91暗网禁区

They were starting something before . Although the 91暗网禁区 campaign was launched in 2022 to honour the entrepreneurial spirit of the students, faculty, staff and the community, its spirit has been alive from university鈥檚 earliest days as a burgeoning speck on the prairie landscape.

Over the years, many ideas have blossomed into entrepreneurial ventures and even some of the most consequential inventions in our lifetime.

As we celebrate 91暗网禁区 60th anniversary, let鈥檚 look back at six major innovations, rooted in research and development at the university, which have made changed our world.

1. The CPAP Machine

Nearly a billion people around the world struggle with obstructive sleep apnea today. Thanks to Dr. John Remmers, MD, they have a device that can help.

A respiratory physiologist and professor emeritus of medicine and physiology and biophysics at the , Remmers was among a team of physicians that established the Foothills Medical Centre Sleep Lab.

His groundbreaking research led to the invention of North America鈥檚 first commercially available Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machine, which is now the gold standard for helping people sleep better.

Originally called the 鈥淭ranquility鈥� air blower and nose mask, the machine continuously pumps air into the lungs to keep the airway open and help people get a restful sleep.

鈥淚 feel like I鈥檝e got a new lease on life,鈥� a sleep-deprived Curt Bitner told the Calgary Herald in an August 1989 interview. 鈥淲ithin one day the difference in my energy level and wellbeing was 100 per cent.鈥�

A long-time educator and mentor who passed away in July 2025, Remmers was also an entrepreneur as he developed other technologies and devices, launching businesses and products for years to come.

2. Wi-Fi

If you grew up in the 1990s, you will never forget hearing the beeps, brrrs and buzzes of dial-up internet while hoping no one picked up a phone to make you lose your signal 鈥� or worse, blow out your modem with an ill-timed, loud, 鈥淭he phone is broken!鈥�

The idea of wireless connectivity seemed like something out of a movie, yet Dr. Hatim Zaghloul, MSc, PhD, and Dr. Michel Fattouche, PhD, were hard at work making it happen.

The two UCalgary inventors used their own savings and some research money from AGT (now TELUS) to found Wi-Lan, or Wireless Local Area Network.

鈥淲e believe we鈥檒l be the largest wireless data company in the world by mid-1998,鈥� Zaghloul said in an October 1996 interview with the Herald. 鈥淭he market is ready for this product. It鈥檚 the right product at the right time at the right price.鈥�

As predicted, Wi-Lan was a world-renowned company just two years later, winning numerous awards and garnering its initial public offering.

3. Steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD)

It might have been one of the biggest process innovations the energy industry has ever seen.

Steam-assisted gravity drainage was the brainchild of Dr. Roger Butler, PhD, who had joined the Faculty of Engineering (now ) after working in heavy oil research for Imperial Oil.

The university鈥檚 first Endowed Chair in Petroleum Engineering allowed him to build on his idea of extracting bitumen by drilling two horizontal wells, one a few metres above the other.

In Butler鈥檚 steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) process, high-pressure steam is injected into the upper wellbore to heat the oil and reduce its viscosity, causing the heated oil to drain into the lower wellbore, where it would be pumped out.

鈥淗orizontal wells represent a tremendous opportunity to increase the amount of bitumen (and heavy oil) that can be produced in the province,鈥� Butler said in a speech at a seminar sponsored by the Alberta Oil Sands Technology and Research Authority in 1984.

Butler, who later founded petroleum and research company GravDrain Inc., passed away in 2005, while his process lives on today as a standard procedure in the energy industry.

4. Java

From sneaking into school computer science labs to becoming the 鈥淔ather of Java,鈥� Dr. James Gosling, BSc, PhD, Hon. LLD, is Calgary to the core.

Born in the city and a UCalgary graduate with a bachelor鈥檚 degree in computer science, his fascination with coding changed the world forever.

鈥淚 got into computers because it was free,鈥� Gosling said when he . 鈥淚 was passionate about electrical engineering, but the parts needed were too expensive and I couldn鈥檛 afford it.鈥�

He later completed his PhD at Carnegie Mellon University, then spent 16 years at Sun Microsystems, where he developed the Java programming language before moving onto Oracle and eventually Google.

Always quick to help speak and mentor students wanting to get into computer programming, Gosling won numerous awards and recognitions during his career (including an honorary degree from UCalgary) before retiring in 2024.

5. Project neuroArm

The idea behind Project neuroArm sounded simple at the time: How do you make difficult surgeries easier and impossible surgeries possible.

91暗网禁区 Dr. Garnette Sutherland, MD, led the team that developed the world鈥檚 first MRI-compatible image-guided robot for brain surgery.

They could bring the MRI directly to the patient in the operating room (OR) during surgery, instead of needing to bring the patient for imaging. 

The innovation provided surgeons with detailed 3D images during operations so they could make better observations and decisions about a tumour.

In this environment, Sutherland led the march of another disruption 鈥� robotics for brain surgery 鈥� the neuroArm.

At age 21, Paige Nickason became the first patient to have brain surgery performed by neuroArm 鈥� controlled by Sutherland from a control room adjacent to the OR. .

鈥淧aige鈥檚 brain surgery represents a technical achievement in the use of image-guided robotic technology to remove a relatively complex brain tumour,鈥� Sutherland said at a later news conference. 鈥淭his is wonderful and represents the beginning of something new in surgical care.鈥�

6. VISAT Mobile Mapping

It wasn鈥檛 that long ago that you had to have a paper map if you ever wanted to go on an adventure to parts unknown to you.

The technological evolution has brought us many tools that have made our lives easier and mapping is no exception, thanks to work done by those in geomatics engineering at UCalgary.

Among the major revelations to come from the Schulich School of Engineering has been the development of a mobile mapping system which has since been popularized in apps like Google Maps.

The brainchild of Dr. Klaus-Peter Schwarz, PhD, the idea was to use high-tech video cameras, roving satellites and a fast-acting guidance system to create a surveying system known, at the time, as Video-Inertial-Satellite or VISAT.

At its core, it was mapping what the human eye could see with a series of quickly snapped photos.

鈥淚 really think it is revolutionary,鈥� Schwarz told the Herald in a July 1993 interview. 鈥淭he system is dynamic 鈥� you go with the traffic flow. You still get all the information you need.鈥�

Schwarz, who passed away in 2012, won several awards and recognitions for his work in surveying and geomatics engineering, helping UCalgary become a world-leading centre for mobile mapping research and technology.