Innovative Projects Realized

Artificial Intelligence in the Mortgage Industry

GreenFlow Financial, with the help of our intern, Mr. Nikhil is looking to develop an opportunity in the financial services and artificial intelligence space. This project will focus on demonstrating applicable technology and evaluating the possibility of eliminating banks and brokers to deliver a fast and reliable mortgage matching system to the market with the use of artificial intelligence. This project has the potential of disrupting the industry by directing connect the lenders and borrowers. Our goal for Nikhil during this internship is to conduct thorough market research and assess the demand for such technology.
This project will support GreenFlow Financial in reaching its innovation goals and will assess the market opportunity and ability to build a product.

Whiz Trainer Inc

The Whiz Trainer skating aid can revolutionize the skating industry by encouraging more children to get involved in the sport of ice skating. The technology was developed in Newfoundland and is being manufactured on a small scale. In terms of the technology, children can learn as young as 2 years old can skate with ease and safety and without fear. With the Whiz Trainer, a child will actually enjoy his or her time on the ice and will want to keep coming back to learn how to skate. The technology provides a new approach to how children learn to skate. We need innovation and expertise in numerous aspects of the business, including manufacturing analysis – and sales and marketing.We have developed the product and it is being sold but we are missing expertise on how we are going to manufacture it (scale-up) especially in light of the pandemic and disrupted manufacturing and supply chains. This project has a dual focus and we have identified 2 business interns with complimentary skills to help us in both areas.

Pre-Clinical validation of Eyful’s solution providing general visual enhancements for AMD patients using augmented reality

Founded in 2019 in Montreal, Eyful is a young start-up at the juncture of technology and medicine. Our mission is to help people with retinal diseases regain their independence by enhancing and assisting their vision. More specifically, we have been working for the past two-years on assisting patients suffering from aged- related macular degeneration (AMD), using artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR).

We have developed in-house algorithms predicting the visual symptoms of a patient diagnosed with AMD, as well corrections to help them see better, using AR. With the help of patients, we need to validate that our predictions are accurate and that our corrections are helpful in a systematic and replicable manner. To this end, we have partnered with an optometric clinic, and have prepared a pre-clinical trial. This trial will be the focus of this Mitacs project.

Project Co-ordinator

The Battlefords Chamber of Commerce has been impacted by COVID-19, but also our members have been impacted by the challenges and opportunities currently facing business in this environment. We are a member driven organization that serves the business community in a few key ways. We are an advocate for the business community, we offer networking opportunities and events, provide options for member affinity programs, as well as advertising and promotional opportunities.
We are a very small office / operation, and are in need of upgrading many of our processes, member materials, and streamlining office operations to become more efficient and effective. Beyond COVID, sources of non-dues revenue are important, and events cannot be the only source. Efficiencies and effectivess and streamling of processes is very important.
The projects for the Co-op student intern will be based on research, reviewing and proposing innovative solutions and options for the challenges, and identifying new and exciting ways to reach those member and non-member businesses.
We recently undertook an application for Accreditation nationally, and while that process has gone very well, it did indeed open a window into the need to update and upgrade processes and systems. To be the voice of business requires that we are a leader in many respects, and so to lead in business practices and model, it will be important to have additional human resources to assist in completing this work.

Wellington Greens Development Internship: New Client Acquisition and Comprehensive Business Model Creator

At the beginning of 2020, Nancy Wilson, the business owner, purchased a vertical farm from Freight Farms. Since then, she has been selling a variety of products to customers. As a business owner, her time has been devoted to all aspects of the business, like any new business. However, this has inhibited the growth of the business. Hiring an intern will allow Nancy to focus on the process of farming and Brendan, the intern, will research the demand for different types of products and acquire new clients. Together, Nancy and Brendan aim to develop a process whereby they know exactly what produce to grow each month based on the demand of the clients. Additionally, they plan to maximize yields from the farm by making the process as efficient as possible. Aside from the business model, they hope to use the business as a way to provide fresh produce to food outreach programs like the Food Bank.

Artificial Intelligence / Semantic Similarity Project

Avondx developed a Voice Analytics solution to assist companies in enhancing Customer Engagement by monitoring Customer Service Agents (CSA) interaction with customers in the retail market. Avondx wants to improve its voice analytics solution that can determine the semantic similarity between many different phrases. We are looking for assistance with artificial intelligence and neural network that deals with natural language processing.

Avondx wants to add a feature to its voice analytics solution that will improve the “engagement capture rate” of their current product. Every day, Avondx must record and process many interactions. We call these interactions “engagements”. Avondx would like to use machine learning and neural networks to be able to tell if an engagement is (or is similar to) a start phrase (or end phrase) that a CSA might use with a customer.

Through the Mitacs program we are looking for a resource that can assist our software development team to build the Semantic Similarity function.

Soil moisture estimation using satellite imageries for Canadian croplands

Agricultural water management, being a critical area in accordance with the freshwater consumption rate, should be regulated with the help of emerging cutting-edge research. Recent research proves that precision technologies significantly reduce the agricultural input cost for the farmers thereby increasing their net revenue at the end of harvest. Technologies such as AI, remote sensing, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV’s) etc. are the recent trend in agricultural research. Precise water and nutrient application to the crop fields reduce significant percent of agricultural input application. The results of this innovative research program will have a very significant impact on increasing the sustainability and economic competitiveness of irrigated agriculture in Canada, and internationally. Overall, the results from this research will be a beneficiary to water resource planners and irrigation managers in the real-time basis design, planning and allocation of irrigation water. Provincial and federal government will use the information to come-up with water policies to optimize water consumption.

Combined cyberattack detection and mitigation studies on load frequency control

The extended application of communication networks in modern power systems has made power systems vulnerable to cyberattacks. These attacks target the operation of the power system and may bring about major problems, such as blackouts and tampering with smart meter readings. In this project, a comprehensive control scheme will be proposed to detect and mitigate combined false data injection (FDI) and denial of service (DoS) attacks. The performance of the proposed control scheme will be investigated by implementing the small-signal model of a multiple microgrids system consisting of different elements, such as renewables, conventional resources, electronic-based loads, and constant power loads in MATLAB/Simulink.

A 3-Prong Research Approach to Psychedelic-assisted Therapy Education and Service Delivery within a Community of Practice Framework

The project includes a three-prong approach, consisting of research and education surrounding psychedelic-assisted therapy within a community of practice framework. Interns will each take a leadership role in separate, but intertwining areas. Key roles include program development, evaluation, and actively engaging in decolonizing practices and policies to ensure activities are inclusive and equity informed. The topic areas include 1) the evaluation of an approved Vancouver Island University Certificate Program, to begin September 2022, 2) the development and evaluation of Psychedelic-assisted Therapy Integration (how to make the treatment results more sustainable post treatment), 3) Behavioural research development and implementation – observing psychedelic-assisted therapy delivery, and 4) the development and implementation of clinical research (with the support of multiple agencies). Interns will work with the partner organization, My Community Journeys (a non-profit organization), Vancouver Island University, in addition to collaborating stakeholders and agencies in B.C.

Identifying the practices and policies of improving digital equity among vulnerable communities in Calgary

Access to digital technologies and ensuring digital equity has never been crucial before the pandemic. Digital equity is ‘a condition in which all individuals and communities have the information technology capacity needed for full participation in our society, democracy, and economy.’ Digital Equity is necessary for civic and cultural participation, employment, lifelong learning, and access to essential services. Pandemic-induced restrictions and subsequent lockdowns have diminished (in person) social interactions and resulted in increased dependency on digital technologies, which had already placed disproportionate burdens on marginalized groups. While many research and projects are now shifting their focus on the economic recovery of the post-pandemic phase, how the pandemic is deepening the digital divide, marginalizing the vulnerable groups, and re-enforcing the systematic exclusion is remained severely understudied. Therefore, we attempt to explore in this study the current state of the digital divide (which is often considered as a complex social-political challenge) and how it has impacted the social interaction, economic activity, and mental well-being of the city dwellers.

Production line for personalized camping car cabinets

Today’s customer desire more and more personalized products and often want to get involved in the design of them. The manufacturing of personalized furniture is a good example of this trend. NavCamper is a SME in Quebec, producing personalized camping cars. The production of personalized cabinets for these camping cars is currently very labour intensive. To remain cost efficient and address the issue of shortage of personal to hire, NavCamper wants to automate the production. The aim of the project is to develop the needed elements (manufacturing equipment and software) that will allow to automate the production in costly manner of fully personalized wooden cabinets. The challenge is that each cabinet is unique, in size, shape color, wood finish etc. The production line will be able to handle this diversity and streamline the production of these personalized cabinets.

Ungulate Knowledge Gathering Forum

The intern will work alongside the Splatsin government to plan, implement, and document a precedent setting Ungulate Knowledge Gathering Forum (hereafter: Forum), taking place in Enderby, British Columbia at the Splatsin Community center on February 17th-19th, 2022. There are three central objectives of the Forum coinciding with each of the three days: (1) conduct semi-structured interviews with Splatsin knowledge-holders to archive the histories, cultural values, and observed information pertaining to caribou and non-caribou ungulates (NCU), such as moose and white-tailed deer in Splatsin traditional territory, British Columbia. (2) document a population benchmark or desired abundance level of caribou and NCU’s the Splatsin are collectively intent in realizing within their traditional territory for the next 100 years. (3) Lastly, foster an ethical space of joint learning where Indigenous and Western knowledge are shared interchangeably in a round-table setting to ultimately support Splatsin-led caribou recovery actions. The primary benefit to the partner organization includes equipping ABMI with a novel, precedent setting approach to monitor and understand wildlife populations through the process of reconciliation.