Innovative Projects Realized

Application of design thinking to optimize social participation after stroke.

Social participation is a key outcome of rehabilitation and is enhanced by social support and exercise. Stroke symptom management with at-home products is now more critical than ever because of decreased rehabilitation services during COVID-19 and the need for more self-management. In partnership with lululemon, researchers will adapt an evidence-based and theoretically guided intervention program that operationalizes social support and physical activity to a new virtual rehabilitation hardware to optimize social participation in people who experienced a stroke. The proposed research will make a unique contribution to social participation in stroke patients and virtual rehabilitation research in Canada. Furthermore, the partner organization will be able to use this research to inform the further development of their product.

Pinchin Ltd – Marketing Coordinator Intern – Charlene

Pinchin is one of Canada’s most prominent firms when it comes to environmental, engineering, building science, as well as health and safety consulting. With over 900 employees in 42 offices across the country, Pinchin has started with providing consulting services to the asbestos abatement industry and it has developed into one of today’s leaders in the industry. This internship project will provide creative support to our professional teams, utilizing the intern’s knowledge and skill set. The selected intern will identify and support all regional and internal business development events such as client socials, complimentary sessions, paid training, industry and association events, tradeshows, conferences, sponsorships, as well as professional speaking engagements. In addition, the intern will contribute to creating and managing proposal content for various business development projects.

Cueillette aléatoire robotisée à l’aide de deux caméras stéréo abordables

Les systèmes de cueillette aléatoire robotisée (« 3D bin picking ») existent sur le marché depuis plus d’une décennie, mais sont toujours difficiles à configurer, lents, et très dispendieux. Avec les avances de la librairie libre de vision artificielle OpenCV et les caméras stéréo abordables, telles que OAK-D, le développement de systèmes de « 3D bin picking » devient plus accessible. RoboDK, une entreprise qui développe un logiciel abordable d’interaction avec de simulation de robots industriels souhaite offrir un système de « bin picking » abordable, en tant qu’option dans leur logiciel.
Ce projet de quatre mois posera les bases pour un projet de maîtrise dont l’objectif sera de développer les outils nécessaires pour l’estimation de pose dans RoboDK à l’aide de deux caméras stéréo. Pendant son stage, le stagiaire étudiera la faisabilité d’utiliser la caméra OAK-D, une montée sur un robot industriel et l’autre au-dessus du bac à objets, pour la cueillette.

Zonage du milieu urbain en fonction des impacts socio-économiques associés aux travaux sur les infrastructures urbaines

La réalisation des travaux sur les infrastructures urbaines peut générer des nuisances qui affectent le bien-être et causent des pertes économiques aux citoyens. Afin de gérer ces impacts, il faut connaître leur nature et leur intensité, ce qui dépend, parmi d’autres facteurs, des caractéristiques du milieu environnant. Ce projet propose donc de classifier le milieu urbain dans des zones selon la sévérité des impacts à laquelle elles sont assujetties lors des interventions sur les infrastructures. Cette classification sera appliquée à la Ville de Montréal. L’objectif est de développer un outil visuel et géoréférencé qui identifie les zones susceptibles aux impacts les plus importants. Cet outil sera intégré aux fonctionnalités du logiciel de gestion de projets OPA.

Acme Fire & Safety – Finance, Planning, and Supply Chain Internship Project

Over the last 45 years of successful business and continued growth, our established customer base has kept on adding renown names such as McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada, Royal Arch Masonic Care Homes, BC Ferries, A & W Restaurants, White Spot Restaurants, MDA, YVR Airport, Finning Inc., City of Vancouver Fire Department, UBC and Vancouver Hospitals, and many other commercial buildings, restaurants, and residential complex building. Acme Fire and Safety has recently acquired Nutech Safety Ltd. This merger has closed only a couple of months ago and the acquisition builds on Acme’s existing geographic coverage that’s spread across British Columbia. Our current locations include Richmond, Kamloops, and Kelowna. This internship project will support the organization to integrate the three acquisitions that have happened over the past two years, while identifying the largest value creation opportunities, risks, and constraints. Our business needs the support of talented accounting and operations and supply chain students to create a roadmap for costs and growth synergies and to develop an integration scorecard that measures the post-merger impact to the business.

Disrupting the Canadian patient-specialist referral process – can multimodal communication pathways empower the patient?

In general, Canadians are proud of their universal health care system, but an often heard complaint is the slow and convoluted specialist referral process, and the lengthy wait times to see specialists. An Ontarian waits, on average, 11.3 weeks for a non-urgent specialist referral and 7 weeks for an urgent specialist referral. (Keely and Liddy, 2019) Long waits for referrals disenfranchise the patient, and misplaced or overlooked referrals can have grave consequences and are frustrating for patients, and primary and secondary care providers.

This project explores whether alternative pathways patient-engagement might be effective in transforming the referral process. This study will be a content review of public facing multi-modal communication by medical specialists including, but not limited to: social media engagement, media appearances, public-facing websites and the presence of hospital profile pages. The study will categorize how specialists in the Ontario medical community use alternative modes of communication with their patients and identify trends in a) alternative forms of medical communication and b) specialists’ direct engagement with a public audience. If an alternative pathway to connecting patients and providers is possible, how might that empower both parties and result in a better referral and consultation process?

Sqewqel Development Corporation-Internet Technologies Intern – Manan

For the past nearly seven years, the Sqéwqel Development Corporation L.L.P. has been working to empower the Seabird membership through employment, business development, and financial opportunities. SqDC has been undertaking multiple economic activities for profitable businesses, creating new jobs, developing our local economy to the benefit of the Seabird members, and fostering business opportunities while respecting traditions and values belonging to the Stó:l? culture. At SqDC, our mission is to strengthen the Seabird Island Band’s economy and the financial security of the members of this community. The Internet Technologies Intern will work with the SQDC team during this project by providing project support and coordination, working within a project meant to update the Point of Sale and Inventory Systems, alongside with being involved in other specific information technology smaller projects. The objective of this internship is to bring innovation into how one of our companies (Nations Creations) is present on various social media channels and to optimize our information systems across the organization.

Primex Investments ltd. Accounting Analyst Internship – Ridham

Over the years, Primex has attracted a large and growing group of like-minded partners to invest. As a result, Primex has become a preferred client for many lenders, the first call for many realtors, and a trusted customer of service providers and suppliers throughout the industry. This project will assist with the budget processes, analysis, and forecasts to ensure the organization’s assets are operating profitably. Furthermore, Primex continues to grow, and the work conducted during this project will identify ways to scale processes within forecasting and budgeting for organizational growth.

Innovation, Design, and Development of a Novel Snoring and Obstructive Sleep Apnea Prevention Device

Sleep-related breathing disorders, such as obstructive sleep apnea, can be life threatening. Although solutions
exist to treat these disorders, like Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) and oral appliances including
Mandibular Advancement Devices (MADs), there are several issues relating to cost, comfort, and convenience
with the products that are on the market today. This applied design research project explores the development
of a novel snoring and obstructive sleep apnea prevention device that will address these issues, specifically for
the senior population who wear full or partial dentures. It aims to bring forward a pioneering innovative solution
that not only addresses a gap in the marketplace, but also advances SleepLabs as a leading, innovative dental
sleep appliance manufacturer.

Adaptation et implémentation du laboratoire vivant l’Université des jeux(nes) musiciens (UJM) à l’UFC-Campus Sobral

Ce projet MITACS vise à exporter et à adapter l’approche pédagogique et scientifique de l’Université des jeux(nes) musiciens (UJM), laboratoire vivant situé à la Faculté de musique de l’Université Laval, au sein du campus Sobral de l’Université Fédérale du Ceara (UFC), état situé dans le nord-est du Brésil. La création de l’UJM/UFC-Sobral (Universidade de jogos(jovens) músicos) permettra d’élargir les connaissances dans le domaine du Learning Music Through Play (LMTP) et d’identifier les possibles similarités et dissemblances liées à ce domaine en fonction du milieu culturel dans lequel une approche pédagogique de type LMTP est implémentée. Ces comparaisons porteront notamment sur la manière dont les jeunes de l’UJM/ULaval et de l’UJM/UFC-Sobral perçoivent l’utilisation de leur créativité d’apprentissage, qu’ils se sentent connectés à la musique qu’ils jouent ou à leurs pairs et leur degré d’engagement envers l’apprentissage de la musique à l’aide d’une telle approche.

Tests for models used in Actuarial and Risk management and Economic forecasting

In Actuarial Science and insurance, models are often used to assess risk using factors such as age, level of education, gender, environment, etc. In practice, there might be unobserved factors. When data are gathered, the accuracy of these models should be investigated. If the model is not well fitted by the data, subsequent influences could be badly wrong. In this proposal, we shall examine tests to check the model validity. In addition, we examine the effect on inference of a failure in the model. The unobserved factors pose special problems which can sometimes be addressed using Bayesian procedures. I have done some of this work in my thesis and will develope it further.

Foster the discovery of Swhidgets through animated transitions

Swhidgets are Graphical User Interface (GUI) components common in touch-base devices, by default entirely hidden under another interface element. To use a Swhidget, the user must first uncover them with a dedicated onscreen swipe gesture, relying on the metaphor of sliding a physical object. Swhidgets notoriously suffer from a discoverability problem, as they do not provide perceptible signifiers to inform users about their presence. In this project, we will explore how animated transitions that happen in touch-based OS (typically when a new view is loaded or updated) could be leveraged as a way to give Swhidgets-unaware users a chance to discover these widgets as they interact with the device. For that, we will characterize existing swhidgets and animated transition, design refinements of these animated transitions so they better suggest the existence of Swhidgets, and evaluate the impact these refinements.