CDL helps to future-proof partner organizations by educating leadership on frontier technologies and creating meaningful engagements between partners and the global start-up community.
78
founding and corporate partners across 11 CDL sites
7
educational modules hosted
793
attendees at educational modules
78
founding and corporate partners across 11 CDL sites
7
educational modules hosted
793
attendees at educational modules
Peter Tertzakian, Executive Director at Arc Energy Research Institute
Both corporate and start-up innovation in the energy space is gaining momentum. Yet there is much uncertainty —policy, capital markets, geopolitics, resource costs and of course technology.
How do you evaluate an investment in hydrogen versus biofuels? How will the next generation of small modular nuclear reactors impact investments in renewables? How will oil and gas innovations play into a net-zero future?
The Simple Economics of Energy module distilled the complexity of large-scale societal transformation into easy-to-understand concepts that can be used by stakeholders in – and connected to – the energy business. This course addressed the following objectives:
Pinar Ozcan, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Saïd Business School, Oxford University
Digitization, datafication, machine learning, and changes in the regulatory environment have resulted in an explosion of technology start-ups operating in the ‘fintech’ space. In 2020 alone, $105 billion USD of venture capital was invested into fintech. Some fintech start-ups are emerging as real competitors to traditional financial services providers with companies like Klarna and Stripe now valued at $45.6 billion and $95 billion respectively. Besides start-ups, the world’s largest technology companies, such as Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook, are also starting to offer financial products targeted at businesses and/or consumers.
The Simple Economics of Fintech explained the ‘fintech revolution’ in terms of the fundamental economics of the financial services industry and how technological and regulatory changes interact with these economics to enable new businesses and new business models. In particular, the module covered the following topics:
Joshua Gans, Chief Economist at Creative Destruction Lab and Professor at Rotman School of Management
Blockchain technologies are an advance potentially more significant than the hype surrounding cryptocurrencies. Instead, they represent a potential massive reduction in the cost of verification; that is, the ability for parties to a contract to confirm the performance of obligations by others. This verification opens up the possibilities for machine validation of performance and a reduction in the transaction costs associated with deal-making.
The underlying benefits of the blockchain for providing security, interoperability, and incentive provision were explained in The Simple Economics of Blockchain. In addition, the module highlighted innovations in economic mechanism and market design to give the blockchain value. The learning objectives were as follows:
Roger Melko, Professor at University of Waterloo & Francesco Bova, Associate Professor at Rotman School of Management and Academic Lead at CDL-Toronto
The first generation of quantum technology gave the world the transistor – an invention that led to the creation of the semiconductor industry. Today, the second generation of quantum technology is emerging from laboratories. The innovations from this generation offer the potential for a fundamental improvement in sensing, communications, and the ability to solve intractable computational problems. Although the technology is still being developed, a number of companies are already leveraging current quantum hardware to create value.
The Simple Economics of Quantum lecture discussed this emerging second quantum revolution. CDL-Toronto Academic Lead Francesco Bova and CDL-Quantum Scientific Lead Roger Melko illustrated how companies are utilizing current quantum hardware to create value. The discussion highlighted real-world examples, including alumni from CDL Quantum. The learning objectives were as follows:
Chris Hadfield, former Commander of the International Space Station
At the first iteration of this module, we focused on the single most important economic feature driving investment in space-related industries – the rapidly falling cost of launch. This year, we turned our attention to another key shift that will impact investment in space: competition. We are at the starting line of a new Space Race. The original Space Race began in 1957, when the Soviet Union launched the first successful artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, into Earth-orbit. In response, the US established NASA and then the Apollo program. This kicked off an avalanche of public and private investment in space.
Today, the US is not racing with Russia, but China. China is building the Tiangong space station, the first module of which was launched last year. Around the same time, China and Russia agreed to jointly build a research station on or around the Moon, in direct competition with the US’s Artemis program, which is focused on returning humans to the Moon by 2025. These initiatives, and others, have set the stage for a new Space Race. Thus, the world’s two superpowers will become super customers, amplifying demand for space-related products and services up and down the supply chain. Against this backdrop, one company, Space X, exerts increasing market power in launch. Falcon plans to launch about once a week on average in 2022, delivering ~2/3 of all Earth payload to orbit. And Starship, expected to begin commercial launch in a couple of years, is designed for such a high payload mass capability and such a low potential operating cost that it will create a new paradigm for investment and innovation in space. Together, the blossoming competition in space between two global superpowers on the one hand and the growing dominance of a single company in the commercial launch market, on the other hand, will shape a new dynamic for investment and innovation in space.
Alan Aspuru-Guzik, Professor, Department of Chemistry, Computer Science and Chemical Engineering and Applied Science, University of Toronto; Co-founder Zapata Computing and Kebotix
The chemical and materials industries – and the wide range of industries they are connected to – are being disrupted by frontier technologies. Advances in robotics and automation, artificial intelligence, and high-throughput computation are fundamentally changing the way advanced materials are being discovered, produced, and brought to market. The growth of materials databases, a key complement to these technologies, will further accelerate the pace of discovery and development of molecules and materials. Demand for green materials and greater reusability (ie: a circular economy) are creating a host of new commercial opportunities. While the opportunities are considerable, the presence of large and powerful incumbent buyers at the end of many advanced materials value chains can pose challenges for start-ups’ ability to capture value from their innovation.
The Simple Economics of Advanced Materials (Matter) introduced participants to the technological changes that are transforming the advanced materials space and explain how they impact the economics of creating and capturing value in the advanced materials industry. Drawing on recent examples, Professor Aspuru-Guzik highlighted both the opportunities and challenges for technology start-ups and suggest a number of factors entrepreneurs and investors should consider when evaluating the potential of a start-up in this space.
Joan Schmit, American Family Insurance Distinguished Chair in Risk Management and Insurance, Wisconsin School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Madison
The availability and access to ever-increasing sources of new data and technology are transforming society’s ability to predict, mitigate, and transfer risk (the latter, most often through insurance). This, along with an increasing understanding of behavioral economics, is changing how we most effectively and efficiently can manage it – leading to greatly enhanced outcomes in the human condition at large.
With a better sense of where, when, and how losses might occur, individuals, governments, and organizations are able to employ their resources more effectively and efficiently to mitigate and often prevent losses from occurring. Furthermore, the digitalization of manual processes allows for better, faster, cheaper management of risk.