Projets novateurs réalisés

L2M QC Spring 2025 | From Pollutant to Profit: Turning CO2 into Formic Acid and Carbon Credits

This project aims to conduct an in-depth market study on the formic acid and carbon credit markets to evaluate the commercial potential of a new class of electrocatalysts that convert CO2 into formic acid using renewable electricity and water. The intern will engage with key industry stakeholders to gather insights on market demand, pricing, and competitive positioning. The study will assess the feasibility of a dual-revenue model, leveraging both sustainable chemical production and verifiable carbon credit sales. The findings will contribute to the development of a potential business model and strategic commercialization plan. By offering a cost-effective, clean alternative to fossil fuel-based formic acid production, successfully commercializing this technology could drive significant environmental and economic benefits, including large-scale CO2 emission reductions, enhanced profitability through carbon credit sales, and the establishment of a sustainable supply chain for industries relying on formic acid. Additionally, it could attract investments in clean technologies and create new job opportunities in the sustainable chemical sector.

L2M QC Spring 2025 | InkTiO: Revolutionizing Electronics with Sustainable Printed Solutions

The proposal seeks to improve the technology readiness of a new family of printable (liquid-based) ink formulations designed for the advanced manufacturing sector. These chelated sol-gel materials have a low viscosity, allowing their use in a commercial digital inkjet-printing equipment. Most importantly, they are designed to offer the unique ability to convert from liquid to ceramic under light exposure. In addition to make them compatible for use with more affordable substrate materials, these combined properties make them ideally-suited for high-speed and high-volume production. This project will focus on (1) improving these formulations and make them easier to produce and (2) perform a complete IP-landscaping in order to develop the IP portfolio.

L2M QC Spring 2025 | Optimisation de la Maintenance Prédictive des Broyeurs SAG Mill par Intégration de l’Acoustique, du Traitement du Signal et de l’Intelligence Artificielle dans l’Industrie Minière

L’industrie minière canadienne joue un rôle clé dans l’économie nationale, représentant 5 % du PIB et employant directement plus de 400 000 personnes. Cependant, les arrêts non planifiés des broyeurs SAG Mill entraînent des pertes économiques considérables, atteignant plusieurs milliers de dollars par heure. Ce projet vise à répondre à ce défi en développant une solution de maintenance prédictive intelligente, combinant capteurs acoustiques, traitement du signal et intelligence artificielle.
Grâce à cette technologie, l’usure des composants critiques sera détectée de manière proactive, permettant une réduction des temps d’arrêt de 20 à 30 %. Cette avancée s’inscrit dans une démarche plus large d’innovation et d’amélioration de la compétitivité des mines canadiennes sur le marché mondial.
Le projet sera mené dans le cadre du programme Lab2Market, offrant une approche rigoureuse pour valider la viabilité commerciale de la solution. Le stagiaire participera à des études de marché approfondies, interagira avec des acteurs clés du secteur minier et élaborera un modèle d’affaires viable.
Les retombées attendues incluent une augmentation de la productivité, une réduction des coûts de maintenance, la stimulation de l’innovation dans le secteur minier et la création d’emplois hautement qualifiés. De plus, en optimisant la maintenance des équipements, le projet contribuera à une exploitation minière plus durable, réduisant l’impact environnemental des opérations.
Ce projet s’aligne parfaitement avec les objectifs stratégiques du Canada en matière de R&D et d’innovation, tout en soutenant la transition vers une industrie minière plus intelligente et efficiente.

Neuroexplicit Text-to-Image Generation

Development of an Optical Oxygen Sensor System for Real-Time Monitoring of Oxygen Release

Identification des profils de réussite chez les entrepreneurs agricoles de la Mauricie

Cette recherche permettra à la Fédération de l’Union des Producteurs Agricoles de la Mauricie (FUPAM) de connaître les différentes compétences et habiletés requises chez les entrepreneurs agricoles afin d’assurer leur succès en affaires. Pour y parvenir, nous identifierons des entreprises agricoles qui connaissent du succès ainsi que d’autres dont la performance est plus mitigée. Ces entreprises seront comparées au sein des trois (3) grands secteurs identifiés : production de masse, production de niche et production règlementée. Sur la base d’entrevues avec les producteurs agricoles et en regard de leur réalité ainsi qu’avec la perspective des conseillers en gestion de la FUPAM, des profils de réussite seront dressés. En fin de parcours, sur la base de ces nouvelles connaissances, un outil sera proposé afin d’aider les conseillers et les producteurs agricoles à accroître la performance de leur entreprise agricole.

Touchless sensor technology for people with chronic low back pain and fear avoidance

Community Mobile Media Lab

This application to MITACS supports the creation of an innovative mobile research lab. The Community Mobile Media Lab (CMML) is a purpose-designed mobile media production hub, which will house film production equipment that can be situated temporarily in communities we are collaborating with to explore innovative models of co-creation, training and mentorship. This infrastructure will allow us to engage with Nova Scotians to document the oral histories of community elders, and with whom we have initiated programs that empower youth by teaching them filmmaking skills. Through these unique education and production models, the CMML will facilitate acts of reconciliation by facilitating creative opportunities for communication among community members.

Technical intern(s) working within cross-functional teams to commercialize AI-powered solutions (1)

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Solid-state additive manufacturing of GRCop-42/84 copper alloys and their variants for combustion chamber liners

The partner organization, D.I. Self-Composite (DISC) Alloys Inc., specializes in large-format additive manufacturing for metals, with a particular focus on propulsion systems and aerospace applications. Leveraging advanced Cold Spray Additive Manufacturing (CSAM) technology, DISC Alloys has the capability to deposit multiple metals with precision and achieve high deposition rates (20 kg/h), enabling the production of complex, multi-material components.
Through this project, DISC Alloys aims to address a critical industry challenge: the high cost and limited availability of GR-42 and GR-84 copper alloys, which are essential for propulsion systems. These materials, while effective, present supply chain and economic constraints that hinder scalability and innovation in the aerospace sector.
By collaborating with academic expertise, DISC Alloys seeks to develop new materials with comparable or superior thermal and mechanical properties to GR-42 and GR-84. The anticipated outcomes include cost-effective solutions that enhance manufacturability while maintaining or exceeding performance standards.
The project’s success would yield significant social and economic benefits, including increased competitiveness for DISC Alloys in the aerospace market, reduced dependency on expensive and scarce materials, and fostering innovation that strengthens Canada’s position in advanced manufacturing and space technology sectors.

Development of Natural Language Queries Embedded Within a School Data Hub to Support Data-Informed Decision-Making by School-Based Practitioners

The University of Toronto Schools (UTS), through the Eureka Research Institute, is committed to advancing data-driven decision-making in K-12 education. This aligns with the growing recognition of the importance of data literacy in education, where students and teachers need to “read the world with data” and “write the world with data” (Louie, 2022). Recent research highlights that educators require user-friendly data tools that minimize the technical expertise needed to interact with educational data (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2023). By integrating Natural Language Query (NLQ) capabilities into the Data Hub, this project enhances the ability of teachers and administrators to engage with school-wide data more effectively, supporting student performance analysis, curriculum planning, and intervention strategies.
This research will have a broader societal impact by making data-driven insights more accessible, ensuring equitable and effective educational strategies for student success.

Automated Threat Hunting for Early APT Identification

Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) present a significant challenge to organizations due to their sophisticated, stealthy, and persistent nature. Traditional reactive security measures often do not detect these threats in real-time, leaving systems vulnerable to long-term exploitation. This research project will explore how to automate threat hunting to proactively identify APTs in real time, reducing manual intervention and enhancing early-stage detection. The partner organization, Ericsson, a leading multi-national networking and telecommunications company, focuses on delivering resilient 5G/6G solutions with threat detection, incident response, and security analytics to enterprise and Telco clients. Enhancing threat detection capabilities through automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and threat actor attribution-based analytics is extremely important to proactively identify APTs. This project will address the need to enhance threat-hunting capabilities, reduce the reliance on manual threat-hunting, and improve real-time detection and response. The development of an automated proactive threat-hunting solution is expected to provide significant economic benefits to the partner organization. By automating key aspects of threat hunting, the organization will reduce operational costs associated with manual threat hunting and improve the efficiency of its SOCs. Additionally, this solution will allow us to offer enhanced security services to verticals, customers, and clients potentially opening new revenue streams.