Innovative Projects Realized

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

29670 Completed Projects

2811
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4990
BC
801
MB
663
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825
SK
8841
ON
9197
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95
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568
NB
1088
NS

Projects by Category

Are playgrounds really for everyone? Disabled children’s experiences at playgrounds designed for inclusion

negative attitudes toward disability. To address the exclusion that disabled children and their families often experience on playgrounds, inclusive playground initiatives have become increasingly common, promising accessibility, fun, and belonging for kids and families. Despite the advancement in inclusive playground design, there is recent research evidence to suggest that disabled children and their families continue to face mistreatment and exclusion at playgrounds. A deeper understanding of what makes an inclusive playground ‘inclusive’ (or not) from disabled children’s perspectives is necessary to (re)create and optimize these experiences for children across Alberta and Canada.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Shanon Phelan

Student:

Partner:

Edmonton Sport Council

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Other services (except public administration)

University:

University of Alberta

Program:

Accelerate

Negotiating Resource Production, Conservation and Recreation Values in Canadian Wild Food Forest Habitats

Commercial sourcing of wild foods, such as chanterelle mushrooms or wild blueberries, often requires accessing forests with competing uses. They might also be timberlands for conventional forestry, or parks for recreation or conservation. The conflicts that result illustrate how nature and natural resources are valued in different ways in different worlds: by forest managers or forest users and by wild food consumers, concerned about conservation, or wild food harvesters, concerned about production. Focusing on a case study of resource conflict in a group of forests important to the wild mushroom trade, this project uses interviews and participant-observation to document how the people involved negotiate their diverse understandings of forest values (or fail to). It then contextualizes this example in an analysis of similar conflcts elsewhere in North America. The final result is a set of guidelines for negotating divergent forest interests, of use in enhancing the social, environmental and economic value of wild products in particular and of forests and forest products in general.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Shiho Satsuka

Student:

Partner:

Forbes Wild Foods

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Accelerate

Biosurfactants production by fermentation

The proposed project is a collaboration between InnuScience and researchers in the Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Department at Western University. InnuScience uses biotechnology to replace harmful chemicals, eliminate waste, and deliver sustainable cleaning solutions for the cleaning industry. This research collaboration will experimentally optimize the production of biosurfactants by microorganisms via fermentation pathways, focusing on cleaning applications. These molecules are naturally occurring and consist of a polar group and a non-polar tail, hence acting as biosurfactants. They might be a green replacement for petrochemicals as they can be produced from renewable resources, are easily biodegradable, and exhibit low eco-toxicity. This project aims to identify promising combinations of fermentation conditions, purification methods, and product stabilization for applications relevant to InnuScience, a leader in the field of biotechnology for the cleaning industry.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dominic Pjontek;Lars Rehmann

Student:

Partner:

InnuScience

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

The University of Western Ontario

Program:

Accelerate

Psilocybin as a potential treatment for social behavior (SB) disorders

Impaired empathy and social skills lead to severe social consequences and influence the development and treatment of several psychiatric disorders. Furthermore, empathy has been shown to play a crucial role in moral and prosocial behavior. Recently, a revamped interest for psychedelic compounds has invested the medical research community. For instance, psilocybin is a psychedelic compound which has been demonstrated to safely relieve depression in treatment-resistant depressive patients when used in a controlled setting. Intriguingly, a recent clinical study revealed that psilocybin significantly increased emotional empathy compared with placebo. Preliminary results from our laboratory showed that repeated administration of a non-hallucinogenic dose of lysergic acid diethylamide, a psychedelic compound sharing a similar mechanism of action with psilocybin, increases social behavior in mice. Therefore, we hypothesize that psilocybin can produce a similar prosocial effect via a serotonin mechanism and that it can be used to treat behavioral deficits in genetic mutant mice models of autism.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Gabriella Gobbi

Student:

Partner:

Diamond Therapeutics Inc

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Manufacturing; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

McGill University

Program:

Accelerate

Changes in soil nitrogen dynamics and crop growth by biochar and nitrification inhibitor as investigated by carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios

Cropland soils are important sources of nitrous oxide (N2O), which is one of greenhouse gases. In soils, N2O is produced through nitrification and denitrification processes. Therefore, it may be possible to reduce N2O production by using biochar and nitrification inhibitors (NI). Biochar is known to decrease N2O production through biological and physico-chemical interaction with soil N processes, and NI can directly reduce nitrification-induced N2O production. However, it is still unknown how applications of biochar and NI affect the entire soil N dynamics as well as plant growth. In this project, I will analyze stable N isotope ratios (?15N) of soil ammonium and nitrate to investigate the effects of biochar and NI on soil N process and loss. In addition, the stable C isotope ratios (?13C) of plant samples will also be analyzed to examine the effects of biochar and NI on photosynthesis. I expect that the ?15N of mineral N in soils will decrease by application of biochar and NI due to reduced N loss as soil N loss increases ?15N of N through preferential loss of 14N.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Scott Chang

Student:

Partner:

Chonnam National University

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Agriculture and Food; Environmental Science and Technology; Sustainability & the Environment

University:

University of Alberta

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Certified Defense Framework against Patch Attacks on Images

Adversarial perturbation of all the image pixels is computationally intensive and may not be realized in practice. In contrast, an adversarial patch attack where an adversary can choose to perturb a specific subset of pixels in an image, is more practical in fooling a trained image classifier or hiding a person from an object-detection model.
In this project, we study and explore state-of-the-art adversarial patch attacks and their defences. An adversarial patch can easily fool the trained object detector to mark an image as having no object of interest, potentially leading to serious security gaps. Therefore, it is necessary to first identify and highlight images with the possible existence of adversarial patches for human verification

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Faculty Supervisor:

Apurva Narayan

Student:

Partner:

TrojAI

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

The University of British Columbia - Okanagan; The University of Western Ontario

Program:

Accelerate

Experimental investigation of patterning ananostructured bioadsorbable stent byfemtosecond laser ablation

The proposed project complements the current work of the partner organization with polymeric materials. The evaluation of ultrashort laser interaction with solid matter of surface textured metal-like materials would help the partner organization obtain detailed process knowledge; a distinct advantage for broadening its service offering to address a different market segment.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Rosaire Mongrain

Student:

Partner:

Plexis Precision

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Advanced Manufacturing

University:

McGill University

Program:

Accelerate

Machine Learning-Aided Environmental Monitoring Solution to Identify Indoor Fungal Outbreaks

This study aims to propose a way to indirectly measure indoor fungi, which are known to be the causes of environmental diseases obtained in indoor life. For this purpose, MOFs-based multi-modal sensors for mVOCs will be developed, and machine learning algorithms to distinguish between general chemicals and mVOCs will be established. The detailed research plan is to develop MOFs-based multi-modal sensors capable of real-time measurement of mVOCs, and obtain fungal gas analysis data and indoor VOCs data. The collaborative study includes the sensor fabrication for VOCs measurement; and manufacturing technology for MOFs materials; and data integration by AI. The machine learning-aided environmental monitoring developed in this study will enable us to recognize indoor fungal outbreaks and provide a solution to protect our homes from fungal diseases.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Seonghwan Kim

Student:

Partner:

Seoul National University of Science and Technology

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Environmental Science and Technology; Nanotechnology; Artificial Intelligence

University:

University of Calgary

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Development of a High-Fidelity Motion Cueing Algorithm for TMotion

High-level control strategies, commonly referred to as Motion Cueing Algorithms (MCA), are used to create realistic perception of unrestricted 6 degrees-of-freedom (DoF) motion with a motion platform that has fewer DoF and a limited workspace. For instance, such an algorithm would tilt the platform towards back to emulate forward acceleration on a platform that does not support Surge (forward/backward) motion. These algorithms are generally developed as a part of the simulation project, increasing the complexity of the simulator and its development time and cost. In the competitive market of vehicle simulation, delivering better simulation realism at a lower cost is a key to every simulator’s success. Touché Technologies is seeking to embed a novel MCA within its TMotion platform and provide a turnkey solution that can be easily adapted by various simulators without any extra effort. This project aims to develop an advanced MCA with a series of innovative solutions that improve the fidelity of motion simulation and the user experience.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Amir G. Aghdam

Student:

Partner:

Touché Technologies

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

Concordia University

Program:

Accelerate

Analytical Characterization of JZP-341 (Higher Order Structure)

York University and Jazz Pharmaceuticals are undertaking a project to accelerate development of their Leukemia drug candidate. The project will take advantage of unique technologies developed at York by Drs. Wilson and Krylov, Millisecond Hydrogen Deuterium eXchange (msHDX) mass spectrometry and Kinetic Capillary Electrophoresis (KCE), to provide a high-detail picture of Jazz Pharmaceutical’s candidate, including its unique structural and functional properties. Ultimately these data will contribute to our fundamental understanding of a set of enzymes called asparaginase in blood cancers and will provide critical support for regulatory filings leading to candidate advancement to the clinic.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Derek Wilson;Sergey Krylov

Student:

Partner:

Jazz Pharmaceuticals

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Manufacturing; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

York University

Program:

Accelerate

Developing Low-Cost Sensors for Rapid Field Estimation of Soil Properties

There is an increasing demand for high resolution soil information to support precision agriculture. One of the tools that has been a focus of research to help meet this demand is the development of proximal soil sensing using reflectance spectroscopy. The advantage reflectance spectroscopy is that it is rapid, non-destructive, and can test for multiple parameters simultaneously. However, development of these systems for practical application has been limited by high hardware costs. There have been important recent developments for lower cost spectrometers, which has increased the feasibility of this technology. However, there are technical considerations that warrant a detailed investigation of the performance of these lower cost sensors. The first is the spectral range of the sensors. The more expensive established visible light near infrared (VIS-NIR) spectrometers typically collect electromagnetic spectrum data from 350 to 2500 nm. While many of the most important soil spectral features are in the shortwave infrared region after 1600 nm, useful spectral information is present in the near infrared and visible light regions. How well a system without those regions performs needs to be determined. The second consideration is the spectral resolution and bandwidth.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Angela Bedard-Haughn

Student:

Partner:

Croptimistic Technology Inc

Discipline:

Earth science

Sector:

Agriculture and Food; Artificial Intelligence; Environmental Science and Technology

University:

University of Saskatchewan

Program:

Accelerate

Optimizing return on investment using artificial intelligence: A recommendation system-based solution

The main goal of this project is to develop an artificial intelligence based approach for recommendation to improve Videotron marketing solutions. We aim to focus on improving Vidéotron return on investment (ROI), engaging more users and retaining subscribers using advanced artificial intelligence techniques. The proposed system will be based on a collaborative filtering technique that involves state of the art deep learning and reinforcement learning techniques.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Nizar Bouguila

Student:

Partner:

Videotron (Montreal, QC)

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Information and cultural industries

University:

Concordia University

Program:

Accelerate