Innovative Projects Realized

Vegetation Growth Trajectory Responses of Native and Invasive Plants Across Different Biogeoclimatic Zones within the McKay Creek Wildfire Area

Impacts of increased wildfires and wildfire intensity have impacts that go beyond the initial devastation often shown on the news. Wildfire recovery is a long, difficult, and multi-faceted undertaking, especially within the context of a changing climate. This project is intended to better understand the impacts of wildfire on invasive and native (culturally important) plants. Plants are the cornerstone of ecosystems including food systems for people and wildlife. It is critical for us to learn which plant species are able to grow back on their own and if invasive plant species become worse after wildfire in order to inform ecological restoration going forward (such as the need for seeding native plants and where invasive species may need to be controlled).

Development of a model-based approach to assess bioequivalence based on dermatopharmacokinetic data obtained from comparative studies on topical dermatological drug products

Market approval of generic products requires that such products are shown to have equivalent safety and efficacy as the innovator product currently on the market. In general, generic topical dermatological products require comparative clinical trials in patients which require a large number of patients, are expensive and lengthy. This has led to a shortage of generic medicines that are meant to be applied to the skin. We developed a surrogate method to assess the safety and efficacy using tape stripping of human skin which is a relatively non-invasive technique. However, this method involves numerous determinations and is time-consuming. Hence, our objective is to develop a more efficient and expedient method using a model-based approach from which pharmacokinetic parameters relevant to assessment of a topical formulation can be deduced which will circumvent the need for numerous measurements and assumptions. Publication of the results will enhance the future prospects of the partner organization, Learn and Confirm Inc.

Accelerated development of soybean cultivars resistant to soybean cyst nematode and white mould

The proposed research aims to develop a paradigm shift whereas the selection of materials containing resistance genes and QTL for soybean cyst nematode (SCN) and white mould WM) resistance by marker-assisted selection (MAS) applied on the F4 single plants. The University of Guelph uses a nursery in Costa Rica, Central America, to advance breeding materials from F2 to F4 generation. The latter seeds are planted at the Woodstock station, where phenotypic selection occurs on a single individual plant basis for characteristics such as visual agronomic performance, maturity, number of pods per plant and absence of disease and lodging. This project aims to improve selection efficiency for disease resistance traits such as SCN and WM resistance that are difficult to select for phenotypically. It will result in saving on resources spent on testing materials that do not hold promise for the development of disease resistant, high yielding soybean cultivars.

Co-développement d’outils de promotion de la santé cognitive par et pour la population de 50 ans et plus.

La maladie d’Alzheimer et autres troubles apparentés sont en augmentation notamment en raison du vieillissement de la population. Les adultes et les aînés éprouvent des craintes face à la survenue de ceux-ci. Bien que le contrôle de facteurs de risques modifiables pourrait prévenir jusqu’à 40% de ceux-ci, une majorité d’adultes et d’aînés croient que seulement les facteurs héréditaires en sont responsables. Plusieurs sources d’information sont disponibles à ce sujet mais elles ne sont souvent pas accessibles. Différentes stratégies de promotion de la santé peuvent être utilisées pour diffuser et favoriser des changements d’habitudes de vie basées sur des informations fiables accessibles présentant les facteurs de risques modifiables et des moyens concrets de promotion de la santé cognitive et de prévention de la perte d’autonomie et de la dignité des personnes vivant avec la maladie d’Alzheimer.

Simulating policies to achieve 100% zero-emissions vehicle sales in Canada

The overall objective for this project is to support the research of two Master’s students to advance and apply methods for modelling climate policies in transport, a field in which START in the School of Resource and Environmental Management at SFU is one of the leading research teams in the country and in which Navius Research Inc is the leading Canadian consulting firm. The project focuses on advancing the behavioural realism of a technology-adoption model, the AUtomaker-consumer Model (AUM). One intern will improve AUM’s representation of ZEV charging access. A second intern will incorporate at least one measure of consumer equity into AUM. The internships will allow the students to learn valuable analysis and modeling skills, under the guidance of leading modelers in the field. Navius will learn about the AUM model, which will improve their ability to provide climate transport policy analysis.

Development and characterization of novel whole-cell flours from Canadian pulses

In this partnership, researchers from the University of Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Food Industry Development Centre aim to work collectively to create a novel type of “whole-cell” flours from Canadian pulses, such as pea, chickpea, and faba bean. In comparison with conventional pulse flours obtained from dry milling/grinding, the new pulse flours are anticipated to offer low-glycemic benefit and have higher levels of dietary fiber and protein, which will be more favorable for producing healthy foods to enhance the health and well-being of Canadian consumers. The collaborative research and development activities will promote the use of high-quality and nutritious Canadian pulses in the food industry, thus supporting the growth of the agri-food sector in the country.

Solutions TLM : Conseils d’intégration basés sur des tests psychométriques

AtmanCo est une entreprise œuvrant dans le domaine du développement du potentiel humain. Des tests psychométriques sont conçus afin de mesurer le profil psychologique d’un individu. Ces tests sont utilisés en entreprise dans les contextes d’embauche, de gestion d’équipes et de développement des compétences. L’équipe de développement de Solutions TLM, en collaboration avec AtmanCo, travaille actuellement sur un coach virtuel. Le coach virtuel est une plateforme web mobile visant à guider les gestionnaires afin d’assurer une bonne intégration des nouveaux membres dans leurs équipes via un système automatisé d’accompagnement.
Le système automatisé d’accompagnement se fera en proposant des recommandations par le biais d’un agent artificiel. Les recommandations proposées pourront être retirées, réordonnées et épinglées par l’utilisateur. L’agent artificiel doit utiliser ces interactions pour corriger ses recommandations. Ainsi, l’agent pourra apprendre à prédire des recommandations pertinentes à afficher au gestionnaire.

Comparastore – Développement des Affaires

Fondé par 2 étudiants, Comparastore est le premier comparateur d’entrepôts au Canada. La plateforme venant d’être terminée, l’enjeu principal de Comparastore concerne maintenant son développement des affaires, c’est-à-dire enrichir la plateforme de diverses solutions d’entreposage afin que ses utilisateurs puissent y comparer tous types d’offres et trouver celle qui correspond à leur besoin.

Dans ce contexte, les responsabilités du stagiaire en développement des affaires seront : (1) Répertorier des entrepôts sur la plateforme ; (2) Créer et mettre en œuvre une stratégie commerciale pour convertir les entrepôts répertoriés en partenaires d’affaires ; (3) Concevoir et réaliser une stratégie d’acquisition de trafic web.

Les deux co-fondateurs étant polyvalents, avec des compétences complémentaires, parviennent à assurer le développement produit, web et des affaires. Néanmoins, ne pouvant être au four et au moulin en même temps, ils sont débordés. Notre équipe a besoin d’un membre supplémentaire pour l’aider au développement des affaires et permettre à Comparastore de se développer le plus rapidement possible. Ce projet nous permettra donc de répondre à ce défi.

Improving precision analysis of power line modeling and integrating data processing chains for automating 3D building rooftop modeling.

The project consists of two independent segments. The first part, to be managed by PhD student Yoonseok Jwa, aims to develop and evaluate new photogrammetric computer vision algorithms for detecting and identifying POAs and insulator types attached to power lines (PL). The expected benefit to the partner can be summarized as: (a) Efficiency- automatic detection and identification of POAs and insulator types help redirect resources to other operations and reduce the time needed for modeling, (b) Accuracy- more accurate clearance quantity which threaten PL systems, (c) Productivity- enhancing the updating process of a geospatial database in challenging environments and detecting potential encroachment dangers to the power lines. The second part, to be managed by PhD student Heungsik Kim, aims to design and develop a new automatic workflow for 3D building rooftop modeling by integrating state-of-the-art algorithms with current data processing chain. The expected benefit to the partner can be summarized as: (a) Efficiency- significant reduction in both time and cost required for reconstructing the 3D building models from the raw LiDAR data, (b) Accuracy- the proposed technique ensures that accurate 3D building models can be constructed automatically and free from human-induced errors.

Summer Intern – Dawson Group

The Dawson Group is a construction and transportation company that ranges between 600 to 700 employees seasonally – depending on the companies’ workload (awarded projects, seasonality with highway construction, winter snow plowing) and also normal turnover, we have many onboards and offboards in our organization each year. With many employees coming and going, it places a challenging burden on Support Services to manually ensure that all employees are consistently and completely onboarded. Though we have some processes in place, there are still occasional items missed on some employees and a lot of time and effort spent ensuring that onboards and offboards occur smoothly. The company’s Corporate division wishes to streamline and simplify the onboarding process, to lead to better outcomes for the business, and to free up support services’ time to focus on higher-value activities. Our business strategy includes Preparing for Growth, and bolstering Employee Engagement. By making improvements to our employee onboarding process, we believe we will run more efficiently and create a more positive experience from Day 1 with new employees joining (or re-joining seasonally) our company. Through innovation, we wish to apply workflow automation and a software tool that can allow the coordinated delivery of onboarding across multiple teams in our Corporate Services division – the requirements, design and development of such software innovation will be the focus of this intern project.

Developing MRI Biomarkers for the Differential Diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder associated with death of dopamine-producing neurons. This results in structural changes to the striatum, substantial nigra (SNc), and ventral tegmental area (VTA). Motor symptoms of PD are extremely heterogeneous causing a high rate of misdiagnosis of similar disorders (e.g. Essential tremor; ET) as PD. This study aims to identify objective indicators of PD with MRI, to help physicians differentiate PD patients from healthy people, and ET patients. 60 participants from each group will be recruited. The MacDonald and Khan labs recently developed a novel MRI technique to identify structural changes in the striatum and SNc/VTA by parcellating these regions into sub-regions based on connectivity, which reliably differentiates PD patients from healthy controls with unprecedented accuracy. This study will test the ability of this technique to differentiate PD from other movement disorders with the hopes of providing physicians an accessible and reliable diagnostic tool.

Summer Analyst – Impact Investing, Acceleration, and Advisory – Queen’s University

The Social Innovation Academy will be working with a network of Mitacs interns to develop national-scale backend infrastructure resources for incubation and acceleration organizations across Canada. These resources may include (but are not limited to): initiatives for advancing equity, diversity, and inclusion; impact measurement frameworks; In addition, interns will provide marketing, research, and financial analysis for social purpose organizations over the duration of the 14-week internship.