This internship will be developing tools and solving algorithmic problems related to short read technologies (the new technologies of sequencing the human genome). The problem being solved will help the biology and molecular biology researchers to use these new tools to find variations between different individuals. This will be very important step in realizing the personalized genomics dream.

This internship will assist in the development of a diverse generational employee survey towards leadership development and workplace goal alignment. Initial baseline measurements will be obtained from Watson Wyatt, who have worked with BC Hydro since 2002 to develop, deliver and analyze the annual employee survey and results. The main objective of the research is to understand the perspectives and gauge the level of engagement of the workforce of BC Hydro.

The objective of this research project is to insight trends and associations between fans of various entertainment properties, the entertainment industry and the media properties themselves. The intern will begin by analyzing data from various sources such as product sales reports, market growth rates as well as data previously collected by the company. Based on the data, key factors will be extracted and employed in the analysis. Existing visualization techniques will be tested and if necessary, new methods will be created to better interpret the data.

In this project, the intern will create a sustainable community economic development guide that will identify and document the current range of initiatives towards sustainable community economic development available to local governments in BC. This guide will outline the framework, methodology, tools, initiatives and resources available to local governments in BC striving to support local economies.

The intent of this internship is to undertake the research necessary to enable Vancity to develop a social and environmental purchasing portal. The target audience will be Vancity staff via their existing intranet, Insite. The research will focus on Vancity’s peer and micro-entrepreneurs, their social enterprises and its ‘green’ business members. The idea is to provide staff with a tool to help inform their purchasing habits for both corporate discretionary spending as well as personal buying.

The purpose of branding is to create high brand familiarity and positive brand image which contribute to the building of brand equity. The underlying mechanisms, both at a cognitive and electrophysiological level, are poorly understood. The main goal of this study will be the exploration of the electrophysiological correlates of branding of a familiar product and compare these effects across different media channels. If branding through TV, as explored in one study, produces a certain effect on brain waves, does branding in print and online produce the same or similar effect?

The aim of this research is to design and implement a model of social currency in a networked community which is based on the stock and flow concepts most commonly associated with investment forecasting and user choice in an environment of scarcity. In other words, creating a system which can assist in predicting those things users would most be willing to put their actual money behind. This research is intended to ultimately assist developers of film, television etc.

Fit Brains technology uses five classes in skill development that are loosely associated to certain regions of the brain. Together, these skill sets help define the human experience. It is also believed that increased fitness across these five classes can better a sense of wellness. Sometimes, incidental effects in game strategies have demonstrated that the point metric contributing to the fitness levels can be tampered with and can mislead the player in various ways.

Fit Brains is an online platform providing fun and entertaining games that exercise the five key cognitive areas of the brain. Since inception, the platform has attracted about 20,000 unique visitors per month. Although the number of visitors is reasonable, Fit Brains’ goal is to expand the platform to several millions interested in exercising their cognitive functions. Therefore, Fit Brains is exploring the use of contextual advertising and search engine optimization (SEO) to increase the number of targeted unique visitors.

This project will examine the ecological response of understory vegetation communities to alternative forest management practices, in the Montane spruce forests of the Interior, which have been disturbed by mountain pine beetle, fire and salvage logging. The research is within the Secwepemc Nation traditional territory and will focus on culturally valued plants and include applied burning to bring cultural values into the analysis.