Predicting suitable habitat for deep-sea corals in BC

Although the existence of deep-sea coral reefs has been known for centuries, it is only in the last decade that interest and understanding of these ecosystems have increased. There is a growing concern about the diversity and magnitude of anthropogenic (human) threats to these fragile habitats. Bottom trawling poses by far the largest threat. These […]

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Risk Rating Enhancement for Vancity

Vancouver City Savings Credit Union (Vancity) and its subsidiary, Citizens Bank of Canada, is looking to improve its current commercial mortgage risk rating systems to better predict the default possibility of commercial mortgage loan customers. In this project, the intern will begin with familiarizing herself with the principles, processes and operation of the existing rating […]

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Optimal Landfarming Strategy for Treating Oil Refinery Sludge

In this project, a comprehensive review of relevant literature and case studies regarding landfarming of oily sludge will be conducted, and the optimal landfarming operation strategies will be proposed. A number of field experiments will be implemented to examine the impacts of different environmental factors on microbial activity. Specifically, the impacts of bulking agents and […]

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Analysis and Quantification of the Textural Information in Pigmented Skin Lesions

There are certain features of skin lesions or moles that are indicative of cancer. Texture (spatial variation of colour/intensity) or patterns is known to be one of these features. This research seeks to quantify this textural information in order to improve the performance of methods to automatically diagnose melanoma. Currently, dermatologists are very proficient at […]

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Assessing the Feasibility of an Automated Public Bicycle System in Metro Vancouver

This project involves working with Translink – the Greater Vancouver transit authority, covering buses, skytrain, seabus, trains, and ferries – to conduct initial research to examine the viability of an automated public bicycle system similar in scale and design to systems recently initiated in Paris, Lyon and Oslo. Current understandings of these models, combined with […]

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The Effect of Plant Condition on Bumble Bee Pollination in Greenhouse Tomato

The intern will collaborate with MGS Horticultural, a major supplier of fertilizer and pest management controls, to study the relationship between scent and pollination success in commercial greenhouses. Previous (unpublished) research has suggested that scent is an integral component of pollination in greenhouse tomato, and that scent can be affected by growth conditions within a […]

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The Identification of Development Opportunities Involving Historic Properties

The research will analyze and investigate the range of development opportunities in historic buildings within a two hour radius of Kitchener/Waterloo, Ontario that have become vacant in the last few years as a result of economic and social restructuring. It will help to preserve sites of cultural significance in the province which is in support […]

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Warehouse and Distribution Network Optimization

The project is aimed at the development of mathematical models and algorithms to optimize the supply chain network configuration for Dainty Foods, a food processing, packaging and storage company. The partner wants to optimize their current supply chain network through the management of their internal warehouse space and how it relates to external warehousing and […]

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Blind People in the Workplace: Examining the Barriers to Meaningful Employment of Blind Canadians

The project with the Canadian Federation of the Blind, an organization working to establish positive and productive roles for blind people in Canada, will include the researching, development and implementation of a mixed-methods survey providing accurate statistics on the employment of blind people in the Greater Victoria area and narratives on their experiences in seeking […]

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Characterization of Rock Features in the Ore Sorting Industry

Underground pre-concentration is an efficient stage in reducing the cost of mining operations. During this operation, extracted rocks are monitored underground and most of the waste rock is rejected while the ore is kept. In this project, image processing and pattern recognition algorithms will be employed to characterize different types of ores as well as […]

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