Innovative Projects Realized

Biotic communities in restoring salt marshes

Salt marshes are important coastal ecosystems that provide many services. Due to their high soil fertility, they have a long history of being converted to farmland. There is now growing interest in restoring salt marshes to protect against coastal erosion, mitigate sea level rise, and provide increased habitat for fish, birds, etc. Ducks Unlimited Canada and partners initiated 5 salt marsh restoration projects between 2010–2020, in the Bay of Fundy and southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, with goals of reverting pastureland or freshwater impoundments back to salt marsh, and assessing effectiveness of restoration methods. The undergraduate Co-op MITACS intern will assist, and thus gain experience, in quantify patterns and rates of restoration of biotic communities, including plants and invertebrates on the marsh platform, aquatic fauna in salt pools, and fish entering the marsh via creeks. This information will help determine best management strategies and be useful to various industries (environmental consulting, agriculture, transport) and agencies interested in salt marsh restoration.

Developing efficient computational simulationtools for geophysical applications

Quantitative interpretation of magnetic data through inversion for general distributions of magnetic susceptibility has played an increasingly important role in mineral exploration in recent years. The goal of the proposed project is to develop efficient and robust computational simulation tools for the inversion of magnetization at a specified depth using ground/airborne magnetic data. A numerical algorithm based on the preconditioned conjugate gradient method with Teoplitz matrix, which is well studied in the field of image processing, is extended to construct a fast and robust method for geophysical applications. The method provides a more accurate and detailed magnetic mapping, so that the geologist will have a better understanding for subsurface geology environment. Preliminary research has demonstrated that significant improvement compared to the existing method using the re-weighted regularized conjugate gradient algorithm can be achieved by the proposed method. Working together with TerraNotes, we plan to refine and promote this new technique to geophysical community.

Performance Analysis of Solvent-Based Post-Combustion CO2 Capture Process Employing Smart Techniques

Global warming is a very concerning mater, which needs serious attention and the development of the technologies to decrease the rate of CO2 concentration increase. In this project, a solvent-based post-combustion CO2 capture process is evaluated through the development of smart models (e.g., ML) and optimization techniques (e.g., PSO). The data for the smart model development are collected from the literature and the relevant industry. Also, the capability of several solvents to efficiently capture CO2 is examined. The process model considers the most vital operating conditions and the dynamic nature of the process. The model outputs are utilized to develop a sophisticated optimization strategy to determine the most optimal operating conditions of the process. The project offers the operating conditions that result in the efficient process performance in terms of cost, energy, and CO2 emission. Moreover, the research finding can be applied to the relevant process industry.

Springboard Clinic Summer Internship

The overview of this project is to conduct research and provide solutions to the Clinic to help enhance patient experiences with the mental health services provided. The project has four main scopes, including but not limited to: wait time management, sourcing and implementing a new EMR (Electronic Medical Records) system, research into conferences, educational sources and events in the ADHD field, and analysis of physician codes to compare to current Clinic practices and conduct market research on western Canada. Overall, the goal is to reduce wait times for ADHD services, and create seamless interactions both internally and externally to enhance patient experiences to increase their overall wellbeing.

Process parameter optimization for metal additive manufacturing: experimentation

Metal additive manufacturing is a promising manufacturing technique that has attracted attentions in the recent years due to the ability to manufacture complex parts. During the process, metal goes through complex thermal treatment, which causes defects such as porosity and lack of fusion in the final part. Understanding the relationship between process parameters and parts’ final quality is the key to achieve consistent zero-defect parts. This can be done by performing experiments and deriving the mathematical relationship between the process parameters and parts’ final quality. After finding the relationship, optimization can be done to find the optimized process parameters that lead to zero-defect parts. Being able to optimize the process will help designers and manufacturers to have parts that have not only complex geometries but consistent and superior quality.

Developing and implementing comprehensive sales and marketing strategy for deep tech startup

Northern Nanopore Instruments is commercializing solid-state nanopores: tiny holes in thin membranes that can be used to detect and characterize individual biomolecules. These sensors have potential applications in early diagnosis of disease, DNA sequencing, personalized medicine, and even digital information storage (hard drives). However, until recently these sensors were very difficult to make, limiting them to well-funded research settings.

NNi has developed a method to fabricate solid-state nanopores that is at least 100 times less expensive to implement, produces higher quality nanopores with higher yield, and can work at scale. As demand for our products grow, we are facing difficulties keeping up with out sales and marketing while maintaining our R&D operations, and we need to develop more efficient sales and marketing pipelines.

Our addressable market is spread evenly though the US, Europe, and Asia. Marketing and sales strategy vary significantly by region. At the same time, the fact that our products completely remove barriers to entry to the field of nanopore science means there is significant opportunity for academic research market expansion, particularly in countries with lower overall research budgets compared to the USA. The intern will be tasked with developing international marketing and sales strategies to both address the existing nanopore research market and to expand it where possible. The processes developed will inform our entries into new markets and provide a basis for expanding the scope of the addressable market for our tools.

Urban Forestry Project for City of Corner Brook

The proposed research project involves a partnership between the City, Grenfell Campus (Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador) and the Atlantic Forest Center (Natural Resource Canada, Corner Brook office) to generate capacity to collect, summarize, and analyze current tree distribution in the City (and boundary areas) using a combination of remote sensing platforms.

Voices Analytics

The Data Science/Analytics team at Voices is looking for a Data Analyst Intern to join the team and support analytics initiatives from developing Tableau reports to provide an in-depth/holistic understand of the platform, leveraging our datasets to provide insights/recommendations to decision makers, and producing predictive models on KPIs (i.e. retention, hire rate) to surface prescriptions/improvement areas. Analytics is a critical function in the organization that departments tap into to measure performance, obtain insights/recommendations, as well as access to predictive models. The candidate will support with the increasing volume of analytical initiatives that are critical to Voices’ strategic and operations activities.

Software Engineering of LOYALTY APP for NTN CANADA

NTN Canada wants to build a Loyalty Program Mobile App that will be used by their clients to collect and redeem award points based on the NTN products that they sell/purchase.

This functionality will be achieved through a client facing mobile application and web-based admin panel for NTN Canada office.

Optimisation d’une batterie imprimée à base de Zinc

Un certain nombre d’applications comme l’électronique portative ou la traçabilité de produits bénéficieront considérablement du développement de l’électronique imprimée grâce entre autre à la flexibilité et à la légèreté des dispositifs obtenus, couplés à des coûts modérés par l’utilisation de machinerie pouvant les produire rapidement à grande échelle. De plus, la possibilité de créer des sources d’énergies imprimées permettra la conception d’imprimés intelligents autoalimentés. Dans cette optique, l’objectif de ce projet est de concevoir une batterie qu’il est possible d’imprimer totalement sur une presse rotative puis d’en optimiser les performances. Afin de garantir l’imprimabilité de l’électrolyte, celui-ci sera préparé sous forme de gel polymère ou gel cellulosique. Par l’entremise de ce projet, l’Institut des Communications Graphiques du Québec et la plateforme Impression 2020 bénéficieront d’une expertise en électrochimie pour concevoir la batterie. À terme, le développement des procédés d’impression relatifs à cette batterie constituera une expertise pour la fabrication d’autre type d’imprimés électroniques, ce qui représente une opportunité intéressante pour redynamiser le secteur de l’imprimerie

Good News Ventures Summer 2022

GNV is seeking an intern to assist with a project to improve and document the venture capital investment process. This includes outbound deal flow sourcing of early stage technology startups, evaluation of startups, due diligence and supporting investees. Furthermore, some supporting duties related to the investment process such as outreach communications within the venture capital ecosystem and with investors may be assigned.

Willing People Inc.- Mai Linh

Willing People Inc is developing GetBizzy App – an app-based job portal that aims to lower the barriers to jobs and help newcomers to find jobs easily in Canada. This project is to help the company digitize the current operation processes and set up the proper email & sms marketing systems to communicate with its users (immigrants across the country) more efficiently.

Moreover, the company is preparing to be investment ready for its seed-funding from professional equity investors. Hence, the
project gives extra hand and support for market research for the business plan, defining and monitoring key metrics as well as
budgeting and cash flow projections, which will speed up this process greatly.