Innovative Projects Realized

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

31620 Completed Projects

2978
AB
5221
BC
856
MB
696
NL
899
SK
9419
ON
9858
QC
98
PE
619
NB
1192
NS

Projects by Category

Performance Based Design of Viscoelastic Coupling Dampers in Mass Timber Buildings

Viscoelastic Coupling Dampers (VCDs) have been developed over the past 15 years at the University of Toronto and by Kinetica for use in multi-storey buildings constructed with conventional construction techniques (steel and concrete). It has been shown the VCDs improve the wind and seismic performance of these buildings, leading to safer, higher performing and more resilient structures.
There has been a boom of mass timber construction due to the inherent sustainability, modularity and speed of construction using mass timber. Timber buildings are inherently flexible making them susceptible to wind and seismic vibrations. VCD connection details and lateral load resisting systems with VCDs have been developed for mass timber structures. This research project will assess the efficiency of VCDs within three types of mass timber lateral load resisting systems, assess connection details and develop Performance-Based Design Techniques for mass timber structures with VCDs.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Brent Sleep

Student:

Partner:

Kinetica Risk

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Construction; Manufacturing and Construction; Other

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Accelerate

Évaluation des conditions de traitement par ultrasons pour l’exfoliation à l’oxyde de graphène

Les membranes d’oxyde de graphène sont de nouveaux matériaux utilisés dans les filtrations de gaz et de liquides comme alternative aux procédés conventionnels de séparation. Le matériau composite confère aux membranes des caractéristiques sur mesure telles que la structure nanoporeuse, la stabilité chimique, la sélectivité et la résistance mécanique. Le traitement par ultrasons peut être utilisé pour préparer les films et entraîner des modifications de leurs propriétés mécaniques. Le projet vise à évaluer les conditions ultrasonores lors de la préparation de membranes d’oxyde de graphène, y compris l’utilisation d’ultrasons pulsés, et à caractériser les films composites. Les thèmes de recherche incluent la technologie d’intensification des procédés, l’ingénierie des matériaux et les procédés de séparation. Les résultats auront un impact sur le développement des domaines scientifiques et industriels, réduiront l’impact des processus et apporteront des avantages environnementaux.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Daria Camilla Boffito

Student:

Partner:

Universidade Federal de Uberlândia

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Clean Technology; Nanotechnology; Manufacturing and Construction

University:

Polytechnique Montréal

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Promoting OMICS for the non-invasive screening for subclinical arterial disease in heart transplant patients

Heart transplantation is the definitive therapy for patients with end-stage heart failure. Each year, over 5000 heart transplant procedures are performed worldwide. One of the main limitations to the long-term survival of heart transplant recipients is the diffuse narrowing of the coronary arteries, called cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV, also known as transplant coronary artery disease). The current routine surveillance methods of CAV are invasive and costly. Our goal is to investigate potential protein biomarkers as a non-invasive screening tool for detecting CAV early after heart transplantation. This clinical research project will validate previously identified protein biomarkers associated with CAV. Arterial phenotyping will be performed on heart transplant patients to assess for the presence of arterial thickening (indicating early CAV). We will subsequently evaluate the correlation of arterial phenotyping metrics with protein biomarkers collected from patients. Developing non-invasive, biomarker-based detection methods for CAV can significantly reduce costs and risk to heart transplant patients and allow for earlier treatment and better outcomes.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Gavin Oudit

Student:

Partner:

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Education

University:

University of Alberta

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Microbial production of hyaluronic acid using oat hulls

Hyaluronic acid is a natural substance that is found in the epithelial, connective, and neural tissues in the human body and rooster comb tissues. It provides lubrication and acts as a cushion in the joints for different tissues of the human body. Currently, hyaluronic acid is widely used in pharmaceutical, cosmetics, and medical applications. In general, hyaluronic acid was extracted from rooster combs; however, owing to the limited animal tissues, high production costs involved in recovery and purification of hyaluronic acid, and risks of viral contamination, alternative feedstock for the production of hyaluronic is in demand. Thus, the main objective of this proposal is to produce hyaluronic acid as a value-added product by utilizing oat hulls as a potential renewable feedstock generated from oats (cereal industry). Hyaluronic acid will be produced via microbial fermentation and further extracted for detailed characterization to identify the proper area of application.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Ajay K Dalai

Student:

Partner:

Hey Hey Holdings Inc.;Spectrum Technologies

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Green/Alternative Energy; Health and Related Sciences & Technology; Biotechnology

University:

University of Saskatchewan

Program:

Accelerate

Conductance detectors using microfabricated electrodes

Universal NanoSensor Technologies (UNS-Tech) develops and commercializes microfabricated conductivity detectors. In this MITACS cluster, UNS-Tech will partner withProf. Young-June Kim to test UNS-Tech’s patented silicon microchip conductance detectors and to explore new detector architectures based on micro- and nano-patterned thin metal films. The results will be analyzed and the findings will be published in scientific journals. Interns participating in this cluster will benefit from this internship by gaining tremendous knowledge of electronics-based detectors. Working in a start-up environment will provide
interns with an invaluable experience and enhance their training as highly qualified personnel as they prepare to enter the Canadian work force. UNS-Tech – an Ontario-based start-up – will benefit by demonstrating a proof-of-principle application of its silicon-based detector technology and exploring new phenomena in metal film-based architectures for potential application. Achieving successful proof-of-principle tests in a university setting and publishing the results would be critical benchmarks for UNS-Tech before moving onto product. Developmenotf beta phase productsand, thereafters, successful commercialization will require employing more Ontarians and will, in turn, benefit both Ontario and Canada. The supervisor will benefit by receiving funding that wiil enable him to mentor students and publish papers.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Young-June Kim

Student:

Partner:

Universal NanoSensor Technologies Inc (Toronto, ON)

Discipline:

Physics

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Accelerate

Comprehensive evaluation of surface and adsorption properties of chitosan hydrogels with modified nanocellulose towards heavy metal removal in water

The presence of metal ions in contaminated water from industrial processes present a huge challenge that has led to great concern regarding their effects on human health. Conventional treatment processes are not adequate for their removal, so new technologies need to be investigated. The use of three-dimensional porous system, such as hydrogels, is an alternative for removing these contaminants. In addition, the presence of nanostructures to induce a chelating effect on metallic contaminants can improve their removal. Thus, chitosan hydrogel containing modified nanocellulose structures will be developed, and its adsorption properties towards metallic ions’ removal will be investigated. We intend to study the kinetics and conditions that modulate the adsorption process, aiming to understand its correlation with surface properties to optimize and enable their use in larger scales for an efficient alternative to remove these contaminants from water.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Sushanta Mitra

Student:

Partner:

Universidade Federal do ABC

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Education

University:

University of Waterloo

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Articulation de la fonction de socialisation d’aînés à celles d’enseignants à la Maison des Grands-Parents de Villeray en contexte de pandémie

Ce projet vise à accompagner un organisme communautaire, la Maison des Grands-Parents de Villeray, dans une démarche de réflexion quant à la façon dont les aînés bénévoles participant aux activités d’aide aux devoirs conçoivent leur fonction de socialisation et l’articulation de cette fonction à celle de l’enseignant. Les changements sociaux vécus durant la pandémie suscitent une redéfinition de leur rôle au plan de la socialisation de l’enfant. Par le biais d’une recherche-action-formation, nous accompagnerons l’organisme dans cette réflexion.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dany Boulanger;Yves Couturier;Dominique Gagnon;Charlette Ménard;François Larose

Student:

Partner:

La Maison des Grands-Parents de Villeray

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology

University:

Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue

Program:

Accelerate

Embodied Carbon Study of New Residential Buildings in Southern Ontario

The built environment accounts for over one-third of annual global carbon emissions, with approximately one-quarter resulting from ‘embodied carbon’ that is released during the raw material manufacturing, transportation, construction and end of life phases of built assets. Given the continued growth in new build construction and the critical need to limit climate change, further analysis is required to identify strategies that can reduce embodied carbon emissions in the built environment. In partnership with Podium Developments, this research project will assess the key drivers of embodied carbon in new multi-unit residential buildings in southern Ontario. It will then identify a set of alternative building design strategies, and the extent to which these could reduce embodied carbon in the selected projects.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Mark Gorgolewski

Student:

Partner:

Podium Developments

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Construction and infrastructure

University:

Toronto Metropolitan University

Program:

Accelerate

Universal Minerals Database for identification of minerals to be used for exploration, industry, and academia: Time-gated Raman spectral libraries for fluorescent minerals

Raman spectroscopy is used for analysis of minerals for two main reasons: 1) instrumentation sensitivity, and 2) “libraries” of spectra used as reference for a range of minerals. However, even the industry-best Raman libraries have <3000 out of the>5000 approved mineral species, partially due to the fluorescence that obscures Raman measurements. Fluorescence and Raman effects have different lifetimes which can be used to shutter the fluorescence, and pass the photons emitted by the Raman effect to a detector. Time-gated Raman spectroscopy will be used to build a library of minerals that have been excluded from existing libraries. This application will be used to examine minerals related to potash, lithium, and uranium exploration and environmental management. These emerging Raman libraries will also be made available for the agriculture and high-tech materials sectors. This project will establish the standard for Time-gated Raman spectroscopic libraries with the only high-throughput Time-Gated Raman spectrometer in Canada. Prairie Tide Diversifies and the Saskatchewan Structural Sciences Centre will cooperatively offer analytical service under ISO 17025 to clients.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Yuanming Pan

Student:

Partner:

Prairie Tide

Discipline:

Earth science

Sector:

Agriculture

University:

University of Saskatchewan

Program:

Accelerate

ML/DL for Action Detection in Movies for Haptic Effects Generation

Haptic signals are sent to movie or home theater motorized seats in order to create an immersive environment to the viewer by applying movements and vibration to the seat. The haptic signals are currently created using a tedious manual design process. These signals need to be matched and synchronized to specific actions in the movie, such as gunshots or car crashes for instance. This project consists in developing machine learning models to automatically detect the appropriate actions in movies that need to be enhanced with haptic effects. The models will identify the events in the movie and provide their exact timing. This information will be used by the company to synthesize automatically the right haptic effect for each action detected.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Ioannis Mitliagkas

Student:

Partner:

D-BOX Technologies Inc.

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Artificial Intelligence

University:

Université de Montréal

Program:

Accelerate

Apprentissage par renforcement pour la planification de la production dans le réseau électrique québécois de 2035

À Hydro-Québec, le « Plan de production » est la stratégie de gestion du parc de centrales mise en place afin de répondre à la demande en électricité à court terme (horizon de 30 jours) et à très court terme (horizon de 24 heures). L’objectif du projet est d’optimiser la prise de décision sur les horizons très court terme et court terme sur le réseau de transport québécois de 2035. Différents scénarios doivent être étudiés, dans un contexte où les ressources de production sont majoritairement hydroélectriques, mais où on doit aussi prendre en compte l’intégration d’autres technologies telles que les éoliennes, les batteries à grande capacité et l’hydrogène vert. Plus spécifiquement, le stage proposé vise à insérer une couche d’optimisation basée sur l’apprentissage par renforcement (profond) afin d’améliorer cette prise de décision et la qualité globale des solutions trouvées tout en réduisant le temps de calcul.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Ioannis Mitliagkas

Student:

Partner:

Hydro-Quebec

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Utilities

University:

Université de Montréal

Program:

Accelerate

Wireless Connectivity in the Coastal Incident Management System

Marine emergency incidents pose major environmental risks that are detrimental to the ocean ecosystem and present significant dangers to both people and property. Current response options are very limited and the existing tools to deal with nearshore environmental spills are neither timely nor efficient. SHIFT Environmental is developing innovative solutions as part of a Coastal Incident Management System (CIMS) to enable local communities such as coastal First Nations to respond quickly and to carry out search and rescue operations. In the CIMS system, there are three main offshore field elements: an unmanned surface vessel (USV), an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and the SHIFT mobile control module. The proposed MITACS project focuses on the wireless connectivity of the three offshore field modules that are critical to the operation of CIMS. The unique air and ocean environment where both the transmitters and receivers are non-stationary and subject to impacts from waves and weather, the lack of pre-existing infrastructures, and the stringent power and payload restrictions make the communications challenging. The network topology, the wireless protocols, the choice of commercial off-the-shelf wireless solutions, the integration of the communications module to the field modular systems will be designed, analyzed, implemented and

View Full Project Description
Faculty Supervisor:

Xiaodai Dong

Student:

Partner:

Shift Coastal Technologies

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Information and Communications Technology; Environmental Science and Technology; Technology

University:

University of Victoria

Program:

Accelerate

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Mitacs — Return on Innovation

Mitacs is funded by the Government of Canada, the Government of Alberta, the Government of British Columbia, Research Manitoba, the Government of New Brunswick, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Government of Nova Scotia, the Government of Ontario, Innovation PEI, the Government of Quebec, the Government of Saskatchewan, and the Government of Yukon.