Innovative Projects Realized

Indigenous Guardians and Natural Climate Solutions: Elevating Youth Voices and Mobilizing Knowledge

In recent years, increasing attention has been directed to “natural climate solutions” (NCS). In practice, Indigenous Peoples have been implementing NCS for millennia through sustainable land stewardship. Recent collaborative research with Wahkohtowin Development GP Inc. explored the question: what opportunities could NCS enable, including and beyond carbon sequestration, if rooted in Indigenous guardianship? The exploratory research suggests that – while support for Indigenous-led NCS is, first and foremost, about rights – Indigenous Guardians appear well-placed to advance a holistic approach to NCS with multifaceted aims including biodiversity protection, cultural revitalization, and economic development, among other possibilities. This project will continue the earlier exploration and mobilize knowledge to reach key stakeholders and community members, thereby expanding collective awareness and elevating youth voices on climate action and Indigenous guardianship. This will be achieved through ongoing workshops with youth and the development of a co-authored scholarly journal article, policy brief, infographic, youth-led film, and public webinar.

Personalized event recommendation system in community-based healthcare

Social isolation and loneliness are serious public health issues with many adverse effects on individuals’ quality of life and well-being. Notably, these are growing problems in the aging population. Working from an existing prototype and extension of our previous Mitacs project, the main objective of this research project is to develop and optimize a personalized sequential recommendation system to address an individual’s flagged unmet needs or to advance identified personal goals based on their survey data in order to improve their quality of life and overall satisfaction. Recommendation options could include social events, service, educational or volunteer activities that are available within a neighbourhood geography according to their preferences.

UFB generation and lifespan in industrial applications

Ultrafine bubbles (bubbles that are several nanometers in diameter) have been adopted in several applications Japan and surrounding countries, ranging from cleaning and sanitation of surfaces with reduced use of chemicals, to the treatment and preservation of seafood, to new and emerging chemistry and energy storage approaches. One application that has shown some promise is the use of these bubbles in the growth of plants in aquaculture systems. The intern will be looking in-depth at different strategies for generating and distributing ultrafine bubbles in plant and animal growing systems where pumping and piping systems are used to move water and nutrients from a central location to each of the plants. The intern will determine the impact of piping and system designs on the lifespan of these bubbles, and will look at developing new applications with partners in nova scotia to explore possible use of this technology in a canadian environment.

Managing Knowledge Discovery and Data-Mining Through Visual Analytics, Concept Maps and Ontologies

This research project aims to prototype and evaluate a computer system supporting the creation of data-driven domain ontologies.
The first phase consists in creating a working prototype of a computer application supporting:
1) Preliminary research;
2) Creation of an interactive and visual computer interface allowing the visual concept mapping of a domain, its entities; define relationships between those entities and define attributes and parameters of those entities and relationships;
3) Linkage of these parameters, attributes and relationship to actual data from that domain;
4) Iterative exploration and validation of the ontological model via a “top-down-driven” approach using visual
analytics tools and techniques in the context of a paired analysis process.
The second phase of the project consists in qualitatively evaluating the this tool in the context of paired analysis, versus a traditional analytical approach, as a method of supplementing domain-contextual knowledge discovery, data mining and knowledge transfer.

Community Sector Council NL: Social Entrepreneurship through Acquisition

The Community Sector Council NL is interested in exploring the potential of a Social Enterprise Hub in the Province that will focus on social entrepreneurship through acquisition, With an anticipated wave of business owners looking to retire over the coming years, CSC NL is interested in promoting social enterprises and co-operative conversion as an addition to the business succession menu. The process involves transitioning independently owned business to collective ownership such as a nonprofit. The Hub would provide dedicated support to nonprofits/charities looking to explore the business acquisition process, providing skills training, one-on-one support and connections to key organizations in the ecosystem. This could include financial intermediaries, co-operative developers, business valuators, lawyer and accountants. The objectives are: to review the literature, undertake a jurisdictional scan, conduct key informant interviews and structure a pilot project.

MISE EN PLACE DES PRATIQUES DE DÉVELOPPEMENT EN GESTION DES RESSOURCES HUMAINES CHEZ MITCHELL AEROSPACE INC.

Le stagiaire supportera le développement du plan stratégique des ressources humaines de l’entreprise en élaborant des processus et des outils de recrutement, d’accueil et intégration pour les nouveaux employés. La réalisation de ce projet contribuera à améliorer la rétention du personnel et de standardiser les pratiques d’accueil et intégration dans l’entreprise. Ce projet permettra à Mitchell Aerospace Inc. de solidifier son positionnement comme leader dans l’industrie de la fabrication et la conception de casting et permettra à la chaîne d’approvisionnement aérospatial canadienne de mieux se positionner face aux compétiteurs internationaux.

Business Development Intern – Beyond CSR – Building Social Impact Capacity in Business

Common Good Solutions is a social impact firm that aims to strengthen the social impact sector through consulting, training, and innovative ecosystem building initiatives. Our work supports governments, institutions, organizations, and businesses to understand, articulate, and grow their social impact. To truly contribute to the goal of more sustainable, socially oriented economies, we have to work with diverse actors and across sectors. We feel that the opportunity to impact the private sector is now – equity, ESG, DEI, and the UN SDGs are putting pressure on companies to take action. This is where we see CGS as a solution.

We are interested in leveraging our tested process on social impact measurement to the corporate world to support social impact auditing – understanding the business and identifying the areas for impact, and a methodology to evaluate and monitor impact for external and internal dissemination.

To better understand the opportunity, we need to do some market research, build out the business line, build a lead sheet, and beta test our process with a willing client.

Youth political identity formation in Alberta

This research project studies the process of political identity formation and focuses on Albertans. Adults, influenced by society, media and stereotypes have this sense of “wild west” political culture so they usually describe Albertan as a farmer, cowboy or oil worker. On the contrast, youth build their political identities through their families and school education so they have different image of “typical Albertan”. We are trying to answer two questions:
1)At which point do young people demonstrate the dominant political values and identity markers of the broader community. ?
2) How does political identity vary between different communities throughout Alberta?

Création du premier incubateur hardtech au Québec

Peu de startups, tant au Québec qu’à l’international, réussissent le pari risqué de développer une
entreprise pérenne en IOT, en matériel (hardware) ou en biens de consommation. Les obstacles sont
nombreux: chaîne de financement non adaptée aux réalités de la production locale, une dépendance à la chaîne d’approvisionnement étrangère, qui a prouvé sa limite depuis le début de la pandémie de COVID-19, et peu d’accompagnement disponible dans l’écosystème startup.

Le Garage & Co., propulsé par Continuums, est le premier incubateur en fabrication locale au Québec. Nous accompagnons des entrepreneurs chevronnés, du prototypage à la mise en marché de produits innovants et connectés. En tant qu’incubateur spécialisé en fabrication locale, nous voulons créer un parcours adapté pour entreprises fabricantes et renforcer l’écosystème québécois en innovation manufacturière. Ce parcours serait un premier en son genre au Québec.

Digital Programming Assistant

We are looking at developing a more interactive review/test methods for students rather than just our current true and false questions. We also want to ensure cross compatibility to ensure that the app for the review and testing works on all operating systems on phones when taking our courses online (most of our participants use cell phones for their courses). Recent studies have shown that if participants can have relevant review questions during First Aid, their retention may be better when acting in an emergency.

Ethical and Practical Considerations of doing a Visual and Filmic Sociological Research of Seoul International Ecofilm Festival

This research focuses on Seoul International Ecofilm Festival (SIEFF) and aims at understanding its role and impacts on Korean society since its beginning. By using a mixed methods and research-creation approach, the intern will collect and analyze different types of data including visual ones such as pictures, audio-visual archives, visual/filmic ethnography of the 20th festival, interviews of key people. The intern will also participate in two research groups led by Professor Kim Han Sang (visual and historical sociologist at Ajou University) working on the effects of archives in East Asia and on ethical issues of visual / filmic and cross-cultural research. The expected outcomes of the research are : 1) have a better understanding of the role and impacts of SIEFF on its audience and on Korean society ; 2) contribute audiovisually to the writing of Korean environmental movements through the history of SIEFF and its founder ; 3) have a better understanding of the possibilities and limits of ecocinema to foster changes in society ; 4) contribute to the revision of the International Visual Sociology Association’s code of ethics.

Development and test of an ultrasonic transducer for high temperature environments

The power industry has aging infrastructure operating at high temperatures (up to 600°C) subjecting it to accelerated corrosion that regularly leads to disasters. Periodic inspections are used to assess structures using ultrasound but require operations to be shut down so that workers can operate safely. Continuous monitoring is complex at high temperatures, which has many drawbacks: production shutdowns based on a maintenance schedule are inaccurate and costly, while corrosion progression goes undetected during operations and can lead to accidents. The main goal is therefore to improve the safety of these infrastructures while saving costs related to calendar based inspections. The proposed project aims to test in real conditions and further develop a sensor that can measure the residual thickness and assess the integrity of structures exposed to high temperatures.