Doug Sparkes | Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business

Phone: 519-888-4567 x47101

Location: E7 2318

Doug Sparkes, BE, MASc, PhD, is a Lecturer at the Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business. In his earlier roles, he was the Chief Operating Officer at Rapid Laboratory Microsystem and the Chief Engineer for the National Research Council of Canada. Doug received his PhD and MASc from the University of Waterloo. He teaches BET 607 - Managing Technological Innovation, BET 410 A/B - Capstone Entrepreneurship Planning and Execution, BET- 411 Capstone Planning Entrepreneurship and Execution, and BET - 412 Advanced Topics in Entrepreneurship.

Expertise:

Entrepreneurship education
Application of new technologies to education
Emerging technologies, especially environmental and energy related
Systems Engineering, particularly the application of fuzzy systems
Technology transfer and commercialization

Teaching

Education

PhD, Engineering, University of Waterloo
Master of Applied Science, University of Waterloo, 1994
Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical), Carleton University, 1981

Academic positions

Lecturer, Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business, University of Waterloo, 2016
Associate Director, Undergraduate Programs, Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business, University of Waterloo, 2014-2016
Interim Director, Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business, University of Waterloo, January 2013 - December 2013
Director - UW Innovate, University of Waterloo, 2002 - 2005
Assistant Professor, Department of Management Sciences, 2000 - 2003

Industry experience

Chief Operating Officer, Rapid Laboratory Microsystems Inc., 2004 - 2006
Engineering and Technology Consultant, D.I. SPARKES & Associates, 1994 - 2008
Joint Astronomy Centre (JAC), Chief Engineer, National Research Council of Canada, 1989 - 1991
Joint Astronomy Centre (JAC), Senior Electrical Engineer, National Research Council of Canada, 1987 - 1989
Control Engineer, National Research Council of Canada, 1984 - 1987
Control Systems Engineer, Stelco Inc., 1981 - 1984

Research interests

My current research interests include:

Entrepreneurship education
Application of new technologies to education
Emerging technologies, especially environmental and energy related.
Systems Engineering, particularly the application of fuzzy systems. This is an area of interest to me and am seeking to expand in this area.
Technology transfer and commercialization

Selected publications

Armitage, H., Bischoff, C., Schmidlin, K., Sparkes, D. 2018. “Jamii: A Virtual Incubation Platform for Entrepreneurs” Journal of International Business Research and Marketing 3 (2), 19-23
Sparkes, D. Schmidlin, K., Hsu, M. 2016. “Virtual Learning Environment for Entrepreneurship: A Conceptual Model”. Journal of Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics. Vol. 14, No.3, 22-24.
Jin, X., Peldszus, S., Sparkes, D,, 2014. “Modeling Ozone Reaction Rate Constants of Micropollutants Using Quantitative Structure-Property Relationships”. Ozone: Science & Engineering: The Journal of the International Ozone Association, 36:4, 289-302, DOI: 10.1080/01919512.2014.910444
Alam, M.S., Guild, P., Sparkes, D., 2013. “Technology-Scanning Capability - A Scale to Measure Firms’ Ability to Sense or Respond to Changing Technological Landscape” International Journal of Advances in Management Science. Vol. 2, Issue 2
Alam, M.S., Guild, P., Sparkes, D., 2013. “Market-Scanning Capability - A Scale to Measure Firms’ Ability to Sense or Respond to the Changes in the Marketplace” International Journal of Business and Management. Vol. 8, No. 4
Alam, M.S., Guild, P., Sparkes, D. 2012 “Market-Scanning Capability - A Scale to Measure Firms’ Ability to Sense or Respond to the Changes in the Marketplace” International Journal of Business and Management.
Jin X., Peldszus, S., Sparkes, D., Huck, P. 2012 Predicting the Reactivity of Micropollutants with Ozone by Modeling their Reaction Rate Constants. Submitted for possible presentation at AWWA’s Water Quality and Technology Conference (WQTC)
Hauck, G., Tomasson Goodwin, J., Goodwin, D., Guild, P., Sparkes, D. 2011 “‘Seeding a Lead’:Exploring the Live Theatre Industry’s Reception of a Pre-Market Canadian Display Technology”. Body, Space & Technology Journal.
Mann, Thomas; O'Hagan, Liam; Ertl, Peter; Sparkes, Douglas; Mikkelsen, Susan “Microplate-Compatible Biamperometry Array for Parallel 48-Channel Amperometric or Coulometric Measurements". 2008. Analytical Chemistry. Web version published Mar 15, 2008
Sparkes, D. and Guild, P. “What Makes a Technology Cluster Tick? The Region of Waterloo, One of the World’s Top “Intelligent Communities”." 2007. Applied Research in Economic Development. Vol. 7, No. 1

Selected awards and honours

2015	Conrad OCE Award renewal. $220K over 2 years. Sparkes D.
2013	Conrad component of OCE - Campus Lead Accelerator Program (CLA) $430k over 3 years. Sparkes D.
2012	GMAC Grant 1.6M “The Virtual Incubation Program at the University of Waterloo: Establishing a Program with International Outreach to Build Prosperous Business Ecosystems around the Globe.” McNaughton, R., Armitage, H., Sparkes D., Jackson, T.
2008	Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Grant $220,000 (Matched by Christie Digital). “Seeding the Lead: Commecialization of a digital imaging technology in the theatre industry”. J. Tomasson-Goodwin, P. Guild, G. Hauck, G. Stillar, D. Goodwin, D. Sparkes
2007	University of Waterloo ‘LIF’ Grant. $20,000. “Towards the Alignment of Expectations: Understanding and Subsequently Guiding Learner Choice for Classroom Versus Web-based Delivery Formats for a Large Undergraduate Course in 'Organizational Behaviour' “. P. Guild and D. Sparkes.