EDMONTON -- An Edmonton start-up company is getting recognition for its cutting edge technology that can help in emergency situations.

Runwithit Synthetics (RWI) has built hundreds of complex research informed artificial intelligence-based models to help with long-term detailed modelling.

The company’s interconnected AI-driven models can predict how an emergency like a flood or power outage could impact individual residents of a city – even 15 years in advance.

On top of weather or how transportation networks will grow over time, RWI models can also predict human behaviour.

All of this ground-breaking technology and the people building it received recognition Thursday when RWI was recognized as “Most Edmonton Startup” at the YEG Startup Community Awards.

Alex Kozicki, a member of YEG Startup Community Awards, said the company’s innovation deserved recognition.

“We think they’re a very deserving recipient, they value diversity, and they have an international footprint,” Kozicki said.

The virtual awards night was organized by the startup industry in Edmonton for the first time ever.

“It was about time that there was just a celebration of the great talent the companies and individuals that are making this all happen,” Kozicki added.

Myrna Bittner, CEO of RWI told CTV News Edmonton in an interview that the company was honoured to be recognized and will be using the award to further boost their drive to take the company further.

“Here in Edmonton you can be anything you want and you can do anything you want in relative obscurity, if you want,” she said. “And you can still use it as a launching place, a really well supported launching place.”

The company hopes to develop modelling for the next frontier: space.

“Space is one of our final frontiers as we say, and that’s something that we are headed into next,” Bittner said.

Other YEG Startup Community Award winners included Ashlyn Bernier, one of the founding members of the Edmonton Advisory Council on Startups, as the Community Champion of the Year.

DrugBank, a company developing curated pharmaceutical knowledge bases, took the prize for being the best startup workplace in Edmonton.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Jeremy Thompson