Beer production is only as good as the yeast that make it. When yeast are first pitched for brewing, they produce the desired fermentation product—beer. But, after numerous cycles of fermentation, the yeast become exhausted and produce beer with unwanted flavors and alcohol content. As such, the beer is no longer fit for consumption. Over time, the stress of fermentation causes unwanted effects on the yeast’s genes, which ultimately compromises their beer-producing abilities. This project focuses on finding identifiers of exhausted yeast prior to their production of bad beer.

To sustain its leadership in the world marketplace, the Canadian pulp industry must continue to increase pulp quality, while it improves manufacturing efficiency, reduces energy consumption and decreases impact on the environment. Properties of a manufactured pulp vary with production parameters and characteristics of the feedstock. To produce pulps of the highest quality at lowest cost, a manufacturing process must continually optimize its conditions to fit the feedstock.

Frequency Selective Surfaces/Structures (FSSs) have great potential to be a mean for improving the capability of communication with Radio Frequency (RF) signals. Although the printed circuit board (PCB) technique is widely available for fabricating FSS, it is difficult to implement using flexible substrates. Its routine process is tedious, costly and environmentally harmful. Other emerging techniques using nano-particle inks also inherently involve large challenges, such as pre- and post-processing, dispersion, agglomeration, and final cost.

Inspired by patterns in the eye of the moth, nanostructures can be created on the surface of glass, allowing all light to transmit through the glass without any interference. Applied on lenses, low light photography is enhanced. Applied on electronic displays, the technology enables sunlight readable screens. Applied on photovoltaics, more light enters the solar panels, enhancing energy conversion.

As lithium-ion batteries continue to expand in use, new applications such as electric vehicles have increasing demands for higher energy density and longer life batteries. Improvements beyond the industry standards will be achieved using new, innovative materials that will result in increased performance. Through this project, the intern will work on synthesis and processing new anode and cathode materials and work to demonstrate improved performance of those materials in full Li-ion batteries.

The development of novel biotechnologies will be a key component of the economic growth and development of Canada’s changing economy. A critical component of this will be fostering the development of start-up companies that can capitalize on these new opportunities. The Myera Group is an indigenous-led company in Manitoba that is developing novel biotechnologies for Canada’s new economy. This project focuses on the development of microorganisms that can produce a profile of novel high-value carotenoids (chemically related to ?-carotene).

Solids exist as crystals, amorphous or subcooled liquids. The degree of crystallinity determines the long range order in a solid phase. Molecules when transferred from the solution to the solid phase may take many different crystal forms (polymorphs, solvates/hydrates, salts, co-crystals). Theoretically, there are 230 space groups describing the diversity of a crystalline material. About two thirds of pharmaceutical small molecules exist in more than one polymorphic solid form. Crystallization of polymorphs still has a touch of art.

Improving the quality of fuels, increasing the efficiency and also producing lower emissions is one of the main challenges of the 21st century. A Calgary company, Katal, is working on a hydrorefining process in order to produce diesel fuel with superior quality compared with the traditional fuel. The company, however, has limited scientific understanding of the current process and also needs to possess further insights to make the process more efficient. This project will help to better understand the hydrorefining process and improve the properties of diesel fuel.

Many patients who initially respond well to highly efficacious chemotherapy eventually develop resistance and relapse despite continued treatment. These cancers acquire drug resistance to current therapies through various mechanisms such as the acquisition of mutations for example. Furthermore, some promising targets that play a crucial role in the progression of cancer have been deemed undruggable using current methods.

Many new pharmaceuticals are based on large biomolecules like proteins. Even small differences in the protein structure can cause significant changes in the efficacy and safety of these drugs. Furthermore, these large molecules are difficult to characterize without advanced instrumentation and methods. Current technologies still struggle with robustness and reproducibility. This study aims to introduce new technology to improve the reliability of protein pharmaceutical characterization.