, holding the further distinction of Global Regional Director, one of roughly 13 worldwide. He is co-author of three books and an international speaker who has worked with organizations in 33 countries.
Today he is President and CEO of Primal, a neurosymbolic AI company focused on the defining challenge of this wave: making AI trustworthy, governed, and sovereign. Primal builds patent-backed components that install into AI coding agents, so the applications they construct come out with trust built in, for healthcare, law, and government, where transformation and governance must advance together. Primal holds one of the largest independent neurosymbolic AI patent portfolios in North America.
Born and raised in rural Manitoba, Joel has spent his career proving you don't have to leave the prairies to build for the world.
Thank you to the 2026 event sponsor
Contact
Alberta Corridor Technical Symposium
- ResearchMatters@sait.ca
Oki, Âba wathtech, Danit'ada, Tawnshi, Hello.
SAIT is located on the traditional territories of the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot) and the people of Treaty 7 which includes the Siksika, the Piikani, the Kainai, the Tsuut’ina and the Îyârhe Nakoda of Bearspaw, Chiniki and Goodstoney.
We are situated in an area the Blackfoot tribes traditionally called Moh’kinsstis, where the Bow River meets the Elbow River. We now call it the city of Calgary, which is also home to the Métis Nation of Alberta.