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. 

After turning conventional wisdom on its head — by exploring the role that lactic acid plays in cancer cells even though scientists have long considered it a harmless waste product — University of British Columbia (UBC) researcher Stephen Yiu Chuen Choi is using his breakthrough discovery to develop a first-of-its-kind treatment for difficult-to-treat prostate cancers. 

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. 

For the past several years, University of Toronto researcher Courtney Toth has been keeping a close eye on fermenters. But instead of brewing beverages like beer or wine, she’s growing a cocktail of microbes that ‘eat’ some of the world’s most widespread contaminants. 

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. 

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.

When Ukrainian university students Yana Hulak and Sofiia Shmyhovska applied for research internships in Canada during the fall of 2021, they were excited by the opportunity to work on a unique project aimed at strengthening social work collaboration between Canada and Ukraine. What they did not expect, however, was that the full-scale invasion of their homeland by Russia would have such a profound impact on their view of the world that they would choose to rethink the focus of their research. 

The technology revolution has had a monumental impact on the lives of Canadians and people around the world. From increased access to information, better means of communication, and the deployment of innovative solutions to some of our most pressing challenges, the effects and advantages of technology cannot be ignored.

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.