Zones

The DMZ is a world leading accelerator for tech startups in Canada. We help startups build great businesses by connecting them with customers, capital, experts and a community of entrepreneurs and influencers. For us, this means creating an environment where you can focus on scaling your business. We help with the rest.

The Biomedical Zone helps early-stage health technology companies to validate their need-based solutions directly in the hospital setting with clinicians, business experts, and innovative thinkers. Through the Biomedical Zone, startups are able to rapidly iterate their technology, refine their business model, and demonstrate clinical value.

We are not just an incubator, but an innovation centre for clinicians, students, and entrepreneurs alike. Our first-in-class programs offer startups unprecedented access to the clinical environment, while facilitating unique experiential learning opportunities for students. Together, we are transforming the way hospitals innovate.

Founded in 2012, the Clean Energy Zone, housed in Ryerson University’s Centre for Urban Energy (CUE), is an incubator focused on clean, sustainable energy innovations including electric vehicles, renewable energy, energy storage and distribution, microgrids and net-zero city building. We bring researchers, students and industry partners together to commercialize sustainable solutions that address societal needs and provide real environmental, social and economic impact.

The Design Fabrication Zone (DFZ) at Ryerson University is an interdisciplinary incubator for design and fabrication, where emerging entrepreneurs build their ideas. From concept development to three-dimensional prototyping and beyond, the DFZ facilitates the incubation and acceleration of project ideas and strategically propels them towards real-life application and business innovation. To date, the DFZ has attracted 500 entrepreneurs and yielded 140 projects, 85 press articles, and 18 commercial businesses.

The zone fosters rich networking opportunities for student and entrepreneur driven initiatives through mentorship, workshops, strategic partnerships and cross-disciplinary collaboration. The DFZ provides access to traditional and digital fabrication technologies, enabling members to prototype and model ideas for testing, evaluating and realizing design concepts.

Founded in 2013, The Fashion Zone at Ryerson University is one of Canada’s first communities for fashion-inspired start-ups.

We have recognized gaps and opportunities in the Canadian fashion industry in regards to the development of innovative products and services. With Canadian fashion jobs increasingly being outsourced, our goal is to promote entrepreneurship as a viable career path for Ryerson students and other prospective entrepreneurs with interest in fashion, design, and technology.

As part of Ryerson’s experiential learning and commitment to prepare students for the workforce. Our members learn how to create and launch a company, or receive industry mentorship and tailored programming to excel their growth. We push for interdisciplinary collaboration to increase the development of unique new technologies, products, or services, and accelerate the likelihood of successful new companies and social ventures.

Established by Ryerson University’s Faculty of Engineering & Architectural Science, iBoost Zone hosts teams who want to solve real customer problems and create startups around that solution.

We offer a high touch environment, focusing on key milestones to drive your startup forward. We don’t take equity, charge rent, or have any high pressure deadlines for achieving funding through demo days. iBoost Zone is a collaborative environment with a vast network of technical, business, and investor resources, globally.

The Legal Innovation Zone (LIZ) is a co-working space and the first legal tech incubator with a focus on building better legal solutions for the consumers of legal services. The LIZ helps support, foster and develop solutions and techniques to improve legal services and the justice system.

The Science Discovery Zone (SDZ) follows and teaches evidence-based innovation through providing experiential learning opportunities to its members, and providing business incubation opportunities to entrepreneurs. 

Whether you are a student looking to make a difference, a business looking for innovative solutions, or interested in a synergistic relationship, the SDZ is here connecting science to what you value most!

The Social Ventures Zone is the home of social innovators at Canada’s most entrepreneurial university. We work with students, alumni, faculty and people from the broader community to build social ventures that create real impact.

Social innovation comes in many forms – but it starts with an idea that will change society for the better. Some of these ideas will find a home in a social purpose business, a nonprofit or charity, a social movement or a social enterprise.

At the Social Ventures Zone, we work with innovators to develop their ventures, supporting them with coaching, training, work space, and funding opportunities-- all delivered in a growing community that is passionate about making change happen.

Ventures at the SVZ have focused on issues as diverse as the environment, urban poverty, food security, gender-based violence, conscious consumption, and accessibility. While the issues addressed are diverse, the one thing our innovators have in common is a commitment to social impact and the rigour and focus to succeed.

The concept of Transmedia storytelling has shifted and changed over time. When new digital media first emerged on the scene, individuals were experimenting with the way single narratives could be delivered across different media formats and touchpoints including comics, novels, video games, films and apps, forming discrete story experiences that culminate in one larger piece. Newly empowered audiences also became part of the storytelling, by engaging and contributing in ways never possible before. 

Today, the Transmedia Zone celebrates and embraces this ethos by placing an emphasis on end-to-end user experience design. We encourage our teams to think of how their various media touchpoints must contribute a sense of continuity, consistency, and wholeness all the while providing discrete experiences that are as delightful as the main event.

ZLAS aims to be the national hub for analytics training to bridge the gap between the data analytics skills demanded by companies and those that are offered by undergraduate students and professionals.

Currently, analytics training is only offered at the graduate level through Masters or post-graduate diploma programs. Through analytics training, we will give Ryerson’s undergraduates a competitive advantage over others in the workforce.

To learn more information about Zone Learning - please visit their website!