The project aims to develop a low-cost solution for sustainable wood-based racking system for standard solar PV panels. The design will used local lumber and other structural components to develop a racking design focusing on self-assembly, convenience, sustainability, and economics. A techno-commercial viability analysis of the project will also be performed for Okanagan, BC. Kruger […]

On June 1, 2021, Futures First Canada and FinML began a pilot collaborative project involving three Canadian universities by-way-of a MITACS Accelerate internship (IT25712) to jumpstart an initiative to use cutting edge techniques in machine learning, financial mathematics and AI for making predictions in financial markets. This goal is integral to the business operations of […]

Biomedical research, particularly preclinical research, is a complex and challenging field with a high failure rate of 98% in pharmaceutical research investment. Extracting relevant information from preclinical research papers involves synthesizing information from various sources, which is a demanding task that requires domain-specific knowledge. Natural language processing, specifically Large Language Models (LLMs), has demonstrated tremendous […]

Gene therapy has risen as one of the more promising treatment options for neurological disorders. Using modified viruses to deliver genetic material has shown success however has several disadvantages including increased safety risks. Using a non-viral vector system has the potential to overcome many of the challenges that arise with using viral vectors. Mediphage Bioceuticals […]

Heart valve disease affects a large number of Canadians, especially the elderly. Surgery for repairing heart valves is quite complex, and requires a great deal of expertise. This project will focus on creating a library of silicone valve models representing different heart valve diseases. With these silicone models, new cardiac surgeons will be able to […]

The ability to quickly check if robot poses are not in collision with environment geometry is critical for robot applications that rely on forward kinematics, inverse kinematics, and path planning. It has been shown that during path planning 99% of the time is spent performing collision checks between the robot & its environment. Improving collision […]

La perte d’engins de pêche en mer représente un danger pour la vie marine, en particulier pour les baleines noires qui risquent de s’emmêler dans les cordages. C’est pourquoi la détection des engins de pêche abandonnés est une préoccupation majeure pour les scientifiques et les autorités maritimes. Les avancées dans l’intelligence artificielle offrent une solution […]

Today, quantum computers of any architecture still operate in the noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) regime, with systems composed of tens to hundreds of noisy qubits that are not protected from errors. To meaningfully solve challenging problems from industries using quantum computers, we need to make a system that is large enough in scale and robust […]

Cardiovascular disease kills 17.9 million people globally each year. 85% of these deaths were caused by either a myocardial infarction (heart attack) or stroke. Current tests for predicting heart attacks provide rapid results when presented with a blood sample, but these samples must be preprocessed using time-consuming methods. This project will develop a paper-based platform […]

Climate change is impacting food and agricultural crops through a variety of new challenges such as intense heat, unusually intense storms, unseasonal warming and freezing events and wildfires. Plants are not able to move and therefore cannot avoid climate shocks or relocate to find resources. Protecting crops from climate damage is critical to ensuring the […]

Inspired by the success of deep learning approaches in human biomedical applications, applying deep learning in veterinary, specifically equine, diagnostic imaging is attracting increasing interest. The objective of this research project is to achieve automatic deep-learning based equine image analysis and assessment, including 1) automatic assessment of upper respiratory tract of racehorses from endoscopy videos; […]

The proposed research project aims to explore a cost-effective and eco-friendly method for recycling lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) used in electric devices and electric vehicles. Lithium, cobalt, nickel, and copper, which are considered critical metals, are present in LIBs, and they are essential to the operation of electric vehicles and devices. After their lifetime, these batteries […]