Innovative Projects Realized

Market Research Analyst

Arbutus Search Group is a recruitment and placement agency that due to the effects of COVID-19, is pivoting to offer a new service that will allow them to create a better more broad service offering that will include training and development services in the area of recruitment. The Marketing Research Analyst Intern will build a business plan for the Arbutus Recruitment Training program including a pricing strategy, marketing plan and go to market strategy. The focus will be on best in class recruitment training programs online and in person, best in class HR Training programs online and in person, and best in class blended learning training programs across all industries to ensure the most effective, accessible content and format is available.

Mitacs Business Strategy Internship

Today, decisions on which products continue in the product line even when it’s near its end of the lifecycle are arbitrary and often made intuitively based on gut feelings. This could incur serious and unnecessary financial loss, and also means the decision is made in a mostly qualitative fashion and doesn’t include as much quantitative rigor as is possible. This is when the ‘Style Retirement’ and ‘Inventory Management’ project comes into play. The significances of the projects are listed below:
• Improved agility – having a model to quickly iterate forecast supply/demand will allow the company to respond to market conditions/opportunities quickly, leading to increased sales and less waste/obsolescence;
• Understanding the magnitude of the cost of the current inventory obsolescence execution will help drive the impetus for change. Currently, we are deceiving ourselves in how we price products near liquidation and don’t gradually increase discounting to reflect the true relative value of a product. Consequently, the products then get liquidated at a huge discount which leads to lost revenue that could have been captured;

Market Research and Product Development Specialist

We are launching an innovative new business that will deliver premium, hospital-grade sanitization services to small and medium businesses impacted by COVID-19.

In Vancouver alone, 14,000 businesses have faced mandatory closures as a result of COVID-19. More than 80 percent of restaurants and hotels are closed, and getting these businesses back open and operating safely is critical to the livelihoods of thousands that are employed in these sectors.

As provinces across Canada start to implement re-opening plans, many businesses are facing stricter requirements for sanitization and physical distancing to avoid the spread of the disease and protect staff and customers. Customers are also seeking higher levels of assurance that business premises are clean and safe, and that businesses are adhering to strict sanitization protocols. To get hundreds of thousands of Canadians back to work, we need to give consumers the confidence that the places they visit are free from COVID-19 and other bacterial and viral hazards.

We are an established small business that has been operating in Vancouver for over 20 years. We understand the needs of small businesses and we are licensing a high-tech solution to deliver sanitization services. We will be procuring, testing and modifying hospital grade AI-powered Robots that use UVC light treatment to rid a space of bacteria and viruses (including COVID-19). This project will help us with project positioning, marketing and pricing as well as target market analysis.

Digital Product Sampling (Marketing)

Go Bee, Inc. (Go Bee) is an experiential marketing company that provides customized marketing campaigns in order to introduce brands to consumers, converting consumers into customers. Facing unprecedented times, Go Bee has decided to add a new division, Connector to leverage the firm’s strong capabilities in the digital product sampling space by providing a virtual experience for its clients to sample brands and products. Digital product sampling provides consumers with an organic product experience in the safety and comfort of their homes as well as an overall increase in the Return on Investment (ROI) for clients through the targeted use of analytics. The opportunity for Connector to grow and operate as its own division with the capacity to replicate and be exported to more geographic territories expands Go Bee’s reach and opportunity for revenue growth.

Web Tools for Intelligent Real-Time Data Analy-sis

Data analysis plays an important role in healthcare as it enables service providers to discover hidden
knowledge in the data, allowing them make more informed decisions about patients’ health. The continuing
increase in the amount of data and lack of skilled people, however, has made data analysis
very challenging. This project aims at developing web-based analytics and visualization tools to help
researchers uncover new knowledge within the data much faster through automated analysis. Our
initial efforts will focus on two disease registries for cancer and stoke patients, which Pulse InfoFrame
Inc. has developed and currently manages. The long-term goal of this project is to enable Pulse InfoFrame
Inc. develop and commercialize innovative health informatics tools, which will be of great
interest to various markets. Our hope is that, once the tools are developed and are proven successful,
they can be used to analyze data in other disease areas.

A Novel Bone Anabolic Treatment in Mouse Models of Pediatric Bone Fragility Disorders

Children that break their bones repeatedly often have genetic conditions that either affect bones directly or indirectly. The drugs that are currently used to decrease the number of fractures in children are only partially effective. Mesentech Inc. has developed a new drug that has shown a strong effect on bone formation in rats. In this project, we will test the effect of this drug in mouse models of a condition that affects bone directly (osteogenesis imperfecta) and a condition that affects bone indirectly (Duchenne Musclar Dystrophy). We will assess the effect of this drug, both alone and in combination with other drugs, in growing mice. We expect that the new drug will make the bones of growing mice stronger. This will open new treatment approaches for children with disorders leading to frequent bone fractures.

Détection et modélisation 3D d’objets à partir de nuages de points LiDAR acquis avec des systèmes de télémétrie mobile selon une architecture sans serveur

Les cartographies et modèles urbains en 3D sont des représentations indispensables afin de visualiser et d’augmenter l’environnement dans les applications exploitées par des utilisateurs mobiles, qu’ils soient des professionnels (ex. ingénieurs civils, …) ou des citoyens. Les dernières années ont vu un développement remarquable des systèmes de télémétrie mobile (i.e. LiDAR), installés sur des véhicules terrestres, afin de répondre à de tels besoins croissants de données 3D de grands territoires à très haute résolution. Le présent projet vise à concevoir et développer une approche de traitement et gestion des données 3D acquises avec ces systèmes, depuis la réception des nuages de points jusqu’à la visualisation du modèle 3D. L’approche envisagée exploitera l’intelligence artificielle et les réseaux de neurones profonds. Ce projet permettra au partenaire de renforcer ses capacités à proposer des cartographies HD de l’environnement urbain et des services dans les domaines de la conduite autonome et des jumeaux numériques.

Infrastructure Corrosion Assessment Magnetic Method (iCAMM) technology for macro and micro defect detection of rail track

Because of the usefulness of non-destructive testing in the assessment of different types of materials, they have attracted widespread interest in the last years. Non-destructive testing (NDT) is a descriptive term used for the examination of materials and components in such a way that allows materials to be examined without changing or destroying their function. NDT plays a crucial role in everyday life and is necessary to assure safety and reliability. For instance, they are widely used in detecting defects in steel rebar in reinforced concrete. The main goal of this project is to go further and reach a NDT way to evaluate macro and micro defects on the rail road. The proposed technology is based on a Passive Magnetic Inspection (PMI) .A passive method means there is no direct magnetic field generated and applied, nor is there any electrical current passed through the system (i.e., the rail track).

Conception et optimisation d’un laser à fibre haute puissance (kW) intégrant un réflecteur de pompe multimode

Sans que la plupart d’entre nous ne le sachent, les lasers sont devenus des parties intégrantes de notre réalité. Ils se retrouvent dans des biens de consommation de la vie de tous les jours, mais ils ont surtout de nombreuses applications industrielles. Parmi les différents types de lasers, le laser à fibre optique se démarque pour des raisons de robustesse, de performance, de coût et de facilité d’utilisation. L’objectif de ce projet est de concevoir et d’optimiser un laser à fibre haute puissance (kW) intégrant un réflecteur de pompe novateur pour en améliorer les performances. L’intérêt premier de TeraXion Inc. réside dans le développement, la démonstration et la commercialisation de composants photoniques innovants basés sur la technologie des réseaux de Bragg, et offrant le potentiel de réduire le coût des systèmes lasers à fibre haute puissance tout en augmentant leur efficacité

La ruelle bleue-verte comme modèle de gestion durable des eaux pluviales et composante d’une ville résiliente: une étude de la création de valeur, à l’échelle locale et municipale, dans une perspective de cycle de vie et une approche de monétisation

Avec les changements climatiques, il est attendu que les pluies seront plus abondantes (Alliance des ruelles bleues-vertes, 2018), ce qui risquerait d’engorger les systèmes municipaux de gestion de l’eau, qui subissent déjà une pression dans les centres urbains (Bruebach, 2019), notamment à Montréal. Or, ce projet s’intéresse au concept de ruelle bleue-verte comme infrastructure pour gérer les eaux pluviales des quartiers montréalais et les détourner des systèmes municipaux. La ruelle bleue-verte détourne les eaux récupérées sur les toitures résidentielles pour les faire percoler à travers un parcours notamment végétal. Cette recherche utilise la méthodologie de l’analyse de cycle de vie, qui mesure les impacts potentiels d’un produit ou d’un service, de la conception à la fin de vie. Ce projet tente aussi d’associer une valeur monétaire aux impacts sociaux et environnementaux potentiels de telles installations innovantes, pour vérifier s’il s’agit d’une solution intéressante pour bâtir une ville résiliente.

Alternative Values Analysis and Cumulative Impacts Assessment in Clayoquot Sound

The research would look at the amount of revenue that would be lost by not harvesting timber from
sensitive areas in the Clayoquot sound region . It would also look at the viability of using non timber
products as a substitute for timber harvesting. Currently the non timber products under consideration
are Carbon Offsets, Resorts that would encourage eco tourism and Cultural tourism. This research
intends to provide the First Nations communities located in the Clayoquot Sound reg ion with data to
make informed decisions on their land use.

Retail Supply Chain Predictive Analytics

The project aims predict the demand of customers for small and medium size businesses. Forecasting models will be developed analyze historical data to understand patterns and correlations. Machine learning will be applied to determine how the accuracy can be improved over existing statistical methods, such as Fourier Regression Analysis which is commonly used in retail demand chain management. The demand forecasting model will examine customer behavior and the context surrounding that behavior, including upcoming holidays, the weather, or a recent event such as COVID-19. The key benefit of the project is to help business better navigate many challenges due to demand uncertainty. In particular, it will support businesses to develop effective strategies to improve the management of resources.