What began as a first-year university project in an engineering course at the University of Ottawa has grown into something much bigger for Laila Burns. “Me and a group of students were introduced to girls who were power wheelchair users, and they had asked us to build them a robot. They needed 24/7 caregiver assistance,” explains Burns. “There were a lot of simple tasks that they thought that if they had a robotic device, they could do these things independently.” That idea has now evolved into a blossoming business. Burns is the co-founder and chief revenue officer her own robotics company, Sielo Robotics, working to make assistive technology more accessible to those who need it the most. Existing robotic arms can cost up to $120,000. Sielo Robotics is working to bring down the cost to less than $20,000. “Innovation is only happening in sectors that have money, not in sectors that need it,” says Burns. “Assistive robotics are not accessible if they’re not financially accessible.” Burns says her company has engineered a solution that cuts costs. “An arm needing to hold itself up in space is really, really expensive. What we’ve done is we’ve created a SCARA (Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm) structure. It operates on a plane, and it moves up and down on a vertical axis. The arm is able to hold itself up mechanically, which removes the need for the cost of very expensive parts.” Burns and the team at Sielo Robotics have raised more than $1.5 million in funding and have worked with more than 300 people with physical disabilities to help shape the product’s design. “I’ve already seen people do tasks that they’ve never been able to do before independently, and the look on people’s faces when they’re able to do these things… I want that for everybody,” says Burns. Burns’s work is earning recognition well beyond the lab. Next month, Burns will be recognized with one of Youth Ottawa’s 21 Under 21 Awards, honouring young leaders in Ottawa who have made significant contributions to the community. Youth Ottawa executive director Jesse Card says, “Laila definitely stood out from a selection committee standpoint, and I think she’s perfectly deserving of being recognized because this is person that seems be on a rocket ship and can really make this city proud with what she achieves.” “People say if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life, and it’s so true,” exclaims Burns. “I just love what I do, and I want to work all day because it’s like my hobby, my passion, my job. I just love it so much.”
