Innovative Projects Realized

Usability Evaluation of PRIMS (Parkinson’s Remote Interactive Monitoring System)

The Parkinson’s Remote Interactive Monitoring System (PRIMS) developed by PragmaClin Research Inc. was designed to be an easy-to-use digital system which can accurately assess motor symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease remotely. The problem is that a well-designed usability study has not been performed to determine the PRIMS technology’s true ease of use. This Canadian study aims to assess the functionality, usability, and user experience aspects of the most recent version of PRIMS from the perspectives of patients and clinicians. Since the partnered institution developed this software, this project will benefit them by providing a means of testing the effectiveness of their product. The usage issues identified in this study should guide designers in creating a more effective commercial product.

Harvest Home garden, community garden, community connections

I will help with collecting and distributing tools, seedlings, and other various elements required to build Take-Home Garden Kits. I will assist in the planting, maintenance and harvesting of the community garden located in St.Vital. I will visit several community gardens throughout Winnipeg and meet with the people involved with their production. The final deliverable will be multiple summary reports that outline my experiences and observations surrounding the roles of community gardens in the city of Winnipeg. I will learn about the process of executing the Urban Agriculture Initiative in detail and note any opportunities to improve for the following years. These reports will include the information gathered from different communities and organizations about their accomplishments and strategies in growing community gardens. I will address common barriers that food banks and community gardens may face and their solutions. Ultimately, these reports will help Harvest Manitoba learn how they can further advance toward their ultimate goal of providing food for people who are food insecure and build on the Urban Agriculture Initiative as it continues to expand.

Startup TNT Innovation Internship

Startup TNT Operations Innovation Internship

The Startup TNT Operations Innovation Intern will focus on two main areas: improving and innovating organizational operations and developing a scaling strategy for entering new markets. The intern will develop a report on the Canadian startup ecosystem.
The intern will learn a great deal about angel investing and venture capital in the process. Further, the intern will get an overview of the Canadian startup ecosystem and gain knowledge about how such an ecosystem had been built and expanded. This project will directly apply the skills of operations performance management, market research, finance, and business strategy to a real-world situation.
The organization will benefit from process and operations improvement as well as from the research on the startup ecosystem conducted by the intern.

McGuire Aero Propulsion Solutions

McGuire Aero Propulsion Solutions (MAPS) is developing a transformative net-zero power generation technology: the micro-power-plant (MPP). The MPP addresses the global need for net-zero, distributed and dispatchable power generation. We are initially targeting industrial and commercial customers using 0.5 to 5 MW through a power-as-a-service offering.
The project team will apply their education while developing critical skills and gaining experience designing components for an advanced gas turbine microgenerator. In addition to the design activities, they will support analytical, manufacturing, and test activities. The activities will include developing the design process and toolchain necessary to fully leverage advanced manufacturing through the additive process and Industry 4.0 capabilities. The deliverables from this project will unlock new capabilities for mechanical engineering design.

Enhancing Student Competency and Engagement Through Microlearning: Effectively Scaffolding Skill Development

Learning technologies now exist that give students practice thinking critically and creatively, communicating and collaborating, and gaining an insight into their personal strengths and weaknesses. In the case of a technology called peerScholar, that exercise happens as students give feedback and then learn from feedback effectively. Giving effective constructive feedback and learning from the feedback applied to one’s own work are both very challenging tasks. If the feedback giver is not sensitive to the emotions their feedback may produce, the receiver will fight or flee the comments, rather than think about them and learn.
In the proposed work we will assess the impact of just-in-time microlearning to help students better understand the difficulty of the task, while also giving them clear guidance on how to perform the task effectively. One assessment will be based on the mining of archival data, the other will be based on qualitative research with a small group of informed students. We expect the addition of microlearning to an already effective process will enhance it further.

Spatial Cohesion of Capuchin Monkeys in a Forest Fragment

My proposed research examines how an endangered species of capuchin monkey, the blond capuchin (*Sapajus flavius*), spaces itself in a forest fragment (a small area of forest surrounded by human development). In particular, I will look how individuals make use of space, in a context of large group size, limited opportunities for dispersion, and predation risk (use of fragment edges). I will specifically look at how far away individuals are from each other, the overall shape of the group formation, and how food availability affects these factors. These investigations will inform the creation of protected areas for the blond capuchin and hopefully for other endangered primate species as well. Many primate species, the blond capuchin included, are under threat from deforestation and human encroachment. Therefore, it is vital that we understand how to best protect these species and the ecosystems they inhabit from these human-induced threats so that we do not lose them forever.

Advancing Youth Leadership in Indigenous-Led Natural Climate Solutions in the Missinaibi Forest

When Indigenous rights and leadership are prioritized, Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) like forest carbon management present an opportunity to advance reconciliation while combatting climate change and biodiversity loss. Wahkohtowin Development GP Inc. is taking steps to drive NCS in the Missinaibi Forest toward Indigenous-led climate action and social-ecological benefits for its owner First Nations (the Chapleau Cree FN, Missinabie Cree FN and Brunswick House FN). Through participatory engagement activities, this project will explore the question: What are youth and Elders’ values and priorities with respect to NCS? The aim is to support community informed NCS planning and strategic advocacy through a process that promotes youth empowerment and intergenerational knowledge-sharing. We will work with Wahkohtowin’s Guardians Initiative to uplift youth voices and build leadership capacity.

Statistical Learning Efficiency of Quantum Generative Machine Learning Models

In this project, the intern will work with an expert team from the company Zapata, to compare the performances of machine learning models on classical computers and on quantum models in terms of generalization to unseen data

SalesChoice Go-to-Market Strategy

Even a company like Apple cannot hope to survive and grow if its end customers do not fully understand what it is that Apple sells. That, in a nutshell, is the challenge SalesChoice, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Software as a Service (SaaS) company, faces today and why this project is critical to the company’s survival and growth. SalesChoice’s understanding among potential customers is limited and often misleading, which in turn has impacted its growth. This is the challenge that the Mitacs SalesChoice Go-to-Market project will address.
SalesChoice must effectively and accurately establish its value and differentiation among potential customers as a one-stop end-to-end growth platform for B2B organizations. Despite its broad and varied use cases the market still identifies the SalesChoice AI Insight Engine™ as a sales forecasting solution, which is its original feature and now constitutes a minor part of the overall solution. The scenario is made more critical by the inclusion of a feature like Mood Insights™ as it positions SalesChoice to sell to two different markets – B2B sales teams and large enterprise operational/Human Resource (HR) teams.
An innovative go-to-market execution is needed to position SalesChoice as a first-of-its-kind extensive AI/Machine Learning (ML)-driven growth platform that helps companies accelerate revenue through a 360-degree focus on hard sales data as well as employee wellness and customer relationships. This rebranding exercise hand in hand with market outreach and sales campaigns will be key to SalesChoice’s scale up in the market.

Building Innovation Capacity in Pedeatric Healthcare Practice through Design-Thinking: Converting the Public Sector Innovation Lab model into Action with KidsAbility

Public healthcare organizations continuously struggle to innovate and respond to complex societal challenges and the evolving needs of society. Given the inherent risk and uncertainty associated with translating new innovations into practice, public healthcare organizations face severe challenges on transferring new knowledge of innovations from research into practice. This has led to a “quality gap” between what we know medical care should deliver and what Canadian patients receive. In the wake of this constant evolution, new investment into building innovation capacity in Canada’s public sector healthcare organizations is warranted. In partnership with KidsAbility, the purpose of this project is to inform the design and deployment of a public sector innovation (PSI) lab to be operationalized by the partner organization- KidsAbility with the goal of improving the efficacy of which research-based healthcare innovations are translated into practice. Supporting KidsAbility in their mission to improve the quality of pediatric healthcare practice throughout Waterloo Region, this project will develop a Public Sector Innovation (PSI) Lab suited to the Canadian healthcare context. By documenting key innovation barriers and opportunities in healthcare practice, this project will identify key design factors that position KidsAbility to more effectively identify and implement research-based innovations into healthcare practice. Through the co-production of the PSI lab, this project provides a platform that KidsAbility can use the PSI lab model explore new opportunities to generate, prototype, and implement Canadian made innovations that lead to improved healthcare quality.

Assessing the role of over-wintering marine sites in supporting declining Surf Scoters (Melanitta perspicillata) in the Salish Sea.

Many populations of marine birds in the Salish Sea are declining rapidly, yet the source of these declines remains unclear. This project focuses on assessing changes relative to historical surveys in diet, body condition, and prey availability of Surf Scoters in several nearshore marine areas. This study employs methods of DNA metabarcoding to assess diet which is an emerging non-lethal alternative to conventional methods of diet analysis for marine birds. Results of this study will resolve important gaps in our understanding of this species. Most importantly, the findings will be instrumental in improving restoration and management of nearshore habitats for this at-risk species.

Loon Foundation

With financial assistance from MITACS and the Loon Foundation, two students from the Capilano University Motion Picture Arts Program (MOPA) will create a documentary film under the supervision of the Program Instructor Mary M. Frymire and the Foundation’s Executive Director, Dr Michael Jackson.

The film will follow the foundations remarkably successful efforts over the past twenty years to help conserve biodiversity and foster environmental awareness on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia. The documentary will focus primarily on their most ambitious project yet – a $30m aquatic research and performance arts facility called The Pender Harbour Ocean Discovery Station (or PODS).

The storyline will reflect on the origin, design and evolution of the unique PODS facility underpinned by the foundations’ philosophy ‘To ignite connections between people and the natural world and to foster and encourage responsible stewardship of our natural resources for future generations.’

PODS is endeavouring to create an exceptional meeting space where culture, science and the arts reach a confluence and where communication of ideas is founded on the First Nations principles of the power of storytelling. We will be inviting our partners and sponsors to join in the conversation and in particular to highlight First Nations involvement and collaboration and the educational potential of working with Capilano University.

Participation in this project will provide interns the opportunity to apply theory, creative concepts, tools, technical and creative skills in documentary filmmaking, learned throughout their Bachelor of Motion Picture Arts degree.