Nathalie Gingras-Royer, a master’s graduate in vision sciences from Université de Montréal, is working on the development of an inclusive technology that will address the needs of people with visual impairment. As part of her master’s, she took part in the Mitacs Accelerate program to carry out an internship with VMWare, a company that provides virtualisation and cloud computing software and services. 

COVID-19’s unbalanced toll has highlighted the need for removing barriers to entry and increasing opportunities for all Canadians to participate in and strengthen the economy. To address this need, Mitacs and Scotiabank collaboratively launched the Scotiabank Economic Resilience Research Fund (SERRF) through ScotiaRISE, the Bank’s 10-year, $500 million community investment initiative to promote economic resilience among disadvantaged groups.

A surprise finding from a routine survey to assess the needs of people accessing support programs for their children with neurodevelopmental disabilities set Queen’s University researcher Maude Champagne on a mission. 

People with disabilities in Quebec will soon have a way to get out and enjoy outdoor activities safely, thanks to a first-of-its-kind online platform — currently under development at Université Laval-based Centre interdisciplinaire de recherche en réadaptation et intégration sociale (Cirris) — that will match them with support volunteers in their community. 

Thierry Judge, a master’s student in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Sherbrooke, has developed a technology that identifies when results generated by emerging artificial intelligence (AI) systems — which speed up analysis of ultrasound images to detect heart disease — are incorrect or uncertain. The software, called CRISP, is currently being tested by Oxford, UK-based, Ultromics Ltd, a leader in AI echocardiography. 

A wildlife ecologist is supporting Splatsin in their dedicated and long-term work to recover endangered caribou populations within their traditional territory. 

A lack of innovation in prosthetics in recent decades means opportunity for Halifax start-up Awenza Health Inc. Founded two years ago, the company is working to disrupt the prosthetics market and provide better solutions for patients through new technologies. 

The need 

Many current products on the market, says CEO Sam Awara, cause high levels of discomfort and even pain in some situations. So Awenza is building a suite of products to solve these issues for those with limb differences. 

Karina Gasbarrino uses AI to tackle the second-leading cause of death and third-leading cause of disability worldwide – stroke. Her journey started more than a decade ago when she lost her grandfather to a sudden stroke. Since then, she has devoted her academic career to his memory, helping to advance early detection and diagnosis of harmful fatty deposits in the arteries of the neck. Rupturing of these plaques is the main cause of strokes. 

There are significant mental health disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Canada, largely due to a legacy of colonization. Though Indigenous health is legally a federal responsibility, mental health services vary dramatically between provinces and territories.

Gustavo Betini, a PhD student in the school of Public Health Science at the University of Waterloo, has spent the past year immersed in studying the mental health effects of COVID-19. His research has shown that, even though fear of contracting the virus is waning, almost a quarter of Canadians continue to report having high anxiety and depression related to the pandemic.