Innovative Projects Realized

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

31620 Completed Projects

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9419
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Projects by Category

Deep Reinforcement Learning in the Search for New Antibacterials

Discovery and development of new antibiotics is becoming increasingly challenging, and in fact declining in the private sector because antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections are constantly evolving. One way to increase the antibiotic discovery rate is by taking advantage of the strides in Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based deep learning models to find new antibiotics that kill bacteria, as well as being stable and non-toxic to humans. We postulate that growth inhibition of Escherichia coli, and a wide spectrum of pathogens can be achieved with the identification of AI-derived compounds. To examine this, we will use cross-pillar methods to: (1) Discover new antibacterial compounds and test for growth inhibition in E. coli and drug-resistant pathogens, as well as (2) Identify essential bacterial gene targets and combinations of synergistic growth-inhibiting AI-derived molecules. Together, the AI driven approach will uncover new compounds with broad-spectrum activity against pathogens, and reveal their essential target pathways for drug development and/or multi-target therapies.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Mohan Babu

Student:

Partner:

99andBeyond Inc.

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Regina

Program:

Accelerate

Marketing Internship at OPA Technologies Introducing new sustainable ways of project management through a Clean AI Technology solution

This BSI project would consist of working alongside OPA Technologies, a Canadian based clean technology company that offer a sustsainable innovative solution to help cities better plan, coordinate and communicate road closures and traffic detours. As the Canadian company is looking to become more sustainable and expand it market share, I will be working with them to put into place a marketing strategy that will help them with their expansion into the North American Industry and stay up to date with trend such as the sustainability one. this will benefit the company as it will help with their growth and will help them rebrand themselves as a green solution that offers many sustainability benefits.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Sharlene He

Student:

Partner:

OPA Technologies

Discipline:

Business

Sector:

Information and cultural industries

University:

Concordia University

Program:

Business Strategy Internship

Delphi – Drone Pilot UX

Delphi Technology has a goal of allowing for the safe piloting of up to five drones in BVLOS applications in order to increase the efficiency of transportation and logistics for clients. Additionally, the UI needs to be expanded in order to accommodate multiple drones, and to provide a simulated 3D environment for better training and control.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Ralph Dueck

Student:

Partner:

Illumia Labs INC.

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Information and Communications Technology

University:

Red River College Polytechnic

Program:

Business Strategy Internship

Critical minerals in the Antigonish Highlands, Nova Scotia

Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) recently developed a list of critical minerals that includes 31 minerals (chemical elements) deemed critical for Canada’s transition to greener energy. Critical elements are commodities that are geopolitically controlled, in low supply, or difficult to separate from other elements. Secure supplies of critical elements are essential for renewable energy and clean technology applications (e.g., batteries, permanent magnets, solar panels, and wind turbines). Of the 31 critical elements listed by Natural Resources Canada, magmatic rock-forming processes can concentrate many of them (e.g., Nb, Ta, Ti, Zn, rare earth elements or REE). Plutonic rocks in the West Barneys River area, Nova Scotia have high REE concentrations. Despite this recognition, the metal source(s) have not been the focus of an academic research. The objectives are to investigate the mineralogy, age, origin, and economic potential of the plutonic rocks to develop a genetic model for REE formation.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Donnelly Archibald

Student:

Partner:

Solterra Georesources

Discipline:

Earth science

Sector:

Mining

University:

St. Francis Xavier University

Program:

Accelerate

Improvement of PECOD sensor manufacturing process to increase sensor slides’ lifetime and reliability

Mantech of Guelph and Nano and Micro Systems Lab at University of Waterloo have forged a valuable partnership to develop versatile water sensors to monitor drinking water quality and detect contamination level in waste waters of local and national sewerage networks. This project has trained many highly qualified personnel for Canadian health and high tech industries, and developed ground breaking nano-bio technologies that have made Canada and Mantech ahead of its world competitors.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Mustafa Yavuz

Student:

Partner:

Mantech

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Manufacturing; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Waterloo

Program:

Business Strategy Internship

Investigating Cannflavins A and B as Inhibitors of TrkB Signaling for Treatment of Glioblastoma Multiforme

Glioblastoma is the most common type of adult brain cancer. Glioblastoma tumors are very aggressive because these cells can rapidly invade deep into healthy tissue, which makes them particularly difficult to attack with current treatment options including surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. Therefore, better pharmaceutical strategies to neutralize glioblastoma cells without damaging surrounding healthy cells is critically needed needed.
Cells communicate with one another using biochemical signaling pathways, through which they exchange information that stimulate cellular changes like proliferation and migration. This project focuses on a growth factor receptor called TrkB that promotes the activity of signals important for cell survival, proliferation, and migration. Importantly, defect in the activity of TrkB has been connected with glioblastoma, and blocking this signal is considered a possible solution to limit these cancer cells. While screening for new modulators of TrkB in neurons, we found that cannflavins—a class of non-cannabinoid molecules that accumulates specifically in the cannabis plant—could prevent TrkB activation. The objective of this Mitacs Accelerate application by the Lalonde lab and Canurta is to complete a systematic preclinical characterization of cannflavins as candidate therapeutic agents against GBM cells.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Jasmin Lalonde

Student:

Partner:

Canurta Inc

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

University of Guelph

Program:

Accelerate

Optimisation de la rentabilité économique des échangeurs de chaleur géothermiques

En 2011, les professeurs Bernier, Kummert, Marcotte et Pasquier de l’École Polytechnique de Montréal ont entrepris le développement d’un logiciel de simulation en géothermie (GHE_Sim). Ce logiciel utilise une approche spectrale afin d’accélérer le calcul de la superposition temporelle et une technique novatrice pour tenir compte adéquatement de l’interaction thermique entre les puits d’un même champ géothermique. L’objectif général de ce stage est valider les résultats du couplage du logiciel GHE_Sim avec un nouvel algorithme d’optimisation et de collecter des bases de données financières de l’ensembles des équipements qui seront nécessaire au fonctionnement de l’algorithme d’optimisation. Ce nouveau logiciel se basera sur des données financières afin d’optimiser les systèmes géothermiques. Ce stage en entreprise permettra de mieux définir les paramètres financiers des systèmes géothermiques fournissant ainsi aux utilisateurs du logiciel d’optimsation des coûts reflétant les coûts actuels du marché. Géo-Énergie inc. souhaite utiliser à moyen terme l’outil développé par le stagiaire afin d’améliorer la qualité des services offerts à ses clients. La participation de Géo-Énergie inc. à ce projet permettra à cette dernière d’enrichir le développement d’un outil de calcul novateur.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Philippe PASQUIER

Student:

Partner:

Geo-energie inc

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Energy and Utilities; Information and Communications Technology

University:

École Polytechnique de Montréal

Program:

Accelerate

Otolith microchemistry-based identification of migration life history variation in Pacific Herring (Clupea pallasii) in the Salish Sea.

The proposed work aims to use the chemical composition of otoliths (ear bones) to differentiate adult migratory and resident Pacific Herring (Clupea pallasii) in the Canadian Salish Sea. The ability to tell the difference between residents and migrants will allow us to investigate what controls resident summer herring abundance in the Strait of Georgia and to measure and manage the impacts of fisheries on resident herring. Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) diet data from 2017-2020 suggests resident herring are a very important food source and that their abundance may influence growth and survival of Chinook Salmon and their predators, southern resident killer whales (Orcinus orca), whose population is currently in decline. The benefit to the partner organization is a broader understanding of how resident herring dynamics may influence the salmon survival in the Salish Sea.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Francis Juanes

Student:

Partner:

Pacific Salmon Foundation

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Agriculture; Other services (except public administration); Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Victoria

Program:

Accelerate

Development of innovative precast concrete node for wood construction

Rapid of urban population and limited raw material and energy resources increase the demand for more sustainable structures. An initiative was taken by many governments, including Canada, to introduce more timber structures to the public buildings. This initiative can save a considerable amount of energy required to produce common construction materials such as concrete and structural steel. Connections between the different timber members (e.g., beams and columns) are critical parts of the timber structure. Although recently developed steel connections proved their structural efficiency and ease of assembly, they lack fire resistance are not rigid enough for all uses. To address this issue, Fast + Epp engineering firm introduced the concept of precast concrete nodal joints instead of conventional steel ones. This type of connection is expected to provide adequate fire resistance and to provide some rigidity and deformation capacity. However, before such connections can be used in industry the structural behaviour needs to be extensively studied using experimental and numerical investigations. For this purpose, an intern from UBC will collaborate with Fast + Epp to perform the required experimental and numerical studies to verify the proposed concrete nodes’ adequacy and introduce detailed design provisions for such connections.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Lisa Tobber

Student:

Partner:

Fast + Epp Structural Engineers Inc.

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Construction and infrastructure; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

The University of British Columbia - Okanagan

Program:

Accelerate

Reusable carboxylic acid solvents

The proposal focuses on using safe, non-toxic fatty acids as bio-derived and recyclable solvents for extraction of biomass polymers/waste plastics (e.g. wood chips, woody or agricultural biomass, algae, oil bottles). We will employ a new approach using fatty acids that are responsive to pH changes such that their properties can be switched from hydrophobic to hydrophilic. We will also test fatty acids as switchable solvents for making lignin particles dispersed in water and also for improving the dispersibility of cellulose nanocrystals in organic solvents. This approach could provide numerous potential applications,
including coatings, adhesives, fillers, binders, etc. BC Research Inc., our partner organization, has a keen interest in discovering and exploiting greener processes to that eliminate the use of flammable solvents and are less energy intensive.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Michael Cunningham

Student:

Partner:

BC Research Inc.

Discipline:

Physics

Sector:

Environmental Science and Technology; Clean Technology; Sustainability & the Environment

University:

Queen's University

Program:

Accelerate

Estimating environmental performance of dehydrated poultry manure production using a Life Cycle Assessment approach

The sourcing and production of crop nutrient product used in agriculture have an environmental impact. To move toward a sustainable food system, it will be important to have a clear understanding of the environmental impacts associated with crop nutrient product. Dehydrated poultry manure is an increasingly popular crop nutrient product used within organic agriculture. Although it recycles raw poultry manure that may otherwise be landfilled, there is not clear understanding of its environmental impacts. The environmental evaluation of sourcing and processing dehydrated poultry manure through a life cycle assessment will assist both Envirem Organics Inc, and Acti-Sol in reaching environmental goals by identifying operational inefficiencies, areas of improvement, and developing sustainability strategies or environmental labeling.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Andrew Hammermeister;Goretty Dias

Student:

Partner:

Envirem Organics Inc.;Acti-Sol Inc.

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Dalhousie University

Program:

Accelerate

Object Detection and Terrain Mapping in Industrial Scenes

Computer Vision techniques and algorithms, especially those involving deep neural networks, are now predominant in robotics and autonomous driving. These algorithms have found immense success in urban scenes for autonomous driving, and visualize 3D maps of cities. However, like most deep learning solutions, they do not generalize well over a large varieties of inputs. Thus, while urban scenes are well represented in computer vision research, less common scenes, such as construction sites, mines, quarries, and farms remain largely unexplored. Algorithms in obstacle detection to moving
vehicles in hazardous worksites can prevent accidents which often cause human injury and damage to properties. Additionally, building maps of such worksites can present a whole host of opportunities in worksite surveillance, safety, and autonomous driving in such landscapes. Lastly, industrial worksites tend to be in a constant state of flux, unlike many urban environments. This gives us an opportunity to develop algorithms capable of withstanding such changes, thereby contributing valuable research to the field. This project is bifurcated into two parts, one part that focuses on 3D automated
object detection and avoidance on industrial worksites, and the other part on building a 3D map of the worksite for field inspection purposes.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Nilanjan Ray

Student:

Partner:

Correct-AI Inc.

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

University of Alberta

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.