Odotech, a Quebec based company, manufactures and commercializes patented electronic noses (e-noses) to measure and monitor odours at waste management plants, composting sites and industrial odor-producing plants. The company faced the challenge of lacking the necessary expertise to efficiently upgrade its product’s performance for different odour sources in various environments.

For Michael Turcot, vice president of Research and Development at Sonomax, Mitacs Accelerate sped up the prototyping process considerably. “Kuba’s research expertise coupled with the Mitacs funding enabled us to transform the design concept of our product into a refined, working prototype that we can present to potential clients.”

Hailing from India’s National Institute of Technology-Surathkal, Pragyan Hazarika spent the summer of 2012 as a Globalink Research Intern at École de Technologie Supérieure. It was during this research internship that Pragyan fell in love with Montreal, and more importantly, the limitless research potential Canadian universities offer students.

The Mitacs Accelerate program allowed me to work on an innovative project that is in sync with the future of a flourishing industry, especially in a city like Québec where many of the big players of the video game world work hard at developing new and cutting edge approaches to create new gaming experiences.

The objective is to improve upon screening and surveillance methods by investigating the role of genetic events and related cancer susceptible genes that occur in ovarian cancer.

“I was inspired by one of my colleagues at university who was part of the program last year and now promotes it in India. I was lucky enough to be selected to come here to Canada for research into leukemia in children.”

Saumya is working on enhancing hearing aid technology to make it more effective for users, especially in noisy environments.

This experience has provided me with international exposure, as well as prospects to explore new possibilities in electronics and communications.

Having students of various cultures and backgrounds in the laboratory is one of the best parts of hosting Mitacs Globalink students.

It has ultimately helped us design better LED lighting products which will help Canadian greenhouse growers become more profitable and competitive in the global marketplace.

This program is cultivating leaders by giving us a chance to communicate with people from all over Canada and the rest of the world.

“This has been so much more than a summer internship,” says Nayantara Duttachoudhury of the Vellore Institute of Technology, “—it has been a complete experience of Canada.”