CEO Message

by Profound Impact
February 1, 2023January 31, 2023

The past few weeks have been exciting for the research community in Canada with announcements of the country’s National Quantum Strategy and a new federal investment of $40 million to enable the Toronto-based quantum computing company Xanadu Quantum Technologies Inc. to build and commercialize the world’s first photonic-based, fault-tolerant quantum computer. You can learn more about quantum research and development in Canada in this month’s Research Spotlight.

In this month’s newsletter, you’ll meet two outstanding young women making profound impacts in very different areas. Our February Impact Story introduces Swatil Mahmud, co-founder of Swayong, the online platform that aims to tackle social injustice through storytelling. Based in Bangladesh, Swatil and her team of volunteers share the stories of real women and girls in order to dismantle social injustices, one story at a time.

Our February Researcher Spotlight profiles Dr. Estelle Inack, Research Scientist at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, entrepreneur and role model. Read about how Dr. Inack bridges industry and academia while working at the intersection of quantum computing and artificial intelligence.

The Profound Impact team continues to work with university and college research offices across the country on the launch of our Research Impact product. And we’re looking forward to International Women’s Day activities we’re participating in and supporting in the month of March.

Enjoy this month’s edition of Profound Connections and thank you for your ongoing support and engagement.

Sherry Shannon-Vanstone

CEO Message

by Profound Impact
January 4, 2023January 4, 2023

I’m excited to share Profound Impact’s plans for this year as we amplify our focus on research and researchers across Canada and internationally.

Our new Research Spotlight column, which debuts this month highlighting Canada’s role as an AI research leader, will feature stories about emerging research and collaboration in areas including Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Information Processing, Sustainability, Alternative Energy, Climate Change, Biomanufacturing, Social Innovation, and Technology and Society.

We’ll also introduce some of the world-renowned researchers working in these areas to transfer their research results from the lab to innovative products and services. This month you’ll meet Professor Doina Precup from McGill University, who conducts fundamental research on reinforcement learning and works on AI applications in areas that have a social impact.

March 8 is International Women’s Day and this year’s theme is Embrace Equity. The Profound Impact team is delighted to be working with the Waterloo Region Chapter of Women in Communications and Technology and community organizations from across the region to present a series of IWD2023 events throughout the month of March to celebrate the women of Waterloo Region. We’ll share information about these events in upcoming issues of Profound Connections.

I know that you’ll be impressed by the accomplishments of Adrija Jana, featured in this month’s Impact Story. At just 18 years of age and just beginning her studies in English Literature at the University of Delhi in India, this exceptional young woman has made great impact as a poet, researcher, social activist, artist and active citizen.

Enjoy this month’s edition of Profound Connections and hope you are having a great start to a healthy, happy and prosperous 2023!

Sherry Shannon-Vanstone

CEO Message

by Profound Impact
November 2, 2022November 2, 2022

October has traditionally been a busy month for conferences and meetings. Of course, that all changed beginning in the spring of 2020, when pandemic restrictions caused meetings all over the world to be canceled and we all pivoted to virtual workshops, webinars, and fully online events. As a company that connects great people to do great things, we were especially pleased to participate as sponsors and speakers at two in-person conferences in Toronto in October.

At the 2022 THINK Conference, Shawna Reibling, Knowledge Mobilization Officer at Wilfrid Laurier University, joined Brian Romansky, Profound Impact’s Chief Strategy Officer, to talk about the current state of communicating funding opportunities and how our Research Impact product works to resolve identified pain points in identifying and matching those opportunities with researchers.

The Profound Impact team is nearly 60% women, which is one of the reasons why we decided to sponsor and speak at CAN-CWiC, the premiere Canadian Computing Conference for Women in Technology that brings together researchers, students and companies from across Canada. Our team presented Research Impact to conference attendees and participated in the career fair to introduce students to employment opportunities at Profound Impact and leadership opportunities for women in STEM.

November brings us to the start of the Giving Season and we are pleased to present the second year of our 12 Days of Impact 2022 challenge, which launches on Giving Tuesday – November 29. Profound Impact challenges you to think about the many ways to create social impact by helping a neighbour, donating blood, volunteering for your favourite cause, or thanking someone who is making an impact in your community, your research network or your organization. Read more about the 12 Days of Impact in this newsletter to learn how you and your team can get involved!

And, speaking of social impact, this month’s Impact Story features Stephanie and Joe Mancini, founders of the Working Centre in downtown Kitchener, Ontario. The Mancinis started their work to address poverty and homelessness 40 years ago and continue to lead the Centre by example and through partnership with business, government, and funding agencies to spread their message of hope and commitment.

I am delighted that our Profound Impact team was able to meet with researchers, students, and university administrators from across Canada in October. And, as

we all come back together in meetings, on campuses, in offices and research laboratories, and in gatherings of family and friends, we challenge you to think about how you can make a difference this Giving Season!

As always, we are thankful for your ongoing support and engagement.

CEO Message

by Profound Impact
October 4, 2022October 4, 2022

I’d like to start by thanking everyone who joined us on September 14 for the third annual Profound Impact Day! We have been building a strong community of supporters over the years and I can’t thank you enough for being such an important part of our impact story.This year, on Profound Impact Day 2022, our team launched Research Impact, a unique and targeted service to automatically match grants to researchers. The Profound Impact team launched Research Impact to solve the challenge of clumsy, manual systems that aren’t digitally enabled to deliver fast, accurate matching capabilities.

Profound Impact’s unveiling of Research Impact in 2022 follows the launch of Career Impact in 2021, and 2020’s Connection Impact, all of which utilized data driven solutions to support organizations looking to make an impact. Each step in Profound Impact’s evolution remains deeply founded in the academic community while honing in on the most persistent challenge to solve. Our team looks forward to growing our Research Impact pilot project to bring our proprietary algorithms to universities around the world!

As Profound Impact continues to accelerate forward, I had the opportunity to sit down with the Startup Canada Podcast to discuss the company’s journey, the importance of women and their contributions to STEM, and my experience as a leader and entrepreneur in the tech industry. I can’t wait to share this episode with you.

This month, the Profound Impact team is attending two conferences. The annual THINK Conference (October 19-20) and the CAN-CWiC Canadian computing conference for Women in Technology (October 21-22). We look forward to meeting you there!

This month’s Impact Story highlights the amazing story of Kehkashan Basu, M.S.M. who was the winner of this year’s Impactful Actions Award. At just 22 years old, Basu has already made a tremendous impact on our world. We were so inspired by her work through her organization, Green Hope Foundation, and know that you will be too!

September 14 was and always will be a day to remember and reflect. Your support made recognizing global leaders and changemakers both powerful and memorable!

As always, we are thankful for your ongoing support and engagement.

CEO Message

by Profound Impact
September 7, 2022

As the last of our summer long weekends leave us, it’s time to refocus on the academic year ahead. September often represents a time of new personal growth and academic acceleration, which reminds our Profound Impact team about why we started this journey in the first place! The collective impact of researchers around the globe gives us the inspiration to follow our passions in life and work hard on what matters most. Profound Impact is a tribute to exactly that. If you’re looking for the best grants for your research, let us find the perfect match! Our latest product, Research Impact, matches researchers with the right grants and funding to ensure you’ll have the support you need to complete your project.

Building on the energy we feel each September, we invite you to save the date for Profound Impact Day on September 14th! Profound Impact Day is celebrated annually to honour my late husband, Professor Scott A. Vanstone, on his birthday. We hope you can join us as we acknowledge and celebrate everyone who is making impactful advancements in their fields of expertise.

Also on September 14th, we will announce the winner of the second annual Impactful Actions Award! For this award, we received nominations from leaders making a profound impact on the global community and inspiring collaborative solutions to difficult problems. We have profiled our top three finalists in this month’s Impact Story. Tune in on Profound Impact Day to find out who will take home the 2022 Impactful Actions Award. Our finalists, Kehkashan Basu, M.S.M., Dr. Mona Nemer, and Dr. Neil Turok, are inspirations to all of us and a reminder of the difference we can make in our world.

Before signing off, I’d like to take a moment to thank the Profound Impact team for their ongoing dedication to our mission. We have started our new fiscal year with plenty of exciting conversations about what’s ahead.

As always, we are thankful for your ongoing support and engagement.

Sherry Shannon-Vanstone

CEO Message

by Profound Impact
August 3, 2022

Across Canada, many of us are astonished that summer (aka “construction season”) is quickly passing us by and the academic year will soon be in full swing! August is often a time to rest and recharge before jumping into the next exciting part of life’s journey. With travel becoming more accessible, we hope that you are enjoying a change of scenery within our own country and beyond.

Speaking of travel and global mobility, we dove deep into Kitchener-Waterloo’s tech hub for our Impact Story this month, featuring Accelerator Centre CEO, Jay Krishnan. From his global perspective, Krishan shared his goals to take the region and the Accelerator Centre global to generate demand and discoverability of tech developed in Waterloo.

I also sat down with “Canada’s tech supercharger,” Communitech. As a female founder, I was thrilled to talk about my experiences, how I was inspired to keep going instead of retiring, and what drove me to leave Silicon Valley and start Profound Impact in Canada instead. Read on to check out my interview and learn more about why Profound Impact was created, what it is today, and where we plan to take it in the future.

I’m excited to say we’ve received outstanding nominations for the Profound Impact™ Impactful Actions Award. We can’t wait to share the nominees with you! Save the dates – our finalists will be announced on August 15th, and we’ll share the winner on September 14th, our 3rd annual Profound Impact Day!

As always, we are thankful for your ongoing support and engagement.

Sherry Shannon-Vanstone

CEO Message

by Profound Impact
July 7, 2022

Welcome to the July edition of our Profound Connections newsletter. As we complete the first half of the calendar year, I hope everyone can take some time to enjoy the summer, rest, and recharge, bringing new energy to the second half of 2022. This month, as the focus of our July Impact story, we were honoured to speak with Dr. Charmaine Dean, Vice President of Research & International at the University of Waterloo. Dr. Dean is a leading researcher in disease mapping innovation and a fellow CANARIE board member with me. I am certain you will enjoy learning about Dr. Dean’s local and global impact.

We also continue to collect nominations for the Profound Impact™ Impactful Actions Award. This annual awards program honours individuals who are making a profound impact using collaborative approaches to solve difficult problems in areas such as education, innovation, research, entrepreneurism, EDI, social impact and environment. Award nominees exemplify what it means to impact the global community as leaders, mentors, researchers, inventors, activists and change agents in their own organizations and within their community as a whole.

This is a tremendous opportunity to nominate an unsung hero who is passionate about making a difference, working to make the world a better place, mentoring the next generation of leaders, inventing new ways to solve problems, or simply making a positive impact on people’s everyday lives. I invite you to nominate yourself or someone you know who should be recognized for their impact. Nominations are open until midnight on July 20th.

As always, we are thankful for your ongoing support and engagement.

Sherry Shannon-Vanstone

CEO Message

by Profound Impact
June 6, 2022June 1, 2022

Welcome to the June edition of our Profound Connections newsletter.

In this month’s Impact story, we feature Deborah MacLatchy, president of Wilfrid Laurier University, an academic leader committed to inspiring women in STEM and promoting diversity and inclusion. The full story can be read here.

We are excited to announce that nominations are now open for the Profound Impact™ Impactful Actions Award. This annual awards program honours individuals who are making a profound impact using collaborative approaches to solve difficult problems. We look forward to the nominations and welcome all to participate. Please feel free to nominate someone or even nominate yourself!

Our progress continues at Profound Impact and we look forward to sharing more with you in the coming months.

Thank you for your ongoing support and engagement,

Sherry Shannon-Vanstone

CEO Message

by Profound Impact
May 4, 2022May 4, 2022

Welcome to May’s edition of our Profound Connections newsletter. Over the last month, our team at Profound Impact™ has been busy with the release of our first Social Impact Report, participating in our yearly Earth Day activities, and championing important discussions about supporting women in STEM careers.

The release of our first annual Social Impact Report was an exciting feat for Profound Impact. As a startup, it can be a challenge to navigate commitment to corporate social responsibility while also acknowledging the financial constraints that come with being a smaller company. It was our goal to evade this limitation and find ways of making a social impact without having to invest immense amounts of money. Many of our activities required no cost whatsoever! The full report detailing the ways in which our team members contributed to social, economic and environmental causes throughout 2021 can be found below.

April 22, 2022 was Earth Day — and each member of the Profound Impact team used this as an opportunity to spend at least 30 minutes doing something to benefit the environment. From planting pollinator gardens to picking up litter at a local park, the highlights of our team’s pursuits are shared in this month’s newsletter.

Finally, I was honoured to be interviewed by the Accelerator Centre’s CEO Jay Krishnan on the inaugural Waterloo Grit podcast, where innovators are called upon to answer the question, “What does the global future of entrepreneurship look like?” Continue reading to learn more and listen to our conversation!

Stay connected with us on social media and through our upcoming Profound Connections newsletters for more information on upcoming events!

Thank you for your ongoing support and engagement,

Sherry Shannon-Vanstone