COLUMBUS – On May 20, the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) released the final report of its “Midwest Connect” Hyperloop Feasibility Study, which found that hyperloop technology is feasible along the corridor connecting Columbus with Chicago (via Lima, Ohio and Fort Wayne, Indiana) and Pittsburgh.

The feasibility study – which began in earnest in late 2018 – is part of MORPC’s Rapid Speed Transportation Initiative (RSTI) that focuses on better, faster connections to Chicago and Pittsburgh. The RSTI looks at transportation options that would not only enhance passenger and freight transportation in the Midwest, but also spur economic growth, generate opportunities for development, and create new opportunities for people and businesses in the Midwest megaregion.

Nonte, a new health tech startup spun off from Fredericton’s Populus Global Solutions, has a single early adopter for its medical research platform, and it’s the largest medical complex in the world.

Nonte has been beta-testing its platform, which allows researchers to collaborate across several disciplines, at the Texas Medical Centre in Houston, a complex of 60 medical institutions that employ 106,000 people. The parties were preparing to sign a full commercial relationship, but that process was delayed when the COVID-19 crisis broke out.

Demand for face masks these days is off the charts so it's no surprise that all sorts of designers in Toronto are taking a stab at designing their own versions.

LuxMea Studio, a multidisciplinary design studio with offices in Toronto and Boston, has an idea for a face mask that goes beyond the usual cotton or polyester varieties. So far, they've raised over $100,000 to begin the mass production of masks made by 3D printers.

The e-Governance Conference which holds in Estonia is an annual gathering which focuses on and aims at international digital development cooperation in all its entirety. Since 2015, the e-Governance Conference has been organised by the e-Governance Academy (eGA) in partnership with the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The 2020 edition of the e-Governance Conference is supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Swedish Government, the U-LEAD with Europe program, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, the City of Tallinn, Intel, Google and Microsoft.

The City of Toronto is set to announce a new program, ShopHERE, aimed at helping Toronto’s independent businesses build and optimize online stores at no cost, BetaKit has learned.

Launched in conjunction with Digital Main Street, a program of the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas, the initiative will also receive support from Toronto’s technology community.

ShopHERE’s goal is to help local independent small businesses and artists that currently do not have the resources to build an online store. Web developers from a number of Toronto tech companies will build and launch 3,000 online stores through the program over the next three months.

Apple Inc is planning to expand its investment in Taiwan by building a new plant in the Longtan (龍潭) section of Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區), the Hsinchu Science Park Bureau said yesterday.

The administration on Feb. 18 approved a plan by Apple’s Taiwan branch to set up a new plant in Longtan, Taoyuan, where the US firm has its existing operations, according to company registration data obtained by the Central News Agency.

The city of Tallinn and the Tehnopol Science and Business Park have announced a Tallinnovation innovation competition to find smart city solutions; the size of the innovation fund in 2020 is €50,000.

Tehnopol, the largest research and business park in Estonia, said in a statement that the organisers hope to support new smart city solutions that “will make the city of Tallinn more modern, more people-friendly, more cost-efficient and more open”.

MONTREAL, April 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - AMD Medicom Inc. ("Medicom"), one of the world's leading manufacturers of surgical and respiratory masks, confirms their new Canadian mask production facility will be situated in Montreal, Quebec. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of securing local production of personal protective equipment (PPE) and both the Canadian and Quebec governments are the latest in a growing number around the world seeking to partner with Medicom.

With new long-term supply agreements being finalized with both the Canadian and Quebec governments, Medicom has confirmed that their first Canadian mask manufacturing facility will open near their Montreal head office by July 2020 and will create at least 33 permanent jobs.

OAKVILLE, ON, April 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Additive Manufacturing company, Burloak Technologies, a division of Samuel, Son & Co., Limited, today announced it will support the fight against COVID-19 by producing face shields that will be used by frontline medical and healthcare workers. This personal protective equipment was designed and tested in collaboration with Hamilton Health Sciences and Mohawk College. Production has begun and will ramp up to volumes of approximately 10,000 units per week.

"Additive manufacturing is an ideal process to scale any design to commercial production in the shortest time possible, and applying our capabilities in this battle is the right thing to do," stated Colin Osborne, President & CEO, Samuel, Son & Co., Limited. "NGen played a valuable role in the rapid response to get this project underway. Without this funding, it would not have been possible to achieve the same scale in this accelerated timeframe."

Ohio State University's Wexner Medical Center and the nation's largest independent primary care physician practice are among clients adding 10,000 new users in three weeks for telehealth technology made by Updox LLC as healthcare quickly adapted for the coronavirus pandemic.

Dublin-based Updox, which makes secure communications and workflow software for physician practices, added a videoconferencing feature last year. Demand soared this spring as patients stayed home to prevent possible Covid-19 exposure.