Jozsef Hamari
Founder & CEO, TerraSense Analytics
Cornell Pich
Vice-President of Business Development, TerraSense Analytics
Artificial intelligence is transforming the defence space, enabling new operational capabilities to protect and defend Canada and Canadians more efficiently and safely.
There’s an important concept called technological sovereignty, which refers to a nation’s ability to independently develop and control critical technologies such as AI and data infrastructure for economic prosperity and security. To achieve this, Canada is strengthening domestic innovation and establishing robust supply chains that rely on Canadian expertise. Several small Canadian tech companies and startups are already taking technologies proven in the civilian marketplace and adapting them for the defence space.
TerraSense Analytics is a small British Columbia-based tech company. We sat down with its founder and CEO, Jozsef Hamari, and Cornell Pich, Vice-President of Business Development, to talk about how it’s playing a critical role in the military’s adoption of AI.
How is AI reshaping the defence industry?
This technology has the opportunity to change the nature of warfare. AI is already helping the military do its job better, with greater precision, which helps bring our men and women in uniform home safely. The technology is evolving quickly, and those who aren’t using these digital tools will fall behind competitors and potential adversaries.
AI is now in a position to help the military enhance their job effectiveness, with greater precision and accelerated decision-making which will help bring our men and women in uniform home safely.
What challenge does the military face that your solution can help solve?
It’s about the data. Every time they buy a drone or aircraft with new cameras and sensors, they’re adding more and more raw data to the network, but there aren’t enough human resources to process it all and turn it into usable information. That’s where we can leverage the power of AI. We’re now working with the Australian military to develop a ground-to-ground system for autonomous vehicles, which is a complex challenge.
What is the TerraSense advantage?
Building on the success of our work leveraging AI in forestry and natural resources, we transitioned into a fully defence tech company. Our software is designed to support the Canadian military, NATO, and our Five Eyes allies. We’re partners with the military, building the features and functions they need. Our solution is multi-domain, which means we can fuse together electro-optical (EO), infrared, and radar capabilities to provide increased certainty in identifying a target. No other system utilizes all three.
How important is the Industrial and Technological Benefits Policy?
It allows us to partner and co-develop with some of the large prime defence contractors. This is important for small- and medium-sized Canadian tech companies and startups, because on their own they wouldn’t be able to secure billion-dollar military contracts. By showing the defence primes we can innovate and move with them, we’ve been able to grow our business, not only in Canada, but internationally.
Why do we need to continue investing in AI?
It’s critical, because AI will touch every piece of military infrastructure. If we don’t invest, we lose the opportunity as a nation to be at the forefront. We have the know-how in Canada, and the expertise in our universities. I hope we can be an inspiration for other small Canadian tech companies, because continuing to build this ecosystem is important. It has positive spillover effects for defence tech AI startups in Canada.
Learn more about TerraSense’s mission-critical work and its ambitious future at terrasense.ca.
