Innovative Projects Realized

Explore thousands of successful projects resulting from collaboration between organizations and post-secondary talent.

29670 Completed Projects

2811
AB
4990
BC
801
MB
663
NL
825
SK
8841
ON
9197
QC
95
PE
568
NB
1088
NS

Projects by Category

Factors influencing shorebird use of managed and unmanaged saline lakes in Saskatchewan

Naturally saline lakes are highly productive ecosystems that support a wide variety of species and are of commercial value for sodium sulphate production used as detergents and other commercial products. Saskatchewan contains the most saline lakes in all of Canada, and many of these lakes are critical staging habitat for migratory shorebirds that rest and refuel on brine shrimp prey. An active sodium sulphate mine at Chaplin Lake, SK controls water levels in sub basins that are apparently beneficial to the brine shrimp and shorebirds. Our project aims to find out what factors are important for the brine shrimp and shorebird populations at Chaplin Lake and how they vary over space and time and in relation to the mine’s water management. In this project, interns will assess shorebird abundance at multiple saline lakes in Saskatchewan to better inform their management and protection and will identify factors that affect bird use through measures of water quantity and quality. Information will be useful for operations on Chaplin and other saline lakes to provide data on optimal water levels and conditions necessary to maintain both commercial production and shorebird populations in a changing climate.

View Full Project Description
Faculty Supervisor:

Christy Morrissey;Ann McKellar

Student:

Partner:

Nature Conservancy of Canada;Saskatchewan Mining and Minerals Inc

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Arts, entertainment and recreation; Mining; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Saskatchewan

Program:

Accelerate

Development of a novel nutritional feed additive using guanidinoacetate and methionine for the poultry industry

Creatine has been used as a feed additive in the poultry industry to improve energy metabolism and growth performance. However, because of creatine’s relative instability in foodstuffs, GAA has recently been explored as a potential alternative to creatine supplements. GAA is the immediate precursor for creatine production in the body. For this process, another amino acid: methionine, is essential. Therefore, to get the best outcome of GAA supplements, an adequate amount of methionine should be available. GAA plus methionine combination is a promising feed additive to improve meat quality and growth performance in animals. Hence, we are investigating the stability of GAA plus methionine mixture in animal feed to predict the commercial value of the novel feed additive. Moreover, we will perform the safety assessment of this nutritional feed additive using non-animal models. Global animal feed industry aims to improve quality animal products at a low cost. Therefore, properly incorporating nutrients into feed additives will benefit the feed industry, commercial animal farmers, and consumers while fulfilling increasing demands for animal-based proteins.

View Full Project Description
Faculty Supervisor:

Robert Bertolo

Student:

Partner:

Springboard Atlantic Inc.

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Agriculture and Food; Health and Related Sciences & Technology

University:

Memorial University of Newfoundland

Program:

Accelerate

An ecological economics analysis of Quebec Sustainable Mobility Plan

As part of the transition plan to low-carbon economy, the province of Quebec (QC) has become one of the 20+ regions and cities worldwide to announce a plan to electrify transportation which centers around setting up a ’complete electric battery ecosystem’ by 2050. While this plan poses a new phase of land appropriation and environmental degradation, through extensive mining and the provision of material and energy intensive grids, Quebec purports to distinguish the plan from the critiques based on renewable endowments such as hydroelectricity. My project, therefore, seeks to analyze the underlying narratives and the feasibility of the proposed strategies for a quick transition to a low-carbon economy based on hydroelectric capacity as well as a massive surge in the supply of critical and strategic minerals. To tackle my questions and objectives, I use multiple qualitative and quantitative methodologies. In the quantitative part of the analysis, which concerns my MITACS Global application, I check the metabolic changes that would result from the objectives underlined by the sustainable mobility. It is expected that metabolic analyses would shed light on the current biophysical metabolism of QC sectors under study (hydroelectricity, mining and battery manufacturing sectors).

View Full Project Description
Faculty Supervisor:

Peter Brown

Student:

Partner:

Central European University

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Sustainability & the Environment; Green/Alternative Energy; Transportation (excluding aerospace)

University:

McGill University

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Tarahumara (Rarámuri) Health Project

Blood pressure increases with age in Western societies; however, populations that live as hunter-gatherers and subsistence farmers rarely develop cardiovascular disease and do not have age-related increases in blood pressure. The mechanisms responsible for the maintenance of cardiovascular health with aging are not clear. A mismatch between the conditions that postindustrialized populations inhabit – low levels of physical activity, less daily and seasonal thermal stress and ultra-processed diets – likely drive the increasing blood pressure with age. By examining cardiovascular structure and function, blood volume and fight-or-flight activation in a cohort of rural Tarahumara subsistence farmers, recently urbanized Tarahumara in Chihuahua and Mestizo in Chihuahua, we will test the hypothesis that the urban populations, but not the Tarahumara subsistence farmers, will present increased arterial stiffness, reduced plasma volume and increased fight-or-flight activation with aging. This will help us to identify the underlying processes leading to high blood pressure in postindustrialized populations and direct avenues of future research to promote healthy aging.

View Full Project Description
Faculty Supervisor:

Robert Shave

Student:

Partner:

Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology

University:

The University of British Columbia - Okanagan

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Digital Twin of a Rotating Machine: Model Order Reduction and Artificial Intelligence for Hydroelectricity Production

Hydroelectric power units are more solicited today than in the past when they were usually operated at baseload. Because of this, their operating conditions include many starts and stops, and partial load conditions, resulting in premature and unpredictable failures. With a digital twin, these units can be properly monitored and accurately modeled in order to schedule maintenance and optimize usage to minimize wear.
The aim of my project is to create a digital twin for a vertical axis rotating machine (VARM) with similar dynamical properties to those of the hydroelectric turbine-alternator shaft line. This will be accomplished by building the experimental setup and developing the mathematical reduced-order model of the VARM using Proper Generalized Decomposition. We see the significance of this project in the fact that it will serve as a proof of concept, enabling companies and developers to overcome the same challenges required to develop digital twins for real industrial equipment using sensor data and physical modeling.

View Full Project Description
Faculty Supervisor:

Frederick Gosselin

Student:

Partner:

Arts et Métiers Sciences et Technologies

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Advanced Computing; Artificial Intelligence; Green/Alternative Energy

University:

Polytechnique Montréal

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Attractivité globale et innovation collaborative. Reconfigurer les capacités stratégiques d’un territoire en contexte de rupture

Dans un contexte de forte concurrence touristique, les destinations cherchent à se démarquer les unes des autres.
Pour faire face au défi de rendre leur territoire plus attractif, les acteurs touristiques, politiques, économiques,
géographiques, sociaux et culturels du milieu s’unissent pour concevoir une approche commune et partagée du
développement territorial. Dans l’objectif de réussir leur démarche d’attractivité, des territoires développent donc
des pratiques innovantes de développement et de marketing territorial pour créer de la valeur, et dont les impacts
peuvent se répercuter sur la diminution des coûts, l’amélioration de la notoriété, le développement d’un marché,
etc. Par conséquent, cette étude souhaite analyser les bonnes pratiques existantes en matière d’attractivité de
territoire, en l’occurrence, celui de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue dans l’objectif que la région développe sa propre
stratégie pour devenir un territoire plus performant et attractif.

View Full Project Description
Faculty Supervisor:

Mohamed Reda Khomsi

Student:

Partner:

Association touristique régionale Abitibi-Témiscamingue

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Arts, entertainment and recreation; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Université du Québec à Montréal

Program:

Accelerate

Designing high entropy perovskites for sustainable ammonia synthesis using advanced computational techniques and artificial intelligence

Ammonia is the second most-produced chemical globally, most of which is used in the fertilizers industry. Currently, it is synthesized via the Haber-Bosch process operated at high temperature and pressure using a Fe-based catalyst, which contributes to the generation of 420 million tons of CO2 per year. Therefore, researchers worldwide are currently looking for inexpensive and efficient catalyst for sustainable ammonia production. Perovskites have been studied as effective, low-cost substitutes to expensive noble-metals-based catalysts. Different compositions of transition metals can be used in a perovskite material, making their physical and chemical properties highly flexible and providing a vast searching space for the potential High Entropy Perovskite (HEP) catalysts. This large area of study can benefit a lot from Machine Learning techniques. Until today, there have been only a few studies that analyzed perovskite-type oxides for electrocatalytic Nitrogen Reduction Reaction (NRR), which is one of the rate limiting steps of the ammonia synthesis reaction. The proposed project aims to expedite this research by using artificial intelligence and advanced computational chemistry techniques. We plan to investigate various compositions of HEPs, and manipulate them based on the expected physical and chemical properties of an ideal sustainable ammonia synthesis catalysts.

View Full Project Description
Faculty Supervisor:

Kulbir Ghuman

Student:

Partner:

Forschungszentrum Jülich

Discipline:

Physics

Sector:

Green/Alternative Energy; Advanced Computing; Artificial Intelligence

University:

Université du Québec : Institut national de la recherche scientifique

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Metal mobility during carbon mineralization

Sequestration of atmospheric and industrial CO2 through carbonation of reactive waste minerals is a proven method for curbing emissions from the mining sector. Carbonation technologies have also been shown to be effective at reducing potentially toxic metal mobility in alkaline mine wastes. However, the molecular scale mechanisms of metal cycling associated with mineral transformation reactions during carbonation of mine tailings have been poorly constrained. Therefore, we aim to study the mobility of metals (e.g., Li, Fe, Ni) during accelerated carbonation of critical mineral phases {e.g., amorphous Ca-Mg carbonate, brucite [Mg(OH)2]}. To achieve this, the two interns, Avni Patel and Colton Vessey, will conduct experiments at the CNRS (Toulouse, France) using advanced techniques and methods (i.e., ?7Li and ?57Fe isotope analysis, and in situ Raman spectroscopy). This research will assist in understanding metal mobility within mine wastes and natural systems, and will support continued development of safe carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) methods.

View Full Project Description
Faculty Supervisor:

Siobhan Sasha Wilson;Maija Raudsepp

Student:

Partner:

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)

Discipline:

Earth science

Sector:

Achieving Net Zero; Environmental Science and Technology; Mining

University:

University of Alberta

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Advancing Post-Secondary Opportunity for Autistic Students

Using simplified language understandable to a layperson, provide a general, one-paragraph description of the proposed research project to be undertaken by the intern(s) as well as the expected benefit to the partner organization. (100-150 words)
The project has been developed in concurrence with the Sinneave Foundation’s aim to improve outcomes in education, employment and housing for autistic youth and adults. Post-secondary educational supports and access have been identified as key areas to develop to support the autistic population in their goals. As part of the project, interns will participate fully in Phases 1-3 of the project to provide the foundation framework and data to forward the project’s aim of inclusively developing and refine ‘on the ground’ strategies and guidelines for post-secondary engagement and support for students with autism.

View Full Project Description
Faculty Supervisor:

David Nicholas

Student:

Partner:

Sinneave Family Foundation

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology

University:

University of Calgary

Program:

Accelerate

Geochemistry and structure of the Moss Lake Au deposit, Northern Ontario

This study will investigate the volcanic and structural architecture, petrography, and alteration chemistry of a portion of the Shebandowan greenstone belt in the Wawa subprovince of Northern Ontario to better constrain the gold mineralization and to develop vectors towards mineralization. The principal methods employed in this study will be fundamental geological mapping and logging, combined with traditional and state-of-the-art analytical techniques, which will characterize the structures, mineralization, and alteration system associated with mineralization of the Moss Lake area. The research will be completed by three highly qualified personnel (2 master’s students and one postdoctoral fellow), who will be trained to use modern digital field methods and high-quality microanalytical instruments, making them highly skilled assets for industry, academia, or government surveys. The tools generated within this project will help Canadian mining companies enhance exploration efficiency and reduce both the time and capital cost for the discovery of mineral resources.

View Full Project Description
Faculty Supervisor:

Pete Hollings;Noah Phillips

Student:

Partner:

Goldshore Resources Inc.

Discipline:

Earth science

Sector:

Mining

University:

Lakehead University

Program:

Accelerate

The Development Machine Learning Techniques for the Detection of Trace Pharmaceutical Compounds

The goal of this project is to train and test a machine learning algorithm to detect pharmaceutical contaminants in water. Surface nanodroplets will be generated for several key compounds. These, will be used as independent extraction medium with varying contaminant concentration. The large number of droplets will enable collection of a high quality training data set. Potential chemicals to be investigated include: antibiotics, pesticides and flame retardants. Utilizing surface nanodroplets allows for a sufficiently large training set, one of the main limitations in applying machine learning to chemistry. The various machine learning techniques and parameters will be attempted in order to obtain a predictive regression model for concentration based on spectroscopy data. By the end of the project, we aim to have an algorithm that can determine concentration of trace contaminants in an unknown sample of pharmaceutical wastewater. If sufficient time is available then we will investigate extending the library of supported chemicals to include other pollutant categories.

View Full Project Description
Faculty Supervisor:

Xuehua Zhang

Student:

Partner:

Kyungpook National University

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Artificial Intelligence; Global Health; Pharmaceuticals

University:

University of Alberta

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Well-Defined Silica-Supported Titanium Catalysts for Introducing Nitrogen Functional Groups

Nitrogen is a key component in many molecules used as medicines, materials and fertilisers. Adding nitrogen into molecules is currently inefficient and expensive: it requires multiple steps and creates a lot of waste. Alternatively, it is possible to introduce nitrogen by processes called hydroamination and hydroaminoalkylation. These reactions are 100% atom efficient (all of the atoms put into the reaction are used in the products), so no waste is made. Current state-of-the-art methods for hydroamination and hydroaminoalkylation require a catalyst to make the reaction happen but the catalyst is difficult to separate from the products of the reaction. This makes purification of the products too expensive for large scale industrial processes. It is also very difficult to reuse the catalyst. In this project, we will trap the catalysts onto surfaces, which will enhance their performance in reactions and make it easier to separate and reuse the catalyst, as the product can be washed off and the catalyst reused. This technology will enable the efficient and sustainable production of nitrogen containing molecules in industry.

View Full Project Description
Faculty Supervisor:

Laurel L Schafer

Student:

Partner:

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)

Discipline:

Physics

Sector:

Achieving Net Zero; Clean Technology; Sustainability & the Environment

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Previous
1…1,3851,3861,3871,3881,3891,3901,391…2,473
Next

Join a thriving innovation ecosystem.

Subscribe to our newsletter now!

Subscribe