Laura Solis Rodriguez is about to enter her final year at Mexico’s Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, where she’s a marketing and communications student. Because of her specialization in advertising photography, Laura was used to thinking about objects in terms of how to market them to potential customers. She didn’t expect to apply her photography skills to archeological artifacts!

Rogers Raising the Grade uses the appeal of technology and dedicated space provided in Tech Centres designed exclusively for participating clubs, quality online resources, alongside 1:1 mentoring to re-engage youth in learning and the commitment to finish high school. 

Literacy rates in New Brunswick are among the lowest in Canada.  Half of the population lives in rural areas and because the province is bilingual, minority language children can find it difficult to develop early language skills.

Through a Mitacs Accelerate internship with Mariner Partners Inc., Erin’s research discovered that children could improve their reading skills through short video lessons four times per week over just five weeks.

But the Tsawwassen First Nation lacked systematic information about their people such as their socio-economic status, education, health, and desires for a better community — information vital to guide the self-governance process.  They reached out to University of British Columbia professor Ralph Matthews from the Department of Sociology to help conduct a detailed survey on all aspects of well-being of the population. 

Can you tell us a bit about the research you did through Mitacs Accelerate that led to you winning the Mitacs Award for Outstanding Innovation – Post Doctoral?

AWE Company is currently using the technology to take tourists back in time to the Canadian historical site of Fort York, the birthplace of Toronto’s urban center, which served as the city’s primary defense from the mid 1700s to late 1800s.

The Time Tablet™ utilizes a camera to blend virtual objects with real environments providing users with the unique experience of being virtually transported to Fort York in its prime.

Studying Mechatronics Engineering at the Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey in Mexico, Adrian has been posted at the University of Calgary for the summer.

There, in the Department of Psychology, Adrian is doing research under Professor Giuseppe Iaria helping to develop a computer game to diagnose children with developmental topographical disorientation (DTD), which is an inability to navigate the world around them.

For Chemistry undergrad Fernando Eguiarte-Solomon, from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, coming to Canada for a 12-week Mitacs Globalink internship to contribute to Alzheimer’s disease research was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

“I wanted to seize the opportunity to contribute to research that could have a major impact. I felt that a Mitacs Globalink internship would be an enriching experience and make for a very interesting summer, and this has proven to be true.”

In the last decade, there has been a dramatic increase in innovative financing and delivery strategies to improve the state of health for people living in less-developed countries. However, not all of these efforts have been successful. Swapnika’s research will analyze past strategies for funding and implementing health initiatives in order to determine what strategies have been successful and what have not. Her research will allow for more efficient handling of such crucial funding.