Innovative Projects Realized

Sage Initative – Business Analyst

The Sage Initiative is specifically designed to build wealth and prosperity for Indigenous womxn and their families and communities by building the skills and capacity needed to make small to medium sized impact investments that have balanced social, environmental, and fiscal returns. Mitacs interns will support Sage Initiative in our growth period in the areas of business development and digital marketing by providing recommendations that improve effectiveness and efficiency.

ET.AL

Blockchain and the metaverse are emerging technologies that are capturing the attention of triple-A game studios, social media giants, and leaders in other tech domains. The metaverse can be described as a virtual 3D world, converging real world perceptions in a digital space with an infinite amount of possibilities. This convergence exactly represents the next era of the internet. The metaverse, however, is incredibly nascent in its realization; and it is a pioneering opportunity for leading online entertainment and social media companies to capitalize on the categorical emergence of metaverse applications and communities.
ET.AL is leveraging blockchain and metaverse technologies to reduce barriers to entry to the fine and digital art markets for investors around the world, critically disrupting a +$1 trillion asset class that is almost exclusively capitalized by the ultra-rich. They also rarely share their collections publicly.

ET.AL is on the leading frontier of a new business model, offering fractional ownership of physical art, collectibles and antiquities by issuing NFT editions. By doing so, we disintermediate secondary-market brokers and auction houses who typically sell to a single buyer or corporate portfolio. ET.AL is thereby advancing a radical form of acquiring and selling art, while disrupting outdated legacy art businesses.

EEG – Based Integrated Solution for High Performance Human Activities in Critical Applications in Industrial Facilities

Human activities are linked to mental and physical functions. Critical applications require assurance of human activities to meet target performance and safety measures. The monitoring of human activities is difficult and might not be possible in some situations where brain functions might not be visible and can only be understood by understanding human behavior. The use of EEG (electroencephalogram) will enable the understanding of brain functions via the analysis of signals from the EEG system. There are difficulties of analyzing EEG signals due to complexity of signals without proper understanding of other behavior factors related to human activities.
This project is aiming to designing an integrated EEG-based solution to monitor human behavior and link with human activities in critical applications.
One potential application is the use of EEG-assisted operator performance monitoring, which will provide real time and precise assessment of human performance and link to operation activities. The analysis technique will map human brain signals to behavior and activities, which will be translated into human behavior assessment to improve operation performance and safety.

BDI Application (Onova) – Innovation Consulting for Clients

At Onova, we help large companies and institutions empower their employees to create new innovative products and solutions. We help set up a culture of innovation and impact, all while leverage design sprint methodologies and startup mindsets to do so. Additionally, as a business we, ourselves, create new startup solutions that drive positive impact in the world (for example, we created a business called Inoki Bathhouse which helps people support their mental well-being through incorporating bath rituals), and we have a startup investment fund that primarily invests in BIPOC founders.

Our team is very small and nimble, so our interns play a massive role in the success of our company. We believe the youth are the most creative and innovative, which is why we place our interns in high profile roles that drive a signficant impact. Unlike other internships, our interns lead and own projects while being directly mentored and coached by the founders. We have a high degree of confidence in our interns and are known for our startup growth culture.

Optimisation du processus d’ajout d’un médicament à la pharmacie

Le Département de pharmacie du CHUM est responsable de la gestion du service des médicaments dans tout l’hôpital afin de répondre aux besoins des patients (médicaments servis au nom du patient et médicaments disponibles à l’unité de soins sur validation et au commun dans différentes localisation dont les cabinets automatisés décentralisés). En particulier, la pharmacie s’occupe du réapprovisionnement des médicaments dans les unités de soins, ainsi que des étapes en amont. Un grand projet de recherche se déroule déjà au CHUM en partenariat avec la pharmacie afin de modifier les façons dont les réapprovisionnements sont effectués et de transformer les processus actuels dans un système plus juste-à-temps basé sur l’apprentissage machine et l’optimisation. Cependant, avant de pouvoir déployer de telles approches, une étape clé est la cartographie des processus actuels afin de pouvoir par la suite les modéliser mathématiquement. Plusieurs trajectoires classiques de médicaments sont déjà cartographiées, mais l’ajout de nouveaux médicaments dans le circuit et tous les défis qui y sont associés ne sont pas encore bien établies et identifiés.

Creation and validation of a GAN-based approach to minimize the cost and radiation burden of PET radiopharmaceuticals

This project will facilitate the development and validation of a novel AI-based model that can improve the quality of PET images such that diagnostic-quality images can be reconstructed from administering a smaller radiopharmaceutical dose to the patient. The two main advantages of this are decreased radiation dose to the patient which decreases the chance of developing a radiation-induced cancer, and also decreased cost to the healthcare system because less radiopharmaceutical is required to produce a diagnostic-quality study. This will have the downstream effect of expanding the PET radiopharmaceutical arsenal of Canadian physicians, which is often limited due to the significant cost of new radiopharmaceuticals.

Electroencephalogram (EEG) Features for real-time assessment of mental state

The research project consists of looking for features that could play a role in attention and vigilance. Once this is found, the intern will have to test and implement the selected features. The trainee will have access to two datasets that are already ready. Then, she will have to analyze physiological time series. She will integrate the Cognition Scientists & Dev Team. The partner organization will act as a leader in sensing and safety technologies, opening many
opportunities on the market to mitigate any errors that might incur from the main cognitive challenges typically experienced because of cognitive resource limitations

Olympus NDT : Intelligence artificielle avancée pour le contrôle non destructif

L’intelligence artificielle (IA) commence à être déployée dans le domaine du contrôle non destructif. Il s’agit d’analyser, par intelligence artificielle, de grandes quantités de données, notamment ultrasonores (ce sont des échographies de matériaux métalliques, composites ou autres), pour y détecter des défauts de fabrication ou d’usure (par exemple des trous, de la corrosion, etc.). L’application de techniques éprouvées d’IA donne des résultats passables. Toutefois, les progrès les plus récents en IA ont démontré non seulement des performances supérieures, mais aussi des techniques plus efficaces pour faire apprendre aux modèles d’IA comment analyser les données. Le projet de recherche consistera à adapter ces progrès récents en IA pour le contrôle non destructif dans le but d’accélérer le déploiement de l’IA dans ce domaine et d’en améliorer les performances.

Bentley : Entraînement d’un détecteur de rouille par apprentissage actif

Les outils basés sur l’intelligence artificielle sont de plus en plus utilisés dans des contextes d’inspection d’infrastructures, où un expert devait normalement passer beaucoup de temps à manuellement visiter puis annoter les portions problématiques. Un problème persiste toutefois pour leur applicabilité : la quantité de supervision requise pour entraîner ces méthodes d’IA. Le projet proposé vise à donner à l’ordinateur la capacité de déterminer quelle rétroaction d’un expert serait la plus utile pour améliorer sa performance. Tout comme un élève peut poser des questions à son professeur spécifiquement sur les sujets qu’il saisit moins bien, la méthode d’IA par apprentissage actif que nous envisageons serait capable d’identifier les éléments qu’elle sait déjà bien reconnaître afin d’éviter à l’expert de devoir « réexpliquer » une connaissance déjà acquise. Au final, ce projet permettra de diminuer grandement le temps requis pour la mise en place d’une telle solution d’inspection et de favoriser la diffusion de ces méthodes.

Étude du système de refroidissement d’une caméra CCD par CFD

Les caméras pour imagerie à faible flux lumineux sont utilisées tant pour la recherche biomédicale que pour l’astronomie. Toutefois, lorsque les photons se font rare, il est nécessaire de refroidir l’enceinte de la caméra à très basse température pour réduire le bruit thermique. Il faut aussi amplifier le signal grâce à l’électronique embarqué dans le boitier de la caméra. L’ensemble du système génère beaucoup de chaleur qu’il faut évacuer. Le projet vise à améliorer la dissipation thermique autour du système de refroidissement thermo électrique par effet Peltier dans la caméra. Des nouvelles solutions de refroidissement prometteuses seront étudiées à l’aide de simulation de mécanique des fluides numériques (CFD). Les performances des systèmes de refroidissement proposés seront comparées entre elles. Les connaissances acquises offriront des pistes de solutions à Nüvü Caméra pour améliorer le système de refroidissement dans ses prochains design de caméras.

Valorization of Lactose-based By-products through the Conversion to Lactobionic Acid and Its Application to Mozzarella Production Process

Whey and milk ultrafiltration (UF) permeate are usually considered as environmental pollutants due to their elevated organic load. Increase of whey production owing to high demand of milk-derived products creates a huge disposal problem for dairy industries. The conversion of lactose, which is main component of whey and milk UF permeate, to value-added ingredients is advantageous. In this project, we will employ a cost-effective enzymatic method to convert lactose into bioactive LBA using whey and milk UF permeate as substrates. The process will be optimized to achieve the maximum production of LBA. Then, the resulting LBA-enriched permeates will be added to mozzarella cheese with aim of improving its functionality and production yield. In addition to the costs reduction of whey disposal to the environment, the improvement of functionality and nutritional quality of the produced cheese lead to the advent of new customers or increased benefits realized by existing customers in the market.

Bridging the Digital Divide in Saskatoon: Exploring the Benefits of Providing Free Wi-Fi to Regions and Demographics with Low-Access

The internet has become a critical resource central to the provision of nearly every essential service, whether related to business, employment, social support, government, education, health, food, or leisure. As such, it is increasingly difficult for individuals who lack reliable, regular access to the internet to fully participate in society and obtain critical information. To address this issue locally, the City of Saskatoon is launching a pilot program where they will provide Wi-Fi to one neighbourhood that has met their selection criteria, which draw from the city’s equity analyses, school division studies of student access to devices and data, and the neighborhood’s proximity to existing infrastructure. Saskatchewan Polytechnic’s (SP) Digital Integration Centre of Excellence (DICE) and the City of Saskatoon are collaborating on a research project to investigate whether this installation is successfully providing reliable Wi-Fi service to the selected area. There are two distinct areas of research that will be undertaken by the SP interns. First, SP interns will investigate the impact of building materials on Wi-Fi signal strength, assist in troubleshooting issues with the installed system, and provide statistics on the Wi-Fi system’s performance. Second, SP interns will perform analysis on the utilization of the system.