Innovative Projects Realized

An immersive VR-BCI-robotic interface for visuomotor rehabilitation augmentation.

Neurological conditions such as stroke are a major cause of disability in Canada, estimated to affect 1.5 million Canadians. Canadians living with neurological conditions face many ongoing challenges with reduced functioning and activity limitations. According to the World Health Organization, one in six people worldwide have a stroke. Two out of three survive, but up to 85% suffer from paralysis and only 5% fully restore. At the same time, there are almost no tools to help those who are largely paralysed because most of the existing rehabilitation training equipment requires an ability to control the affected limb to a certain extent.

To help regain motion in those who initially have limited limb control, VIBRAINT Inc. (Ontario, Canada) have developed a cutting-edge rehabilitation robotic device incorporating a non-invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) and virtual reality. BCI can help those who are largely paralyzed, and provides personalized and even at-home rehabilitation. The technology is available early – when rehabilitation is most effective. The VIBRAINT RehUp system was successfully piloted and is now being prepared for regulatory approval and industrial manufacturing.

Development of a research process for the creation of mental health self-care resources

Mental health self-care journals provide a resource for people to build a variety of mental health skills, like resilience and self-compassion, and work through mental health challenges, like self-criticism. Despite the popularity of these resources, few, if any, provide any scientific basis for their effectiveness. The goal of this proposal is to (1) develop a research process for creating mental health self-care resources that is informed by and made for the intended users (e.g., postpartum women); and (2) to test the effectiveness of a postpartum journal created through this research process for improving health and wellbeing. Completion of this project will yield a process for creating further evidence-based mental health self-care resources and a journal for postpartum women with evidence demonstrating its preliminary effectiveness.

Dr. Kathleen Irwin

The three Film students will research how to capture and package live performance in video format, how to make it appealing to a range of audiences and how to disseminate it cost effectively in the digital environment. The Business student will develop a sustainable business plan and marketing strategy for On Cue as it navigates between real and virtual platforms, optimizes its marketing capabilities, and diversifies its revenue streams.

Development and evaluation of a self-care mental health mobile app

Self-help and self-care products are becoming ever more popular. However, they are usually distributed through print media, hence, limiting their intended reach. By creating a self-care, mental-health app, we intend to increase the reach of a previously internally tested Self-Love journal developed by Switch Research Inc. The app will be developed with the help of intended app users who will test the app during development and provide their feedback about their app use experience and usability. By including intended app users in the app development process, we hope to create a product that is not only evidence-based, but also reflects the needs of its intended user. After the app is developed, we will evaluate the app to see if it has the same effect as the Self-Love journal that has previously been shown to increase self-kindness, self-acceptance, and mindfulness. Hence, by the end of the project, Switch Research Inc will have a self-care, mental-health app that reflects the needs of their intended users as well as preliminary data about the users’ app engagement and the impact of the app on users’ self-kindness, self-acceptance, and mindfulness.

Nutritional Prenatal Soft-gel Development

The requirement for dissolution testing (both routine sample and method development) is increasing for all of the current and future programs at Accucaps and is a regulatory requirement for most oral pharmaceutical products. The need for access to capacity and development capabilities for dissolution must reach beyond Accucaps. For these reasons, a collaboration with Dr Shawn Wettig (University of Waterloo) to utilize his dissolution capacity and knowledge for non-GMP “piece-meal” and development activities is being pursued. The purpose of the proposed research is to develop robust dissolution testing methods for soft gelatin capsule dosage forms, which provide the high quality data necessary for in vitro – in vivo correlation with bioavailability data. This work will initially begin with the dissolution analysis of a prenatal vitamin supplement under development by Accucaps

Menya : Apprentissage de fonctions heuristiques pour la planification automatique

Menya Solutions est la division spécialisée en intelligence artificielle (IA) de la compagnie Levio, une entreprise de transformation numérique en pleine croissance basée à Québec et comptant maintenant plus de 1600 conseillers. Menya développe des logiciels pour l’aide à la décision, la valorisation des données, le contrôle automatisé et la vision robotique pour ses différents clients. Menya collabore présentement avec MDA et l’Agence spatiale canadienne pour répondre aux défis de l’automatisation et du soutien à la décision pour les systèmes d’exploration spatiale à venir.
Menya développe dans le contexte de ces projets des algorithmes de planification automatique pour doter des robots (ou agents logiciels) de la capacité à se projeter dans le futur afin de déterminer quelles décisions leur permettront d’atteindre leurs objectifs. Ces algorithmes nécessitent des fonctions dites heuristiques pour orienter et accélérer la recherche dans le graphe d’actions futures susceptibles d’être exécutées par l’agent. Ces fonctions heuristiques sont habituellement spécifiées manuellement par un expert du domaine.
Dans les dernières années, la communauté scientifique a investi beaucoup d’efforts dans l’exploration d’approches combinant la planification automatique et l’apprentissage automatique.

Increasing number of Black-led technology Startups in Prairies Canada

Black Business Ventures Association (BBVA) is a non-profit technology accelerator with a mandate to increase the participation of Black-led technology startups in Canada. In November 2021, BBVA launched the first Black-focused accelerator program in Western Canada. In order to implement its programs and connect with Black communities across the Prairies Region, BBVA plans to establish a strong digital presence across social media platforms and develop relationships with social and cultural organizations within the Black community. BBVA believes Black-led startups and tech-enabled businesses in Canada have the potential to present massive market impact and opportunities in an industry where only 2.6 percent of the tech workforce in Canada are Black (Brookfield Institute: 2019). In addition, there has been no research conducted to study the reasons for the persistently lower percentage of Canadian startups with a Black founder or co-founder or the percentage of Black students enrolled in STEM programs in post secondary institutions. BBVA will work with the recently launched Black Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub and the Experiential Learning in Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship (ELITE) Program for Black Youth to start gathering data.

BOLD Growth Inc. ERP Internship

The intern will assist the company in the successful implementation and tweaking of a new ERP system. These duties will include learning the company’s operational processes, auditing inventory counts, updating SOPs to work with the new automated processes, integrating supply chains, and aligning orders to inventory. The expected benefit is that the company will have a well-functioning ERP and staff that are trained and equipped to use it.

Exploration of a Cloud Kitchen Model for an Existing Quick Service Establishment

Cloud Kitchens are new avenue for revenue generation and option for many restaurants. Restaurants have a need to better educate themselves on the cloud kitchen business model and then decide whether to pursue the opportunity. This project will focus on exploring the industry of cloud kitchens and various business models of these kitchens to support entrepreneurs.

Racism in Canadian Workplaces and the Role of Labour Unions in Advancing Equity and Anti-Racism

Racial discrimination remains a crucial issue in the Canadian labour market and in Canadian workplaces, and labour unions are a crucial actor in the fight for racial and economic justice. However, the continued discrimination experienced by racialized workers in Canada––which has only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic––presents a crucial and ongoing challenge for labour unions. As a joint partnership between the Global Labour Research Centre and Unifor (one of Canada’s largest unions), this project examines how racism manifests in today’s service-sector workplaces, and identifies how labour unions can effectively advance anti-racism in support of Black, Indigenous, and racialized workers. Through a systematic review of academic, professional, and grey literature, this project will generate key themes, common challenges, and best practices from past and present labour union experiences with cultivating anti-racism in the workplace and in the wider community.

Multisensor Integration for UAV Indoor Navigation and Mapping

Unmanned aerial vehicle’s (UAV) indoor navigation is becoming increasingly essential for applications such as medical care, search and rescue operations, and industrial management and inspections. Indoor UAV navigation is complex and challenging due to the high dynamic scene, limited space, and, more importantly, the unavailability of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) signals. Recently, two state-of-the-art sensors, namely, event cameras and solid-state LiDAR, have shown great potential for indoor navigation due to their compact size, relatively lower weight and power consumption, and cost. In this project, we leverage the complementary advantages of these two sensors to provide robust indoor navigation and mapping. SOTI is initially investing $20 million (USD) to fund this project and started collaborations with several universities. This project will help the SOTI extend its expertise in multisensor integration for navigation and thus more quickly achieve the objectives of its overall project.

Innovative marketing solutions for selling high-tech products to average customers

Delphis Energy Innovations Inc. (Delphisin) is a locally-owned technology development company that aims to provide solutions based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) algorithms addressing various challenges in Newfoundland and Labrador and around the globe. This project will explore ways to development business development challenges for this new technology.