Innovative Projects Realized

Development of a tool for the assessment of employer preparedness to engage people with visual impairment

The rate of unemployment among the visually impaired is dramatically higher compared to the rest of the population. Even though much research and development has been achived to ,maximize the employability of persons living with a visual impairment, and to make them competitive in the employment market, the same cannot be said for employers themselves. The primary objective of this project is to determine the level of preparedness of employers and their work environment to employing people with visual impairment. The goal is to transform the researcher version of the CNIB TAPE measure in order to develop a tool for the assessment of the level of employer’s preparedness. The outcome of this study will provide an evidence-based solution for building sustainability in an inclusive workplace.

Effects of Angiotensin-(1-7) treatment in cardiac mitochondrial function and characteristics in a rat model of prematurity-related deleterious conditions

In Canada, 8% of youth are born preterm (<37 wks). It is thanks to advances in medical care that these infants have survived and the first generations of very preterm children are now young adults. However, recent studies support a direct association between preterm birth and an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. How this exactly happens remains unclear. Utilizing an animal model mimicking difficult conditions associated with very preterm birth (newborn rats exposed for 8 days to high concentrations of breathing oxygen (O2), our laboratory has shown that abnormal activation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) occurs early after O2 exposure and is involved in cardiac failure in young adulthood. The RAS is a powerful hormonal system involved in the development of cardiac diseases in human and experimental animal models. Furthermore, studies have shown that other perinatal abnormal conditions (such as prematurity) can lead to abnormal cardiac cell energy capacity. The current proposal will examine the cardioprotective ("good") arm of the RAS and how it can protect the heart from preterm born babies using our animal model.

Electrochemical treatment of infected titanium, an approach for biofilm obliteration

Peri-implantitis is a destructive inflammatory process affecting the soft and hard tissues surrounding dental implants, whereby progressive bone loss will result in the loss of the functional implant. Every year, 40% of dental implants get infected into such pathological conditions, and ultimately 10% fail. Existing techniques, such as physical and chemical methods, are either expensive or destructive on implants and none of them is entirely useful in cleaning implants or controlling their infections
We hypothesize that the electrochemical properties of titanium implants covered by pathological biofilm are different from those without infection. Therefore, we could determine the adequate electric parameters which is optimized to selectively destroy the pathological biofilm on titanium implants without affecting the surrounding healthy tissues.
Depending on the results, we will finally be able to introduce new technology and innovative method of using electric currents for the treatment of contaminated dental implants to the clinical field.

Satellite Monitoring and Surveillance of Habitat for Right Whales

The critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale resides in waters with busy shipping lanes in the Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where incidents of ship strikes have proven to be a primary cause of whale death, resulting in their numbers dwindling to less than 400. Though the implementation of speed limits for ships has been somewhat successful in reducing mortality should a collision occur, a lack of knowledge as to the whereabouts of the whales has prevented ships from being able to avoid collisions entirely. This project aims to use high-resolution satellite imagery to monitor right whale habitats, and create an automated alert system which will detect their presence, and quickly send location information to ships in the area. Ships can then use this information to avoid the area when a whale is nearby, preventing collision deaths, and helping to restore a healthy whale population.

Does intensive tree maintenance increase microhabitat diversity in old urban trees?

The proposed research will take place in the City of Mississauga. A recent study by Gro?mann et al. concluded that heavy levels of tree pruning leads to an increased number of microhabitats, compared to trees pruned less often (2020). These trees are often called ‘veteran trees’ in North America, and are very important for urban biodiversity (CITE). They provide homes, food, and other resources to many plants, mammals, birds, and reptiles (CITE). Unfortunately, trees with these microhabitats are often considered a risk by the municipality to keep standing, despite their importance. The goal of the proposed research would be to verify the results of Gro?mann et al. to help increase the pool of knowledge on the relationship between pruning and microhabitats. This will help municipalities decide if and when a veteran tree should be removed.

The partner organization is expected to benefit by being 3rd author on the publishing of the results of this research in a peer-reviewed journal.

IM+NXC Downtown Space Activation

What are strategies to activate underutilized space in Downtown Calgary? Using bottom-up activation tactics in combination with research and development and building partnerships with local stakeholders we will focus on developing pilot projects and proof of concepts tailored for downtown Calgary. The aim is to kick start momentum, energy and atmosphere in different urban spaces. The focus is on streets, building frontages and lobby spaces. These strategies tie in with existing and new partners, including property owners, investors, start-ups and practitioners. Further stakeholders such as the City of Calgary, the Calgary Downtown Association and others will play a role. With this agile production team, we can validate ideas and concepts fast and move them forward to implementation. Rather than unique one offs we focus on concepts that can be repeated and are open source for other to replicate.

Levelling the Playing Fields: An Evaluation of Play Street and School Street Initiatives in Kingston, Ontario

Compared to previous generations, Canadian children today spend considerably less time playing freely outside and are much more likely to be driven to school on a daily basis. This trend can be explained by various issues, including parents’ concerns about strangers and traffic, and a lack of safe places for children to play and move around outdoors. This project will involve the implementation and evaluation of two types of initiatives, Play Streets and School Streets, from September 2021 to August 2022. These initiatives are intended to make it easier for children to play outside, and to walk or roll to school safely on their own. The intern will provide assistance to the groups who will be implementing these initiatives, the Kingston Coalition for Active Transportation, and to the researcher who will be evaluating these initiatives in Kingston. The findings from this research will offer valuable lessons to municipalities across the country that are testing out similar initiatives in their communities.

Deep learning models for compound design

Traditional drug development strategy is costly, tiresome, and labor-intensive. In the last decade, artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have shown promising results to overcome some of these limitations. However, these computational technologies still cannot efficiently generate novel drugs with expected properties for treating specific diseases. Here we will apply new generation of AI frameworks to design novel compounds with predefined properties. We will collect and analyze the publicly available data from peer-reviewed publications and in-house data to build the AI models. This research will help both the company to address some of its pressing needs and improve the interns’ skills for their future career development.

Eco-efficiency Evaluation of Cybersecurity Solutions

Industries around the world have been leaning towards cleaner solutions to mitigate their environmental footprint. IT is one industry that has been rapidly growing during the recent past. Hence, it is important to enhance the environmental performance of IT solutions through a life cycle thinking lens. Eco-efficiency evaluation enables analyzing the environmental and economic performance of a product in focus and has been a popular ratio for comparing alternative products. This research performs eco-efficiency assessment for cybersecurity solutions. The operational and embodied carbon footprint of cybersecurity solutions will be estimated using ISO standards. Life cycle costing and carbon footprint will be used for calculating the eco-efficiency of a cybersecurity solution. The findings of this research support identifying environmentally acceptable and economically viable cybersecurity solutions.

Building the Durham Region Food System Report Card: Assessing the opportunities and gaps in attaining a sustainable and just regional food system

Using simplified language understandable to a layperson; provide a general, one-paragraph description of the proposed research project to be undertaken by the intern(s) as well as the expected benefit to the partner organization. (100 – 150 words)
To address local food system issues like loss of farmland, people without enough food, or climate change impacts, it is important to see such issues as all related. This project will assess Durham Region food system resources, like local research and policy documents, to find strengths, areas to be addressed, and areas to be studied more. It will develop a more comprehensive picture of the local food system. This, along with the input of people who play various roles in the food system and people whose voices may not often be heard, will help in developing outlines for report cards to show the health of food system components in all of Durham’s municipalities. This project will help Durham’s residents better understand what is going well in the food system and what needs to change. The lead community organization partner will learn how to better help its community and how to advocate for change with other food system actors.

Exploring tourism strategies to drive economic development of Pinawa and build the necessary infrastructure

Travel Manitoba and media promoted the Pinawa Channel Float as a summer tourist destination in 2020 during COVID-19, resulting in more tourists visiting the area. One thousand tourists visited during the week, and up to two thousand during the weekends (Pinawa Proposal to Manitoba Infrastructure, 2020). This matched or doubled the resident population of this community of approximately one thousand and five hundred members. The amount of tourism created economic opportunities, which could not always be fully capitalized on, and limited parking combined with the popularity of the channel attraction created some logistical challenges. This research will support Pinawa’s planning goals by exploring and developing tourism strategies according to economic development goals and residents’ desires. Greater levels of tourism create new opportunities for strategic growth, new products and services for residents and will help to address Pinawa’s desire for more infrastructure which supports new opportunities for employment. Planning is needed to anticipate needs. The research work of Uriel Jelin will focus on meetings and interviews with key stakeholders, and Parinaz Shariat Zadeh will focus on green design for parking, traffic, and potentially other tourist infrastructure to develop a strategic tourist plan with Pinawa.

Development of a microbiome relevant image-capture food analysis tool.

Phyla’s vision is to be the world’s first integrated solution for gut health through a digital health platform for those affected by Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Phyla’s platform combines an at-home gut microbiome (intestinal bacteria) stool testing subscription and a mobile application for self-reported disease and lifestyle parameter tracking.
It is well known that nutrition and the microbiome have a large impact on disease activity and patient wellbeing in IBS and IBD. Through therapeutic approaches and nutrition changes, patients are able to reduce disease activity and improve their quality of life. Research continues to show that our diets do not only feed our own bodies but also our gut microbiome, the trillions of bacteria in our intestine. With the microbiome’s heavy implication in disease activity in IBD and IBS, it is therefore important to understand at a more granular level what exactly is being fed to the bacteria in our gut. Phyla aims to develop machine learning models that analyze a user’s microbiome and lifestyle data in order to provide personalized nutrition and lifestyle recommendations to help with disease management.