Industry r&D Associate plays key role in SMART Technologies’ latest innovation

SMART had identified a growing demand for multi-touch in the industry but had few people dedicated to work in this area.  With the support of Alberta Ingenuity’s Industry Research and Development program, whose strategic intent is to increase research expertise and driving innovation in Alberta companies, Dr. Edward Tse came to SMART in 2008.

Dr. Tse led the development and commercialization of SMART Technologies latest innovation technology aimed at learner-centric collaboration for the K-6 market, the SMART Table.  The SMART Table is the world’s first multitouch, multiuser product for education allowing students to participate in interactive activities that complement the lessons taught by their teacher on the SMART Board.

A year and a half later, SMART has shipped the first multi-touch commercial product specifically designed for education, and is introducing multi-touch functionality to its entire product line. 

Due to the overwhelming success of Dr. Tse’s work on the SMART Table, the development of multitouch technology is now a major focus for SMART Technologies.  Developers across all product teams have tasks related to multi-touch interaction. The SMART Table alone has five to eight software developers who join Dr. Tse in developing the next generation of multitouch innovations for SMART Technologies and Alberta.