DeRose Meditation delivers meditation classes to thousands of users worldwide with the goal of improving personal wellbeing, work performance, and overall life for its clients. Through thematic analysis of qualitative interviews with developers of DeRose Meditation, meditation class leaders, and long-time program users, this project will articulate a “Theory of Change” model specific to DeRose Meditation, which will define fundamental, active components of the program, how these components are invoked to generate change, and key outcomes associated with participants in the program.

Osteoporosis is a generalized skeletal disorder common in older adults, in which a reduction in Bone Mineral Density (BMD) decreases bone’s strength and can result in an increased risk of fragility fractures. One of the sites commonly affected by osteoporosis is the proximal femur (“hip”), the fracture of which greatly decreases mobility and function, as well as being responsible for high health care costs for society (estimated at $619M annually)1,2.

We have developed novel image processing techniques to extract much more information from each clinical DXA scan than simply a BMD measure.

The intern will undertake the development and evaluation of a novel gene-edited immune cell therapy for the treatment of different cancer types. The cancer immune cell therapy is a hot and rapidly growing field that has yielded success and clinically meaningful benefits for the treatment of certain cancers. Many of these successes have been with a kind of treatment called CAR T cells, which are potent anticancer cell therapies yet pose significant safety concerns, namely a potentially lethal inflammatory condition called cytokine release syndrome and neurological complications.

The rate of discovery of new, large mineral deposits has slowed, yet significant opportunity exists in many world-class belts where post-mineral cover obscures bedrock and can potentially hide world-class deposits beyond the reach of traditional geochemical tools. However, locating mineral deposits in areas of thick or transported overburden is challenging.

We use optimization and analytics, within a dynamic experiment setting, to help determine a business-to-consumer matching platform transaction fees and improve customer engagement. During the course of the project, a graduate student intern will gain deeper understanding of designing and running dynamic experiments and learn more about using optimization within game-theory models. The intern will also further understand the demands of running a matching platform. The industry partner will gain insights on setting transaction fees and increasing customer engagement.

This research project seeks to identify and draw attention to the historical factors leading to the underrepresentation of Indigenous workers in unionized sectors of the construction industry; the problematic relationship between Indigenous workers and their non-Indigenous counterparts, employers and trade unionists; and past and present efforts to address these problems. This work will aid in thinking through the transformation of hiring practices, apprenticeship and other skills training programs, and union models of organizing and outreach to better represent Indigenous workers.

Municipalities are seeking ways to reduce the effects of uncontrolled rainwater and one of the primary contributors to the problem is residential downspouts. Downspout disconnections and redirections are low-cost ways to reduce the overall imperviousness of urban and suburban landscapes and ameliorate stormwater issues. This project will use machine learning to analyze Google street view data to find all visible downspouts and contextualize the areas where they drain as permeable or impermeable.

Groundswell, a Toronto-based design consultancy, is seeking to understand, study and experiment with new non-hierarchical organization structures. In partnership with UofT’s Business Design Initiative research team, they will investigate and experiment with the redesign of for-purpose and value-driven organizations to better respond to today’s economic climate described as volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous or VUCA.

The project aims to identify the plausible scenarios or outcomes of the Covid-19 pandemic associated with the City of Toronto. It will provide insights into how the pandemic is to impact the labour market and organizational operations in various industrial sectors. These insights will support ongoing efforts to revive the local economy and in developing and planning efforts to deal with what the future impact on the City operations.

Spinal fixation, the process by which a broken spine is mended, or a deformed spine corrected, can involve the placement of tens of pedicle screws during lengthy surgical operations. With an ageing population the overall demand for these procedures is increasing. Surgeon fatigue is an issue in these procedures and has demonstrated decreased performance. Our focus will be on the researching and developing an automatic surgical system for the purposes of spine screw insertion.