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
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899
SK
9419
ON
9858
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98
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619
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1192
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Projects by Category

Determining retinal biomarkers for the early diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease using diffuse reflectance spectroscopy

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is currently diagnosed by motor symptoms. These symptoms are only present following around 50% degeneration of the brain cells affected by PD. If earlier diagnosis could be made, interventions could be implemented that may slow brain degeneration and delay the progression of the disease. Non-motor symptoms of PD, such as vision problems, appear much earlier on in the disease progression, but are not specific to PD so cannot be used for diagnosis. The vision problems are thought to be due to altered functioning of the retina caused by brain impairment in PD. Developments in retinal diagnostic techniques and recording technology have opened the possibility of determining retinal changes that, together, may be deemed specific enough to give an accurate diagnosis of PD. We hope to determine recordable retinal changes that can
be used for early diagnosis of PD using these techniques and technologies.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Martin Parent;Daniel Côté

Student:

Partner:

Zilia

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

Université Laval

Program:

Accelerate

MPC control for HCCI Optimization

The growing demand for mobility worldwide and the mass use of internal combustion engine drive systems poses major challenges for today’s society. Currently, the CO2 content in the atmosphere is continually increasing and concentrations of pollutants in many areas exceed the maximum permissible limits in many urban centers. Additionally, these engine emissions contribute significantly to global warming. The proposed research looks to reduce these engine out emissions with the implementation of optimal control, in this case model predictive control (MPC). The research will focus on designing and implementing an MPC controller at RWTH university on a single cylinder research engine. The controller will be tested at various operating conditions. The second phase of the proposed project is the transfer learning of the engine controller that will allow the controller developed in Germany to be used on a different engine in Canada.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Charles Robert Koch

Student:

Partner:

Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Education

University:

University of Alberta

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Development of a sustainable business model for microplastics monitoring in the environment

After emerging as one of the top 5 finalists in the Acquahacking Lake Winnipeg Challenge 2020, https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2021-01/aquahacking-lake-winnipeg-2020.pdf, the current co-founders of the AbbaTek Group Inc. have been working assiduously to get the company off the ground. AbbaTek is a for-profit social enterprise in the sustainability and clean tech sector that is committed to contribute meaningfully to the achievement of global sustainability and a healthy business environment where technological development, institutional change and social impact live in harmony. Our flagship product, CompoundConnect is a full-suite Software as a Service (SaaS) that helps mircoplastics researchers and research labs/institutes to quickly and accurate identify, characterise and analyze microplastics in various environments, to reduce microplastic pollution and inform policy.
We see opportunity for growth based on market research and customer interviews conducted as part of our engagement in the Memorial Centre for Entrepreneuership (MCE) Entrepreneurial work term (Fall 2021) and the Genesis Evolution Program (Fall 2021). One of the main challenges we have encountered so far is pinning down accurate figures for the microplastics market size and a sustainable business model.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Lakshman Galagedara

Student:

Partner:

AbbaTek Group Inc.

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Memorial University of Newfoundland

Program:

Business Strategy Internship

Development of Sustainable Energy Plan for a School Site

District energy systems are specialized and sophisticated energy solutions that require detailed design and analysis. Integration with utility infrastructure strengthens the resiliency and reliability of the energy services as it enables cities to achieve their energy savings targets and greenhouse gas emission targets. This research will investigate and model the use of distributed energy resources like combined cooling heat and power generators, heat pumps, thermal storage units, thermal and PV solar and waste heat to determine optimal system operation. Seven district energy systems will be developed to model business as usual, cooling only, heating only, as well as combined heating and cooling scenarios. Systems will be comprehensively analyzed used primary thermodynamic principles of mass, energy, entropy and exergy analyses. Environmental impact assessment along with techno economic evaluation will also be conducted. Overall, the primary objective of this research is to model and analyze distinct district energy systems for various applications.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Ibrahim Dincer

Student:

Partner:

Oshawa Power and Utilities Corporation Inc

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Utilities

University:

University of Ontario Institute of Technology

Program:

Accelerate

Understanding family and community vulnerabilities in transition to net zero

This project proposes to understand the vulnerabilities of families and communities in the transition to a net zero carbon society; and to build a framework that enables policy makers to strategically plan for and manage transition in such a way that it mitigates and reduces inequalities. There are significant risks to family livelihoods in terms of poverty and exacerbated inequalities, and concerns that certain demographic groups and geographic communities hold disproportionate vulnerabilities in transition. A robust consideration is needed of the risks to families and communities which goes beyond the fuller picture of “job losses” or “workforce demographics” (Bird and Lawton, 2009; Brecher, 2020; NESTA, 2020) to human, social and justice concerns. This project responds to the recognised need for new research and policy mechanisms that systematically draw together dimensions of social policy and education policy with energy and climate policy; in order to address and monitor the vulnerabilities of disadvantaged groups to the effects of a low carbon transition (Silveira & Pritchard, 2016).

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Faculty Supervisor:

André-Anne Parent

Student:

Partner:

University of Leeds

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Education

University:

Université de Montréal

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Improving sheep production efficiency by genomics and metabolomics blood biomarkers of feed efficiency and subclinical parasite infection

This proposal is devoted to two areas of sheep production: animal health (parasitic infection) and feed efficiency, which both areas are economically important and make a substantial impact on the profitability and sustainability of the enterprise. We will investigate to find potential biomarkers that could be indicator of parasite resistance and/or feed efficiency and could be used potentially to differentiate animals for these traits as early as possible in their life time. We will also develop standard operating procedure for feed efficiency test. Two MSc and 1 post doctorate fellowship will involve through this project to accomplish independent tasks and collectively accomplish the project objectives. This project provide great opportunity for Interns who are eager be work on the field, interact with industry partners and implementing advanced technology such as metabolomics, genomics, and machine learning.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Ghader Manafiazar

Student:

Partner:

Alberta Lamb Producers;Ontario Sheep Farmers;Sheep Producers Association of Nova Scotia

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Agriculture

University:

Dalhousie University

Program:

Accelerate

Building Social Community Integration

This work facilitates point-of-impact field research and iterative prototyping toward the continued development of a production-quality social media environment – as part of a larger, ongoing program of research and development – with Iter, an electronic resource facilitating the work of a community focused on medieval and renaissance culture and its artefacts via the ‘knowledge management’ of that community, comprised of academic researchers, those in the cultural and heritage sectors, and beyond.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Raymond Siemens

Student:

Partner:

Iter;Iter Canada

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Utilities

University:

University of Victoria

Program:

Accelerate

Automated Generation of Reference Links from Media and Parliamentary Documents to Legislative and Regulatory Artefacts

In the modern era, online news and media platforms have grown significantly. It is hard for organizations to keep track of discussions or mentions on regulatory or legislative documents online. With the rapidly growing amount of information available online, it is important to have the ability to monitor and track news and media online in efficient and automated ways.
Gnowit provides a platform to track Canadian media and political discourse to companies that are impacted by changes in Government policies, laws and regulations. The government of Canada publishes documents including news, discussions, updates on regulations and legislations. The goal of this research is to design and implement and evaluate a set of natural language processing methods and tools that can identify and track any mentions or discussions of regulatory or legislative documents in news and media online.

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Faculty Supervisor:

M. Omair Shafiq

Student:

Partner:

Gnowit Inc.

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Information and cultural industries; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Carleton University

Program:

Accelerate

Étude comparative des droits canadien et suisse sur la religion au travail

Dans la culture juridique européenne il est admis que face aux revendications des salariés qui réclament le respect de leurs pratiques religieuses, il est généralement loisible à l’employeur d’accéder à celles-ci, sans jamais n’y être tenu. Cette vision s’inscrit à rebours des aménagements ou accommodements raisonnables qui prévalent au Canada et commandant à l’employeur de modifier l’environnement de travail pour l’adapter à la situation de la personne discriminée. En droits suisse et européen, l’aménagement raisonnable est un concept plutôt méconnu des lexiques juridiques et culturels. Il n’est reconnu que pour le seul motif du handicap et souvent limité à des applications sectorielles, telles que la fonction publique. Le concept n’est donc pas applicable au motif de la religion. Là où certains préconisent justement de l’étendre à la religion, d’autres y voient une avancée à pas de loups d’une individualisation encore plus poussée du droit travail, qui risque de provoquer à son tour une communautarisation croissante de la société et un effritement du « bien vivre ensemble ». Ma thèse de doctorat porte sur la religion dans les rapports de travail en droit suisse, européen et accessoirement canadien.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Jean-François Gaudreault-Desbiens

Student:

Partner:

Université de Lausanne

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Public Service, Policy, and Governance; Sustainability & the Environment; Other

University:

Université de Montréal

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Development of gait detection algorithms for individuals with multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis is a lifelong disease that affects the nerves of the body and causes lifelong disabilities including walking disabilities. This project aims to use smart insoles to provide clinicians with information about how patients impacted by multiple sclerosis walk. To do so, we will develop and test algorithms that use walking data from the insoles to extract meaningful information. The walking data will then be used to create personalized models using artificial intelligence to describe and study how people with multiple sclerosis walk. As a final product, objective information will be provided to clinicians to track the personalized progression of the disease in their patients to have a more targeted treatment.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Ryan Graham

Student:

Partner:

Wesley Clover;Ottawa Hospital Research Institute

Discipline:

Physics

Sector:

Finance and Insurance; Management of companies and enterprises

University:

University of Ottawa

Program:

Accelerate

Identification des paramètres géotechniques clefs et développement d’une application faisant le lien entre chantier, laboratoire et bureau pour les rapports de forages

Groupe ABS fait aujourd’hui appelle à de nombreux sous-traitants dans le cadre de leurs forages pour connaitre la
nature des sols sur les chantiers. La procédure suivie sur chantier pour la collecte des données de foration se
repose principalement sur une fiche papier, et les résultats sont transmis ensuite par le biais de la plateforme de
l’entreprise Géotech, experte en technologie de recensement géophysique. Le Groupe ABS a pour volonté de se
détacher de cette dépendance envers l’entreprise Géotech, et de moderniser le processus de rédaction des
rapports de forages en développant une application interne. Cette application ferait le lien entre les chantiers, les
laboratoires et les bureaux, en permettant aux géologues de chantier de rentrer les résultats des forages, aux
techniciens de laboratoires de consulter ces informations, et aux chargés de projets d’accéder aux données et d’en
faire la validation.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Gabriel J Assaf

Student:

Partner:

Groupe ABS inc.

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

École de technologie supérieure

Program:

Accelerate

Dissecting signaling pathways mediated by plant immune receptors

Plants utilize their sophisticated innate immune system to fight against pathogens. They have abundant immune receptors to detect the pathogen attack and initiate defense. However, the molecular mechanisms of how these receptors signal downstream of pathogen recognition are largely unknown. Recently, modern metabolomics approach has been developed that allows for unbiased identification of substrates and products of uncharacterized enzymes. This technology opens new avenues of plant immunity research as a portion of plant immune receptors exhibit enzymatic activity upon pathogen recognition. My proposed research project will reveal the substrate and products of these receptors and elucidate how the molecules activate the downstream signaling and defense. My research into the signaling pathways of the immune receptors will contribute to the understanding of the complicated plant immune signaling network.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Xin Li

Student:

Partner:

Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Education

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program:

Globalink Research Award

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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.