Innovative Projects Realized

Estuary resilience and recovery following exclusion of a non-native invader, Canada Geese

We need to understand whether estuarine marsh habitat recovers to the same condition quality as undisturbed areas after exclusion of intensive goose grazing. Recovery through natural processes takes longer than restoration assisted by transplanting, however understanding how much faster assisted restoration enables recovery helps inform cost-effective strategies. Non-profit organizations can benefit from academic support to identify and set up research-guided projects that will better inform restoration strategies and best practices to optimize restoration outcomes. Having academic support to develop research-guided projects ensures that future projects will generate meaningful inferences.

Student Support for Level Up! Employment and Training

Resource Assistance for Youth is an organisation whose goal is to provide youth with complex needs the resources to navigate systemic barriers when facing homelessness or the risk of being homeless. Through the Level-Up Program, the organisation will achieve helping youth gain stable, long term employment who may be overlooked by other employment programs. By giving youth this chance, the goal is to nurture independence so that they are no longer using services and can be self sufficient. As Level-Up is a new program, there is not a streamlined manual for facilitation, nor is there adequate time given to plan curriculum, due to funding constraints. This internship project will address those issues and build a well-rounded program focused on youth employment skills.

PKIaaS – Vivacity Technologies Ltd.

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is a collection of hardware, software, procedures, roles, and policies that enables the use of public key encryption schemes within the context of information and communication technology (ICT) systems. In public key encryption schemes, an entity (which can be a person, a machine, or anything in between) generates two mathematically related keys: one private key, which is kept secret at all times, and one public key, which anyone may access. PKIs are responsible for the safekeeping, availability, and authenticity of public keys to enable trust between enrolled PKI stakeholders.

The focus of this project will be to implement and deploy a PKI service to support the widespread adoption of public key encryption systems even in hardware-constrained environments (such as embedded systems and Internet of Things (IoT) environments. This will be done by leveraging elliptic curve encryption algorithms, which provide a high level of security with reduced key sizes, and the use of M2M certificate formats, which provide an average 40% reduction in size when compared to general-purpose certificate standards, such as X.509. Such reductions in key and certificate sizes significantly improve the performance of cybersecurity-related tasks in individual network nodes. Such individual improvements are compounded as the number of interconnected network nodes increases, which promotes dramatic efficiencies in systems with a large number of networked components.

HELM Connect Replacement

As we continue to evolve as an organization, finding efficiencies and modernizing processes will position SAAM to keep on providing supply chain capacity, ensuring the communities we serve keep on progressing and moving forward with efficiencies and better technological tools in place.
The Helm Connect project will be at the forefront of this replacing our company’s operating systems and developing new business processes to streamline the transition. The implementation of this program offers a challenging opportunity for the Intern to participate in managing organizational change while optimizing and implementing new technologies.

Stony Plain Greenspace Plan

The Town of Stony Plain is seeking an intern to create a Greenspace Plan that will establish an inventory and identify existing uses of parks and greenspaces, and outline future uses, monitoring, and management practices as they relate to recreation, active transportation, utilities, and stormwater, among others. The Town currently has some of this information available, however, the missing piece is tying it all together to create a cohesive green network that is publicly accessible for all residents of and visitors to the community. Having a Greenspace Plan in place will provide the necessary framework to educate the community on the availability, purpose, and intended uses of existing greenspaces, while promoting and encouraging active management and monitoring to ensure ecological resources are valued and protected for the future.

Layer-two Blockchain-Based Solutions for Document Processing

DocuSafe Systems Inc. is a Canadian-based company that provides document processing services including document authentication and notarization. This project explores the use of a so-called layer 2 blockchain-based solutions in order to make the traditional document authentication less costly. A major benefit of a layer 2 blockchain solution over the use of the layer one blockchain is its speed and cost. This work is a continuation of our current work on using the layer one blockchain for document processing.

Playbookology Delivery Model Development

Playbookology is a new service provided by Open Door Media that focuses on strengthening small and medium-sized businesses’ operational and sales processes through various assessment tools and coaching opportunities. This new service will provide businesses with the tools and processes needed to help accelerate and sustain their growth.

AI4Buzz Extensions (Social Network Analysis, Hypothesis Validation)

The proposed project will extend the AI4Buzz (http://ai4buzz.ca/) platform in three ways: social-network analysis, real-rime streaming data analysis, and statistical hypothesis exploration and testing. The platform has been developed in collaboration with CECN through a previous MITACS grant, entitled “A Toolkit For Analyzing Online Conversations for Solutions Based Policy Development” led by Dr. Lefsrud.

Corrélation entre les propriétés rhéologiques et physiques d’un élastomère

La production de pièces techniques en caoutchouc met en oeuvre un procédé de transformation irréversible, la vulcanisation, qui permet d’attribuer à la pièce des propriétes mécaniques qui doivent respecter des valeurs de spécifications précises. Un non-respect des critères de qualité engendre un gaspillage, car en raison du caractère difficilement recyclable du caoutchouc, la matière des pièces produites et rebutées ne peut être réutilisée. Des tests de rhéométrie sont effectués sur le caoutchouc brut avant vulcanisation afin de le caractériser. Malheureusement, ces tests renseignent très peu sur les propriétés physiques que le même caoutchouc vulcanisé aura sous sa forme de produit final. En effet, les procédés et conditions de tests du caoutchouc brut et de pièces vulcanisées diffèrent grandement. L’établissement d’une loi de corrélation entre les tests de rhéométrie et les tests physiques permettrait de prédire les propriétés physiques d’un produit avant sa fabrication. Les sources de gaspillage de matière dues à une non-conformité des propriétés mécaniques du produit s’en verront alors réduites, résultant en des économies de temps et d’argent.

Accounting Process Restructuring

The intern will develop a bookkeeping/accounting procedural handbook for Solaris. This will require them to learn standard bookkeeping and accounting practices that small businesses engage in, critically think through these processes, and finally- refine and ensure that these processes are efficient. Solaris, the partner organization, will benefit by having a written procedural handbook that will assist the business in training and creating standardization within the accounting processes.

Barriers to employment access, participation, and progress among racialized communities in Windsor-Essex

This research project will be focused on addressing the relationship between the racialized groups and their employment opportunities. The results of the research will encourage a healthy discussion and provide a direction for addressing the needs of racialized groups. This research project will be conducted in collaboration with other community partners and will investigate the effects of discrimination and/or racism of immigrant employees. Some objectives include raising awareness of the existing employments barriers that immigrants in the Windsor-Essex region face. This research also aims to suggest ways to improve the integration of newcomers and immigrants and eliminate existing barriers.

Windsor Choral Festival: Planning a Choral Festival through the Opening Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Choral singing has significant social and health benefits (Carr, 2006; Davids & LaTour, 2022; Parkinson, 2020). Provincial guidelines have placed substantial restrictions on singing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The absence of singing has resulted in negative impact on the mental health and wellbeing of both choristers and choral directors (Evison, forthcoming; Youngblood et al., 2021). As the province begins to recover from various organizational, economic, and social hardships due to the pandemic, choirs are returning to their previous program of rehearsals and performances. The objective of this Mitacs project is to revive the Windsor Choral Festival, supporting local choral music learning, social activity, and performance.
The WCF serves approximately 350 singers annually and is completely free of charge for participants. The mandates are 1) provide ongoing vocal training and education with expert clinicians; 2) promote community building through collaborative singing; and 3) encourage the creation and performance of Canadian music. WCF 2022 (virtual) will include a Conductor’s Circle to discuss re-opening strategies; a public vocal workshop with three clinicians, Dr. Melissa Morgan (University of Regina), Dr. Tim Shantz (University of Alberta), and Prof. Karen Burke (York University); and a streamed concert featuring Windsor-Essex choirs. The engagement of these clinicians is in alignment with the WCF commitment to EDI. WCF 2023 (in person) will include a Conductor’s Circle; choral clinics for approximately 8 choirs with a clinician (Dr. Joel Tranquilla, Trinity Western University); a public workshop; and a live, in-person concert featuring participating choirs, including the premiere of a commissioned work.