Innovative Projects Realized

Explore thousands of successful projects resulting from collaboration between organizations and post-secondary talent.

29670 Completed Projects

2811
AB
4990
BC
801
MB
663
NL
825
SK
8841
ON
9197
QC
95
PE
568
NB
1088
NS

Projects by Category

Development and commercialization of an enhanced biochar production technology

The goal of this MITACS funded project is to advance existing technology for the production of biochar from sustainably harvested woody biomass. Current technology limits the amount of biochar produced from the raw wood. This project will evaluate the increase in production of biochar by some 30%.
Biochar is a very resistant form of carbon that can be sequestered in soil and has a lifetime of approximately 500 years, making it a good means to reduce carbon in the atmosphere. Trees (often dead or dying trees) are harvested and the carbon tilled into the soil. The new trees will replace the harvested trees to capture CO2 from the atmosphere. In addition to removing carbon dioxide, the biochar is a significant benefit to plant growth, harvest yields, reduced fertilizer use, improved water use efficiency and a reduction in heavy metal uptake by plants. Science has suggested that the use of biochar could result in a very significant contribution to our goals or reducing greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere while benefiting soil health.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Paitoon Tontiwachwuthikul

Student:

Partner:

CSI Climate Change Solutions Inc

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Regina

Program:

Accelerate

Language Roadmaps as Policy Instruments: A Comparative Analysis Federal Language Ideology

Language plays a central role in Canadian identity and nationhood. This project seeks to uncover, map and explain the effect of political ideologies in the development of language policy instruments, specifically language road maps/action plans. We will build upon existing research which establishes the validity of the Government of Canada’s Action Plans (2003-2008 & 2018-2023) and Roadmaps (2008-2013 & 2013-2018) as policy instruments. These instruments provide an excellent opportunity to better understand how political ideologies serve to interpret and reinterpret language rights and governance in Canada. Furthermore, this research will provide crucial data and information to our partner organization, the Federation des communautes francophones et acadienne, and its members, as they prepare to negotiate the next action plan for official languages (2023-2028), and will contribute towards the intern’s doctoral dissertation.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Rémi Léger

Student:

Partner:

Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Arts, entertainment and recreation

University:

Simon Fraser University

Program:

Accelerate

Timing perception and modulation via transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS)

Timing and time perception is found to be modulated by different brain networks. Nowadays, many non-invasive instruments are widely used to stimulate the brain and among them is transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS), which is a painless and non-invasive technology that gives the ability of modulating brain networks including the ones that are involved in timing perception.
In this project, the aim is to understand the effect of tVNS on timing perception. Furthermore, this project aims to understand how auditory-motor synchronization, which is a movement accompanied by timing skills, is going to be affected by deploying tVNS. To this aim, participants are going to be asked to synchronously move (finger tapping and walking) on the auditory rhythmic stimuli (simple metronome and rhythmic musical stimuli).

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Faculty Supervisor:

Simone Dalla Bella

Student:

Partner:

Revai

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Finance and Insurance; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Université de Montréal

Program:

Accelerate

Femmes et journalistes à l’ère numérique : recherche expérientielle de pratiques journalistiques sur les enjeux de genre

Je vais réaliser des entretiens avec des journalistes belges pour comprendre quels sont les obstacles et/ou les possibilités qu’elles rencontrent lorsqu’elles veulent produire des nouvelles sur des questions de genre (inégalités, points de vue divergents, remise en question des lois , etc). Ces entretiens serviront à créer un « coffre à outils » en partenariat avec l’Université Libre de Bruxelles, qui sera dédié aux étudiants en journalisme et aux médias pour les aider à produire de l’information davantage inclusive et diversifiée. Mon travail auprès de journalistes belges mettra l’accent sur l’impact des technologies numériques sur le travail des femmes journalistes et sur les solutions qu’elles envisageraient pour faciliter le travail des journalistes hommes et femmes lorsqu’ielles veulent produire une information sur le genre ou sur des enjeux liés au genre. Cette formation sera d’abord destinée au étudiants de la Maîtrise en journalisme de l’Université Libre de Bruxelles. Par la suite, elle pourra être intégrée à d’autres programmes en journalisme comme le DESS en journalisme de l’Université de Montréal.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Juliette De Maeyer

Student:

Partner:

Université Libre de Bruxelles

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

New and Digital Media; Information and Communications Technology; Education

University:

Université de Montréal

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Simulation and Visualization of Flood and Drought events in Urban Areas

2020 and 2021 have seen an unprecedented number of natural disasters. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce, 2020 was the 5th warmest year ever recorded with a record number of tropical storms and wildfires throughout North America. Considering only 2020, the cost of these weather and climate disasters is estimated at 22 billion USD dollars [1]. Often these catastrophic events occur without warning and therefore cannot be prevented. However, proactive measures can be taken to mitigate risks and minimize damage. The objective of this project is to inform decisions in preventive measures and policy-making relating to natural disasters. Of particular interest are flood and drought event plaguing the Greater Montreal Area (GMA) in recent years.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Charalambos Poullis;Brigitte Jaumard

Student:

Partner:

Presagis Canada Inc

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Information and cultural industries; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Concordia University

Program:

Accelerate

Approximate Spin Processors (ASPs): an Energy-efficient Combinatorial Optimization Problem Solver for Edge Devices

Combinatorial optimization problems widely appear in various social and industrial applications, such as the vehicle routing and transportation problems. They are challenging to solve for traditional computing. Moreover, especially in edge devices, there is a high demand for in-time response and low power. However, the large energy consumption for these numerous operations and data fetches are the main obstacles for the hardware implementation of a problem solver. Our project will address the problem of time by using natural computing with parallel processing. Low-power techniques, such as approximate computing, are considered to boost computational and energy efficiency. This project provides a fresh perspective of how to improve the efficiency of solving combinatorial optimization problems. Taking the partner organization as collaborators, some findings will be submitted for publications or presentations. The intern is also willing to be included in the potential mentor group.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Jie Han

Student:

Partner:

North Forge

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Education; Management of companies and enterprises; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Alberta

Program:

Accelerate

Wireless Overhead Line Temperature Sensor Based on RF Cavity Resonance, Design Improvement and Measurement

A wireless sensor has been designed to monitor overhead line temperature. The economic importance of this issue is to maximize the power transfer capacity of the lines. The sensor has two main parts, a local interrogator and a passive battery-less sensor. The power to turn on sensor comes from interrogator. The sensor measures the temperature, and transfers the data to interrogator for signal processing. The measurement accuracy of the sensor is reported to be about 0.07°C. There are some sources of error in sensor measurements. One of these errors is due to environmental noises and wireless interference. The objective of this internship has two parts. First is using the designed sensor to do measurements in different sites to monitor temperature and find the effect of interference on the results. This part is going to be done in about 1.5 month. For the next half, these results are going to be used to improve sensor measurement accuracy and decreasing the effect of interference on results.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Douglas Thomson

Student:

Partner:

Smart Autonomous Solutions

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Utilities

University:

University of Manitoba

Program:

Accelerate

Improved ductility in extruded Al-Mg-Si alloys through texture and microstructure control

The use of aluminum alloys in automotive applications is increasing since this allows the weight of the vehicle to be decreased. This is beneficial for both internal combustion and battery powered vehicles, to increase fuel economy and increase vehicle range, respectively. However, in general, aluminum alloys are more difficult to form than steel and their performance during a vehicle crash may be challenging. Thus, it is necessary to understand the linkages between the production of the components and their performance. In many cases, components can be made by extrusion followed by heat treatment. The cooling conditions after extrusion and before heat treatment are important. Here, better mechanical properties are found with high cooling rates but higher cooling rates can lead to distortion of component shape which is not acceptable. The goal of this work is to develop models to predict performance based on processing conditions.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Warren Poole

Student:

Partner:

Rio Tinto Alcan (Jonquière, QC)

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Manufacturing; Mining; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program:

Accelerate

Investigating Effects of Stereoisomerism on Toxicology of Entactogens by Computational Methods

PharmAla have been focusing on developing MDMA (ecstasy) like drug compounds. MDMA assisted psychotherapy for treatment of PTSD received Breakthrough Therapy designation in August 2017. It is currently being evaluated in Phase 3 clinical trials. The toxicological biochemical mechanism of MDMA and MDMA like compounds should be better understood. Because of this gap an extensive literature search will be done in this project. Toxicological mechanism of MDMA and MDMA like drugs will be investigated by computational modeling tools. Novel Analogs synthesized by PharmAla Biotech Inc will form the basis of the research work. The aim is to utilize computational chemistry to predict safety and toxicological properties of the analogs.

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Faculty Supervisor:

James Gauld

Student:

Partner:

PHARMALA BIOTECH INC.

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Windsor

Program:

Accelerate

Mobility-as-a-Service Equilibrium in Large-Scale Networks

Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) is a new concept that is introduced in the market through a mobile application, in which travelers of
a city can buy monthly packages based on the modes of transport that they often use. In order to develop a successful MaaS, it is
important to study which mobility companies will take part in it, and how many travelers will become customers of this service.
Through this project, we want to expand our current model, applicable to few zones of a city, to a real size network, reducing the
complexity of the representation while preserving the model accuracy. At the end of the project, the model will be applied to a real
case scenario in order to study the behavior of the different actors present in a MaaS system.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Emma Frejinger

Student:

Partner:

Université du Luxembourg

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Education

University:

Université de Montréal

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Improving child and youth well-being in the COVID-19 recovery phase in British Columbia

The project is a mixed-methods study with the primary aim of recommending evidence-based interventions to support child and youth mental health and well-being in BC during the COVID-19 pandemic/recovery phase. Existing data collected through three BC-based surveys will be used: Personal Impacts of COVID-19 Survey (PICS), Youth Development Instrument (YDI), and BC COVID-19 Survey on Population Experience, Action and Knowledge (BC SPEAK). This data will be supplemented by data collected through reviews of academic and grey literature as well as deliberative dialogue sessions with researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers in BC to collect qualitative input. Findings will be disseminated through an open-access report providing at least three evidence-based interventions to support children and youth as well as two research manuscripts for publication in peer-reviewed journals. As a leading pediatric research institute, this project will contribute to BCCHRI’s aim of improving health care and health outcomes for children and youth.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Hasina Samji

Student:

Partner:

BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Simon Fraser University

Program:

Accelerate

The kinematic and kinetic effects of walking in textured foot orthoses: An investigation into normal and pathological populations

Recently, a new foot orthotic design which adds texture between the skin at the bottom of feet and the top of an orthotic has gained
academic attention. Adding this texture is intentional to activate the receptors in foot sole skin, to send this added stimulus into the spinal
cord, and target changes in muscle activity while people walk. Interestingly, although research has demonstrated a successful connection
between foot sole skin and lower leg and foot muscles, the biomechanical effects of textured foot orthotics remain to be investigated. The
purpose of this research is to grow this understanding and study the immediate changes in foot mechanics while healthy individuals walk
in different styles of textured insoles. In combining these results with our current understanding of textured insoles, we intend to study
this intervention on a clinical population and subsequently make the technology available for commercialization to the foot care industry.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Stephen Perry

Student:

Partner:

Kintec Footlabs

Discipline:

Physics

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

Wilfrid Laurier University

Program:

Accelerate