Innovative Projects Realized

Pertinence culturelle pour le biais de négativité

Le biais de négativité désigne la tendance générale à être plus affecté par les informations et les événements négatifs que par ceux positifs. Dans ce projet, je fais l’argument que la culture est un facteur explicatif important mais peu étudié du biais de négativité. J’attends à ce que la culture collectiviste réduise le biais de négativité, car les normes collectivistes donnent la priorité aux liens sociaux sur les réalisations individuelles. Trop de négativité dans la vie sociale peut produire des effets contraires en mettant en péril l’harmonie du groupe. Pour tester cette hypothèse, je mène une expérience en laboratoire avec des individus biculturels au Canada, et examine si le biais de négativité physiologique (mesuré par la conductance de la peau) est moins important parmi le groupe des individus collectivistes.

Biogas plants’ network: optimized locations and connections

Biogas is a gas obtained from the anaerobic digestion of biomass inside fermenter reactors , typically located in biogas-generating plants. The biogas can be burned to produce electric energy and heat. This form of energy conversion can be significant for the decarbonization of actual energy generation. In addition, the biogas can be “purified” and can be injected into the general grid of natural gas. Although the generation of biogas is very promising, there are nowadays several obstacles to a widespread use of this renewable resource. Among these: 1) relatively high initial investment costs, 2) difficulty in getting access to the natural gas grid, and 3) difficulty in securing continuous biomass to each production. The main objective of this project is to alleviate these three obstacles by provide quantitative decision-support tools to help determining optimal locations of biogas plants, as well as the design of a suitable connecting network that facilitates the supply of biomass of each plant, as well as reduction of the cost to connection to the main natural gas grid. The project will be completed by two case studies in Italy and Canada.

Town of Sunnyside Internship – Development of Commercial Composting/Bio-Gas Facility; Exploring sustainable economic opportunities

This project aims to address climate change and identify potential solutions that the Town of Sunnyside can facilitate through the Sunnyside Waste Management Site. The project supports ongoing and future greenhouse gas reduction priorities and municipal resource energy reduction targets in Newfoundland and Labrador. This project will leverage effective composting/bio-gas techniques that ensure environmental sustainability. The Sunnyside Waste Mgmt. site is a key revenue driver for the Town of Sunnyside; profits are directly funneled back into Town infrastructure and resources that benefit not only the residents of Sunnyside but also residents of all towns of the region.

Plateforme Upcycli Inc – Impact de la consommation textile

Upcycli est une place de marché québécoise permettant à toute et à tous de vendre ET acheter des vêtements de seconde main. Créée et publiée au Québec sous forme d’application mobile, c’est plus de 20 000 utilisateurs qui soutiennent la mission d’Upcycli: promouvoir et accroitre le mouvement “Slow Fashion”.

Face à un marché de plus en plus compétitif, dans lequel les besoins des consommateurs sont dirigés par l’industrie de la mode, il est essentiel pour nous de positionner le Québec comme un exemple à suivre sur ce marché.

L’innovation sur laquelle nous travaillons est la mise en place sur le web d’une calculatrice à impact qui est capable, à partir de données collectées sur notre place de marché, de fournir une estimation des bienfaits et de l’impact positif du magasinage de seconde main. Ce faisant, Upcycli souhaite ériger sa communauté en porte-étendard du Slow Fashion et offrir aux Québécois un outil pour estimer son impact personnel.

Gillian Emerson – Toast

The User Research Specialist will support the partner company, Toast through a variety of endeavours. Toast is a women led and women owned talent partner that is aimed at increasing gender diversity on teams as well as providing a network for women in tech. The company is fast growing and is already enjoyed by hundreds of members. The intern will assist Toast in automating and restructuring data collection processes as well as create a sustainable strategy for future growth.

The User Research Specialist project objective is to conduct in-depth research and analysis to gain a better understanding of our target audience’s needs, expectations, and behaviors. This will involve a variety of research methods, such as surveys, interviews, usability testing, and user behavior analysis. The ultimate goal of this project is to identify pain points and opportunities for improvement in our products/services, and to provide actionable insights that will inform the design and development of our products/services to enhance the overall user experience.

The project will be completed over the course of 4 months, with milestones that include conducting user research and data analysis, ideating and prototyping solutions, and testing and iterating on prototypes.

Communications and Marketing Intern

Alberta School Boards Association (ASBA) is the provincial association for Alberta’s locally-elected public, catholic and francophone school boards.

A key component of the Marketing and Communications Intern’s responsibility is to use market research practices to enhance ASBA’s advocacy and communications efforts with various stakeholders including the Government of Alberta, membership and the public. The intern will identify communications strategies that align with the Strategic Plan. The Intern will additionally have exposure to events that will occur on a national level including the 2023 Canadian School Boards Association’s National Trustees Gathering on Indigenous Education & CSBA Congress, which will be hosted by ASBA. This event will take place in Banff, Alberta, with attendance from school board from across the country.

This project will allow ASBA to streamline and enhance available communications platforms, as well as the ability to provide more enhanced services to our members through our website, events and new projects for our stakeholders. Additionally, public awareness of school board trustees is lacking, though the role each serves as the voice of their communities is critical.

Carbon Dioxide Enhanced Hydrocarbon Recovery, CO2 Geological Storage processes estimation based on 3d hydrodynamic modeling

The particularly important goals faced in the world oil and gas sector is the increasing hydrocarbon production and net zero carbon emissions. Achieving climate neutrality means balancing emissions in such a way that the entry of CO2 into the atmosphere is prevented by its absorption, further utilization and storage. The Enhanced HC Recovery methods and CO2 Utilization/Storage technologies are the suitable ways to get these tasks done and 3d hydrodynamic modeling is the effective method to evaluate the processes of carbon dioxide injection in depleted oil/gas fields or saline aquifers, shrink risks and increase economy effectiveness. Canada has really large potential in this way, counting its natural  reservoirs and the research done can be implemented on the existing deposits. It`s proposed to analyze the CCUS and CO2 EHCR technologies using the 3d synthetic field model based on real data that opens the window of opportunities to use them further for real geological and technological modeling and implement researches on real deposits. The proposed reservoir engineering modeling project is highly useful to estimate the CO2 volumes utilized/sequestered into the deposit, evaluate the HC production increasing and to manege chosen field development plan….

ImiRoad 2023 strategy

Hiring an experienced law student with a background in immigration law can provide valuable knowledge, experience, and resources to a startup that connects newcomers with immigration services providers, which will better serve its clients and grow its business. The student’s knowledge and experience provide accurate and up-to-date information to newcomers, which can help them navigate the immigration process more effectively. In addition, the student may have a network of immigration services providers which can help us to expand services and reach more clients.

Market Research and Development for a Wound Healing Medical Device

BioMimir is a female-founded medical device company enabling healthcare providers to improve treatment outcomes for complex wounds. Our lead product is a liquid-to-solid wound filler designed to act as a wound sealant, wound filler, and tissue regenerator. BioMimir’s lead product is an FDA class II medical device and is projected to enter the US market in 2025 via an approval for a 510(k) based on substantial equivalence. We are in the process of establishing in-process and quality controls procedures to ensure the conformity of our medical device. These will also form the basis of our stability testing procedures. This project comprises both materials testing and quality control method development for our medical device.

Guidance, Navigation, and Control for Autonomous Spacecraft Docking

Current spacecraft rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking systems typically rely on human-monitored or controlled Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) systems. This project focuses on an autonomous GNC system specifically for spacecraft rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking applications. Autonomous systems are advantageous as they allow for operation without human intervention, do not rely on intermittent communication windows, work in highly challenging environments (i.e. around the Moon or Mars), and are highly scalable. This project proposes the research, optimization, and implementation of spacecraft GNC routines that enable fully autonomous spacecraft docking. Specifically, it seeks to optimize several GNC aspects including the attitude controller, trajectory controller, thrust allocation strategies, and proximity operation trajectories, then validate the research with spacecraft flight computers in simulation. This project will help situate Canada as an autonomy leader within the space sector and support the development of Canadian graduate students and small businesses.

UAV Monitoring of Salmon Habitat

This research project addresses needs identified by First Nation communities across BC to develop a framework to gather data regarding the state of salmon habitat in their territories in a way that is community led and driven. The project will conduct experiments leading to the development of a methodological framework and training materials focussed on the collection and analysis of UAV based thermal, lidar, and photogrammetric data to enhance community capacity to conduct long term salmon habitat monitoring. This pilot project aims to help communities identify areas of interest, collect and analyze data, and engage in long-term monitoring of salmon habitat in their territories. This project also has the potential to be scaled up and used by other First Nations or community groups in BC or across Canada that are concerned with monitoring salmon habitat.

The role of prematurity in the association of maternal nutrition and substance use during pregnancy with childhood mental health

Exposure to suboptimal nutrition (e.g., insufficient micro-nutrient intake) and substances (i.e., alcohol/tobacco) during pregnancy
has been linked to mental health problems in the child. However, the mechanisms of this association remain unclear. One
hypothesis is that exposure to suboptimal nutrition and substances may lead to premature birth (defined as <37 weeks of gestation), which can hamper brain development and, in turn, later mental health. This project will use data from a French cohort following mother-child pairs from pregnancy to child age 11 years to investigate this hypothesis. We will rely on detailed information on nutrient intake and substance use during pregnancy, prematurity, and child mental health outcomes in middle childhood. We will use mediation models to quantify to what extent prematurity explains the increased risk of metal health problems in children exposed to suboptimal nutrition and substances during pregnancy. Our findings will contribute to better understanding the early-life origins of mental health and inform policies focused on prevention of mental health problems starting early in life.