Innovative Projects Realized

Explore thousands of successful projects resulting from collaboration between organizations and post-secondary talent.

13270 Completed Projects

1072
AB
2795
BC
430
MB
106
NF
348
SK
4184
ON
2671
QC
43
PE
209
NB
474
NS

Projects by Category

10%
Computer science
9%
Engineering
1%
Engineering - biomedical
4%
Engineering - chemical / biological

Modeling of jointed rock mass using Extended Finite Element Method

The strength and stability of rock is strongly affected by the presence of embedded discontinuities, such as the bedding planes and/or pre-existing macro-fractures. In the latter case, given the scale of the problem the use of homogenization techniques is rather restricted as no direct experimental verification is feasible. Therefore, the issue needs to be addressed at the level of a boundary-value problem. In general, the joints/fractures may be modeled using interface elements within the standard finite element or discrete element methodology. Both of these approaches are computationally costly and there are inherent difficulties associated with the presence of intersecting joints. The proposed research is focused on development of an alternative mesh-independent approach for modeling of jointed rocks. The methodology will involve the use of Extended Finite Element (XFEM) framework, in which the discontinuities are incorporated by enriching the finite element interpolants and introducing a discrete representation of their geometry. The project will result in development of a software package that will allow for an efficient and accurate representation of mechanical properties of fractured rock masses.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Stanislaw Pietruszczak

Student:

Sina Moallemi

Partner:

Rocscience Inc

Discipline:

Engineering - civil

Sector:

Information and communications technologies

University:

McMaster University

Program:

Accelerate

Unaccounted for mobile phones in the province of British Columbia

While we know how many mobile phones get recycled through the Recycle My Cell program in Canada, we know much less about the ones that don’t make it into these type of take-back programs. Over the past few years academic research on the topic of mobile phone waste has increased dramatically, although a recent study shows that only about 6% of this research has focused on the North American market. This research project will try to fill in some of the gaps by using material flow analysis and stakeholder interviews to get a better picture of the mobile phone waste landscape in the province of British Columbia. Findings from this study can be used to develop better industry and regulatory strategies for increasing the number of mobile phones that are recycled.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Jennifer Lynes

Student:

Christopher Beninger

Partner:

Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association

Discipline:

Environmental sciences

Sector:

Environmental industry

University:

University of Waterloo

Program:

Accelerate

Monitoring, Tracking, and Reporting of Sustainability Impacts

Quantifying Economic, Environmental and Social Sustainability Impacts of organizations and initiatives is challenging, particularly for the environmental and social legs. Enviro-Stewards recently introduced a shared savings based project approach in addition to its conventional (lump sum) based service approach. Quantification of impacts is particularly relevant to the shared savings approach wherein, Enviro-Stewards’ compensation is based on net savings realized by our customers and tracking of associated impacts provides our customers with 3rd party data for their own sustainability metrics.
The scope of this research is to establish criteria for measuring sustainability impacts of our conventional projects, shared savings projects and safe water projects, quantifying impacts to date (based on historical records) and establishing a system to facilitate monitoring tracking and reporting of such metrics going forward. The audiences would be our customers, their customers, the general public as well as certifying and other organizations interested in sustainability.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Stephan Vachon

Student:

Smriti Singh

Partner:

Enviro-Stewards Inc

Discipline:

Environmental sciences

Sector:

Environmental industry

University:

Western University

Program:

Accelerate

Thermal and fluid Flow Analysis of Innovative

With increasingly more stringent emission standards as well as higher fuel economy requirements for modern vehicles, the need for improved or new catalytic converter technologies continues to grow. A new generation of catalytic converters, designed and patented by Vida Fresh Air Corp., offers improved thermal management of the converter over traditional catalytic converters resulting in improved emissions and fuel economy as well as reduced cost. In order to design and develop this technology for different platforms, Vida relies heavily on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations to determine the optimal CleanalyticTM design for the best possible performance. In this project, a detailed experimental investigation will be conducted in order to evaluate the thermal and fluid flow characteristics of the CleanalyticTM catalytic converter compared to the baseline converters. The student working in this project will gain a very good practical experience working in a real-world problem of a great benefits to the automotive industry.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Wael Ahmed

Student:

Hesham Ibrahim

Partner:

Vida Holdings Corp

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Environmental industry

University:

University of Guelph

Program:

Accelerate

Building a geospatial database for assessing effects of multiple stressors on inland lakes

Phosphorous is the key nutrient limiting fish productivity and algal growth in Ontario lakes: more phosphorous can mean more fish, but it can also mean more algal growth, and potentially even toxic blue-green algal blooms. Multiple stressors like climate change, human land-use practices, and shoreline development, all affect lake phosphorous levels beyond natural geo-climatic factors. Thus, lake water quality is carefully monitored by government and volunteer-based water-quality monitoring programs such as the Lake Partner Program (LPP). Data collected through the LPP are currently provided to partner organizations (e.g., FOCA) in tabular form or via maps of point-based lake samples, but FOCA and MOECC do not currently have a way to visualize these data in context (e.g., by providing monthly maps of expected lake phosphorous levels across Southern Ontario to their members); nor do they have a method to characterize monitored lake catchments for land-based attributes and multiple stressors. The intern will undertake research to visualize phosphorous, calcium and water clarity data with continuous maps. S/he will also characterize local and upstream lake catchment characteristics using publicly available geo-spatial data (land-use, geology, climate, human impacts, etc.).

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Faculty Supervisor:

Stephanie Melles

Student:

Shoikot Iftekharul Alam

Partner:

Federation of Ontario Cottagers’ Associations

Discipline:

Biology

Sector:

Sports and recreation

University:

Ryerson University

Program:

Accelerate

Think-Move-Play: Towards personal health and rehabilitation monitoring using wearable devices

The Think-Move-Play project’s purpose is to study the feasibility and acceptability of utilizing smart insoles to collect health information and interact with patients suffering from hip fracture and neurological diseases. We propose a unique solution by combining personal health monitoring and coaching that is augmented with a virtual play environment aimed to maintain constant high level of motivation. This clinically oriented virtual play environment will be developed and tested by a multidisciplinary team that includes academic and clinical researchers from McGill and Laval Universities and Canadian companies. 

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Faculty Supervisor:

Edward Harvey

Student:

Vijidha Rajkumar

Partner:

Ubisoft studio de Québec

Discipline:

Medicine

Sector:

Digital media

University:

McGill University

Program:

Accelerate

Impacts of hydroelectricity production on aquatic ecosystems: Development of key environmental indicators for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach – Year two

In boreal and temperate regions, dams are mainly constructed to provide ecosystem services such as hydroelectricity
production. River impoundment and the alteration of natural hydrological regimes are suggested to be major disturbances to aquatic ecosystems. To meet long-term environmental objectives for sustainable development, Hydro-Quebec recently adopted the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach. LCA is an ISO standardized approach assessing the potential environmental impacts of product, services and processes throughout its entire life cycle. However, the LCA approach presently lacks strong empirical evidence of the effect of hydroelectricity production on aquatic ecosystems. which increase uncertainty in a decision making process and leaves hydroelectricity production under risk of criticism regarding this known gap in LCA and water footprint assessment. The proposed project aims at developing scientifically-sound environmental indicators to quantify the impact of hydroelectricity production on aquatic ecosystems and to integrate them into the LCA approach.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Irene Gregory-Eaves

Student:

Katrine Turgeon

Partner:

Discipline:

Biology

Sector:

Environmental industry

University:

McGill University

Program:

Elevate

Low Pressure Cold Spray Technology-based Repair Process for Damaged Automotive Aluminum Alloys Panels

Al6022 alloy has excellent physical and mechanical properties suitable for a number of applications. In particular, its high strength/weight ratio makes it an ideal metal for automotive applications, where weight reduction is of significant concern. Unfortunately, this alloy, as many
other Al-based alloys are susceptible to denting. At present, the repair possibilities for damaged Al6022 automotive panels are very limited, while their exposure to denting is unavoidable. The main objective of the project is to develop and apply the Low Pressure Cold Spray (LPCS)-based process for repair of dented Al6022 automotive panels. The proposed repair technology is highly efficient and completely compatible with automotive panel surface grinding/polishing and painting processes used in the industry. The project results have the potential to benefit the Canadian economy by offering a new aluminum body repair technology to the thousands of automotive body repair shops.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Andrzej Sobiesiak

Student:

Konstantin Borodianskiy

Partner:

Tessonics Inc

Discipline:

Engineering - mechanical

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

University of Windsor

Program:

Accelerate

Investigation and development of plasma-based cancer diagnostic

The blood of cancer patients contains DNA that has been shed by their tumours (circulating tumour DNA or ctDNA). As such, any genetic mutations in the tumour may be detected in the patient’s blood. Theoretically, patients can be followed and monitored through analysis of ctDNA, which would reveal if the patient is responding to treatment, is in remission, or if mutations are becoming more or less prevalent as the result of time and/or treatment pressure. The challenge is development of a reliable method of detecting ctDNA, with adequate sensitivity and specificity to guide treatment. This project will develop, optimize, and validate methods for detecting ctDNA associated with a variety of tumours. This will lead to the development of a clinical assay that can be used to monitor ctDNA for cancer patients. The partner organization, Contextual Genomics, will benefit from the development of a diagnostic assay that will eventually become part of their product collection. In addition, in the course of developing this assay, we will discover how ctDNA varies among different tumour types, how it correlates with tumour burden, and how it relates to relapse, response, and remission.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Martin Ester

Student:

Tong He

Partner:

Contextual Genomics Inc

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Medical devices

University:

Simon Fraser University

Program:

Accelerate

Optimizing bakery performance: Developing new flour quality protocols for commercial bread making

The goal of this research is to understand and develop techniques to improve flour performance in bread making, a low margin market which requires some of the tightest flour specifications across all bakery platforms. Standard flour quality testing methods will be compared to more recently developed quality tests as well as experimental methods. The end objective is to generate protocols to define flour criteria for optimal performance in commercial flours for bread baking operations. This will benefit the partner organizations by improving their ability to deliver (supplier) and process (customer) flour for bread products.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Jayne Bock

Student:

Suramya Mihindukulasuriya

Partner:

NeoVentures Biotechnology Inc.

Discipline:

Food science

Sector:

Life sciences

University:

University of Guelph

Program:

Accelerate

Characterization of the antifibrotic efficacy of PBI-4050 in AdTGF-?1 mediated pulmonary fibrosis

Fibroproliferative disorders are a/the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. A large group of interstitial lung diseases (ILD) can cause progressive scarring of lung tissues, affecting the ability to breathe. Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is one of the major forms of ILD and is characterized by a progressive decline in lung function. Although the pathogenesis of IPF is incompletely understood, work from our group and others suggest that transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-?1) is involved in the fibrogenic process. PBI-4050 is a promising novel anti-fibrotic drug developed by ProMetic Life Sciences that is currently in phase II clinical trial in IPF. In this project, we will examine the anti-fibrotic effect of PBI-4050 in a TGF-?1 mediated animal model of lung fibrosis. This work will increase our understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in pulmonary fibrosis and potentially lead to the development of new therapeutic strategies for IPF.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Martin Kolb

Student:

Chiko Shimbori

Partner:

ProMetic Biosciences

Discipline:

Medicine

Sector:

Life sciences

University:

McMaster University

Program:

Accelerate

iMALDI-based Assays for Protein Activity to Improve Patient Selection for Therapeutic Akt Inhibitors in Cancer Treatment

Detailed profiling with modern analytical technologies has shown that most cancer types are composed of multiple small sub-populations with distinct molecular signatures. Correct identification of the cancer subtype can predict its response to a particular treatment. Genomics has commonly been applied for this purpose, but in some cases, our ability to predict drug response may be enhanced by instead measuring the drug’s direct protein target. As an example, AstraZeneca recently developed a selective inhibitor of the Akt protein that arrests tumour cell growth and has shown therapeutic potential for patients for whom no other treatment was effective. In this project, we will develop a test that can be used to identify the patients most likely to respond to this drug by directly assessing the abundance and activity of the Akt protein in patients’ tumours. This assay can then be used by AstraZeneca in their research studies to help predict who will respond to the drug. Furthermore, it can be applied by oncologists to get additional information to help guide treatment decisions when prescribing drugs. As a biotechnology company specializing in proteomics, MRM Proteomics Inc. (MRMP) will commercialize the test in the form of a laboratory-developed test (LDT).

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Faculty Supervisor:

Brad Nelson

Student:

Robert Popp

Partner:

MRM Proteomics Inc

Discipline:

Biochemistry / Molecular biology

Sector:

Medical devices

University:

University of Victoria

Program:

Accelerate

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