Innovative Projects Realized

Product Development to Scale Low Carbon Business Intelligence

Acuicy Inc. is an early-stage, pre-seed startup based in Halifax. Acuicy is an innovative business intelligence platform that provides tailored, data-driven insights, helping managers identify and deploy the most capital-efficient clean technology solutions for their company (acuicy.com). Acuicy leverages the power of business intelligence, climate science, and economics to provide effective decarbonization strategies and delivers custom business cases with ROI calculated for various strategies.

Initial work has been led by the Co-Founders to identify the market gap and need for this type of platform, define the product, and outline the business plan. This project will help the Co-Founders address our core challenge at this early stage which is the need to move quickly into product development with the goal of completing the Minimum Viable Product in the next 4 months.

Development of a new, globally-applicable approach for quantifying reef island evolution in 3D, and analyses of Caribbean reef island evolution

Low lying coral reef islands are considered among the most vulnerable landforms to the impacts of climate change. Currently, an incomplete understanding of reef island evolution and morphology (island evolution is typically analysed in 2-dimensions), and lack of data for reef islands in the Caribbean is limiting predictions regarding how these landforms will respond to future environmental change, e.g., rising sea-level. This project will develop a standardized approach to quantify the 3D evolution of coral reef islands. We will then use this approach to (a) analyse Caribbean reef island evolution in 3D over a range of time periods (weekly, monthly, and annual); (b) identify and measure key morphological characteristics of the islands; and (c) investigate the linkages between island evolution and wave processes on the surrounding reef platforms. The project will produce the first data ever recorded for Caribbean reef islands; and a new, 3D reef island modelling technique, which will be globally applicable and will provide important insights into the capacity of reef islands to adapt to future environmental change.

Community-led growth and business strategy

We are looking to work with an experienced masters student who can serve in a Marketing Innovation Specialist role, which will include Marketing Operations, Business Operations, User Research, and Business Development. We are in the process of raising our seed round so we can build out the commercial features of what will be our SaaS product. We will conduct several pilot projects over the Spring, Summer, and Fall. This intern will be integral to us scaling up operations by implementing tools & processes so we can gear up for a larger sales effort in Jan 2023. The company’s founders have significant experience in community building and are well set up to grow the company through a community-driven, product-led, go-to-market strategy. The purpose of this project is to further formalize this strategy through market research, experimentation, and process automation.

Online Aboriginal Business Incubator

Online business incubation is a rapidly growing field. For many First Nations entrepreneurs who live in remote locations away from large cities, these online incubators allow access to resources that would otherwise be unavailable. While online incubators are becoming more prevalent, the majority of business incubators still operate through face-to-face methods. As such, there is a need not only for more developed online business incubators, but also online business incubators designed specifically for use by Aboriginal entrepreneurs. This internship will examine successful iterations of face-to-face mainstream incubators, face-to-face Aboriginal incubators, and online mainstream incubators in order to determine in what areas each perform well and where each might need improvement. This research will be consolidated and used in the construction of the first accepted online Aboriginal business incubator. Nesika Management Ltd. provides financial and business management in order to allow Aboriginal entrepreneurs to achieve prosperity and self-reliance in their entrepreneurial ventures. This new online business incubator would contain important tools and resources for Aboriginal entrepreneurs to build successful companies, and subsequently help Nesika to achieve their stated aims.

Prediction of preterm birth in twin pregnancies using machine learning

Preterm birth (PTB) is the leading cause of death in twin pregnancies. A variety of parameters, such as cervical length, maternal medical history, demographics, and obstetric characteristics all have been shown to affect the risk of PTB. However, the relationship is not obvious. Early prediction of PTB in these pregnancies can assist physicians in identifying those patients who may benefit from preventive interventions and closer monitoring. This project aims to use machine learning to create an algorithm that predicts which twin pregnancy is at a risk of PTB. This algorithm is expected to benefit clinicians in managing twin pregnancies by identifying patients who may benefit from preventive interventions. In addition, accurate detection of preterm birth is a prerequisite for any future attempts to develop such new interventions.

Venture Studio Fellowship

This role is a critical and multi-faceted position. The intern will be an active contributor to the venture-building and studio asset allocation process. At the heart of FutureSight is a four-phase venture lifecycle – which systematically moves opportunities through ideation, validation, formation, and growth stages. New ideas are rigorously screened, market-tested, and validated before a venture is formed. Based on the intern’s strengths, they will rotate between the Studio fellow track or the EIR fellow track. As a Studio Fellow, they will support the studio team on operations, recruitment, capital raise & deployment, and investor relations. As an EIR Fellow, they will support a venture founder in testing business ideas and supporting co-creation activities.

Predicting productivity in UpBeing app users

It is no secret that people strive to be more productive in their personal and professional lives. Productivity applications have made life easier for people by enabling them to meticulously monitor their output in numerous domains. Even so, there remains the problem of how one can most effectively use all this knowledge in order to improve oneself. In the current project, I will work with UpBeing to determine how productivity can be measured and which factors contribute to improved personal productivity. The findings from this research will help UpBeing to improve its application for product launch.

Precision Feeding System Commercialization Software Assistance Project

Xanantec is currently working on a multi-year project to commercialize a novel precision feeding system for poultry. This project involved mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and software development. This project will provide assistance to the partner organization in completing this commercialization activity. Xanantec Technologies Inc. is an engineering consulting firm based out of Edmonton Alberta and has been in business for over 22 years. As a consulting firm the company has felt the ebbs and flows of 5 economic downturns in all of the years in business and as such is looking to diversify into becoming a products based business vs a fee for service type of business. The development of this novel feeding station has been complicated by COVID and in particular the parts shortages and long lead times of integrated circuit providers. It is hoped that the extra resource on the software side will help provide some additional momentum to getting everything completed and the product released in 2023.

Preparation of Phosphonium Cumulene Cations

In the last two decades there has been growing interest in understanding the structure and reactivity of chemicals containing phosphorus. Phosphorus compounds are known for their applications in organic synthesis, materials science, and catalysis. Developments in these applied areas has been enabled through fundamental studies which describe synthetic methods for preparing new phosphorus molecules. Fundamental studies that focus on the Lewis acid characteristics of phosphorus compounds are necessary to make advancements in catalysis. Lewis acidity is a property of molecules that describes their ability to attract electrons, which is critical to the activation of commercial substrates in stoichiometric and catalytic transformations. The proposed research discloses a synthetic method to isolate a novel type of compound known as a phosphonium cumulene cation. We will prepare these molecules by combining protocols developed by the Caputo and Dielmann labs. The structure and reactivity of the proposed molecules will advance the known Lewis acid chemistry of phosphorus and may have implications in inert molecule activations for stoichiometric and catalytic reactions.

Natural products in bronchial asthma

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects the airways in the lungs. The inner lining (epithelium) of the airways forms a protective barrier against harmful irritants. This lining is frequently injured but repairs itself quickly. In asthma, however, this barrier is dysfunctional and cannot repair itself when injured. This allows irritants into the airway tissue and initiates an inflammatory response. As the lining cannot repair itself properly, chronic inflammation develops. Natural products have been proposed as useful in treating asthma, however, they are not always safe. We will grow epithelial cells from the airway in two cell culture models of asthma to:
• understand how plicatic acid, the natural compound that causes western red-cedar asthma (WRCA), damages the inner lining of the airways;
• investigate how honey may promote repair of damaged epithelium.

PROOF will benefit from this research by being involved in the identification of new signatures for allergic asthma, WRCA, damaged epithelial cells and markers of epithelial healing.

Digital Audit and Marketing Strategy Development

We want to improve how we digitally reach our target markets, so that we can grow awareness and increase revenue. To achieve that, this project has several core elements (to be refined with a successful applicant):

Audit: To examine our web, ecommerce and social media channels to understand who we are reaching and how they are behaving, relative to who we currently believe to be our target audience.
Strategy: Based on the audit, help us craft a strategy to refine and optimize our digital channels so that we improve how we communicate, and with what groups, to grow awareness and sales.
Tactics: Driving from the strategy, craft a tactical plan which will create an actionable road map of activities.

Développement de méthodes non locales en théorie de la fonctionnelle de la densité

Les méthodes de calcul de structure électronique, en chimie computationnelle, permettent de prédire et d’interpréter les propriétés des molécules. Depuis quelques décennies, la théorie de la fonctionnelle de la densité (DFT) s’impose par rapport à d’autres méthodes de calcul de structures électroniques, comme celles qui sont basées sur la fonction d’onde (WFT), de par son exactitude raisonnable et son faible coût computationnel. Cette efficacité tient au fait que la DFT est une méthode variationnelle utilisant la densité électronique, rho(r) (la densité de probabilité de trouver un électron à la position r), comme quantité fondamentale, une fonction de 3 variables (r=(x,y,z)), plutôt que la fonction d’onde, une fonction de 3N variables (N étant le nombre d’électrons impliqués dans le système). Néanmoins, une partie de l’énergie, nommée échange-correlation, doit être approximée dans le cadre de cette théorie. Les approximations actuelles en DFT ne permettent pas de traiter adéquatement les interactions à longue portée, qui jouent un rôle important pour les phénomènes qui intéressent les chimistes de nos jours, comme les complexes de Van der Waals et les complexes de transfert de charge.