Innovative Projects Realized

River City Venture Legal Services Clinic

We are filling a gap in the legal community in Edmonton, by providing law students with an opportunity to apply their legal knowledge to help start-ups solve their legal concerns as they scale-up. This project will help fully launch the Clinic, which provides start-ups with legal information and assistance. For example, information may relate to adjusting their shareholder agreements, employment contracts, and other terms to reflect their new realities. We will connect start-ups with various local law firms to meet their needs by having students volunteer to answer inquiries and make connections between the startups in need of legal advice and local law firms.
This public project will examine and report on the scale-up of the clinic to address the needs of a broader segment of entrepreneurs in need in Edmonton and the surrounding areas. This benefits our local community by growing their ecosystem of support in the region.

Iridium Risk Services – Zuzana Nedeljakova

In this role, the intern works in coordination with two Risk Technician Team Leads to achieve several projects to aid in the bigger goal of making Iridium a lean organization. The student will join the Risk Technician group meetings and will use the group as a resource throughout their internship for additional learning opportunities. The intern will be tasked with sourcing insurance market research to use in the development of new market insights that we strive to provide for our clients. The intern will also be tasked with researching and testing third party software to aid in our assessment of operational risks faced in the energy industry. In doing so, the student will need to run tests on processes, present findings to the Team Lead team, and create manuals and procedures on new business processes.

WINS – Business innovation

The intern will work closely with Business Support teams as WINS works to innovate databases and procedures to keep pace with the fast changing post-COVID business environment. Heavy weights will be put on innovation in technology solutions and business procedures to improve operational efficiencies and build business capacity for future growth and expansion. The intern will work closely with Finance/Accounting, IT, Administration and Human Resources and receive professional guidance and training throughout the internship period. The support from the intern will provide WINS with resources to build capacity through innovation and set us up for growth and expansion.

WINS Program Innovation

The position will support WINS’ Program team in building and/or upgrading innovative program database to produce SMART program outcome and impact measures, improve database scalability and efficiency in reporting. Rapid changes in charitable sector calls for creative and innovative database solutions that will produce timely, accurate and measurable impact reports to share with the community. As well, the database innovation will help WINS identify gaps in services WINS provides, and allows WINS to develop programs that deliver wholesome and flexible services catering to clients’ need. The improvement will ultimately help WINS to achieve its mission and vision.

Township of Oro-Medonte Economic Development Strategy

The following project will be concentrated on developing an updated Economic Development Strategic Plan for the Township of Oro-Medonte. The proposed project will consist of reviewing background reports and documents as well as the current Economic Development Strategic Plan to determine what progress has been made in the strategies, goals and actions that were outlined previously. The strategic plan will focus on outlining key success factors that the township should focus on, while paying attention to developing/enhancing/and creating strong partnerships with current partners and other potential organizations. It will also seek to uncover actions and opportunities that may exist for businesses within the Township that have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic by providing the necessary guidance to enhance future growth and development. The project will further focus on uncovering opportunities for potential funding that might exist for the Township. The expected benefit to the partner organization is they will receive an updated Economic Development Strategic Plan that will help guide the next two years of economic development within the Township. The strategic plan will outline final recommendations outlining the key areas that the township should focus on while creating a roadmap/critical path of the prioritizes that will be feasible

Community Benefit and Resiliency 2022

Thrive Community Support Circle has been working in cooperation and partnership with other community agencies for 47 years in order to provide their clientele with the highest quality services possible, within the context of their available financial, material, and human resources. By responding to and supporting the spiritual, material, and cultural needs of participants within the West End community of Winnipeg through programs focused on supporting physical, mental, and spiritual health, Thrive has made notable contributions to the engagement, stability, security, and safety of the community. They support participants in developing employment skills and preparedness; fostering empowerment, authenticity, and personal growth; developing volunteers into leaders, and breaking down barriers to success.

While increases in the resources available are one factor in the ability to improve, expand, and develop programs that will further these important endeavors, resource management is also an important way to ensure that the most possible benefit to the greatest number of people is achieved. Thrive is intent on ensuring that all of its available resources are being leveraged for the greatest possible benefit.

Review and evaluation will affect not only efficiency, but can also ensure that services offered are appropriate to the needs and expectations of the participants. Those services can only directly impact participants if they are aware of the programs offered and able to utilize them. The report generated will identify potential adjustments to improve services, delivery, and access.

Gathering, Governing, and Gifting Food: Community Economy and Food Distribution in the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun

This research project explores and documents the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun’s customary food practices and community traditions surrounding the potlatch, described as an Indigenous way of ensuring there was always a system of distribution for wealth. Oral history interviews with First Nation elders and citizens will be conducted and contribute to recommendations for a community-oriented and culturally informed food distribution strategy as well as insights for food-related initiatives led by the Na-Cho Nyak Dun Development Corporation. The oral history will be documented, creatively presented back to partners and participants, analyzed to inform food distribution strategy recommendations, and finally, stored with the Na-Cho Nyak Dun Government as part of the First Nation’s traditional knowledge repository. This community-engaged project aims to tend to the unique challenges of food insecurity and food-related health outcomes in northern communities through collaborative research into creative and contextual solutions for cultivating Indigenous food sovereignty.

Regulatory analysis of a fintech application for financial literacy

Debican is a Canadian startup with the mission of preparing youth for their future financial life through real-life experience through their digital city App for youth where they will be able to learn money management. Under parental control, Debican will give youth their own debit cards to shop in the Debican city marketplace and will learn to manage their money by earning, saving, donating, and spending wisely. The financial regulations surrounding creating a digital, real-money marketplace, in particular one that allows youth to participate, are complex. Debican is collaborating with Seneca’ School of Accounting and Financial Services to analyze regulations in Canada around financial tools and access to these tools by youth, as well as the regulations imposed on fintech companies such as Debican. Furthermore, the requirements and steps towards enabling the usage of prepaid cards and working with banks need some effort to elucidate. The intern, under guidance of the academic and industry leads, will research regulations relevant to Debican’s business model to create reports and projections that will provide Debican a report that will provide them with a roadmap on how to work with banks and other primary partners and a regulatory analysis and strategy framework for the

Salon S.O.S

The chosen candidate will have 2 main mandates:
1) create an innovative business development strategy to reach the food and beverage industry. We have a unique app that can help those industries reinvent themselves and improve customer engagement and retention. We need a creative way to penetrate this market to gain awareness and deliver real value to the small business owners;
2) create and execute a strategy to revolutionize the Salon S.O.S. communication strategy. How do we use emerging technology and digital platforms to differentiate ourselves and attract our target customer? An innovative communication strategy is critical to capture people’s attention
The innovation to be developed will be both on the strategy level (conception) and execution level (delivery of communication). These mandates will not only help Salon S.O.S. reach a larger audience and serve more small businesses, but it will help the intern develop important skills around digital marketing, innovation and development, strategic thinking and creative problem solving.

Guided Catheter System Based on Smart Polymeric Brush Coating for Vascular Surgery

The main cause of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is narrowing of blood vessels due to atherosclerosis. In such cases stents are chronically implanted in -arteries to physically expand and scaffold the vessels. Each year, ~90,OOO stents are implanted in Canadians. All these minimally invasive procedures involve the use of a catheter. Currently available catheter tubes advance straight in blood vessels; it remain a challenge to the cardiac catheterization in bifurcated cardiac arteries which are blocked. To address this we will develop a guided catheter system to guide the tortuous bifurcated arterial paths in vascular surgely. Since the Intellectual Ventures (IV)~ Canada supports the development of novel application for guided catheters and serving the CVD market, it will directly benefit from this research. We anticipate generating new intellectual properties based on the work described. N previously licensed a technology from the research performed in Kizhakkedathu and Phani’s laboratories on catheters and the current project will expand that technology further.

Developing a Sustainable Implementation Strategy for the A-EAAA Sexual Assault Resistance Program for Teen Girls

In this application, we are requesting funds to assist the non-profit organization, SARE Centre, in developing a strategy for scaling up the implementation of a new sexual assault resistance program for teen girls. A-EAAA (Adolescent EAAA) is based on Dr. Charlene Senn’s Enhanced Assess, Acknowledge, Act (EAAA) sexual assault resistance program, the only program available proven effective in reducing sexual assault victimization. In a clinical trial, undergraduate women who took EAAA were 50% less likely to experience rape or attempted rape in the following year than women in the control group. Dr. Senn founded the SARE Centre to help universities and other institutions make EAAA available on their campuses. Since first publishing results of EAAA’s effectiveness in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Senn and SARE Centre staff have received many requests from teachers and parents of adolescent girls asking that EAAA be made available in high schools. To answer this need, Dr. Senn collaborated with Dr. Sara Crann, to create A-EAAA. With funding from MITACS, an intern will assist the SARE Centre to identify strategies for communicating information about A-EAAA to parents, teachers, school boards, and related community organizations. The intern will also identify best practices and successful models for the implementation of evidence-based programming to adolescents. This will enable the Centre to adapt its current business practices to maximize the likelihood that schools and other organizations who want to offer A-EAAA will have the opportunity to do so with the greatest likelihood of success.

Evaluation of the retention of antioxidants in grape tomatoes using microwave vacuum drying

Microwave energy combined with a vacuum environment can be used for rapid low temperature dehydration and produce high quality food products. Industrial processing of tomatoes involves various treatment steps that affect the final profile of antioxidants in commercial food products. The goal of this project is to evaluate the retention of antioxidants in grape tomatoes using microwave vacuum drying. The influence of retention of antioxidants in grape tomatoes by microwave vacuum drying will be compared with air drying and freeze drying. A portable Raman spectrometer will also be manufactured and used to characterize the chemical compositions of grape tomatoes after dehydration. Raman spectroscopy can be applied for on-site prediction of antioxidant profiles of grape tomatoes using microwave vacuum drying.