Projets novateurs réalisés

The POPcycle Launch

The POPcycle is an NB-based business that is bringing back the frozen treat delivery bikes to our region through the development of new business models. We connect with customers in three ways:
1. From community pools, ball fields and various outdoor events, The POPcycle bike will have a weekly schedule detailing where our bike will be travelling throughout the city.
2. We offer corporate sponsorship opportunities for businesses who would like us to attend their staff appreciation events, or fund an end-of-year sports team party or school event. We provide options for sponsor logos and messaging.
3. We can also attend special events, such as weddings, birthday parties or other special events.

Starting with one bike in the Fredericton area, we will sell frozen treats to various locations throughout the warmer months of the year. We are seeking a marketing-savvy student to assist with the creation and execution of a marketing and sales plan for the first year of operations as well as assistance with sales, customer service and operations as we launch our business.

Nia Centre for the Arts

The implementation of digital management tools will provide an enhanced user experience for community members accessing our facility. The pandemic highlighted the inequalities associated with digital access at home particularly within the education system. With 85% of our program participants identifying as Black youth, Nia Centre’s goal is to safely provide those accessing our facility with the tools and technology to thrive in a learning environment. With this project we hope to streamline our internal systems providing staff with tools for tracking participation which will in turn allow us to strengthen our capacity to demonstrate impact. The enhancement of digital tools enables delivery of online programs and workshops. With the renovation of the Centre, this infrastructure will allow us to extend our capacity to provide immersive hybrid programming and implement tools that integrate the evaluation of our programs, evaluation of our physical space, and consider our digital futures.

Risk-Evaluation Platform Launch Marketing

In mining, one of our greatest risks and liabilities, a primary contributor to environmental damage, and the majority of materials that we handle, are those that we call mine wastes. With the raised profile of recent high-consequence waste failures, there has been an external push by investors and industry leaders to bolster waste-related risk governance and management processes, to assess and address risks, and to become more transparent.

With the overall goal of reducing the risk of costly and dangerous mining tailings failures, Enviro Integration Strategies (EIS) has developed software specifically designed to consistently evaluate risks, comply with global management standards, and produce transparent performance disclosures, helping mining executives make safer decisions. We additionally support the development of governance and management programs to improve performance and oversight, reducing risks during operations.

The scope of this proposal includes market analyses, competitor analyses, and the development/refinement and implementation of marketing materials to support our pilot program for the software.

Business System Intern

Bosco and Roxy’s is in the process of building a comprehensive set of business management tools to support timely business decisions that will drive market share and operations.In manufacturing it can be very challenging to accurately identify costs experienced to produce our products. In the current environment that is 2022 with the many challenges such as supply chain cost increases it is even more important to track and understand our costs. With an accurate tool to create pricing we can remain competitive. This tool is also being designed to use activity based costing so that the numbers are more accurately assigned to the task that incurs the expense. Without this tool an “overhead” percentage is created to all product pricing. With this approach items can attract on overhead cost even if it didn’t participate in attracting that cost. With our new tool we should be able to more accurately assign costs to the correct activity, again leading to a more competitive bid and a better ability to identify unprofitable product lines.

Fabrication and Testing of a Microlens Array Optical System

The purpose of this project is to design and fabricate a compact optical component that will be used in tandem with a display panel to use in Head-Up Display systems. The essence of the optical component design is the use of microlens arrays. Microlens arrays are thin, usually planar lenses composed of much smaller lenslets with diameters usually in the order of 100-200 microns. Using microlens arrays, the optical system can be reduced to a couple of “sheets” of microlens arrays or less, allowing for compactness of the system. Designing with microlens arrays presents a set of challenges such as overcoming the minimum accommodation of the eye, and light interference between each lenslet of the microlens array. Over the course of the project, solutions to these challenges will be sought through computer models and simulations for developing the design. Prototypes will be fabricated and tested to validate the models.

Globally and locally consistent molecular representations through Fibered AutoEncoders

This project aims to explore ideas from a machine learning technique called Fibered AutoEncoders (FAE) for molecular representation learning. This technique will allow us to perceive the molecular space through a topological lens using the concept of fiber bundles, and it will give us a disentangled multi-level encoding of molecules. Since the molecular space is so large, this characteristic is essential to learn a latent molecular space that is easier to navigate and optimize.
Our specific aim is to learn a molecular latent space which stratifies molecular compounds by their scaffold (structural family) or. The benefits of such structuring include better predictive models, constraint and global optimization, and characteristic hopping in the molecular space.

Market Expansion & Curriculum Development Project

Bloom Youth Development is a self-development program for youth aged 6-16. This internship project will help Bloom expand into new Canadian markets to spread their vision to a wider audience. While spreading the vision, Bloom will be able to better understand their consumer, which will allow them to develop a more strategic process, which begins from marketing and ends with a satisfied customer, whether that be a parent or a student. Alongside increasing exposure to new markets, the intern will be responsible for helping develop the program curriculum as a whole. This project will drastically impact the parent organization as they will be able to rapidly grow their business and continue to innovate and make a long lasting impact on the future generations.

SAGE INITIATIVE

Sage Initiative was incorporated in 2020 as Sus Loo Ltd., with a vision to enable a national ecosystem of Indigenous womxn’s trained in impact investment through a trauma-informed lens. Sage Initiative is the first Indigenous womxn’s impact investment collective across Turtle Island and have been recognized as a Bold Innovation by the Indigenous Innovation Program of Grand Challenges Canada. The Sage Initiative is specifically designed to build wealth and prosperity for Indigenous womxn and their families and communities by building the skills and capacity needed to make small to medium sized impact investments that have balanced social, environmental, and fiscal returns. Mitacs interns will support Sage Initiative in our growth period in the areas of business development and digital marketing by providing recommendations that improve effectiveness and efficiency.

Data Analytics and Client Communication Services for the Skill Squirrel platform

Skill Squirrel has developed a web-based platform designed to help people in career transition, and challenged with accessing relevant career services. It serves to offer more purposeful matchmaking between job seekers, learners, trainers, and employers, while also reducing the workload of career services organizations (CSOs) and professionals that offer job search assistance, education recommendations and training programs. Through this Mitacs internship, Skill Squirrel wishes to enhance its Early Adopter Program (EAP), so that CSOs can achieve a better understanding of their client’s needs and achievements; the main project deliverable will be a prototype second iteration of the existing Skill Squirrel platform with new features that will focus on data analytics, this includes a data dashboard for career services professionals and user-to-user communication services. The enhancement of the existing EAP will support the small private and public career and education services providers, who rely heavily on government funding, some of which may not be paid out to the organization until after a job seeker they supported has been employed for a number of months.

Creating an Innovative and Accessible Service Model for Communication Training for Children with Communication Difficulties

The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is one of the most common and effective augmentative and alternative communication systems for individuals with communication impairments, including children/youth with autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, and other neurodevelopmental and communication disorders. Although PECS is empirically supported, the traditional approach to training is resource intensive in terms of treatment duration, staff resources, and cost to families. This is problematic as in the last few years significant changes to autism services in Ontario have occurred (i.e., funding restrictions, focus on brief intervention models, limitations in trained personnel, etc). These changes present significant challenges to community agencies in terms of providing empirically-supported services, such as PECS. This project is designed to address these challenges. The outcomes of this project will include the creation of a new PECS resource package and service model that meets the community’s need for innovative, efficient, accessible PECS training.

Développement d’une application utilisant l’intelligence artificielle pour faciliter la détection et l’identification des difficultés de lecture chez l’enfant

Les services d’évaluation offerts en milieux publics, et même privés, sont insuffisants pour répondre aux besoins des enfants vivant avec des troubles de la communication (12% au Canada). Afin de limiter le risque d’effets à long terme sur le développement de l’enfant ainsi que sur sa réussite scolaire, une intervention précoce et un soutien pédagogique est essentiel. Malgré le développement des technologies appliquées au domaine de l’éducation et les avancées en intelligence artificielle, aucun outil visant notamment l’identification des troubles de lecture n’existe à ce jour. Ce stage vise le développement d’un outil technologique visant l’analyse automatisée de la parole.
Pour le stagiaire, les avantages sont nombreux. D’entrée de jeu, sa contribution à un projet d’innovation et de transfert de technologie dans un domaine d’application novateur est pertinent pour sa carrière future. Le fait de contribuer à un projet de transfert de technologie en innovation dans le secteur des technologies de la réadaptation permettra de se trouver à mi-chemin entre les technologies de l’éducation et les technologies de la santé.
Pour le milieu partenaire, l’avantage concurrentiel que lui procurera l’utilisation de l’outil ainsi que le positionnement en technologie de la communication que cela lui permettra s’avèrera des plus avantageux.

Use of hydrogen peroxide for heap leaching of secondary copper sulfides

Copper is typically extracted from secondary sulfide minerals using heap leaching, a relatively low-cost hydrometallurgical technique. In this process, leaching solutions are irrigated on top of a packed ore bed and percolate through the porous materials. Fe(III) is required as an oxidant in the extraction process and must be continuously regenerated to sustain the reaction. Fe(III) can be regenerated inside the heap via bacterial-assisted oxidation of ferrous by oxygen or outside the heap using various oxidants, such as hydrogen peroxide. This research aims to investigate the effectiveness of using hydrogen peroxide to oxidize ferrous for heap leaching of copper secondary sulfides. To achieve this goal, laboratory column leaching tests will be carried out with secondary copper sulfides, followed by kinetic modelling. The findings will help heap leach operations to manage oxidant regeneration with the use of hydrogen peroxide when the application of the traditional heap bioleaching is infeasible.