In an exciting development for Calgary's tech and innovation scene, Mitacs, a national not-for-profit that fosters innovation and economic growth, has awarded Dr. Faramarz Samavati, a Computer Science Professor at the University of Calgary, a Mitacs Innovation Award for Outstanding Research Leadership for his role in developing a first-of-its-kind, made-in-Canada 2D and 3D digital Earth system. This system is an alternative to traditional geographic information systems (GISs) like Google Maps that represent the Earth as flat.
Last year, Dr. Faramarz Samavati received the largest Mitacs funding grant ever awarded to the University of Calgary Faculty of Science. The grant included a historic 53 Mitacs Accelerate internship units for his work on a 3D digital earth system and continuing innovations on geospatial research. This funding supports his research into a new geospatial data system, developed with the Calgary-based company BigGeo Inc., who are leveraging geospatial innovations to build the Spatial Cloud.
The Mitacs Innovation award for Outstanding Research Leadership highlights the continued collaboration between BigGeo and Dr. Samavati's GIV research group at the University of Calgary. Together, they're leveraging BigGeo's Discrete Global Grid System (DGGS) to revolutionize the scaling and performance of the spatial data landscape.
The 2025 Mitacs Innovation Awards, presented at the National Arts Centre and streamed online to a global audience, brings together government, industry, and academic leaders to celebrate Canada’s top research and innovation talent.
About BigGeo Inc.:
BigGeo is building the Spatial Cloud, the control system that connects data about place and time to the world’s digital infrastructure. Today, AI understands what and why, but not where and when. BigGeo fills that gap by unifying spatial and temporal data, executing queries in real time, and enforcing governance so every access and transaction is authorized, auditable, and monetized. We help governments, enterprises, and developers turn the world’s data into live intelligence that improves decisions, strengthens infrastructure, and enables a new builder economy.
Learn more about BigGeo here: https://biggeo.com/
About Mitacs:
Mitacs works to bring innovation to more people in more places across Canada and around the world. Mitacs makes investing in new knowledge easier through access to top researchers, flexible project plans, and co-investments in talent. A not-for-profit organization, Mitacs is funded by the Government of Canada, the Government of Alberta, the Government of British Columbia, Research Manitoba, the Government of New Brunswick, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Government of Nova Scotia, the Government of Ontario, Innovation PEI, the Government of Quebec, the Government of Saskatchewan, and the Government of Yukon.
Learn more here: https://www.mitacs.ca/
https://www.mitacs.ca/news/2025-mitacs-innovation-awards-celebrate-ideas-research-and-canadian-innovation-talent/