Calgary-based Tangent is an engineering and design consultancy that helps bring products to life across diverse sectors. From clean tech to life sciences, aerospace to agribusiness, the Tangent approach is to always think creatively and leverage engineering for innovation that creates great products, changes the world and enriches lives.
“We started out in a one-bay shop with four people, doing patent drawings and small one-off projects,” said Josh Abbott, Tangent’s Project/Technical Lead. “In the beginning, we focused on mechanical engineering products, but now we have all the product design disciplines in-house to go from ideation through design and into manufacturing.”
A reflection of the innovative entrepreneurs the city hopes to attract in the economic strategy, Calgary in the New Economy, the Tangent team comes from all over Canada, Newfoundland to BC, and increasingly draws international engineers.
“We give talented people good opportunities that engage and challenge them,” said Abbott. “Our mindset is: let’s solve problems. Sometimes, it’s an emotional rollercoaster. Sometimes, we’re up at night worrying. Sometimes—we build prototypes that don’t work the way we want them to, but we’ll have tried so hard. Our goal is always to deliver a solution. We’re not here to tinker.”
Tangent and its dynamic team is ISO 13485 certified for medical device development and works on three to four such projects annually. These projects – which include a smart surgical drill and a wearable blood pressure monitor – are currently at various stages of commercialization.
“Some of our recent projects include a proof-of-concept prototype for a machine-learning-enabled orthopedic drill; concept development, detailed design, field testing, and manufacturing of a ground-breaking GPS/LTE/Wireless Mesh asset-tracker for a food transportation company; and the commercialization of a methane flow detection technology that can measure almost any flowrate to quantify greenhouse gas emissions,” said Abbott.
The company is on the pulse of Calgary’s innovation ecosystem and sees itself as local catalysts helping high-growth companies realize their potential.
“We’re doing what we can to be part of Alberta 2.0,” said Abbott. “If we can help spin out a number of high-potential high-growth companies every year – and we can – that will help the whole region.”
Tangent is about to finalize a partnership with a precision livestock start-up to develop their next generation of real-time, cloud-enabled animal health monitoring devices. It’s also working with a cycling company on their next generation mountain bike design and an emergency fleet services upfitter on the engineering evaluation of their latest products.
In other words, Tangent offers dream jobs for creative engineers.
For the full article on Tangent and more stories on innovative companies in Canada’s most adventurous tech city, visit Live Tech, Love Life. Head to the careers page for opportunities in Calgary’s tech scene.