[September 29, 2016]

pHacktory Partners Help Bring Curiosity and Audacious Discovery to Ottawa

Today pHacktory is proud to announce their founding partners who will help bring audacious science and discovery to the Nation's Capital-Shopify, the Canada Science and Technology Museum, the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, and RobotMissions.org.

pHacktory began when award-winning scientist, professor, and TED Fellow Andrew Pelling asked one simple question: "What would happen if I put my lab on the street?"

"pHacktory could not exist without the help and support of our founding partners," said Andrew Pelling, founder, pHacktory. "These organizations are embracing our audacious experiment and we are thrilled by their trust and courage."

As Canada approaches its 150^th birthday in 2017, Ottawa is poised to be a centre of innovation and creativity. pHacktory is proud to represent the community and hopes to spread its spirit of boundless imagination across the country.

"Shopify is excited to be a founding partner of pHacktory," said Tobi Lütke, founder and CEO, Shopify. "This is an amazing project that will benefit the city of Ottawa and the rest of Canada. I can't wait to see what comes out of it!"

pHacktory is a street-level research lab developing projects based on curiosity-driven proposals solicited from the community. By partnering with pillars of the community on projects supporting their areas of expertise, pHacktory is creating space for science, discovery, and creativity.

"You never know where great ideas will come from!" said Alex Munter, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. "CHEO is proud to partner with pHacktory so that, together, we can find ideas that will help kids and families be their healthiest. Everyone needs health care, so everyone can contribute to making it better."

Moving science into the future requires big risks and bold thinking. Thanks to innovative founding partners, pHacktory will nurture experimental ideas leading to monumental change.

"Our organization is eager to partner with pHacktory on such an exciting project," said Alex Benay, President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation. "Our focus on where the past meets the future and our willingness to take big risks to achieve big rewards aligns perfectly with pHacktory's goals. As an institution that also holds curiosity to such high standards, we are eager to see where our collaboration takes us next."

Most importantly pHacktory is about curiosity and exploring new ways of solving problems, a value the founding partners share.

"What excites me about pHacktory is how the common thread of curiosity will join projects across different fields," said Erin Kennedy, fonder, RobotMissions.org. "We will be working on audacious projects that typically would not be supported by a conventional incubator or research lab. It's the beginning of something new, and we can't wait to get started."

The first bold pHacktory experiment launches on October 1 in the Byward Market. Led by artist/designer Manuel Baez, and in partnership with the Canada Science and Technology Museum, pHacktory is going to light up the sky over Ottawa.

pHacktory will soon be accepting project ideas from across the community in a number of fields. Stay tuned to http://www.phacktory.com for details.

About Shopify
Shopify is the leading cloud-based, multi-channel commerce platform designed for small and medium-sized businesses. Merchants use the software to design, set up and manage their stores across multiple sales channels, including web, mobile, social media, marketplaces, brick-and-mortar locations and pop-up shops. The platform also provides merchants with a powerful back-office and a single view of their business. The Shopify platform was engineered for reliability and scale, making enterprise-level technology available to businesses of all sizes. Shopify currently powers over 300,000 businesses in approximately 150 countries and is trusted by big brands including Tesla Motors, Budweiser, Red Bull, the LA Lakers, the New York Stock Exchange, GoldieBlox, and many more.

About CHEO
The Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) is Canada's capital pediatric hospital and helps over 500,000 children and youth each year. CHEO has more than 2,500 doctors, nurses and staff dedicated to providing the best possible care for the children and youth of Eastern Ontario, Western Quebec, Nunavut and parts of Northern Ontario. CHEO works closely with the University of Ottawa as a teaching hospital and fosters groundbreaking research through the CHEO Research Institute. CHEO's vision is to change young lives in our community, while our innovation changes young lives around the world.

About the Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation
The Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation is Canada's only comprehensive science and technology collecting institution. Headquartered in Ottawa, the Corporation operates three Museums: the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum, the Canada Aviation and Space Museum and the Canada Science and Technology Museum. The Corporation's mandate is to preserve Canada's scientific and technological heritage, while promoting, celebrating and sharing knowledge of that heritage and how it affects Canadians' daily lives. To learn more, visit the Corporation's website.

About Robot Missions
Robot Missions enables makers and environmentalists to collaborate on large challenges facing the environment with the use of a robot platform. We are developing a 3D printable robot platform to improve the environment in areas of exploration, object retrieval (ie, collecting trash), and mobile sensor monitoring. Our first mission is collecting shoreline debris, where we have embarked on multiple Field Tests in Toronto and Ottawa. RobotMissions.org

About pHacktory
pHacktory nurtures curiosity and creativity through bold research and audacious experimentation. When award-winning scientist, professor, and TED Fellow Andrew Pelling decided to bring his idea of street-level research to the community, pHacktory was born. pHacktory partners with the community to curate bold research projects across a variety of scientific and artistic disciplines whose only goal is to spark the imagination and inspire the minds of the future. Visit us at http://www.phacktory.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160929005683/en/

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