This is our vision for our role as the Gateway to the New Economy and the driving force behind the new Innovation Hub @ YVR.
Operating YVR as a world-class airport and safely moving people, planes and goods will remain at our core. At the same time, we will expand our role in B.C.’s economy as a hub of innovation that gives back, supports the region and sets the bar for sustainability.
Designed in the spirit of yə tatəl̕təl̕ pronounced [yuh tah tull tall], which translates to “learning together” in the language spoken by Musqueam, our Innovation Hub @ YVR will serve as a centre for excellence—a platform through which we will connect and collaborate with local businesses and our community to lead the economic recovery in B.C.
This includes testing and trialing new processes and technology for a wide variety of applications, allowing us to drive an improved passenger experience and advance our cargo operations in a new era of travel and logistics. These solutions, and others that will be borne of our Innovation Hub, have the potential to solve challenges outside of aviation and benefit our community or even other industries around the world.
We are proud to have already partnered with several leading organizations, including BCIT, Unity Technologies, GeoSim Cities and Vanderlande.
For example, BCIT will use the airport as a living lab for its Centre for Digital Transformation (C4DT) Internet of Things program. Unity Technologies, a leading real-time 3D development creator, and Vancouver-based GeoSim Cities, experts in large-scale precision 3D modelling, are together supporting the development of our Digital Twin technology. And Vanderlande, a global leader in material handling and logistics automation, will be using the airport as its base to develop baggage handling solutions for its worldwide operations.
Under our Innovation Hub @ YVR, we’re also building on our talent agreement with Musqueam to provide more training and development opportunities.
We look forward to sharing more about our Innovation Hub @ YVR as this important initiative advances in the coming weeks and months. Read more about our role as a Gateway to the New Economy in YVR’s 2021 Strategic Plan.
“At YVR, innovation is central to who we are and how we operate. With our Innovation Hub, we’re expanding our reach so we can continue to deliver a world-class passenger experience when non-essential travel resumes while also supporting our region as a whole and ensuring businesses across B.C. are positioned to thrive as we look toward economic recovery.” – Lynette DuJohn, Vice President, Innovation and Chief Information Officer